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You need to figure out what's right for you. How much money do you earn, what are your expenses, how much do you want to save, do you contribute to your company 401(k), what retirement savings do you have, etc? For a while I just had my paycheck direct deposited into two accounts. One account was for my bills and savings while the other one was my spend account. I put $1500 into the bills/savings account, my total bills at the time were $600. This meant I was saving $900/mo. The money in the other account went to gas, food, alcohol, any shopping, etc. I never ran over my spending money but it just came down to prioritizing from that account. I'm going to need gas/food for sure, so I can't go out and eat $30 meals at decent restaurants all the time. Now I use Mint.com like many of the other posters here. I consolidated my two bank accounts more or less, and just use Mint.com to track my spending/saving. My bills have increased to $700 but I've also adjust my spending down so I'm actually saving $1k/mo now instead of just $900.
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Apr 12, 2011 19:44
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One of the oldest budgeting tips: "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." -Dickens Get your paycheck, pay all obligations first, and manage discretionary (entertainment, shopping, etc) spending wisely.
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Apr 12, 2011 19:45
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Muppet Boy posted:Anyway, hope that helps! Feel free to ask me stuff, I'll try to answer.  .
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Apr 12, 2011 20:39
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Spokes posted:Quick question about budgeting: For a budget you need to know your income, your fixed expenses and your variable expenses. Income-(Fixed+variable)=Savings You can only control the variable (and maybe the income) portion of the equation. Hopefully savings >0. Perhaps the most helpful tool for any new budgeter is mint.com. Using it can help you categorize your transactions and understand where it's going and why. You'd be surprised how much your variable expenses are when you don't track them. It also has a nice little graph that will tell you whether you are net positive or net negative for the month. Very helpful.
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Apr 13, 2011 17:09
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Don't know if this is the correct place to ask, but I have some questions about healthcare, as I haven't really kept up with any of the changes in the last couple of years (medical insurance costs a lot, hence I thought of it browsing this thread). Background: In late 2008 I had a major operation to remove a very large neurofibroma nerve sheath tumor growing off my right L3 & L4 periphery nerves. Long story short, I have a spinal fusion from L2-S1, I had my L3 and L4 nerves severed, and there could be plenty of other nerve damage in that area (the tumor was smashing a lot of poo poo). I also basically have significant nerve damage (loss/impariment/something), most pronounced in that my right quadracep is basically a ghost and [muscle that allows me to lift my knee when standing] is severely weakened. I spent a year on rehab and learning to walk, I still need my cane on bad days, and if money and time were no issues I'd probably see a physical therapist around the clock. It might not surprise you that I'm basically uninsurable. I've also tried to start a solo practice for law. The flexibility works well for me and rehab, and despite it scaring me shitless I seem to be decent at it. However, this means that I probably will not ever have a group insurance plan through my own work. Questions: My real question is actually how uninsurable I might be now that things have changed. I'm currently signed onto my wife's insurance through her work. It is expensive (I need to check with her, but I believe together we are pushing $900/month, and most of that is me). We are on the PPO plan mostly because I see doctors quite often, and they aren't all in the same place. Call it peace of mind because while there might be a better way to set up an HMO I NEVER want to have to consider paying more to see someone who was recommended to me but isn't part of the same medical center. Many people have gone through way worse things than I have, but now that I can walk my doctors have told me that they thought I would never walk again without a cane or crutches. No monetary savings are worth losing the mental outlook I have right now in regards to who I can see - I still plan on making my five year goal of riding a bike again. That said, what are the options for non-employer provided health plans right now? I would prefer people being honest about them, specifically in regards to (overpaying) for more options. Like I said, two years ago I couldn't find anyone who would insure me privately, so I was under the assumption I would have to spend the rest of my life bouncing from group plan to group plan, basically playing the martyr for my liberal political friends who want to prove that social health care would harm rather than help small business owners such as myself. If it helps, I'm in my early 30s, otherwise healthy and health conscious, and reside in Los Angeles. Thanks in advance for any advice - even if it is just pointing me to a website with answers. As I said, I stayed far away from the recent healthcare stuff because, quite frankly, it would piss me off and otherwise not help my own rehabilitation.
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Apr 14, 2011 02:59
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I'm a US citizen but have lived most of my life abroad. Thus, I literally don't have a credit score since I have never had any opportunity to build credit. I'm looking into getting a Secured Credit Card so that I can start reversing that situation since I expect to be moving to the States in a couple of years and would hate to have to start from scratch at that point, and since I actually do a lot of online shopping in the States (iTunes, Amazon, etc.), this could be an easy way to do that. Do you guys have any recommendations for secured cards? I don't care about high APRs since I don't plan to use this for major purchases and I will be making all of my payments on time (I have a steady income in my country of residence). I do however, want to avoid monthly/yearly fees if at all possible. Thanks in advance for any help.
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Apr 14, 2011 03:05
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Does anyone have experience with credit card limits being lowered arbitrarily? I have one card with Amex that I use exclusively, and two Visa cards from Citi that I used to use but no longer do. They don't have a balance and between them my limit is about $7000. Should I worry about Citi dropping my limit since I'm not using the cards? I haven't missed a payment in the three years that the accounts have been open.
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Apr 14, 2011 17:49
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illcendiary posted:Does anyone have experience with credit card limits being lowered arbitrarily? Because I actually do this, I can say the decision to shut down an account is usually a risk based one, and not one of utilization.
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Apr 14, 2011 18:09
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I have about 9 grand in credit card debt. I'm paying around 25% interest on these cards, on one card I'm paying about 100 in interest per month. I can make the payments, however, I want to start making a bigger dent. I'm budgeting around $600-$800 a month to start paying these off, but the interest is taking up a big chunk. Would a personal loan be feasible in this situation? I'd be looking at about 11% interest rate with one with Well Fargo, but I don't know if I would even be approved (720 credit score).  Am I out of luck and stuck paying these high interest rates?
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Apr 14, 2011 19:55
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throwrocks posted:I have about 9 grand in credit card debt. I'm paying around 25% interest on these cards, on one card I'm paying about 100 in interest per month. I can make the payments, however, I want to start making a bigger dent. I'm budgeting around $600-$800 a month to start paying these off, but the interest is taking up a big chunk. Would a personal loan be feasible in this situation? I'd be looking at about 11% interest rate with one with Well Fargo, but I don't know if I would even be approved (720 credit score). A 720 isn't fantastic, but it's certainly not bad. If you don't bank with a credit union, I'd start, and see if they can toss a loan your way. CUs tend to have the best rates for their members. Another option you could do would be a balance transfer to a new credit card. Check and see if you qualify for any of these cards mentioned here: http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/list-of-cards-with-0-balance-transfer-offers-for-12-months.html
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Apr 14, 2011 20:32
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^drat^throwrocks posted:Would a personal loan be feasible in this situation? I don't know, but its definitely worth checking out. If that doesn't work try finding a card that will do balance transfers at a 0% introductory interest rate.
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Apr 14, 2011 20:35
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T0MSERV0 posted:A 720 isn't fantastic, but it's certainly not bad. Ummm, most credit products have around 720 as the floor to thier highest tier... it's the bottom of the best in terms of risk based pricing. Remember, every ten points double the increase or decrease of default. Once you get too high or too low, it stops being meaningful.
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Apr 14, 2011 20:37
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throwrocks posted:I have about 9 grand in credit card debt. I'm paying around 25% interest on these cards, on one card I'm paying about 100 in interest per month. I can make the payments, however, I want to start making a bigger dent. I'm budgeting around $600-$800 a month to start paying these off, but the interest is taking up a big chunk. Would a personal loan be feasible in this situation? I'd be looking at about 11% interest rate with one with Well Fargo, but I don't know if I would even be approved (720 credit score). Yeah, it’s a lot better to pay money back at 11% instead of 25%. 720 is a very good/excellent score and while it’s true that many lenders won’t approve items based only on a score, I would guess that if you shop around, somewhere will give you way better than 25%. That said, I don’t want you to have the idea that this will revolutionize your life. When I run your numbers, $671 will pay it off in 18 months. At 11%, you will still need to pay $605. It means you still have to budget, it means you can’t run up the cards again, it means you still have to be careful.
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Apr 14, 2011 20:41
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Voodoofly posted:I'm currently signed onto my wife's insurance through her work. It is expensive (I need to check with her, but I believe together we are pushing $900/month, and most of that is me). We are on the PPO plan mostly because I see doctors quite often, and they aren't all in the same place. Call it peace of mind because while there might be a better way to set up an HMO I NEVER want to have to consider paying more to see someone who was recommended to me but isn't part of the same medical center. Many people have gone through way worse things than I have, but now that I can walk my doctors have told me that they thought I would never walk again without a cane or crutches. No monetary savings are worth losing the mental outlook I have right now in regards to who I can see - I still plan on making my five year goal of riding a bike again. Hi Voodoo - since I work in a field with passing health care work, I can probably give you a little advice. But, I'm not an expert on individual health care at all so take it all with a grain of salt. Based on my knowledge of the health industry right now, your best bet might be staying with your wife's insurance - I don't know if there would be many options for you out there that would be any cheaper with a PPO setup, if you could even qualify for it. There are funded programs in most states for pre-existing conditions or high-risk participants, but since you are able to get coverage with your wife it may be difficult to get in. For California, poking around here: http://www.healthcare.ca.gov/Priorities/PreExistingMedicalConditionInsuranceAccess.aspx might give you some idea as to whether you'd even be able to do it, though it looks like the federal plan requires you to be without insurance for 6 months before you can apply, which wouldn't work well for you, though it is a PPO. Really I think it boils down to: your options are pretty limited, I think. From what I've seen, with the uncertainty surrounding health care reform, the health insurance business is in a bit of a holding pattern. Hopefully you or someone else will be able to find a better solution than I can give you!
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Apr 14, 2011 20:55
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LorneReams posted:Ummm, most credit products have around 720 as the floor to thier highest tier... it's the bottom of the best in terms of risk based pricing. Remember, every ten points double the increase or decrease of default. Once you get too high or too low, it stops being meaningful. Which would make it not fantastic, but certainly not bad. Kinda like I said. Also, since like you said 720 is on the edge, getting it higher so you're in the clear no matter who you're talking to is better (read: fantastic).
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Apr 14, 2011 21:12
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Thanks for the replies! I was looking at transferring the balances to a new credit card with a 0% introductory balance, and after running the figures I would imagine that paying the 3% transfer balance of around 250-300 (if I'm tallying it right) on a total of $9000 would be much better then paying all the interest rates up front. I did find a discover card that has a 24 month 0% APR rate (!!) but it's 5% transfer fee. Having to pay the fees up front was making me waver, but overall seems to be the best decision?Zeta Taskforce posted:Yeah, it’s a lot better to pay money back at 11% instead of 25%. 720 is a very good/excellent score and while it’s true that many lenders won’t approve items based only on a score, I would guess that if you shop around, somewhere will give you way better than 25%. That said, I don’t want you to have the idea that this will revolutionize your life. When I run your numbers, $671 will pay it off in 18 months. At 11%, you will still need to pay $605. It means you still have to budget, it means you can’t run up the cards again, it means you still have to be careful Thank you for this. It's absolutely true that I need to really be true to paying this off and committing to it. I've been reading this thread and almost every thread in BFC, it's really let me see that I can make a difference in my debt and it takes budgeting.
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Apr 14, 2011 21:29
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Ask for them to lower or waive the transfer fee...sometimes they will do it. Also, Try to get the Havard Alumni card, it has 0% balance transfer fees as a standard feature, and starts at like 7.9% interest I think
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Apr 14, 2011 21:31
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Sophia posted:Really I think it boils down to: your options are pretty limited, I think. From what I've seen, with the uncertainty surrounding health care reform, the health insurance business is in a bit of a holding pattern. Hopefully you or someone else will be able to find a better solution than I can give you! Thanks Sophia. You pretty much confirmed what I already thought (sticking with my wife's plan is the best option despite the expense). I'll check out the link you put up - although like you say, I'm not willing to risk six months without insurance (I remember something similar back when I originally got on my wife's plan, and that was still only a few months after the surgery - I wanted to go to the office and give a helpful "gently caress you" to everyone there who suggested that I just go six months without insurance after a monthlong hospital stay and new spinal fusion). Like I said, I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed some new awesome insurance path in the last two years so that I could just smack my head down the road - let alone possible save twenty to thirty grand along the way.
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Apr 14, 2011 21:41
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I have a quick salary question... My anniversary is in February. I am just now having my review. I've been working with this company for 5 years. They are changing the review dates to be at the start of the year, rather than on an employee's anniversary. I am told that my raise will be prorated, both good and bad. I will be paid from my anniversary date, but the percentage will be prorated from the end of the year. As I understand it, for example: Raise: 5% Pro-rated raise from end of February: 4% It seems like I'm getting screwed over by getting 1% less this year and every subsequent year. It's not like I'm a new employee, either. Am I thinking about this the wrong way? Thanks
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Apr 15, 2011 00:31
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That doesn't make any sense. Was the "5%" raise and the 4% actual raise from February the numbers they gave you? Or is that your speculation? Maybe I'm just confused by the way you described it. Anytime I hear the word prorated (at least the way you used it) I assume the actual will be higher than the written number. You're getting a 5% raise but because they're a few months late on that you'll actually be getting a 5.x% raise for the remaining 8 months so that your total compensation for the year increases by 5%. How quickly have the reviews and then subsequent raises been enacted in the past? Is your review normally on the day of your actual anniversary and then your raise kicks in on the next pay check? If that's the case they owe you, if the review and raise normally doesn't kick in until May, then them dropping it to 4% from February makes sense, as 4% over two or three extra months will work out to 5% for this year. You'll get your review at the end of calendar year next year so then your raise will kick in faster, so you aren't really losing. Lyon fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Apr 15, 2011 |
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Apr 15, 2011 02:00
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Lyon posted:That doesn't make any sense. Was the "5%" raise and the 4% actual raise from February the numbers they gave you? Or is that your speculation? It's just speculation, but my understanding is that the actual percentage will be lower because it's based on the amount of time that I'm working between now and my next review (only 5/6 of the year). Typically reviews are before or near the anniversary date, and then take effect then. I will be getting a review Jan 1 12, but my understanding is that my base salary would be 1% less. Mar -> Dec 1 2011 = 10 months, 5/6th of the year 5/6ths of 5% would be 4% raise for the remainder of the year.
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Apr 15, 2011 02:24
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Tell them not to prorate it, but to increase your raise % for this year. So your raise will start in May, that leaves you with 3/4 of the year. My math seems off, but it should give you an idea of what I'm talking about... 1.04 (4% raise) * 10 (months with feb prorate) * 2500 (made up monthly salary) = 26,000 (amount you'd make if they had done your review on your anniversary) X% * 8 (actual months) * 2500 (salary) = 21,200 x = 1.06 or 6% The reason I used 21,200 is because they paid you for the two months, so I subtracted 2500*2, but then added 200 because the 4% raise leads to increase of 100/mo. So say, hey forget the prorate, give me 6% for the next 8 months, it's the same amount of money. Then when your review comes up next year your base salary is actually higher than it would have been with the actual 5%, or just tell them to give you 5% over the 10 months. Edit: 6% is wrong I think, revised solution follows. Adding the 200 was a mistake, which then makes the percentage you want over 8 months to be 5% to make it equal. x% * 8 * 2500 = 21,000. x = 1.05 or 5%. So tell them you'd rather a 5% increase to your base over 8 months rather than a 4% increase over 10. If you're making 50k this year and you get 5% your base will increase to 52500 and next year assuming a legit 5% increase again it will go to 55125. If they give you the 4% at 50k/yr it goes to 5200 and assuming a legit 5% increase it goes to 54600, a gross difference of -525 for 2012. You don't really lose anything in 2011 because of the prorate. I think this is correct, someone tell me I'm an idiot. Lyon fucked around with this message at 03:52 on Apr 15, 2011 |
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Apr 15, 2011 03:32
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Makes good sense to me. Thanks!
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Apr 15, 2011 12:07
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I've read the OP of this and the long term investment thread. I have a general plan and I just wanted to get some eyes on it. My Current Situation: -I make 650-750/mo take home. -I have $300 in a Bank of America savings account with a laughably abysmal rate. -I don't pay rent or tuition, but I am currently spending about $600 a month on other expenses (food/clothes/textbooks) -No debt -23 Upcoming changes: -I will start making 1780/mo pre-tax starting this August. -I plan on moving my savings into SmartyPig and start putting in at least $500 a month. (hopefully closer to 1k) -Once I hit $5k in SmartyPig, I plan on taking the money to put into a Vanguard Roth IRA. I will maintain a balance of at least $2400 (600*3) in SmartyPig while investing up to $5k in the IRA. -If I hit $5k again, I will look into other investment plans. Thoughts: Since I don't pay tuition or rent/utilities, I would like to cut down my expenses. I'm on my parent's car insurance so my budget per month breaks down to: $300 for food $30 for car insurance $100 big purchase fund (For any big purchases I'd like to make, like a new computer, etc. This rolls over per month.) $50 emergencies $50 Beauty maintenance (manicures, hair cuts, waxing, also rolls over - I use about $20 per month for non hair cut months, but hair cuts cost a lot) $90 Gas (I live about 30min drive away from school) $43 smartphone Which comes out to be $663 a month. Oh god. Am I optimizing this? Rurutia fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Apr 15, 2011 |
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Apr 15, 2011 17:08
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So, after finding out about being sent to collections on my credit report, I decided to find out my credit scores, which, while not good at all, are not as bad as I was expecting (641 according to freecreditreport.com). While there's not much I can do about removing the collections requests, I was wondering if obtaining a secured credit card with a low limit ($300) to be paid off in full every month and only for gas would be a good idea. I don't use much gas at all, generally around $75 a month, and I've never been irresponsible about paying off my own credit card. If this would help me out, would something like: http://www.capitalone.com/creditcards/mastercard-secured-credit-card/r/?linkid=WWW_1010_CARD_TGAFF01_Z_Z_01_T_CP77203RW be a good option? GobiasIndustries fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Apr 15, 2011 |
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Apr 15, 2011 17:34
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GobiasIndustries posted:So, after finding out about being sent to collections on my credit report, I decided to find out my credit scores, which, while not good at all, are not as bad as I was expecting (641 according to freecreditreport.com). While there's not much I can do about removing the collections requests, I was wondering if obtaining a secured credit card with a low limit ($300) to be paid off in full every month and only for gas would be a good idea. I don't use much gas at all, generally around $75 a month, and I've never been irresponsible about paying off my own credit card. Do you have anything else that is being paid and reported on a monthly basis? Student loans, car loans, any other credit cards? If not, you would benefit from positive reporting assuming the collection account/bad debt has all been paid. I would recommend you talk to a credit union or community bank since Capital One is a monster issuer of cards, and like all the big issuers, they are scummy. Those terms are not great; I would bet that a credit union will give you a secured card without an annual fee and credit unions are capped at 18% on all loan products, so the rate will be better. If you do have other things you are paying on, I don’t think you will benefit that much by adding yet another tradeline. People think they can dilute their bad credit by opening up stuff and it doesn’t work like that. Time and good behavior are the only things that heal credit.
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Apr 15, 2011 17:50
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Do you have anything else that is being paid and reported on a monthly basis? Student loans, car loans, any other credit cards? If not, you would benefit from positive reporting assuming the collection account/bad debt has all been paid. I would recommend you talk to a credit union or community bank since Capital One is a monster issuer of cards, and like all the big issuers, they are scummy. Those terms are not great; I would bet that a credit union will give you a secured card without an annual fee and credit unions are capped at 18% on all loan products, so the rate will be better. I have student loans that are currently being deferred (I'm still taking classes), and my current credit card. That's about it; no other loans to speak of.
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Apr 15, 2011 17:55
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GobiasIndustries posted:I have student loans that are currently being deferred (I'm still taking classes), and my current credit card. That's about it; no other loans to speak of. I don’t know how much benefit you would get from opening up a secured account. My guess is some. But not that much. Is that vague enough for you? If it were me, I wouldn’t do it. I don’t think having $300 tied up and paying fees will give you enough benefit. It’s another thing to keep track of, and I know that 2 bills isn’t much harder than paying one, but I also know that life sometimes gets in the way and in spite of people’s best intentions, things get misfiled and forgotten at the same time life gets overwhelming. That is more likely to happen when you have multiple things you have to pay. I think you would do better keeping up with what you have, use mostly cash for day to day stuff, build up savings for medium stuff and for big items, be ready to make a down payment. I’m a loan officer and if someone was coming to me for a car loan and their credit was a bit shaky and thin, I feel way better about doing it if they had a few thousand of their own money into the deal than someone who had one extra tradeline but wants me to finance 100%.
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Apr 15, 2011 18:27
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Rurutia posted:I've read the OP of this and the long term investment thread. I have a general plan and I just wanted to get some eyes on it.
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Apr 15, 2011 18:57
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Rurutia posted:I've read the OP of this and the long term investment thread. I have a general plan and I just wanted to get some eyes on it. What stands out to me is how much you are currently spending on food, the rest sounds good. You mentioned you don't pay rent so are you living at home? Do you buy your own groceries or is that just eating out, etc? I myself spend an average of $450 a month on food so it's not that I think it's abnormal, it is just a lot in relation to your current income.
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Apr 15, 2011 19:04
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moana posted:Looks good, and I'm glad you've got a "big purchase" budget item, but without a category for general entertainment, clothes, etc, you're going to have to spend your big purchase money on a lot of little purchases. Have you been tracking your purchases at all? Little things can add up, and you usually forget to include them in a budget. I think overall your plan is good, but make sure that you reevaluate every month to see where the money is actually ending up. I have a budget sheet and I try to keep little things like entertainment and such under Food. For clothes and such, I tend to buy seasonally (like I spent $300 this month on clothes and shoes for the spring/summer) so that comes from my 'big purchase' fund. I do feel like I should have a Misc (spontaneous) purchase category, but in the end, if I'm trying to cut down on my expenses isn't that where it should come from anyways? asmallrabbit posted:What stands out to me is how much you are currently spending on food, the rest sounds good. You mentioned you don't pay rent so are you living at home? Do you buy your own groceries or is that just eating out, etc? I myself spend an average of $450 a month on food so it's not that I think it's abnormal, it is just a lot in relation to your current income. I live at home and I can't eat a lot of what my parents cook. I love cooking but its not feasible with the way my family is. It's hard to explain without going into e/n territory. Either way, I end up spending on average $10 a day on food/entertainment which is where the $300 comes from. I know its weird I group food/entertainment, but usually if we're going out to the movies or bar hopping food is involved so I just lump them together. Rurutia fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Apr 15, 2011 |
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Apr 15, 2011 19:05
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Rurutia posted:$300 for food The food category could probably be optimized a bit. Does this include dining out, or just groceries? Adjusting the "home cooking" to "dining out" ratio can make a huge difference in net money spent. Edit: Didn't see this addressed above, sorry for the re-post VVVVVV I dunno, I eat on $200 or less a month and enjoy a good diet, with the majority of it being comprised of meat (which is way more expensive per unit than, say, beans). My salary is very similar to grad student salaries so I totally understand the realities of poor people income. polyfractal fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Apr 15, 2011 |
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Apr 15, 2011 19:09
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It’s not like $300/mo is that much and it is a sad reality of life that the poor/those with lower incomes will spend a higher proportion on food. Go much below that and you give up a lot of variety and health. There is a lot people can cut out, but food is not one of them.
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Apr 15, 2011 19:18
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Zeta Taskforce posted:It’s not like $300/mo is that much and it is a sad reality of life that the poor/those with lower incomes will spend a higher proportion on food. Go much below that and you give up a lot of variety and health. There is a lot people can cut out, but food is not one of them. Yeah. I've tried to strip it down and if I don't ever go out and cook for myself whenever I can I'm at $200 on a good month. And that very easily increases with different quality of ingredients. I can always become super coupon lady, but then school might suffer. I'm a graduate student so things have been this way for awhile and I'm used to it. I just hope that my degree will make up for it one day. v  v
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Apr 15, 2011 19:38
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Dining out is easily twice as expensive as DIY. I don't know your family situation or what causes your food situation, but just remember that every $1 you don't spend is one you are able to save at the end of the month. If you can't cut in your food budget, then by all means I don't want you to feel like I'm berating you, but if it's just inconvenience or your mom doesn't make things you like, I would encourage you to look at that. $300 is not unreasonable for most people living on their own, but on the otherhand <$10,000/yr is incredibly low for the USA. If you cut your gas expenses in half you save $45. If you cut your dining budget by 1/4th you save $75. summary: The best place to cut spending is the places you spend the most money.
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Apr 16, 2011 03:14
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KennyG posted:Dining out is easily twice as expensive as DIY. I don't know your family situation or what causes your food situation, but just remember that every $1 you don't spend is one you are able to save at the end of the month. If you can't cut in your food budget, then by all means I don't want you to feel like I'm berating you, but if it's just inconvenience or your mom doesn't make things you like, I would encourage you to look at that. $300 is not unreasonable for most people living on their own, but on the otherhand <$10,000/yr is incredibly low for the USA. If you cut your gas expenses in half you save $45. If you cut your dining budget by 1/4th you save $75. <$10,000 currently is by choice because I do live at home and working as a research assistant is pretty bad money as an undergrad, but better for experiences and references. I'm graduating this year and for graduate school I was offered a GRA'ship which is what's funding all of my tuition/fees and gives me about 22k/year pre tax and so I decided that I should finally sack the gently caress up and take care of my finances so I'm really looking at this from the 22k/year point of view. With that said, I do understand your point. However, even when I scrimp like crazy on my dining (by only eating/dining out when necessary, and cooking otherwise), the lowest I can go is $200 and it has such a huge impact on my quality of life that I just don't feel its worth it. As it is, because I don't have rent or any debt, I'm looking to put $1k towards investments per month, which isn't that bad I think? But then this is why I post here, because I do want other perspectives. Rurutia fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Apr 16, 2011 |
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Apr 16, 2011 04:58
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Hello All! I just found out Friday that I was accepted into an Accelerated MSc. Nursing program. It is a 15 month graduate program that will take me from my unimpressive BS in History to a Masters of Science in Nursing. Due to the nature of the program (classes all week, clinicals on the weekend), I will no longer be able to work full-time. I have known this from the time I conceptualized returning to school, so I have been saving for quite a while. I have heard from some graduates that it may be -possible- to work towards the end of the program at a part-time/ per diem capacity. However, I have decided to stop working for the time being. The program is also somewhere in the neighborhood of 25k-35k start to finish. I don't know what kind of financial aid will be available, since I was just acccepted, but I do know that my bank will give me a MedCAP® Alternative Loan for Health Professionals at my maximum amount of 35k at 4.75%. I have some questions on how to best survive for 15 months with little income coming in - my fiance has a student job on campus and makes ~$650/ mo. with no benefits. I will be leaving my job on May 12th and start school on the 16th. Right now, I make $11.00/ Hr. plus shift differential @ 36Hr.s/Week. - What changes should I make to my current budget, if any? - Am I financially stable enough to survive for 15 mo's without an income? - Should I pay off the rest of my student loan or defer payment? - If worse comes to worst, is a 35k @ 4.75% loan realistic for a nurse? - I'm thinking about buying (cheap) bikes for the fiance and I so we don't have to pay parking or bus fares, is that a good idea? We live about 1.5 miles from our school. Checking: ~$2,000 Savings: $14,264 CC: $0 (just ordered a Chase Freedom card) Student Loan Remaining: $2,831.31 Necessities: Rent: $150/ mo. to fiance's parents (HOA fees & homeowners ins.) Phone: $60/ mo. (looking into Credo) Auto Insurance: $400/ 6 mo. Renter's: $100/ yr. Electricity: $30 - $100/ mo. Health Insurance: $104/ mo. Food: $250/ mo. Gas: $30/ mo. (internet is free and no cable) Other: Clothing & Uniforms: $50 Personal Care: $100/ 3 mo. Entertainment: $50/ mo. (Netflix, concerts, bowling) 2 Cats: $15/ mo. There will be other associated school fees like books and nursing kits, but this is all the regular expenses. Thanks for the help!
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Apr 18, 2011 02:30
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Fromage D Enfer posted:Hello All! You have expenses of about $900/mo. Your savings would cover 15 months assuming you are 100% disciplined and inflation doesn't hit you too hard. I would talk to your program, if you live in the United States (and from the cost of your tuition it looks like you do) you should look into Grad PLUS loans or other federally subsidized loans. They should be available and have minimal amount of effort securing on your part. Step one would be to visit your institution (or better yet, your program's) financial aid office and meet with the people there and see what options they have. We are clearly in an education bubble, but $35k for a nursing degree vs your history degree may be a wise decision.
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Apr 18, 2011 14:41
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My Mother-in-law closed her Chase account after they started some new fees and opened up a credit union checking account. My wife also added herself as a joint account holder in able to have access to the account should anything happen to her mother (had a difficult experience with bank accounts when her father passed). My question is would my wife be legally obligated for any debts that happen to occur from her mother if anything comes up? We're currently supporting her financially, and the only thing this checking would be used for is buying things online and buying groceries and depositing the weekly funds we give her. My wife is also a joint holder on our main checking account where all our checks are deposited and bills are paid.
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Apr 18, 2011 23:12
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| # ? May 11, 2024 19:47 |
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BorderPatrol posted:My Mother-in-law closed her Chase account after they started some new fees and opened up a credit union checking account. My wife also added herself as a joint account holder in able to have access to the account should anything happen to her mother (had a difficult experience with bank accounts when her father passed). Not answering about the status of a joint account holder (I don't know credit cards well enough to know if that is a standardized term or what that term generally entails vis a vis liability for joint holders). However, have you considered setting your wife up as an authorized signoatory, or get a simple power of attorney that authorizes your wife to sign for things on her mom's behalf? I did a simple power of attorney for both my mother and my mother in law to take care of the respective grandmothers as both have been put into an assisted care center within the last couple of years. This way the mom's can take care of the grandmom's finances completely autonomously. The only reason I could see a benefit to having your wife as a joint holder on the account is if it was necessary to set up the credit card in the first place (such as your mother in law not qualifying on her own). You can find decent power of attorney forms online for free, or go to one of the legal document companies to get one fairly cheaply. If you have specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them through PM.
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Apr 19, 2011 00:45
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