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zelah posted:So I want to get one of those shiny new iMacs but I'm not sure which way would be best to go about it.
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May 8, 2011 02:36
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I think I convinced myself to not by one after looking at how much windows PCs cost instead. So that is now a non-issue. How about that that bank switching and credit effect from corrections huh?
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May 8, 2011 03:21
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Does anyone have any thoughts on https://www.betterment.com? At first glance it seems like a waste of time and provides nothing that you couldn't achieve or exceed with only slightly more effort, but just wanted to see if anyone here has used it or read anything else about it?
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May 9, 2011 22:35
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Mikey Purp posted:Does anyone have any thoughts on https://www.betterment.com? At first glance it seems like a waste of time and provides nothing that you couldn't achieve or exceed with only slightly more effort Also their allocation toolbar thing is seriously ridiculous
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May 9, 2011 23:52
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So, I feel ready to start monitoring my finances more vigorously, I want to make a budget and keep track of my bills. Is there an alternative to mint.com that works for countries other than the US and Canada? Something fancier than Excel would be nice for my motivation.
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May 17, 2011 21:22
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Okay, so I'm 23, my wife is 26 and we've been married nearly two years. We paid off a pretty minor debt early last year and have been saving since then. Only problem is, things just keep coming up that prevent us from getting the savings goals I really want. Not calculated expnses, but out-of-the-blue events. As of right now, we have a $1,000 emergency fund for quick emergencies, along with another long-term emergency fund that is stocked with two months' worth of expenses. (Unemployment is 4.9%, easy to find quick work if I were laid off - not going to happen in Australia right now). Apart from putting money aside for maintenance, putting more money in the emergency fund every month, budgeting for yearly expenses such as car registration, etc, I feel like there are just things that prevent us from getting further in our savings. Case in point: cousin getting married, fork out $800 for plane tickets, and so on. Right now we only have $600 in my desginated "long term savings" account, and by the end of the year we'll have over $6,000 in it by my count. We earn $5,200 a month combined after tax. Roughly 17% of my pay is going to different types of savings accounts, but only 14% of my pay is going into that "long term savings" account. Sure, I'll have $6,000 by the end of the year, but I just thought at 23 years old I would have more money to my name. Should I be stepping up on savings here?
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May 18, 2011 15:05
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You need to be looking at what it is you are actually spending from month to month. You clearly have some leaks that you don't know about. You need a budget. Post a breakdown of your spending for the last month or two, and we can see what is out of whack.
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May 18, 2011 15:08
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Perhaps there is another thread that is better for this, but I thought I'd ask here first. I have a minor situation which I want to affect my credit as little as possible. A previous employer gave me a work blackberry which, apparently, was in my name (I did not realize this). Due to an unfortunate gently caress up, I never saw the bill...until I got a letter from a collections agency looking for $300. Thankfully, I can pay this off immediately. HOWEVER, since it has gone into collections, I realize this looks very bad from a credit perspective! Is there anything I can do to minimize the impact to my credit?
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May 18, 2011 15:40
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Chin Strap posted:You need to be looking at what it is you are actually spending from month to month. You clearly have some leaks that you don't know about. You need a budget. Post a breakdown of your spending for the last month or two, and we can see what is out of whack. Sorry, I should have been clearer - I already have a detailed budget and i know exactly what im spending money on. My issue is just that i thought i would have more cash at 23 years old. This isnt a month to month thing...its that ill get to a point and then, poo poo, now i need to spend 500 dollars on new tires, or whatever. I have the money, it just takes me back a bit. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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May 18, 2011 20:44
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CelestialScribe posted:Sorry, I should have been clearer - I already have a detailed budget and i know exactly what im spending money on. My issue is just that i thought i would have more cash at 23 years old. What are you looking for? Yes you should be saving more if you can barely manage to accumulate 1 months worth of salary savings by the end of the year. But that depends on what else you are leaving out of that. Retirement accounts? And we won't know why you aren't saving more if you don't tell us your budget to see where you could cut back to up savings.
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May 18, 2011 20:48
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Would anyone know why I'm getting such a huge loving gap in my credit scores with different reporting agencies? After screwing up royally financially in college, I finally got my act together and am slowly trying to repair the damage. The weird thing is, Transunion is reporting a 670 credit score, while Equifax is giving me a 575. Additionally, on the multi-bureau report from transunion, it's showing me equifax has me with a 650 credit score? So confused!
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May 18, 2011 21:02
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Canada goon here. I'm 21 years old, just graduated with a highly-valuable English Literature degree, and am about to start graduate studies in the fall. I'm currently unemployed, but my summer job starts at the end of the month. I have one credit card and I pay off the balance every month, and my student loans are around $5700, but the interest will be deferred so long as I remain in school (going for my M.A. now, and plan to do my Ph.D. afterwards). I plan to place most of my summer job funds into savings, as the fellowship from my M.A. isn't massive. But I estimate that I should have some money left over after tuition/rent/groceries/etc. My question is, what should I do with this leftover money? Should I use it to establish my savings, start to pay down my student loans, or something else?
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May 19, 2011 03:37
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3rd World Dictator posted:Perhaps there is another thread that is better for this, but I thought I'd ask here first. I have a minor situation which I want to affect my credit as little as possible. Unless you are making a big purchase in the next 6 months, if everything else on your credit is clean, I doubt it will be anything more than a speed bump. I’m a loan officer and I wouldn’t even blink at a tiny paid collection account if everything else was solid. I would dispute it; you never know, you might get lucky and they might take it off, but assuming they don’t, I would pull my credit in a few months to verify that the collection agency is showing it as a paid debt. When they send you a letter showing that the debt is paid and the account closed, SAVE THAT LETTER THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! Laminate it if you have to. Scan it into a PDF and email it to yourself so your email server has a copy. Whatever it takes so if/when they decide to sell the debt to another agency and they try to collect on it again, you will be ready.
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May 19, 2011 18:59
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Unless you are making a big purchase in the next 6 months, if everything else on your credit is clean, I doubt it will be anything more than a speed bump. I’m a loan officer and I wouldn’t even blink at a tiny paid collection account if everything else was solid. Thanks for this advice, Zeta. That makes me feel better. My credit is otherwise good. How do I dispute this? A lawyer?
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May 20, 2011 15:48
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3rd World Dictator posted:Thanks for this advice, Zeta. That makes me feel better. My credit is otherwise good. You can dispute it at https://www.annualcreditreport.com. I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know if you would have any legal recourse, but you signed the contract with a personal guarantee, I don’t think any laws were broken. I agree its weird that your job didn’t just pay the bill. I guess that they stopped when you were no longer their employee.
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May 20, 2011 16:04
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sleepness posted:Would anyone know why I'm getting such a huge loving gap in my credit scores with different reporting agencies? That is a pretty big gap. Even if the different agencies look at the data with different weight, it shouldn’t be THAT different. Its possible, but unlikely, that the merchants and collection agencies only report to Equifax. Its also possible that new accounts you have opened and been good with don’t report to Equifax, in which case there isn’t much you can do. Finally, there could be old accounts you have paid that actually show up as paid on Transunion and Experian, but Equifax never updated. In which case you want to dispute it. It will be way easier if you have a copy of the letter they sent when the account was settled/paid. The letter I told 3rdWD to save forever.
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May 20, 2011 16:15
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Zeta Taskforce posted:You can dispute it at https://www.annualcreditreport.com. I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know if you would have any legal recourse, but you signed the contract with a personal guarantee, I don’t think any laws were broken. I agree its weird that your job didn’t just pay the bill. I guess that they stopped when you were no longer their employee. There is also this thread with a lot of information about handling debt collectors and disputing charges, etc. Might be useful to look through at least the first few pages and see what guidance is there.
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May 20, 2011 16:20
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I just started a new job, and they offer a 401k match. However, half of that match is in company stock, and I'm not vested at all (I believe) for 5 years. I'm not planning on staying with this job for 5 years, because it's call center work and I'd probably kill myself. I also have a Roth IRA that I rolled a previous job's 401k into, and I'm in a position where I'll be able to make IRA contributions regardless of any possible 401k contribution. I'm assuming I'll be better off just making contributions to my IRA, rather than putting that money into a 401k that I'm basically not getting a match for. I know that one is pre-tax and one is post-tax. Does this make sense, or will I be better off doing both a new 401k and IRA contributions?
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May 22, 2011 04:36
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5 year cliff vesting for a 401(k) plan is not legal - it's likely 3 year cliff for your company, but it could be some kind of graded vesting as well. If you think you'll be there long enough to hit that vesting level (and bear in mind that you don't always have to work a full 3 years from date of hire, you just have to get enough service to accrue a year of vesting in 3 calendar years, which is often based on hours worked) then it would be better to use your company's 401(k). If they use graded vesting then you should almost certainly use it unless their investment options are truly terrible. I'd look into the plan a little more before you decide for sure.
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May 22, 2011 04:46
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Hello BFC, first time poster here. A couple days ago I accepted an amazing position with a solid company. I immediately put in my two weeks notice, and will be starting this position June 6th. I currently earn about $27k/year, but the position I'll be starting has a base salary of $43k/yr, excellent benefits with a ~10% annual performance bonus, and I will be getting plenty of overtime. So let's call it an even $50k/year. I graduated college in 2009, and up until last June when I got my current $13/hr job I had never earned anything above minimum wage. I've been dirt poor my entire life, so this will be uncharted territory for me. I made the choice to take out 2 credit cards to fill in the gaps of my budget while in college, and once I graduated my americorps stipend of $1050/mo was not enough to keep up with the payments  Both cards defaulted, leaving me with $2000 of debt on each. I worked out an agreement to pay off one card and got the balance erased in December 2010. The other is currently in collections, and the agency is offering to close the account for $1000. I also have 2 student loans, one is $4300 @ 5%, the other is $17,000 at 5%. Not good, i know. The last time I checked, my credit was a 580  I want to work on raising that ASAP. I currently drive a 1996 Corolla, 156k miles with a disturbingly rough idle, a timing belt which is going to snap any day now, broken windshield and taillight, no paint on the roof; it's a rebuilt junk title car, although to it's credit it starts up every time and has never stalled or left me stranded. However, it needs more in repairs than the car is worth and I'd like to get something nicer soon. I plan to sell it to the first person willing to give me $1000 for it; I'd like to get a 2005-2010 Subaru Legacy, FWIW. Here's my question: How should I go about improving my credit to the point where a bank or dealer will give me a halfway reasonable car loan? I know I can't just run out and get a car overnight. Any other advice for someone who just got his dream job?  In summary: (soon to be) 50k/year pretax income $0 savings $1000 car No other notable assets Debt: $21K Student loan debt - currently paying a total of $250/mo $1000 credit card in collections a rowdy mullet fucked around with this message at 16:27 on May 22, 2011 |
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May 22, 2011 16:18
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It's my opinion that fixing the "musts" on your Corolla while you save for a new car (or at least a healthy downpayment) is your best bet. That car may have a lot more life left in it than you think. Also: the timing belt could be put off until it breaks, if you're planning on junking the car anyways. You have a non-interference motor so unless you are racing the engine when it lets go, you'll likely just coast to a stop when it goes out.
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May 22, 2011 16:53
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a rowdy mullet posted:Congrats on the new job, that's awesome Given you have no savings at all, concentrate on getting some savings together for the next few months. If you don't change your lifestyle too much with you new income you'll have $5k saved up within 3-4 months. Once you've done that, re-evaluate your position and decide on what you want to do.
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May 23, 2011 03:53
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a rowdy mullet posted:Only thing I would add is make sure you are on a written budget and track how you are spending your money. You will be making enough money that you can afford to increase your lifestyle. You have been hurting so long next to poverty, you probably should. But a written budget will allow you to do it in a planned, intentional way. I agree that first step is to save money, and then I would clean up your credit and pay off debt while you look at reasonable cars.
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May 23, 2011 04:55
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a rowdy mullet posted:However, it needs more in repairs than the car is worth and I'd like to get something nicer soon. I plan to sell it to the first person willing to give me $1000 for it; I'd like to get a 2005-2010 Subaru Legacy, FWIW. This is not AI, but someone should point out that the late 2000's Subarus are not exactly great cars to own. You may actually be trading down as far as reliability goes. Toyota is not the manufacturer they once were *coughrecallcough* but they are still enjoying the reputation they built in the 90's as an incredibly reliable and efficient auto manufacturer. My girlfriend still drives a 1997 Corolla and while it sounds as though she has taken slightly better care of her car than yours, I wouldn't trade that car for even a brand new Subaru, Jeep or Volkswagen. One thing you should do that would improve your financial situation is to do comprehensive research into significant purchases (like cars) and consider not just the sticker but everything that goes into Total Cost of Ownership. You may find that on a 5 year timeline that driving even a used Subaru can be VERY expensive. Alternatives in the new Corolla or Hyundai Sonata can be far more sensible when it comes to TCO. If you don't need the bigger size an Elantra may also be a great option that could save you thousands. A few years back I bought a car and while I really wanted a RAV4, after doing the numbers I ended up with an Elantra because the 5yr Total Ownership was less than half.
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May 23, 2011 13:13
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a rowdy mullet posted:Hello BFC, first time poster here. A couple days ago I accepted an amazing position with a solid company. I immediately put in my two weeks notice, and will be starting this position June 6th. I currently earn about $27k/year, but the position I'll be starting has a base salary of $43k/yr, excellent benefits with a ~10% annual performance bonus, and I will be getting plenty of overtime. So let's call it an even $50k/year. I would suggest budgeting your income as $43k, not $50k, at least until you've worked there for a bit. Being told that you're going to get tons of overtime and a bonus every year is just talk until you actually get a feel for the place and start seeing the overtime and performance bonuses. You also might start budgeting as if you're making $50k, but if it's coming in regularly as $43k with a windfall of $7k, then you might overspend before you actually have the money.
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May 23, 2011 14:47
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Thank you all for the great advice. I am going to pay off the credit card collections account within my first few paychecks, and then after that I'll start saving some money. I'm used to living on a shoestring budget so saving up some money fast won't be hard. That's a bummer about recent Subarus, where did you hear that their reliability has taken a hit? My tenative plan is to fix the immediate issues with my Corolla, save up some $$$ for a downpayment on something better, and see where my credit score is at around the end of the year. I may just take the bus and ride my bike to save even more, since I will be moving back to the town I went to college in and they have a great bus system. I have family all over the state I'd like to visit more regularly, so a reliable car is a must in the long term.
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May 23, 2011 17:21
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a rowdy mullet posted:Thank you all for the great advice. I am going to pay off the credit card collections account within my first few paychecks, and then after that I'll start saving some money. I'm used to living on a shoestring budget so saving up some money fast won't be hard. I’ll never argue with someone cleaning up their credit, but I would do it in the opposite order. I would save up money first, THEN pay the credit cards. It is best to pay for the day to day things that come up with cash, but especially in your case with your credit messed up, you wouldn’t have good borrowing options if something did happen; cash is probably your only option. In the scheme of things, it doesn’t matter if you pay off the collection accounts now vs three months from now.
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May 23, 2011 17:43
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So, about a year ago, as a student, I decided to work on building my credit. There have been two issues holding me back, however. The biggest one, and this is crushing my credit score with two agencies, is that I have been given several credit cards by my parents, to be used for purchases they want to help me with, emergencies, etc. This is great, and has been very helpful, except it seems one of my parents completely forgot to pay off one credit card (for some ridiculously small amount of like $50) for over three months. This was of course accidental, but those accounts show up on my credit report, and having an account that was 120 days late brought me down from ~780 to ~660. Is there anything I can do with regards to removing this from my credit report, or mitigating it somehow? It's very frustrating that my credit score will suck for 7 years because of something completely outside of my control.
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May 23, 2011 19:35
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ryanmfw posted:So, about a year ago, as a student, I decided to work on building my credit. There have been two issues holding me back, however. If you are an authorized user on the account, your parents can remove you from the account by informing the credit card company in writing. If you were joint on the account, then that’s unfortunate. If you were joint, in theory it was under your complete control to pay the debt. I would close all joint accounts held between you and your parents and do your own thing from here on out. This is yet another reason why people should never cosign for each other. People always have the best of intentions, but there is only one way for things to work out well, lots of ways it can mess up, and it does affect your relationships with people. Your credit will not be ruined for 7 years. 660 is not awful, it will probably rebound to over 700 once its been current for 6 months. You and your credit will survive.
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May 23, 2011 19:50
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I'm pretty sure I was just an authorized user. So being removed as an authorized user would remove it from my credit report in total, or just for the future? I realize 660 isn't awful, but because of this stuff, I can't get my actual credit card limit bumped up past $300... which is quite constraining. Thanks for the help!
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May 23, 2011 19:57
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Credit Card question: my wife and I still have our own seperate credit cards from pre-marriage. All of them have a zero balance, and we rarely carry a balance for more than a month or two. Generally we use them for a couple hundred dollars here and there and then pay off the balance at the end of each month. In deciding how to consolidate, will it make much of a difference, or any difference at all, whether we just add each other as authorized signatories rather than going through all of the paperwork to become joint account holders? Is there any benefit to being a joint account holder that I'm not aware of?
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May 23, 2011 20:20
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ryanmfw posted:I'm pretty sure I was just an authorized user. So being removed as an authorized user would remove it from my credit report in total, or just for the future? They should remove the account entirely, but it might take some effort and you might have to dispute it on the credit bureaus. Other lenders may be reluctant to increase your credit lines or grant new credit if they are seeing a 120 day late, even if 660 isn’t that bad. Even if you are joint and it never comes off, time will heal this wound.
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May 23, 2011 21:02
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Voodoofly posted:Credit Card question: my wife and I still have our own seperate credit cards from pre-marriage. All of them have a zero balance, and we rarely carry a balance for more than a month or two. Generally we use them for a couple hundred dollars here and there and then pay off the balance at the end of each month. The only benefit to being joint on each others accounts is if one of you had a very thin, very short credit history. Other than that, I don’t think it would be worth it.
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May 23, 2011 21:03
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Zeta Taskforce posted:The only benefit to being joint on each others accounts is if one of you had a very thin, very short credit history. Other than that, I don’t think it would be worth it. Thanks. I really didn't feel like filling out the paperwork this weekend.
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May 23, 2011 21:18
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Unlike my other questions I will keep this short. My mom added me as an authorized user on her credit card years ago to try to help my credit. If she removes me now will my credit be hurt or helped? If any other details are needed let me know, I'm not sure what to include.
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May 23, 2011 22:06
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Who knows if this is a newbie question or not.. but hey! let's ask anyway. I'll be 25 in a couple of months, I'm married (little over a year) with one child (infant). We are a single income family. I Have about $10,000 in credit card debt, and about $2000 in hospital bills from our child's birth. I'm on a payment plan to pay that off at $150 a month until it's paid with no interest so I don't consider it to be a big liability. I cashed out some 10 year old stock to pay off the majority of my debt and get things on the right track, which leaves me with about: $6500 in cash assets -$10,200 in CC debt. The debt is spread between two cards, 1, an Amex at 12% and a USAA MC at 9%. 8k is on the Amex and 2k is on the MC. My income from my job is normally around $2400 a month, and additional online income sources bring my monthly income to around $3400 on average. So.. as I was getting ready to pay off my debt in one large swoop, I find out I may be losing my job because my company is a little financially unstable in a bad market. My thinking was, If push comes to shove, I have available credit that I can push normal spending onto (I have about 25,000 in available credit) and I could use the cash assets to pay things that require cash without penalty, such as Rent (pretty much it). My rent is around $1100 a month, everything else gets paid on credit cards and then I pay it off with cash at the end of the month, while paying down debt. My monthly costs including rent run me about $2200 a month. We don't have cable tv, we own our cars, we don't eat out, and we cook all of our meals. So my question is, is there a smarter way to utilize my cash if I am risking losing my job? I am job searching currently and have had some interviews but nothing solid quite yet. I would like to use the cash to pay down some debt to reduce my interest charges each month, but I also want to have cash available to float for a few months should I lose my job and not be able to find another one.
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May 24, 2011 16:42
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Kruzen posted:Since your job is that shaky, I would put it in an online savings account and earn 1% on it. There is nothing you can do that is safe and have your money work for you, it is more important that it is there for you. It is just a natural tendency that if your income takes a hit and you mentally process that you have a $25,000 cushion due to your unused credit, then you will view things differently than if you actually have to spend your actual money. You will still have necessities, you will still spend it, but it will hurt more when you spend it. If you depend on the credit cards, the risk is that suddenly a $10,000 hole will become a $20,000 hole, and then life happens and you forget to send a payment in, and then it becomes a $20,000 hole with a 22% interest rate.
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May 24, 2011 17:06
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Bojanglesworth posted:Unlike my other questions I will keep this short. My mom added me as an authorized user on her credit card years ago to try to help my credit. If she removes me now will my credit be hurt or helped? I'm in a kinda similar spot but in my situation I think it will help. Experian shows me as an authorized party on a card of my mom's and is counting the balance/limit towards my utilization, jacking it way up. Discover says I haven't been authorized in years but even after an online-initiated dispute experian still shows it. Does anyone have any experience re-disputing an error? I'm assuming I should call them instead of doing it online again.
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May 24, 2011 18:50
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Is there anything necessarily wrong with having tons of open unused credit sitting out there, if I use mint to check my statements regularly? I could close some cards, but I'm not sure if open credit is worse than closed credit especially since the cards I would close are some of my oldest.
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May 24, 2011 20:03
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Tons like lots of cards? How many are we talking about? I think it should be fine, especially if they are your oldest ones.
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May 24, 2011 20:14
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