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TraderStav posted:What city do you live in? What do you want to do, what are your skills/background? Ever consider freelancing? It's not some hard to thing to figure out how to do, if you have a talent just start offering it at a fair $/hr rate. I currently live in Seattle. Outside of the skills I've learned at Starbucks, I don't have too much going for me. I have no college education, but I learn quickly and I'm a hard worker. I've only had two jobs my whole life and the shortest amount of time I've had a job was for four years. I've got three years of management experience as a shift supervisor. That's... about it, really. It's not much to go on, but I'm hoping to land something decent on my experience and long-term employability. As for what I want to do, I don't know. I'll do just about anything, really. I'm pretty miserable where I am right now, so just about anything outside of retail is looking pretty good. Hell, I'd even take another crap retail job if I had to, although I don't want to get stuck working three lovely, low-paying jobs and not having the time to find a real job. I'd be perfectly happy to have a horrible 9-5 office drone job. I have a friend that recently got an office job through an agency that she's really happy with. That's probably my best bet for gainful employment right now. Outside of that, I have another friend who has worked all over Seattle's food service industry for a few years and she could probably help me get in somewhere. My girlfriend's parents have also said they'd keep an ear out and help me find something. Her sister in law got a great office job a while ago that's letting her go back to school through her mom. Freelancing is good suggestion and an avenue I will also pursue. Another friend has been doing some art freelancing for a few months in addition to her office management job, so she's a resource for sure. Outside, of drawing (which I don't think I'm very good at), I'm not sure what other talents I have to offer, but I still think it's a good idea. I am also planning to not quit Starbucks when I find another job. For one, I'd end up uninsured and that would be really bad for me right now. Hopefully, I can find a decent 9-5 and work at Starbucks for 20 hours/week to keep my insurance. The "nice" thing about not having a lot of hours right now is that I have a lot of time and energy to put into finding more gainful employment. Additionally, I'm going to back to hustling hours from other stores when I need to.
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Nov 30, 2011 19:49
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liquidswordz posted:I currently live in Seattle. Outside of the skills I've learned at Starbucks, I don't have too much going for me. I have no college education, but I learn quickly and I'm a hard worker. I've only had two jobs my whole life and the shortest amount of time I've had a job was for four years. I've got three years of management experience as a shift supervisor. That's... about it, really. It's not much to go on, but I'm hoping to land something decent on my experience and long-term employability. What are you good at? I don't just mean things you think a business person would want. Anything. Dive deep and figure that out, THEN figure out how you can make money with that. You good with animals? Offer dog sitting services. You like music, write reviews or teach it to kids or dumb-rear end middle aged yuppies like myself if you know how to play an instrument.
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Nov 30, 2011 20:20
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KennyG posted:Is your move permanent? Did you move across town and there are no bank of America's there or did you move to a new part of the country that BoA doesn't service. There is no reason to have a bank of america account without the 'convinience' of all the local branches. Most in this thread will tell you not to be with BofA for any reason but it's even worse if you aren't getting the only thing they bring to the table (their ubiquotous locations) Thanks very much for the info. Move is just across town. I think this gives me a good sense of perspective on the issues--basically, I don't need to move on them yet, but I have a sense of when I might want to and a better idea of the benefits and tradeoffs.
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Dec 1, 2011 04:32
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This may not be appropriate for this thread, but don't have another place to ask it. Does anyone have any recommendations for any no-fee business checking accounts? I do a VERY low amount of transactions, and basically these accounts just serve as a place to deposit an occasional check or write one from. Chase is charging me $15/mo unless I put $1k on a linked Business credit card in a calendar month. I'm moving away from using Credit Cards completely, so looking to avoid this fee. I'm not opposed to an online bank either, although I would prefer B&M for one as I have a tenant who deposits directly into the account at an ATM. (I am not above telling them to just drop it in the mail, however) Thanks!
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Dec 1, 2011 16:05
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TraderStav posted:This may not be appropriate for this thread, but don't have another place to ask it. Does anyone have any recommendations for any no-fee business checking accounts? I do a VERY low amount of transactions, and basically these accounts just serve as a place to deposit an occasional check or write one from. Chase is charging me $15/mo unless I put $1k on a linked Business credit card in a calendar month. I'm moving away from using Credit Cards completely, so looking to avoid this fee. Try a local credit union with shared ATMs in your area, or for an online bank you may look at ING Electric Orange checking.
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Dec 1, 2011 18:15
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kaishek posted:Try a local credit union with shared ATMs in your area, or for an online bank you may look at ING Electric Orange checking. Drat, ING Electric doesn't appear to have a business checking. Looks like there is one local CU that has a business checking that only has a $200 minimum to avoid fees. Will check them out, thanks!
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Dec 1, 2011 21:05
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So what's the big deal with opening a new credit card hurting your credit history? -I opened my first Capital One card probably 9 years ago, have a $15,000 credit limit on it. -Two years ago I got an AMEX card purely for shopping at CostCo because I hated having to get cash on it. Has a $2,000 limit. I am looking to get a third card for a couple reasons. I recently had fraud on my Capital One card awhile back and in the week or so it took to get a new one I didn't have a card that could be accepted drat near everywhere, and I didn't like it. Then there are also some Chase offers that look really nice with a $300 sign up bonus and 5% cash back in certain categories. But people have been saying that opening a new card will effect my credit history! Really? Wouldn't that just take my average amount of years holding a credit card from 6 1/2 years to 4 1/2 years, which is really not that bad considering I'm 27 years old? That's pretty much all I know, there is something on your credit report that averages the amount of years you've had all your cards.
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Dec 1, 2011 22:05
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It should only "hurt" based on the inquery hit, which would hurt less if you've already had an inquery (the first inquery, or hard pull, has the largest effect on score).
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Dec 1, 2011 22:08
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TraderStav posted:This may not be appropriate for this thread, but don't have another place to ask it. Does anyone have any recommendations for any no-fee business checking accounts? I do a VERY low amount of transactions, and basically these accounts just serve as a place to deposit an occasional check or write one from. Chase is charging me $15/mo unless I put $1k on a linked Business credit card in a calendar month. I'm moving away from using Credit Cards completely, so looking to avoid this fee. Well, Bank of America has a pretty easy to use basic business account, all you need to do is use their debit card once a month to avoid the fee, and there's no minimum purchase amount.
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Dec 2, 2011 02:52
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Astro7x posted:I am looking to get a third card for a couple reasons. I recently had fraud on my Capital One card awhile back and in the week or so it took to get a new one I didn't have a card that could be accepted drat near everywhere, and I didn't like it. Then there are also some Chase offers that look really nice with a $300 sign up bonus and 5% cash back in certain categories. But people have been saying that opening a new card will effect my credit history! Really? Wouldn't that just take my average amount of years holding a credit card from 6 1/2 years to 4 1/2 years, which is really not that bad considering I'm 27 years old? That's pretty much all I know, there is something on your credit report that averages the amount of years you've had all your cards. The fact that the Fair Isaac system for calculating your FICO is completely proprietary means that, with certain exceptions for general trends (up or down by a small amount), most people have no clue other than what they've heard it will do to your score. In this case, you're correct that it will 1) give you a new hard inquiry (bad) 2) lower your average length of account average (bad) however it will also give you more credit overall, which means that your utilization will be lower (good). All in all, the net effect of all these factors will almost certainly be less than 5 points in any direction, which has almost no impact in your life. TLDR: Do whatever you want, people don't know poo poo.
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Dec 2, 2011 05:39
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Astro7x posted:So what's the big deal with opening a new credit card hurting your credit history? If you need a card, get one. Your credit will take care of itself, you don't have to baby it. I still don't know why you think you need that third card though.
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Dec 2, 2011 06:47
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Astro7x posted:So what's the big deal with opening a new credit card hurting your credit history? An inquiry will lower your score by about 2 or 3 points. A new account might lower you 20 points right away but after a year the effect is negligible. If opening this account will dramatically affect your utilization, like you were using 60% of your lines and the new account means you will only use 30%, your score will go up. If you had minimal credit card debt, or the new account has such a small line that utilization doesn’t go down much, then that won’t matter. I don’t know if your score will go up or down, but either way it won’t be a big deal. That said, think of the sign up bonus and promised rewards as “bait” and Chase as “a trap”. And if not having a credit card for a week throws you off that much, then you might have deeper problems than the average age of your credit going down.
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Dec 2, 2011 15:05
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How do they calculate utilization? If I make all my purchases with my CC but pay it off immediately before statement time, does it show up as high utilization?
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Dec 2, 2011 15:15
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totalnewbie posted:How do they calculate utilization? If I make all my purchases with my CC but pay it off immediately before statement time, does it show up as high utilization? Credit cards report once a month, the day they cycle and mail a new statement to you. It does not matter if you intend to make the minimum payment or pay it off in full. If you have several credit cards, it is likely the utilization will jump around through the month since they will likely report on different days. And you are right that you can make a payment before it cycles to game the system.
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Dec 2, 2011 15:24
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Zeta Taskforce posted:An inquiry will lower your score by about 2 or 3 points. A new account might lower you 20 points right away but after a year the effect is negligible. If opening this account will dramatically affect your utilization, like you were using 60% of your lines and the new account means you will only use 30%, your score will go up. If you had minimal credit card debt, or the new account has such a small line that utilization doesn’t go down much, then that won’t matter. I don’t know if your score will go up or down, but either way it won’t be a big deal. Thanks for the info! That makes sense to me. And I don't carry a balance, I just pay for everything with a credit card because it's easier than paying with cash and I get SOMETHING back with rewards. Hate paying the cash tax. There are other reasons too, but I won't get into it... but I'm not spending above my means. I want to get a Chase card because I recently switched my Checking/Savings over to Chase and love it, and would like to switch over to keeping everything with one company if possible because it makes it a lot easier for me. Plus, the 5% back on groceries and restaurants would be a nice bonus too as well as the $300 Sign Up Bonus. But yeah... the week thing was bad timing pretty much. Had to buy $700 worth of contacts/glasses that week, on a card with a $2000 limit, and then I ran into places that wouldn't take Amex. Overall I was just thinking I wish I had another Visa in case that happened again.
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Dec 2, 2011 18:04
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Astro7x posted:Hate paying the cash tax. Astro7x posted:but I'm not spending above my means. Those statements are usually contradictory.
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Dec 2, 2011 18:09
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What is the "cash tax"? 
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Dec 2, 2011 20:20
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totalnewbie posted:What is the "cash tax"? I always thought it as a credit card tax due to the studies that show that people spend 12-16% more with Credit rather than Cash...
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Dec 2, 2011 20:36
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totalnewbie posted:What is the "cash tax"? I think he means that cash gives no rewards.
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Dec 2, 2011 20:46
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I have a question about FICO scores. I am on two joint cards with my mother from when I was still in high school. The first of these was opened in 2003 and is the oldest account on my credit report. I, however, no longer use or even hold a copy of this credit card. The second card is with the same company, and opened a year and two months later, and is the second oldest account on my credit report. Like the first card, I do not have a copy of the card nor have I used it in years and years. Any charges I put on those cards, I paid off. As you can see, both cards are 7+ years old. Both cards are currently carrying balances at or near the maximum, but are being paid off on time with payments about 60-70% larger than the minimum required monthly payment. I would like to untangle myself from my mother's finances, since I don't even live in the same state as she does, but will that hurt my credit score, or affect hers? She's doing fine with the cards right now, but she hasn't always been responsible with funds, and I don't like having such a high balance posting on my credit report. This is one bad incident from causing me a lot of trouble, I suspect.
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Dec 2, 2011 21:14
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RedTonic posted:I have a question about FICO scores. I would say the same thing even if they were paid off in full every month and had tiny balances, but even more so in your case. Paying 60% or 70% more than the minimum on a maxed out card is not a sign of strength or responsibility. What that means is they will be paid off in 14 years instead of 26 years, and that is if your mom never buys another thing on credit ever again. Your mom may be a lovely and talented individual, but handling money is not one of those talents, and if you are not worrying about that in the back of your mind all the time, you will better enjoy the things she does well.
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Dec 2, 2011 21:40
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FCKGW posted:Those statements are usually contradictory. Is there something strange about making all purchases with your credit card, and paying off a single bill at the end of every month? Beats going to the ATM every few days. totalnewbie posted:What is the "cash tax"? Basically credit card rewards. Things are marked up these days to take into consideration the transaction fees that go along with credit cards. So if you pay with cash, you're not getting back the 1% to 5% you'd get if you paid with a credit card. TraderStav posted:I always thought it as a credit card tax due to the studies that show that people spend 12-16% more with Credit rather than Cash... Really? I find the exact opposite. Mint.com logs all my credit card expenses, and shows me exactly which categories my money is going to. I can quickly see how much I am spending in any month on groceries, restaurants, or entertainment and keep an eye on my spending to make sure I'm not overspending. With cash, I either have to manually keep track of those expenses on my own. It's easy to forget I dropped $60 on a dinner during the month if I paid in cash and didn't write it down. Not even considering that my wife would never do that if I asked her to... so using the credit card for all major purchases tracks her spending to without having to nag her for receipts. I think you people are doubting my thriftiness and use of credit cards. For example... if I'm making a purchase at Best Buy, I'll wait until I get one of those 10% off coupons in the mail. Then I'll order it online and get an extra 5% back on my card by using the online shopping portal, then order an in store pick up to save on the shipping costs. Credit Cards do no always equal over spending.
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Dec 2, 2011 22:48
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Astro7x posted:Credit Cards do no always equal over spending. Not in every situation, but I bet you do spend more money in general than you would if you used cash all of the time - almost everyone does. There's a psychological barrier for most people when it comes to handing over large quantities of cash to someone (unless you're really rich). $300 feels a lot more like $300 when you have to physically count it out in bills. Plus, when you keep having to go to the ATM whenever you want to buy a six-pack, it also makes you appreciate the spending a lot more. In your example, you dropped $60 in cash on dinner one night in the month, and you probably only went to the ATM once or twice. If you had to go every other day it would be more difficult. It's not necessarily a bad thing to feel free to spend a little more with cards, especially if people are mindful of their spending like you are, but it's a pretty universal thing. Just because you are aware of your overall spending levels doesn't mean that in individual transactions you aren't spending more than you would with all-cash. This is why one of the first things people advise for chronic overspenders is going to a cash-only budget.
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Dec 2, 2011 23:56
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If I have cash in my wallet, it disappears in a hurry and I have no record of what I spent it on. I don't like taking out more than $40-60 in cash from an ATM at a time, unless for a very specific purpose, because it's so unaccountable. Using my credit card, I get a near-enough-real-time tally of how much I spent on what and where that I can track at any given moment. Plus, since I put 95%+ of all my expenditures on my credit card, I know pretty well what my expected monthly expenditure should be and if I start hitting that number before the billing cycle ends and/or start getting bigger bills than expected it's a sign to examine my spending history and habits and find out why.
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Dec 3, 2011 00:04
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Remove yourself from them. I assume you are an authorized user? It won’t affect hers, it might affect yours, either negatively since they are old accounts, or positively since they are maxed out. Do it anyway. Whatever ambiguous benefit you are getting from them now will be meaningless with all the negative if your mom is ever late, goes to collection, or goes bankrupt. And I define negative not only to your credit, but to your relationship with your mom. I definitely don't disagree, money isn't her talent. I just asked her about the cards--she said they're not joint, but I am an authorized user, and she to "repair" them so I... Really have no idea what she's talking about. Credit cards haven't ever been my thing (I never carry a balance, for one). Thanks for your advice; looks like I have a new project for the next few days. e: whew, it was a roof repair, and now I'm off the cards. POOL IS CLOSED fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Dec 4, 2011 |
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Dec 3, 2011 01:31
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Sophia posted:Not in every situation, but I bet you do spend more money in general than you would if you used cash all of the time. Nope. You have no idea how frugal I am... Keep in mind, I came into this thread asking about how my credit score would be effected if I got a card that let me save 3% more on groceries. Guinness posted:If I have cash in my wallet, it disappears in a hurry and I have no record of what I spent it on. I don't like taking out more than $40-60 in cash from an ATM at a time, unless for a very specific purpose, because it's so unaccountable. Pretty much this is exactly how a credit card along with Mint keeps me on a budget.
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Dec 3, 2011 01:37
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Astro7x posted:Nope. You have no idea how frugal I am... Keep in mind, I came into this thread asking about how my credit score would be effected if I got a card that let me save 3% more on groceries. http://blogs.southtownstar.com/money/xap143213.pdf http://server1.tepper.cmu.edu/Seminars/docs/CreditCardStudy%2009.10.01.pdf As with all things, it's not a rule, but research has shown most people follow this behavior.
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Dec 3, 2011 03:54
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The Experiment posted:Well, the payments that I made to wipe out the CC debt went through. I now only have a $17 balance.
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Dec 3, 2011 05:34
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You'd better pay that off right now or compounding interest is going to take you to the cleaners 
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Dec 3, 2011 05:42
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Hey guys, I'm not really sure what I should be doing with money. Ideally my goal is to grow a nest egg big enough so that in the next 10 years I can use it to either buy an apartment outright or to pay the mortgage consistently with the interest without me having to use my job income. I'm not sure if this is a fevered pipe dream or something I can realistically do. I tried reading Trading your way to financial freedom that was recommended in the stock picking megathread but I honestly don't feel comfortable with investing myself at the moment. So I was hoping I could get some advice out of you guys, even if it's just to go talk to a proper financial planner. Currently my situation is: I earn a little more than 2800 a month after tax and super. I don't have a budget, I just try to put money aside. 45.15 in a Simply Access account with 0.05% interest 772.55 in a Online Saver with 4.7% interest I owe 1845 on a GE Credit Line with 0% interest until the 11th of July 2015 (Furniture) 945 on another GE credit line with 0% interest until 5th of December 2012 (iPad and stuff that went with it) This jumps up 29.99% when the interest free period ends. And an enormous amount of HECS from the Australian government. I have no idea how much I owe them but I do know they just take the money out of my paycheck when I earn over a certain amount. It's interest rate is pegged to the inflation rate. As far as I understand I don't actually ever have to pay HECS back. But I get discounts for paying it off in bulk amounts.
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Dec 4, 2011 00:49
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If the average mortgage is $1,000/month and you're getting an interest rate of 4.7% on your nest egg then you would need to have a $255,319 nest egg to get a $1,000/month. nest egg * interest rate = mortgage * 12, seems to be the formula you would use... looks pretty tough because if you saved every single dollar you earned for 10 years you'd have $336,000. You would need to spend $673/month for the next 10 years to hit $255,319. That assumes 4.7% over 10 years and a $1,000 mortgage. It also assumes no increase or decrease in income. Should give you some idea though.
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Dec 4, 2011 05:02
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What would other ways of investing for idiots be? I looked at the RBA bond rates but I can't make head or tail of it. My bank has Term Deposits that go up to about 5.8% if I leave it for 60 months. Or should I start looking towards something like a mutual fund or the stock market for better returns?
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Dec 4, 2011 06:54
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Lord Windy posted:Hey guys, I'm not really sure what I should be doing with money. About HECS, correct, you don't ever have to pay that off, however as your income goes up they will automatically deduct your HECS payments from your salary. I don't know the exact numbers but from memory you start paying ~4% of your income once you reach ~$50k, and you hit the maximum of 8% somewhere at ~$85k. In general, term deposits and online savers are pretty decent right now in Australia. You'll be getting a reasonable return without any real risk. The stock market is horribly volatile right now, however over 10 years things generally level out and you could expect a better return in the long run compared to term deposits. I wouldn't suggest managing your own stocks though, stick your money in some sort of indexed fund with low fees instead if you're going to go that route. Overall what you should do really comes down to how much money you need and how much you can put away each month. Approximately how much would this apartment it cost? How much money can you save per month now? What does your future income prospects look like and do you foresee any big lifestyle changes (marriage, kids) coming?
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Dec 5, 2011 02:21
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totalnewbie posted:You'd better pay that off right now or compounding interest is going to take you to the cleaners  That $17 was missed because apparently a credit card purchase registered after the fact. No big deal as I will take care of it with the next payment. Anyway, I also paid off about a $10,000 chunk of student loans. The reason why is that with that, my minimum payments are such, combined with rent, phone, utilities, etc., the total expenses for the month will be just $1,000. That gives me over $3,000 a month to pay off more loans, save, invest, etc. I also need to move to a new apartment. While this might not be the most appropriate thread, is there any tips regarding purchasing furniture? I hear the profit margins are outrageous but I don't want a semen caked couch either that I bought from some dude off Craigslist. Any advice? Thanks!
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Dec 5, 2011 03:21
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If you buy new, Ikea.
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Dec 5, 2011 03:41
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Yeah, ikea is basically a new house starter kit.
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Dec 5, 2011 05:26
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The Experiment posted:While this might not be the most appropriate thread, is there any tips regarding purchasing furniture? I hear the profit margins are outrageous but I don't want a semen caked couch either that I bought from some dude off Craigslist. Any advice? Thanks! moana fucked around with this message at 19:01 on Dec 5, 2011 |
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Dec 5, 2011 07:58
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moana posted:ikeahackers.com http://www.ikeahackers.net/ 
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Dec 5, 2011 08:20
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moana posted:I think getting stuff like bedframes and couches off of craiglist is the way to go I semi-disagree on this point. Stuff like bed frames, shelves and so on should be fine secondhand, but anything involving fabric (such as mattresses and couches) should be bought new where possible. Why? Bedbugs. gently caress bedbugs. Once they are in your home they are extremely difficult to remove, and the immediate savings you get by buying stuff secondhand is offset by having to pay to remove the fuckers from your house/apartment. Not trying to scaremonger (and there are several other ways for the beggars to enter your home), just that they can be really hard to detect until it's too late and secondhand furniture is one of the primary ways they can get in.
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Dec 5, 2011 10:58
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moana posted:Ikea is good for new stuff (mattress!) but I think getting stuff like bedframes and couches off of craiglist is the way to go, just because there is so much quality stuff available (depending on your area) for rock-bottom prices. If you live in an area with bedbugs, please, PLEASE don't do this. Edit: FB /\
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Dec 5, 2011 12:41
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