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Dragyn posted:Quick question: It’s going to be pretty tough to do that. I understand how 8% is high, it feels like usury in this world of 3.5% mortgages and 0.5% savings accounts. But student loans are not 100% unsecured. They are not dischargeable through bankruptcy and if you don’t pay, the lender who made the loan will be compensated by the government, therefore they are lower rate than a comparable personal loan. Your credit union is unable to rewrite these loans and keep these attributes, meaning it will be a true unsecured loan. For that type of product, 8% is actually on the low side, especially for that amount and for how long it will likely take you to repay, even if you do if much faster than 20 years. My same boring advice is to get on a written budget if you are not already, no extras, no eating out, bring your own lunch to work, and pay these as quick as you can. If you go crazy on them, then the higher interest rate isn’t going to be a big percentage of the total payments. If you go on the 20 year repayment plan, it will. The bright side is that in these uncertain times, you have a place to put money that has a guaranteed rate of return of 8%.
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Mar 26, 2012 19:19
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Richard M Nixon posted:I could have sworn that there was a student loan thread somewhere around here... There is one but I think it is actually in Ask/Tell proper (?). The answer to your question is twofold: 1) As long as you are working towards a degree, you can defer payments on both types of loans (i.e. they will not bill you a monthly payment) 2) Interest will continue to accrue on the unsubsidized loans. I would recommend making payments of the amount of the interest to avoid having this rolled into your principal (and thus having the amount of the interest increase with the balance owed). Interest will not accrue, though, on the subsidized loans. As a note: it is very important that you notify your loan programs of your enrollment in a new academic program as soon as practicable. The 6 months you refer to is the grace period, and it starts ticking as soon as you leave your academic program. It will stop ticking, though, once you start another academic program. Not reset, just pause. They may not allow you to defer until the program actually starts, so you may "use up" 3 months or whatever to cover the summer between programs. Then repayment would begin 3 months after you finish your next program.
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Mar 26, 2012 21:29
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I need some advice on what to do with a large sum of money in my savings account that's only getting bigger but isn't doing squat to retain its value. I graduated last June and immediately started working full-time in IT for a manufacturing company. I'm making enough money that I can put away $700/mo into savings (a bit less than 1/4 of my monthly net income) and still live comfortably on my own. My savings account is, for all intent and purposes, a black hole - the money that goes into it stays in it until I need it for an emergency. While I love seeing the account balance go up each month, I hate thinking that it's losing value thanks to inflation and the account's abysmally low interest rate (something like 0.01%). In less than three months my account balance will have tipped over the $10,000 mark. What should I be doing with all this money? On the one side, my dad's been advocating buying precious metals (gold and silver); on the other side...well, there really isn't an other side since I have almost zero faith in the stock market. I suppose CD's are an option, but I don't like the idea of my money being locked away inaccessible for long periods of time. This is the first time in my life that money hasn't really been an issue, so I have no idea how to handle these large sums.
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Mar 26, 2012 23:02
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I'm half assing the math a little bit, but it looks like you are about to be a little under 6 months worth of expenses. I wouldn't worry about it.
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Mar 26, 2012 23:33
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Karthe posted:I need some advice on what to do with a large sum of money in my savings account that's only getting bigger but isn't doing squat to retain its value. If it's for an emergency fund, I recommend putting it in a high-interest savings account like ING or Ally. I use ING and love it, you can make multiple "accounts" to keep things separate if you have different savings goals. You only get about .8% right now, but it's highly liquid and completely safe. If this money is your emergency fund, I wouldn't worry about making money on it. It's purpose is to be there in case of emergency, not to make gobs of interest. If you have 6 months worth of expenses, consider a Roth IRA or 401k (if you have access to one). After that, if you still have money that you want to save, you'll need to figure out the time horizon to see if stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, etc. are worth the risk. Some people will say that you should put it into an index fund or lazy portfolio, which you can if you'd like, but as I said I don't mind my emergency fund not making lots of money. ING seems to increase their interest rates when they can (or lower them, as the last few years have shown), so I'm OK keeping my money there.
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Mar 26, 2012 23:34
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Karthe posted:I need some advice on what to do with a large sum of money in my savings account that's only getting bigger but isn't doing squat to retain its value. In Mitt Romney's world, $10,000 is a throwaway amount for a cheap bet. But I digress.  I don't think you will find too many gold bugs in BFC. It is an asset that pretty much did nothing between 1980 and 2005, and then it made a spectacular move upward. But it earns even less interest than your bank account, it is cumbersome to buy, store, and sell. You can't eat it, you can't burn it, you can't live in it. If the world ends, you will still be screwed like the rest of us. I don't doubt that the economy can collapse. I just don't think it will save you. We do have examples of advanced economies collapsing on a local scale. In New Orleans after Katrina and in Fukushima, Japan, no one was walking around with silver coins or buying cars with bars of gold. No one will here either unless you are another presidential candidate. I would encourage you to have another look at stocks. You are not playing the stock market. You are buying into the economy. There will always be great companies that will figure out how to make boatloads of money and it really is the only game in town for anything long term. You have enough that you can decide what is important to you. Do you want to travel, take up a hobby that might not be the cheapest thing? Will you enjoy riding a motorcycle, hire a personal trainer so you look nice and sexy? There is nothing wrong with having nice stuff if you can afford it. And at the risk of boring everyone to death every time I mention this, but once you are past survival, I think giving should be a part of everyone's budget. Living a good life is more a 401K match, its more than nice toys, and I think we become more rounded people when we take the time to think about those less fortunate in our communities and in our world community.
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Mar 27, 2012 03:02
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I've always looked at index funds like this: If the stock market does so badly that I lose a significant portion of my investment and can't make it back in 30 years when I retire then okay, so be it. I'll be needing bullets more than money at that point, anyway. In other words, you'll have a lot more to worry about than you retirement savings if the stock market crashes that hard.
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Mar 27, 2012 05:17
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I invest in Dow companies every year. The way I look at it is that if suddenly McDonalds, Microsoft, General Electric, AT&T, Exxon, Kraft, etc all went simultaneously bankrupt and I lost my investments, there would be a hell of a lot more to worry about in the country than a retirement plan. In my completely unfounded opinion, I think people fear the stock market because they see it as this sort of roulette wheel where if you unknowingly make one mistake you lose your entire savings and suddenly can't retire and your kids can't go to college (and commission-charging full-service brokerages are more than happy keeping people thinking that way). It's really not, you have all the tools at your disposal and can learn to manage your own retirement portfolio in just a few hours. PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Mar 27, 2012 |
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Mar 27, 2012 10:05
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I have one credit card currently with an absurdly low credit limit and I'm looking to open another. Right now I have a small income, but I have a job starting in August after I take the bar that has a high income. When can I claim the income from that job as my income when it comes to filling out credit card applications? I've gotten varying responses to this question. Chase told me that I could claim that amount once I started working. Other students in my law school class told me that they've already gotten cards with high limits by filling out their applications with their future income, and that's what a Capital One rep recommended I do. What say you thread?
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Mar 27, 2012 17:14
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Feces Starship posted:I have one credit card currently with an absurdly low credit limit and I'm looking to open another. Right now I have a small income, but I have a job starting in August after I take the bar that has a high income. When can I claim the income from that job as my income when it comes to filling out credit card applications? I've gotten varying responses to this question. Chase told me that I could claim that amount once I started working. Other students in my law school class told me that they've already gotten cards with high limits by filling out their applications with their future income, and that's what a Capital One rep recommended I do. What say you thread? I would say use the higher income if you want, especially if you have something concrete like an offer letter (i.e. we're not talking about "when I graduate and get a job at big law firm, like I'm sure I will"). In practice, if it is within reason, that amount never gets checked.
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Mar 27, 2012 17:32
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Zeta Buttforce posted:I don't think you will find too many gold bugs in BFC. It is an asset that pretty much did nothing between 1980 and 2005, and then it made a spectacular move upward. But it earns even less interest than your bank account, it is cumbersome to buy, store, and sell. You can't eat it, you can't burn it, you can't live in it. If the world ends, you will still be screwed like the rest of us. I don't doubt that the economy can collapse. I just don't think it will save you. We do have examples of advanced economies collapsing on a local scale. In New Orleans after Katrina and in Fukushima, Japan, no one was walking around with silver coins or buying cars with bars of gold. No one will here either unless you are another presidential candidate. Warren Buffet recently wrote a pretty good letter about this: You can fondle the cube, but it will not respond.
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Mar 27, 2012 18:19
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Quick Mint question if anyone can help me out. Last June I transferred $10,000 from my Wells Fargo Checking to my Discover Savings. This was on the 29th, and it posted on July 1st. Mint is reporting my net worth over time in a really screwy way, because on the 30th my money was "gone", and so my net worth was down $10k for June 2011. Is there a way to adjust this on mint?
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Mar 27, 2012 19:07
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Quick Mint question if anyone can help me out. Last June I transferred $10,000 from my Wells Fargo Checking to my Discover Savings. This was on the 29th, and it posted on July 1st. Mint is reporting my net worth over time in a really screwy way, because on the 30th my money was "gone", and so my net worth was down $10k for June 2011. Is there a way to adjust this on mint? You can go into your transaction log and manually change the date of one of the transactions. So, for instance, you can tell Mint to treat the withdrawal as having happened on July 1st instead, so that you won't have anything wonky going on for that month. This is also a good tool when you end up paying a bill early for some reason and it throws off your budget/accounting.
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Mar 27, 2012 19:22
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Ashcans posted:You can go into your transaction log and manually change the date of one of the transactions. So, for instance, you can tell Mint to treat the withdrawal as having happened on July 1st instead, so that you won't have anything wonky going on for that month. I changed it to June 29 to match the June 29 date of the outbound transfer in my checking, but for some reason the account is still reading $0 for June 2011, with a transaction of +$10,000 for June 29. Gah! Why!
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Mar 27, 2012 20:23
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My only debt is my mortgage. 1 year into my first house and no regrets or major repairs yet *knocks on wood*. I've paid extra principle the last 10 of 12 payments. So my 360 month loan is now has about 250 months left. This is a real aggressive for me because I'm losing money in my savings, but in the long term it will benefit me since I'm paying less on interest. I have enough money in savings to pay additional $2000 principle a month for another year (like I did the first year in house). So in another year I can have my loan down to less than 140 months. After this I will still have a decent amount in savings for emergencies for me or house/car repairs. I'm hesitant to do one massive 24k principle reduction due to new contract this year, because in about 6 months there could be a possible strike. I'll just keep doing the $2000 additional until that's resolved. I bring home about 35k a year after taxes. At my current payment rate, I pay 36k a year on the loan. So I'm practically living off my savings as far as utilities, gas, car insurance, and food. So I'm bleeding money, but not hemorrhaging. Anybody think I should go about this a different way? Loan left: 111k Loan payment: 949 (242 escrow, 470 interest, 237 principle) Savings: 45k Take home per year: 35k
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Mar 28, 2012 06:23
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I'd dump $25k onto the principal as soon as you figure out that you're not striking. But yeah, paying $2k monthly seems to be a good idea for the time being.
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Mar 28, 2012 07:28
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ijii posted:Anybody think I should go about this a different way? I'm all for paying off mortgages early if possible, but I think living off your savings to do it is going a little far. Interest is treated here as an evil thing, but it's really just a financial tool to leverage your future money for something now. Credit card interest and sometimes student loan interest is actually bad because it's so high that you couldn't possibly earn the same level of return by investing (and because in the former, it usually means you don't have any money to invest anyway), but if you bought a year ago your interest rate is likely pretty low. The money you have now might do you more good in investing than it can paying down your mortgage, and with the job uncertainty you're facing it might be good to be holding on to more of it. It sounds like you're easily disciplined enough to live on a tight budget without problem, so if I were you I would still overpay my mortgage payment but slightly less aggressively, to the point where I could live day-to-day on money I was earning now. Basically, try to keep my savings at a steady state while still being aggressive on mortgage repayment. Just my opinion, though. You're right that you would pay more in interest in the long-term this way.
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Mar 28, 2012 13:48
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Are you expecting lower returns on your savings than the APR on your interest? Generally speaking, stretching out a mortgage is one of the times where having the loan for awhile isn't that bad for you. The interest counts towards your taxes, and with interest rates so low, generally speaking you can make greater returns per annum.
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Mar 28, 2012 13:52
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Yeah, what is the interest rate on that mortgage? Think carefully about what else you can do with the money before you use it to eliminate low interest tax-advantaged debt. For example, you should be thinking about a Roth IRA. The IRA contribution limit is $5k per year, and you can contribute for 2011 AND 2012 if you get on this before tax day. Uh, assuming you're in the US. I'm not sure what the options are elsewhere.
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Mar 28, 2012 14:59
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I'm selling my car for just over $15k and have been thinking about sticking the money in a savings account. I'm looking at a local credit union (in MA) and the APY for their most basic, $0 minimum savings is 0.2%. I'd be making ~$30 a year. I thought getting interest rates of ~1-2% for local credit unions was feasible, but apparently not?
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Mar 31, 2012 17:09
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Interest rates are the lowest they've been in a long time right now, especially on guaranteed/insured accounts like savings and CDs. You can still get a little less than 1% with online-only banks like ING and Ally. If you already have a savings buffer and 6-12 month emergency fund, there are a lot better ways to invest that 15k long term than a savings accounts.
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Mar 31, 2012 17:14
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I am a first year masters student. I had a fellowship my first year but will likely not be offered one my second year. I need 18 credit hours to finish my degree (2x3hour classes and 12 hours thesis research). I just got a job offer and will be working fulltime while I try and finish my degree. Tuition is about $500/hr so $9,000 approximately plus books and fees, probably $10,000-$11,000 to finish my degree. I have applied for aid but doubt I will receive any because I have about $6,000 in savings and $20,000 investments. I have a 10-year old car that will eventually need to be replaced, so I would like to keep some savings for emergencies. But I could certainly spend some to pay for my classes. Hopefully I can increase my savings while working. I would prefer not to use any of my investments. Should I use $5,000 in savings to pay for my classes and then get a loan for the rest ($5,000-$6,000). Or should I just get a loan for the whole amount? Or some sort of mixture? Just do pay-as-I-go? But I think that would stretch things out beyond 2 semesters. If i need a loan, what are some reputable lenders? Thanks.
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Apr 3, 2012 20:31
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The school I went to I could make 4 payments across the semester after paying a $25 fee. Might want to look into that to smooth out the payments while you're working.
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Apr 3, 2012 22:49
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Are there any books for someone who never had any money, and now does? I've basically spent my entire life as a poor person, and at 26 I'm just now starting to earn real money through my writing. And I see the income rising every month and it kind of scares me - I've always lived on so very little, so I'm afraid that I'll end up being irrational with all of this newfound "wealth". I have debt to pay down and I know how to take care of that. I'd like to save for a house and I know how to do that. But... how do I adjust psychologically to having discretionary income?
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Apr 4, 2012 09:48
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Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover. Until you become truly "wealthy" it is the only personal finance book you'll need.
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Apr 4, 2012 13:50
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Yeah, Dave Ramsey speaks a lot of good common sense of the sort that isn't actually common. Don't pay any attention to his investment "advice" though. PUT YOU MONEYS IN A MUTUAL FUNDS THEY RETURN 15%. If you are starting some retirement savings (and you should be) go look at this other thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2892928 I like the Four Pillars book pretty well.
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Apr 4, 2012 14:20
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slap me silly posted:Yeah, Dave Ramsey speaks a lot of good common sense of the sort that isn't actually common. Don't pay any attention to his investment "advice" though. PUT YOU MONEYS IN A MUTUAL FUNDS THEY RETURN 15%. If you are starting some retirement savings (and you should be) go look at this other thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2892928 I like the Four Pillars book pretty well. Yeah, I agree 100% with that. Also avoid his tax advice. And tune out his politics too. But all that said, I’m a fan, and I agree 100% about getting out of debt, having an emergency fund, and his views on the importance of giving. But don’t do something because he told you to, or BFC told you to. Use all the resources out there to educate yourself and then make your own decisions based on your own value system.
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Apr 4, 2012 14:46
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The more I think about posting this quesiton the stupider it seems, but here it goes anyway. Right now I've got two credit cards I'm paying off. Citi: 5819.70 @ 20.99% Chase: 8813.18 @ 12.99% (3200 of this is at 1.99% until February 2013) I'm paying $768/month on the Chase, and the minimum on the Citi. If it were a normal situation I'd pay off the Citi first, but the Chase is from before I was 18 and is therefore also my mom's card (she doesn't use it) and visible in her Chase account, so the balance has to either disappear, or I continue the current payment plan. So with my current paydown plan, it's all gone in 19 months (probably less, because that ignores the 1.99% rate on half the balance). I got an offer in the mail from Discover (I have a Discover card that I use for day to day stuff and pay off each month) offering personal loans starting at 8.99%. Assuming an 8.99% APR (which I probably won't get) I could pay it down in 18 months with the ~900 monthly payment I'm making right now. I know that in August of last year my credit score was 650 (I got turned down for an AMEX and they gave me my real score in return) but I think it's gotten much better since then (the limit on my Discover card got raised from $500 to $2500 without my asking, for example) so I'm sure I could get closer to the 8.99% minimum than the 18.99% maximum. My bank (Wells Fargo) has a similair offer, and I'd like to rate shop, but I'm not sure how the first credit pull would hurt my credit for the second pull. But then again if I assume that I can even get 9.99%, the payout takes 19 months, so I'm really better off doing what I'm doing now. Really, the more I think about it, the more I realize I should stop worrying about it and keep doing what I'm doing, and throw any extra cash (FSA payout, tax return) at the debt to make it quicker, and stop trying to juggle it around. If anyone can see something I've blatantly missed let me know, otherwise I think making this long post has talked me out of what is at best a neutral deal.
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Apr 4, 2012 15:22
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Qaz Kwaz posted:Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover. Until you become truly "wealthy" it is the only personal finance book you'll need. I endorse Dave Ramsey, but prefer Financial Peace. 6 one way and 1/2 dozen the other, though as its pretty much the exact same message.
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Apr 4, 2012 15:26
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FISHMANPET posted:stop worrying about it and keep doing what I'm doing, and throw any extra cash (FSA payout, tax return) at the debt to make it quicker, and stop trying to juggle it around Good call if you ask me.
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Apr 4, 2012 15:28
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FISHMANPET posted:The more I think about posting this quesiton the stupider it seems, but here it goes anyway. Right now I've got two credit cards I'm paying off. I’ll tell you what you blatantly missed. You have been pursuing the same failed strategy for at least 2 years. Due to the magic of pressing the little question mark by your name and turning it into a little upside down question mark, I was able to nearly instantly view 2 years of posting history in this thread. It looks like for the last 2 years you have had roughly the same amount of credit card debt, for the last 2 years you have had a 18 month plan to pay it off, and that plan involves switching it from one card to another. Also over the last 2 years it has been a primary goal of yours to bring up your credit score. And during this time you bought things you didn’t need because you could get 0% financing on it. Another primary objective of yours appears to earn as many reward points as possible. You can do what you want. If you can get a personal loan for a lower rate, sure, why not. But why don’t you scroll up about 4 posts and read the Total Money Makeover and actually stop using your cards, have a written budget, have an emergency fund, and get serious about paying off your debt. Because if you don’t my prediction is you will be posting here 2 years from now asking if it’s bad for your credit to get a debt consolidation loan for $14,000. So yes, use your tax return and FSA payout and any extra cash to pay down debt.
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Apr 4, 2012 15:56
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I've been on this current "plan" for about six months or so, ever since I got a fairly large raise. You're right that I was fooling myself back then that I could do it, but I've plowed the entirety of the raise into debt payoff, so I'm more hopeful of my prospects this time around. Though in my defense I never financed that laptop, because looking back that would have been stupid. My only concern with my credit score has been getting a particularly egregious debt to fall off, I only brought it up here as an indication of what kinds of rates I might be able to get.
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Apr 4, 2012 16:12
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FISHMANPET posted:I've been on this current "plan" for about six months or so, ever since I got a fairly large raise. You're right that I was fooling myself back then that I could do it, but I've plowed the entirety of the raise into debt payoff, so I'm more hopeful of my prospects this time around. OK. Didn’t mean to come off as mean. I just wasn’t sure how harsh I had to be to get the point across. Your credit score will come up as you pay down your balances, as your accounts get older, and as negative activity recedes from the recent past to not so recent to distant. The other thing is if you are serious about it, stop using your cards. Just don’t use them. I don’t think people need to cut them up and close them in a moment of passion, at least until they have a fully funded emergency fund. It sounds weird to say it, but there is a big difference between paying $800 and putting $400 back on, and forcing yourself to live off your paycheck, and being only able to make a payment of $400. It is a totally different world view and it forces you to change your habits.
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Apr 4, 2012 16:21
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The biggest change I've been making lately is cutting down on how much I spend going out to eat. The amount of money I wasted because I couldn't be bothered to get meat and cheese to make sandwiches for lunches, and because I couldn't be bothered to plan a meal for dinner (and then be unable to take those non-existant leftovers for lunch the next day, etc) is mind blowing. And if that doesn't work, then it's envelope time.
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Apr 4, 2012 16:34
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You can still be lazy and keep your spending down. Look for deals for food. For example, Subway's 5 dollar foot longs are a great way to keep food spending down when you're feeling lazy, especially if you can save half for dinner. Buy fruit (that's in season) for snacks instead of chips or whatever. Not only is it cheaper and healthier, it's also much easier to limit yourself. Do small things too, like start drinking water instead of soda. If you have a Coke every day, you're spending 40-50 dollars a month just on that one bottle of soda. Things add up very quickly. Look at everything you do and think, "How much is this costing me and do I really need to pay for it?"
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Apr 4, 2012 17:35
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Mint couldn't find my online Discover savings, so I logged in to see what was up. My account type was changed to Premium Savings and the APY went up .05%. Yay! But also why?
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Apr 4, 2012 17:46
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Mint couldn't find my online Discover savings, so I logged in to see what was up. My account type was changed to Premium Savings and the APY went up .05%. Yay! But also why? Probably because the nominal throwaway change that has no real impact on anything other than your perception of the account encourages you to continue banking with them. But that's a really cynical answer.
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Apr 4, 2012 17:52
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Talks To Cats posted:Are there any books for someone who never had any money, and now does? I've basically spent my entire life as a poor person, and at 26 I'm just now starting to earn real money through my writing. And I see the income rising every month and it kind of scares me - I've always lived on so very little, so I'm afraid that I'll end up being irrational with all of this newfound "wealth".
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Apr 4, 2012 19:49
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Ulf posted:In my opinion wealth isn't about how much you make, it's about how much you save. At the very least it lets you sleep better at night. You might be interested in the book The Millionaire Next Door. I'm working my way through the Dave Ramsey title now. So far it's pretty bad, but I'm sure at some point he stops trying to convince you to read the book and just starts laying out advice.
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Apr 5, 2012 02:20
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Talks To Cats posted:I'm working my way through the Dave Ramsey title now. So far it's pretty bad, but I'm sure at some point he stops trying to convince you to read the book and just starts laying out advice. I just finished Total Money Makeover, and that really annoyed me as well. There is a testimonial on every other page it seems. There was definitely some good stuff in there, but the book could have been 40 pages.
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Apr 5, 2012 17:14
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