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I just want to add that almost any LOC account can shut you down for any reason, hence why it's important to have an independent emergency fund.
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Apr 10, 2012 16:00
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dnbrwn posted:b) I can't NOT buy a ring and propose My question to this is: why not? If it's just the symbol of a promise that she wants to wear, you can easily afford a cheap ring and almost anyone would call that a fine one-time expense even if you're paying down debt. If it's that the woman really will not marry you without you buying something you can't afford for her first, I'd question the decision to marry her in the first place. And that may sound flippant, but it's really not - financial reasons are one of the most, if not THE most, common reasons for divorce, and tying yourself to someone who doesn't understand fiscal responsibility is not a good sign. I'm not a "ring" girl, particularly, but I can understand the desire for women to have them. If the guy can afford a nice one, I can understand wanting a nice one. But they should never be important enough to anyone that they endanger your future husband's financial position. That is insane. Edit: Have you actually talked to her about what she expects? If not, it's fully possible that she doesn't even want a $3-5K ring.
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Apr 10, 2012 16:07
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quote:gently caress society's conceptions about what you should pay for a useless rock. Get a nice high end cubic zirconia ring set in gold or platinum for $200-500. There are lots of moral reasons you can use for not buying diamonds, it's not just the stupid economics. mintskoal posted:Save up and pay cash. Seriously. Don't be in any hurry because if you can't afford a ring right now, just wait until the wedding planning starts. As for the cubic zurconia idea, look, I know you're going to go crazy here, but unfortunately this is the way my world works. A diamond ring is a requirement here. I hate it too, bud! I won't be getting blood diamonds if that's what you mean by "moral reasons". Mintskoal: thanks for the tips. I definitely do not plan on spending more than $5,000, so something like home equity is out of the equation. I was planning on doing it in the summer so I should be able to get a few grand built up by then.
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Apr 10, 2012 16:09
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Saving up and paying cash instead of paying down your $13K debt is just a more roundabout way of going into debt for a ring, unless you plan to still pay it down as if you weren't saving for it and give up other things like alcohol and the gym instead. Oxygen is a requirement. Food is a requirement. Shelter is a requirement. Real diamonds are not a requirement. Seriously. Don't financially tie yourself to someone who thinks that they are - it portends bad things ahead.
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Apr 10, 2012 16:13
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Sophia posted:My question to this is: why not? If it's just the symbol of a promise that she wants to wear, you can easily afford a cheap ring and almost anyone would call that a fine one-time expense even if you're paying down debt. The tough part is just getting that conversation going - "I want to marry you but I don't have enough money" is honest, but it ruins the element of surprise. Also, my girlfriend does enjoy jewelry, so going non-diamond isn't really an option (this is my personal opinion). For those that have bought rings, are there options to buy a smaller ring (say $1,000) and then a year from now buy a "new" one when you have enough money?
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Apr 10, 2012 16:14
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Sophia posted:Saving up and paying cash instead of paying down your $13K debt is just a more roundabout way of going into debt for a ring, unless you plan to still pay it down as if you weren't saving for it and give up other things like alcohol and the gym instead. Also, I disagree that there are bad things ahead if someone enjoys certain luxuries. Why, oh why, did I bring up engagement rings in a personal finance forum? Haha.
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Apr 10, 2012 16:18
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Now you're thinking. I guess I understand about the element of surprise but there's another side to it later on: "Surprise, honey, I spent all my money on a ring so now we can't buy a house!" You aren't going to have enough money (in my opinion) for a fancy ring until your debt is paid off and the money is saved up, which is gonna be more like three years than one. You brought it up here so we could give you a realistic picture of how it will affect your finances :)
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Apr 10, 2012 16:21
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Well, then I take back what I said about your girlfriend then - the problem is more with you and your indoctrinated view of what proposing is supposed to look like. You can still surprise her with the marriage conversation. Cook her a nice dinner, do something with her that she loves to do, and at the end of a romantic night have the talk about how much you love her and want to marry her and how you can make that happen together if she wants to. That's the important part, not the shiny diamond in your hand. It's the sentiment and the moment and the words and the feelings that she'll remember, not the sparkle off of some piece of jewelry. It sounds to me like if you talked to her about what is going on, she wouldn't really care about the ring. She seems eminently reasonable to me from what you said. And heck, if she likes jewelry a lot, go to a thrift store or a pawn shop and find a really cool setting for cheap, then put cubic zirconium in it. You could even go together so you know you're getting something she'll love. It will be part of the experience as well. There is nothing wrong with engagement rings, but they're still just things in the end.
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Apr 10, 2012 16:22
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Sophia posted:Well, then I take back what I said about your girlfriend then - the problem is more with you and your indoctrinated view of what proposing is supposed to look like. You can still surprise her with the marriage conversation. Cook her a nice dinner, do something with her that she loves to do, and at the end of a romantic night have the talk about how much you love her and want to marry her and how you can make that happen together if she wants to. That's the important part, not the shiny diamond in your hand. It's the sentiment and the moment and the words and the feelings that she'll remember, not the sparkle off of some piece of jewelry. This is all true. My girlfriend has said several times that the diamond size didn't matter. It really doesn't. Pick something you can afford. I went into it thinking that this is one of the best gifts I'll give her and wanted it to be special but I'm not going to bring debt into our relationship to do it.
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Apr 10, 2012 16:26
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dnbrwn posted:Why, oh why, did I bring up engagement rings in a personal finance forum? Haha. Why not? There is no distinction between your financial life and your real life. What you spend money on, your priorities, and the decisions you make in general are all the same thing. I agree that you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars if you love each other. I’m not saying to find a ring from a Cracker Jack box, and don’t give her a cubic zirconium and pass it off as a diamond, but find something pretty with some meaning, and when you are both financially stable you can go on a kick rear end vacation.
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Apr 10, 2012 16:27
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Sophia posted:Well, then I take back what I said about your girlfriend then - the problem is more with you and your indoctrinated view of what proposing is supposed to look like. You can still surprise her with the marriage conversation. Cook her a nice dinner, do something with her that she loves to do, and at the end of a romantic night have the talk about how much you love her and want to marry her and how you can make that happen together if she wants to. That's the important part, not the shiny diamond in your hand. It's the sentiment and the moment and the words and the feelings that she'll remember, not the sparkle off of some piece of jewelry.
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Apr 10, 2012 16:28
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Yay! There's nothing wrong with looking into options beforehand at all. It will give you a better sense of where everything stands. And, though this isn't exactly financial advice, I'll say as a woman that, unless they are Kardashian-like, women generally care a lot more about the effort you spend than the money you spend when it comes to being romantic. Keep that in mind and you'll be just fine. 
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Apr 10, 2012 16:34
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dnbrwn posted:Just seeing what other people have done during proposals... and preparing the onslaught of insults of "why spend so much for a ring". Thanks. See if you have a grandmother or great aunt or someone in the family with a rock that's being handed down, then spend a few hundred on a ring and setting. Heirloom jewelry is nicer anyway.
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Apr 10, 2012 16:59
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Buying ANYTHING for $5k, especially a ring, with $13k in CC debt is a dumb idea. How about you spend $500 on a ring and $500 on a crazy proposal. There, you saved $4000 and she'll enjoy it better. A different question... what's a good % of net income to save/put towards goals? Right now we are putting 40% of our net income towards savings/debt, but sometimes I feel like we're spending too much. Making ~$120k/yr gross Qaz Kwaz fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Apr 10, 2012 |
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Apr 10, 2012 17:34
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dnbrwn posted:Quick question here folks... Given that the debt is a line of credit, you're absolutely right from a strict numbers perspective. You'll pay less interest paying off the debt and using the LOC as an emergency fund if you have to. The larger point, though, is that mentality and spending pattern is not one you want to be in. If you made a decision to treat the LOC like a debt that needed to be paid off instead of something you were content to run with, you really should create a budget that has separate lines for debt repayment and an emergency fund -- and you should make the decision to categorically not run the LOC up again. I'd be worried that planning to use the LOC as an emergency fund would mean that you would continue to use it as an emergency fund instead of actually building one up for yourself and you would risk dipping into it again. But yeah, the best thing I could tell you is to budget separate lines for debt repayment and an emergency fund (and the debt repayment line would become a savings line after you pay your debt) and to make sure that LOC never gets used again -- because the way LOCs are designed are to seduce you into justifying keeping them instead of treating them like the debt they are. And in regards to the ring, of course you can not buy a ring and propose. But don't let your LOC enable you to think otherwise! For a personal anecdote, I proposed without a ring and when she said yes we decided to get her one band with a few tiny rocks embedded in it, skipping the fancy engagement ring entirely. I think the whole thing cost $450 and it was exactly what she wanted because she designed it and learned the cost of everything going into it. IIRC, it's a 14 karat white gold band with two tiny emeralds and one diamond (all totalling 1 karat together). She's way happier with it than if I had blown $2k on some big diamond or something because now we have $1500 to spend on other things. Fraternite fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Apr 10, 2012 |
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Apr 10, 2012 18:03
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Zeta Taskforce posted:That’s one way to do it. The other way is to get a no annual fee card issued by your local credit union or community bank, and not turn every purchase into a strategic exercise to maximize whatever points they let you accumulate. Most of them offer reward cards too, and if there is a difference in richness between the rewards between that and the Chase (whatever element on the periodic table they are up to now) card, it isn’t worth it to have to deal with Chase. Also I’m not a fan of needing spreadsheets to monitor my accounts to remind me when the annual fee is coming up. I don’t get mad at people who do this, we can still be friends. Heck, I like and respect kaishek. Aw shucks . You are probably right in this case. I am definitely an outlier in the credit card issue, but it doesn't take up too much of my mental space or wallet and I get (and calculate) a decent return for my time - I have basically 3 cards that I rotate through depending on travel/airfare/groceries/general. I would not recommend anything like this to ANYONE that has a proven track record of not being able to handle credit. Even my wife messed up when she signed up for a card because she simple forgot to pay it (something that never even crossed my mind she'd do...who forgets credit card bills?). There are, though, ways to maximize what you get out of having credit and using it. If you're able to keep your brain straight, I'd say it is silly not to take 3% back on groceries if you'd otherwise get 1% (or 0%!). This can be done on no annual fee cards - it is worth it to calculate how much additional benefit you get from having the fee card (in many cases, you probably lose money). DeusVult posted:This is all good info, but a few things. I just have the Capital One Platinum card, which is no annual fee but only has 1% cashback. I'll have to look at the 1.25/dollar one you suggested. Is a point based system or a straight cash back better? Can't go wrong with the Amex for cashback. I also like that they offer purchase protection for 90 days, and warranty doubling up to 1 extra year. The CapOne card I'm referring to is the VentureOne card. I generally don't like CapOne, so that suggestion is just to keep it with no annual fee and keep the account open (so that it reflects length on your credit score). You get points which are redeemable for travel expenses (like if you spend $13 on a taxi, and you have 1300 points, you can "request credit" and it will give you a $13 statement credit to offset it), so not strictly cashback, but if you take taxis or buy subway fare, etc., you can get those smaller purchases easily reimbursed. For Chase, the "Ultimate Rewards points" transfer directly to United miles, so they are functionally equivalent. It's worth seeing if your annual spending on credit cards makes it worthwhile, it does have a $95 annual fee. I stand by my recommendation to call Chase once a year and threaten to cancel in exchange for statement credits. Just ask if they have any retention bonuses. The longer you can keep the card open (without paying the annual fee) the better for your credit score. In Conclusion, I'd like to echo what Zeta said about managing yourself. With multiple cards it gets easy to forget what you put on what, and to spend more as a result. If there is even the slightest chance of carrying a balance, do not do this. If you love throwing down plastic, this may also be a bad idea. It is important to control your spending, whether by monitoring with Mint or keeping spreadsheets to make sure you don't run out of control on spending. Rewards are a good thing, but there are a lot of sucker bets out there to avoid so do your research. I have friends who are in debt who are like "I want a rewards card" - no you don't. At the same time, I wince at people who pay their rent (like I do) on a credit card with no rewards of any kind. I similarly wince at people who pay huge annual fees just to get 1 mile per dollar (my parents) and never do the math to see if the benefits are worth the annual fee.
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Apr 10, 2012 19:43
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Thanks for the awesome info kaishek. I think I'll end up grabbing the Chase and a no fee Amex. That Chase card sounds like the perfect card for my needs, with it don't even need the Capital One one but since it's no annual fee I'm gonna leave it. The 95 a year is worth it considering I spend around 15-20k a year via my cc. All my purchases are plastic but I will never ever carry a balance on it. Just looking at those rates gives me nightmares. I'll probably keep the Chase United one open as long as I can get my annual fee back, but if I do end up cancelling it will it significantly affect my credit? It is my longest running card, although 3 years isn't much compared to a lot of people.
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Apr 10, 2012 21:04
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Why not? There is no distinction between your financial life and your real life. What you spend money on, your priorities, and the decisions you make in general are all the same thing.
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Apr 10, 2012 21:52
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DeusVult posted:Thanks for the awesome info kaishek. I think I'll end up grabbing the Chase and a no fee Amex. That Chase card sounds like the perfect card for my needs, with it don't even need the Capital One one but since it's no annual fee I'm gonna leave it. The 95 a year is worth it considering I spend around 15-20k a year via my cc. All my purchases are plastic but I will never ever carry a balance on it. Just looking at those rates gives me nightmares. 3 years probably won't. It may be an initial small hit, but it will recover quickly especially if you stay in good standing. For me it is worth it for the dining category because that is my second highest spending category behind groceries. If you break down your spending categories there may be other cards (some with no annual fee: the Citi Forward or the Chase Freedom both have rotating cashback/points categories that can get up to 5x in categories that are good). If you spend a ton of money on groceries per year, there is a higher cashback version of the Blue Cash (but you have to spend a lot on groceries to clear the annual fee). I can send referrals for $100 cashback on the Blue Cash card after $1000 spend in 3 months. Full disclosure, I get $25 out of that deal, but I really do like Amex. They've treated me very well as a customer. Also: do you have status on United? The newer version of the United cards include free checked bags/priority boarding which may be worth "upgrading" your card to (keeping the same account, but changing the card type). That's the only big difference between it and the Sapphire Preferred. Hufflepuff or bust! fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Apr 10, 2012 |
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Apr 10, 2012 21:56
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Nah I don't have status with United, just miss it a little bit every year. Man, I just realized how useful the Sapphire card would have been yesterday. My dad just dropped 8k for 4 round trip tickets on my Chase United, I could have doubled the points. And go ahead a drop your link here, if I end up getting the Amex card I'd be happy to sign up under you. I've heard nothing but good things about them.
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Apr 10, 2012 22:19
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DeusVult posted:Nah I don't have status with United, just miss it a little bit every year. Man, I just realized how useful the Sapphire card would have been yesterday. My dad just dropped 8k for 4 round trip tickets on my Chase United, I could have doubled the points. And go ahead a drop your link here, if I end up getting the Amex card I'd be happy to sign up under you. I've heard nothing but good things about them. It's email based so just drop me a line if you want a referral. And Jesus christ...if you're spending tons on airfare, look at the Amex Premier Rewards Gold card. Much higher annual fee ($175) but 3x points on airfare (and an additional x for booking through their travel portal, which half the time has the same price as Kayak). You could have gotten 32,000 miles for that, but more importantly, what the heck were you spending 2k/RT on?
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Apr 10, 2012 22:46
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So, question for goons, because a friend said I'm setting my emergency fund a bit too high. My goal is a 7k emergency fund, because that'll be living expenses for six months if something happened to me. But the thing is, I have a moderate-very secure job with short/long term disability, so short of the company completely going out of business or me epically screwing up, I've got a job as long as I want it.Right now I have about 3k in the emergency fund, and my friends are saying that's plenty. Breakdown: IN: Salary - 2040/mo gross, about 1600/mo net after health insurance/gym deductions Comission: ~300/mo gross, about $250/mo net Mom paying back money I loaned her: $150/mo (indefinitely long, but I'd like to tell her to stop paying me back sooner than later - she borrowed about $35k from the trust my dad had set up for me for college) Pornbux from writing smut: $40/mo so far out: Rent (all inclusive, including cable/internet): 1100/mo Insurance: 150/mo Gas: 40/mo Groceries: 300/mo (roughly...i budget for $300/mo, usually comes in much less than that.) I budget about $100/mo in "fun" money - depending on the month, this usually comes in below it, since I maybe go to the bar 2x/mo, and spend about $20 each time, and maybe $60/mo in takeout - and that's high for me, and lessens the grocery bill at the same time) so it winds up being roughly: IN: 2000 OUT: 1700 PROFIT: 300/mo which is what i sack into my emergency fund. I've been working on paying off my only debt (~3500 on a credit card i racked up when I was 18) at $25/mo, since it went into collections almost 3 years ago, and the collections agency told me it was cool that I pay what I can since they had pretty much written off the debt to be forever a black mark on my credit. It had gotten to the point where they stopped calling, figuring I was never going to pay, and they had bigger fish to fry than a measly $4500 (what it was before I started paying). My credit is decent even with that (about a 630 last time I checked...certainly not spectacular, but not bad, since I pay most things cash) since I've got a great rental history, and have pretty much never been behind on bills, bought all my cars cash, and have not overdrafted since my 3rd year of college. I'm not eligible for 401k match until september, so I was planning on rebalancing so I max match on that and then continue sacking away money into the emergency fund. Is 7k really too high for a 5-6 month emergency fund? I know i can find a job in less than that since I have 0 issues going back to food service/retail to have something making ends meet, and there's plenty of food service hiring in the south jersey/philly area. plus, unless I really gently caress up, odds are if I lost my job, I'd be eligible for unemployment, and if I get cancer or something and wind up out for 8 months for chemo, i still have the LTD through my employer. i just figured 2-300/mo is chump change for an investment portfolio, and not worth actually investing, so it's better off building my emergency fund, and then once I cap that out I can start considering what to do with the rest. Is 7k reallly too high for that? Would I be better off getting that emergency fund and telling my mom to stop paying me back? I feel bad, but she was the one that started the whole "pay me back" thing, and it covers my car insurance, so I'm happy, but she's also right now helping my sister to pay down her debt (about 100k) and I feel bad, because I'm in a much better place financiallly than my sister (I make more alone than she and her husband do combined...granted NJ has 2x the cost of living than south dakota, but i still make more than they do), and if my mom's lending money to my sister, I'd rather stop her paying money to me. My sister has almost 100k in debt - she needs help more than I do).
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Apr 10, 2012 23:01
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AA is for Quitters posted:Pornbux from writing smut: $40/mo so far This is by far the best source of income yet. How stable is your commission income? Also, if you want your mother to stop paying you back, your "profit" is cut in half. So basically now you're at $150 "profit". Take out your pornbux and you're at $100. If you have a bad month of sales then what? My personal feeling is that you're living kind of dangerously - or, at least, you're not getting anywhere and need a better plan for the long term. At BEST you've got 3600 a YEAR of income with which you could do "whatever you want", including retirement savings. That feels like a dangerously small amount to me.
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Apr 10, 2012 23:18
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dnbrwn posted:For those that have bought rings, are there options to buy a smaller ring (say $1,000) and then a year from now buy a "new" one when you have enough money? This is exactly how I proposed to my wife a few years ago when we were both 40k in debt. We drove down to a nice spot on the beach, had lunch and then I popped the question. Just got down and one knee and took her hand and asked her, didn't have to fish out some ring out of my pocket. We drove down to the jewelry store that day and I bought her a modest engagement ring and wedding band for about $600 with cash with the promise that on our 5th anniversary, provided we're both out of debt, I will buy her a fancy ring. 3 years later we've paid of all our debt and bought a house and I'm well on track to buy the "huge ring" she wants which retails for only around $1500.
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Apr 10, 2012 23:34
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kaishek posted:It's email based so just drop me a line if you want a referral. And Jesus christ...if you're spending tons on airfare, look at the Amex Premier Rewards Gold card. Much higher annual fee ($175) but 3x points on airfare (and an additional x for booking through their travel portal, which half the time has the same price as Kayak). You could have gotten 32,000 miles for that, but more importantly, what the heck were you spending 2k/RT on? Roundtrip from Chicago to Shanghai. Airline tickets to Asia this year is absolutely bonkers.
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Apr 11, 2012 00:22
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Ouch, I know airline tickets are going up, but in January/February of this year I did Seattle -> Hong Kong -> Kunming -> Siem Reap -> Kunming -> Seattle, staying at each stop for 1-2 weeks, all totaling less than $2000. That's some crazy rear end prices for simple R/T tickets, I would have expected more like $1300-1400.
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Apr 11, 2012 00:44
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AA is for Quitters posted:emergency fund $7k seems pretty reasonable to me. Also if that's what you're comfortable with that's what you should do. Seems like your biggest financial commitment is the $1100/mo rent which is a really big fraction of your income. How long is your lease term, and could you move somewhere cheap if poo poo hit the fan? Something to think about.
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Apr 11, 2012 00:54
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Guinness posted:Ouch, I know airline tickets are going up, but in January/February of this year I did Seattle -> Hong Kong -> Kunming -> Siem Reap -> Kunming -> Seattle, staying at each stop for 1-2 weeks, all totaling less than $2000. That's some crazy rear end prices for simple R/T tickets, I would have expected more like $1300-1400. It's because I'm travelling in July, high season at that time unfortunately.
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Apr 11, 2012 01:05
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DeusVult posted:It's because I'm travelling in July, high season at that time unfortunately. It'll be worth it. I love Asia.
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Apr 11, 2012 01:10
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totalnewbie posted:I is too saving?? 7k is great; you'll probably want even more once you end up with a family. For people who make a habit of high savings percentage, a year of expenses isn't that uncommon an emergency fund, so don't sweat it. A high savings rate is much more important for most of your investing career than your investment returns, anyway.
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Apr 11, 2012 01:52
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DeusVult posted:Roundtrip from Chicago to Shanghai. Airline tickets to Asia this year is absolutely bonkers. youch! if you do that frequently, it may behoove you to keep your eye out for preferential routings/deals on sites like flyertalk. You might be able to add a stopover in, say Honolulu, or Tokyo, or San Fransisco (American, for example, allows stopover for free in the last US gateway city).
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Apr 11, 2012 02:06
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slap me silly posted:$7k seems pretty reasonable to me. Also if that's what you're comfortable with that's what you should do. Seems like your biggest financial commitment is the $1100/mo rent which is a really big fraction of your income. How long is your lease term, and could you move somewhere cheap if poo poo hit the fan? Something to think about. I could move somewhere cheaper if I wanted roommates again. I have 0 lease commitment and pay by the week where I am right now, which is also part of why it's so high, but it is also EVERYTHING included. (rent+all utilities+cable+internet) and fully furnished. It was sort of an "oh poo poo, I'm moving back to jersey a whole lot quicker than i thought i would be, I need someplace NOW" thing that I've become comfortable with. If I wanted to move in with someone, I could easily find a place for half of what I'm currently paying. I just...wanted a break from roommates. And everything for 1bd's around here is in the 750-1000 range+utilities. If something happened moving someplace cheaper would be #1 on my priority list. Commission is incredibly steady, and I'm lowballing for a bad month, I usually average high 900's a paycheck take home. I usually wind up spending well less than my take home pay on just my salary a month. I budget groceries etc, based on that 2080/mo/salary. I am usually the top seller, and when I'm not, It's just cause the guy who makes a dollar less an hour than me tied me in sales - he's going to be more valuable at $12/hr than $13/hr with the same amount of sales. This last paycheck was my worst sales since I started just due to tax season and stuff (everyone on inside sales suffered), and I still made $920. Half the time, I don't even spend $40/mo on gas since I drive so little. (to/from work, to/from grocery store when have to buy big stuff I can't walk home with). I spent $20 on gas this past *month*. And am considering getting a bike to bike to work now that it's nice out, since I'm only about 3 miles away - only concern is that a half mile of that is all highway interchanges since live right over where three highways meet. The only fixed thing in there is the insurance, everything else is very easily cut-backable. I could easily stop eating steak 3-4x/week, stop drinking soda, and stop drinking and cut my grocery bill down a lot (Wells Fargo counts liquor in the "groceries" section, so do I, dammit) to maybe 140-150/mo. My mom is perfectly content to pay me back, since I keep loaning her money due to my sister consistently loving her out of money, and my sister genuinely needs the money more than i do, since she's got a husband and kid and stuff. I usually don't come anywhere near the $300 i budget for groceries, but I budget that much as a jic scenario, like nothing is on sale, and I'm forced to pay $6.00/lb for all meat and $2.00/box for pasta. If I'm not lazy, I can get a weeks worth of food, including steak/seafood for $30/week. Just depends on if I'm willing to hit up 3 different grocery stores or not - If I shopped only in the asian market/ shop rite, I might add $5/mo in gas, but save $20/mo in groceries...I just like the exercise walking to acme) I knew that 7k wasn't too much for a savings account, but I figured I'd double check with people who are far smarter financially than e. \/\/ no real plans aboout family/kids right at the moment. I'm only 22, not seeing anyone seriously, and this is my first "real" job (ie, not retail or food service), where most of my friends still are in the whole food service/retail bubble. (which is odd, because I'm the only one that didn't graduate. And now I'm making $$ doing inside sales). Family is a tricky thing. I feel obligated to mom, because, well, she fed clothed and kept me housed for the first 17 years of my life. I can't just tell her "no, I'm not giving you money to keep your electricity on because my sister is a fuckup" Especially because the every few month loans are immediately repaid when she gets her pension check. But my sister and my mom are currently sharing a bank account because my sister has a 100k lien against her&her husband's checking account, and she occasionally writes checks expecting them to get cashed after payday, and they always get cashed a week or two before my sister "expects" them to. Dr Jankenstein fucked around with this message at 09:43 on Apr 11, 2012 |
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Apr 11, 2012 03:19
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Yeah, you sound fine to me. $7k is fine. And your plan to start building the 401k later this year will round things out nicely. As far as eyes on the future, just be thinking vaguely about marriage/kids, house buying, etc. which would be greatly benefited by more cash savings beyond the 401k and $7k emergency account. I have a separate category for liquor :) E: the family/money thing is a little weird. Keep a clear line about what you are willing to do to help family and what you aren't, so that you don't get sucked into your family members' financial irresponsibility and debts. You're not making enough money to float anybody but yourself right now. slap me silly fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Apr 11, 2012 |
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Apr 11, 2012 03:33
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I'm using mint to manage my budget, and I'm confused about how it tracks the credit card spending. I have a few bills like my cell phone that I auto pay with my credit card, and I pay it off every month. So my budget for my phone is $80, and when my CC gets charged, mint removes it from my budget. When I make a payment on my credit card to take care of that charge, mint tacks on another $80 away from my budget in the credit card payment section. To offset this, should I just categorize this second "credit card payment" as income? EDIT: I think I can just exclude it. EDIT2: Actually, I think they offset for this automatically. Autistic Speculum fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Apr 11, 2012 |
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Apr 11, 2012 17:45
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I always classify my credit card payments as "Transfer: Credit Card Payment" so that it nets out to zero (negative from my bank account, positive to my credit card). That way it doesn't really matter where it falls in your budget, unless the negatives and positives are spread out over different months because you paid on the 31st or something.
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Apr 11, 2012 17:53
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Sophia posted:I always classify my credit card payments as "Transfer: Credit Card Payment" so that it nets out to zero (negative from my bank account, positive to my credit card). That way it doesn't really matter where it falls in your budget, unless the negatives and positives are spread out over different months because you paid on the 31st or something. Yeah, I got thrown off because some of my payments were on the 1st, and the transfers were on the 31st of last month, so it was off. Thanks!
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Apr 11, 2012 17:57
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Sometimes Mint just loses a transfer and it messes everything up. When I would make a lot of transfers between my 3 Wells Fargo accounts (2 checking 1 savings) it would often see the money come out of an account but not see it go into the account, so my "Transfers" budget was always way off. For those I'd just tell it to ignore the money out if it didn't have a money in to match with.
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Apr 12, 2012 18:39
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Yeah, I transferred 90% of my net worth from a checking to a savings on the 31st one, and it posted on the 1st, so according to Mint's timeline I lost all my money one month. There doesn't seem to be a way to fix it even if you manually change the dates.
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Apr 12, 2012 22:16
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I'm sorry if I missed it, but is there a free credit report for Canadians?
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Apr 14, 2012 16:51
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moana posted:Agreed. If a guy spent thousands of dollars on a ring for me I'd make him take it back so that we could spend it on cool stuff. Which is not to say I wouldn't like a sweet proposal, but don't let the ring be the focus unless you know she is all about the ring (which I think is dumb as hell, but chacun son gout etc etc). Spend the money on a hot air balloon ride or something else interesting and romantic that she'll remember and be able to gush about to her friends, get a nice small placeholder ring, save the big rock for your 5-year anniversary. And if she really wants a bigger ring, you can talk about it together after the "surprise! proposal!" bit. Just another heads up to the ring/proposal guy. Buying a ring is just the first thing you will feel social pressure to spend absurd amounts of money on if you get married. You can easily spend 2-4x that $5k on a wedding. Plus you will probably want to go on a Honeymoon, it is easy to drop another $4k plus there. You'll be happier if you communicate with your lady friend about these things before you are deeper in debt, then if you guy realize you are $30k deeper in debt than you needed to be.
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Apr 14, 2012 17:40
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