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Sophia posted:The best way you can help your credit is to use a credit card monthly for a reasonably small amount and pay it off in full on time for a long period. If you have credit card debts, pay those off as soon as possible and then start using the card in that way. I'll just keep on doing what I'm doing then. Wasn't sure if there was something I could do better.
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Sep 28, 2012 16:02
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| # ? May 25, 2024 21:49 |
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Love the new thread title. As someone in credit risk, the gaming drives me crazy.
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Sep 28, 2012 16:56
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Daeus posted:Go with what was reported to Uncle Sam for last year (check your W2). In retrospect that should have been obvious, thanks.
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Sep 28, 2012 23:54
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How do you figure out how much you can afford to spend on housing? I make a pretty solid amount of money, but have been fortunate enough to pay almost nothing for rent for the last ~5 years. I'm moving, would like to move to a nice place, and am planning on continuing to rent. I have no idea what a reasonable amount for rent is, but here's how my life works out right now. I work in a call center, and my base salary brings in about $58,000/yr. Through the magic of shift differentials and scheduling, I'm bringing in closer to $65,000. Of that, after tax, 401k, union dues, and health insurance contribution, I'm probably netting somewhere in the area of $35,000/yr, so right around $3,000 a month. Honestly, that seems low, but the math checks out and I'm not sure what I'm missing. Anyhow, beyond that here are my rough numbers: 20% of net goes straight to savings from direct deposit $200/mo in utilities, including cable/internet/cell phone. $1000 in pretty much all other expenses. I run just about every purchase I make through my credit card, then pay it every month. This includes food, eating out at work, fun money, house stuff, car stuff, etc. $130/mo in parking. I also am paying $58/mo in student loans and am making a double payment, $432/mo, on my car loan. I've been looking for places in the $800-$1000/mo range, and I'm in an area where I can get big, nice places for that amount. I have approx $14,000 put away and can easily handle moving expenses, security deposit, etc out of that. Does that seem reasonable? There's plenty of room for belt-tightening (oh god so much room), and tons of overtime available at work if I want it.
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Sep 30, 2012 05:16
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If you took out a 30-year loan, the monthly should be like ~25% of your net. That being said, I'd double the payment to pay it off quicker (once your other outstanding debts are eliminated of course).
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Sep 30, 2012 05:53
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Annual rent should be no more than 33% of your GROSS pay, so about $1600/mo would be your upper limit. That'll get you someplace pretty decent. I also used the $58k figure so you could potentially go up. That's a pretty comfortable amount to work with, really. PRADA SLUT, I don't think he was asking about mortgages.
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Sep 30, 2012 16:06
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Zeta Taskforce posted:As a loan officer, I can promise you that I don’t look at transferring existing debt over as guaranteed payment. I obviously want to see the debt I am paying off be current, or there better be a really good explanation why it isn’t. I am not a junior. I am the only person ever to have my name. Overally I have about $35k in student loans, about $2k in debt on store credit cards we used to get a new bed and some furniture with no interest, and about 3k in debt on an actual credit card that I had to live on for a while when I got laid off 4 years ago. Despite this, I've never missed a payment for anything (my Experian report was just a long checklist of green OK boxes), and my student loans are all direct Federal loans. I guess I just didn't think that having student loans plus a couple of credit cards was enough to disqualify me from a new card.
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Sep 30, 2012 21:07
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What's your utilization though? How much credit do you still have available on those cards? Even if each one has a limit of 5k, you're at 50% utilization + student loans, which is not great actually. I know that $5000 in credit card debt feels like peanuts compared to what you see here and hear about on the news sometimes, but it's quite a lot realistically.
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Oct 1, 2012 01:10
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LeftistMuslimObama posted:I am not a junior. I am the only person ever to have my name. I guess it was enough to disqualify you for this particular card. But if your goal is to go more into debt, don’t worry, there will be someone who be more than happy to give it to you based on the numbers you give. I don’t have a good explanation why there is a trace of a mortgage associated with your credit.
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Oct 1, 2012 16:48
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Eggplant Wizard posted:What's your utilization though? How much credit do you still have available on those cards? Even if each one has a limit of 5k, you're at 50% utilization + student loans, which is not great actually. I know that $5000 in credit card debt feels like peanuts compared to what you see here and hear about on the news sometimes, but it's quite a lot realistically. I think my total limit is about 25k across credit cards. To Zeta, I have no plans on going into more debt. I wanted to consolidate onto one card just to get 0% interest for the next year. My wife and I have both found steady employment and we have a budget that will let us eliminate all credit card debt in one year. I just wanted to minimize losses to interest if I could.
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Oct 1, 2012 16:54
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If you pay off your $5000 in credit cards over the next year, you are not going to pay that much in interest anyway. People way overestimate the interest rate in their ability to pay off their debt. Heck, your furniture was also 0%, yet you still have the debt. Just pay it off, and if you pay $500/mo, the difference between 0% and 10% would mean being in debt for another couple weeks. The only thing I would be careful of is 0% furniture deals are rarely actually 0%. They are usually 0% for a year while deferred interest accumulates at 23% in the background. If any part of it is unpaid at the end of the year, ALL of the interest pops back on. If this is the case, you need to transfer that debt now. If you don’t do it onto another card, get a small loan through your credit union or bank.
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Oct 1, 2012 17:11
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Don't know if I should hit up the stock thread or retirement thread, so I figured I'd just ask here. I'm being courted for a new job and my potential future boss keeps telling me about the company's Employee Stock Ownership Program. I looked up an ESOP on Wikipedia and got the gist of it, but wanted more detail. I was told it works like a 401k with the ability to roll over into a Roth whenever I leave the company, but I was wondering what the specific ups and downs are to it. This is the only benefit that was different from the standard benefits I'm being offered so I just want to learn more. I don't have any 401k options at my current job so I guess that's a step up? The only other retirement savings I have set-up is a recently opened Roth IRA with Franklin-Templeton. Oh and this an advertising/marketing agency that is GROWING in a recession. cheese eats mouse fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 18:40
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ESOPs are pretty nice if they are provided along with another kind of retirement vehicle (like a 401(k)) but they aren't a 401(k). Basically your employer will be buying stock for you and holding it in your name until you sell it / take a distribution. It is like a 401(k) in the sense that you're not taxed on this extra "compensation" until you take the distribution, but you can't make your own contributions to it. However, without another retirement account option you could end up way over-invested in your own company, and I am much more wary of them for up-and-coming companies because they often can point to recent returns and make the benefit look a lot better than it will end up being in the long term. It's better than nothing at all, and it's a nice, fairly risk-free addition to add on top, but it's not better than a 401(k) in a head to head comparison.
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Oct 1, 2012 19:31
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Sophia posted:ESOPs are pretty nice if they are provided along with another kind of retirement vehicle (like a 401(k)) but they aren't a 401(k). Basically your employer will be buying stock for you and holding it in your name until you sell it / take a distribution. It is like a 401(k) in the sense that you're not taxed on this extra "compensation" until you take the distribution, but you can't make your own contributions to it. They've been around for 20 years or so and didn't start the ESOP until 2009. No 401(k). I plan to make this a 5-8 year job. It seems like 401(k)s are hard to find outside of a large company. cheese eats mouse fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 20:29
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Wait, what? There are employers that don't offer 401(k) plans?
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Oct 1, 2012 21:04
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I'd have to say probably most don't. And those that do, a lot probably don't match.
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Oct 1, 2012 21:13
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MrKatharsis posted:Wait, what? There are employers that don't offer 401(k) plans? My previous employer only had "Profit Sharing", which was a load of bull. After 1 year (coming up in a month), I can get into my current employer's, with a 4% match. It seems to vary widly. My gf's company offer 3% match off the bat, and an additional 3% company contribution after a year or two.
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Oct 1, 2012 21:15
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For someone with no debts besides student loans, able to save ~1/3 of their income, and with no real plans that'd require anything beyond said savings what value would be gained by opening a line of credit? I hadn't really considered one for a while because I could cover all my expenses through savings and didn't need to add paying interest and fees on stuff I could afford to my list of headaches for thin months, but now that I'm more established income-wise and have room to plan beyond the next six months I'm trying to structure my finances a bit beyond cash-in > cash-out and generally curious as to whether there's anything to look into further there, but don't know what to look for or whether there even is anything.
Tubgirl Cosplay fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 22:30
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Just a normal line of credit? Probably none. If you meant a credit card, various cash back offers as well as sign up offers.
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Oct 1, 2012 22:34
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Harry posted:Just a normal line of credit? Probably none. If you meant a credit card, various cash back offers as well as sign up offers. Yeah I meant credit cards inclusive, thanks. Figured I should just focus on paying off my existing student debt and staying out of the game unless I had cause to need more than my paycheck can cover, but with the general fussing about credit ratings etc. I wasn't sure what if anything applied to someone with, well, no credit.
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Oct 1, 2012 22:37
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There's really no reason not to have a credit card unless you don't trust yourself to be even slightly competent with your finances. There's other perks as well, such as extended warranties.
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Oct 1, 2012 22:39
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MrKatharsis posted:Wait, what? There are employers that don't offer 401(k) plans? I'm a baby in the work force, but most companies I have interviewed with don't offer a 401(k). I consider myself lucky to have healthcare options. I've mostly been interviewing at small to mid-sized marketing and design firms. In other news I got the job. Pretty stoked for a company that asks what my favorite curse word is and laughs when I say "oval office".
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Oct 2, 2012 01:19
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A Charles Schwab study shows that about 83% of companies offer 401k plans, so companies that don't are definitely in the minority now. http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_21413239/charles-schwab-study-reports-more-companies-offering-401 edit:I'm dumb it doesn't say that Inept fucked around with this message at 19:56 on Oct 2, 2012 |
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Oct 2, 2012 13:41
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Actually I think that says that of the 1,000 companies they manage 401(k)s for, 83% of them offer advice to their employees, likely about investment options or how to use it effectively. 401(k)s are becoming really popular but they're still too expensive to administrate for 83% of employers to offer them. Small employers wouldn't be able to absorb the costs.
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Oct 2, 2012 13:45
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This article has a similar 82% figure, but it's "families" that are participating in the 401(k) so if there are two earners then it would probably count for both of them. http://www.financial-planning.com/news/401k-Participation-Rises-as-IRA-Ownership-declines-2681127-1.html I suspect that "making advice available to their employees" is really "allowing the Charles Schwab guy to come make a sales pitch once a quarter." All in all, pretty depressing.
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Oct 2, 2012 14:14
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Tubgirl Cosplay posted:Yeah I meant credit cards inclusive, thanks. Figured I should just focus on paying off my existing student debt and staying out of the game unless I had cause to need more than my paycheck can cover, but with the general fussing about credit ratings etc. I wasn't sure what if anything applied to someone with, well, no credit. It's not a bad idea to get a credit card. Use it for whatever (coffee, or if you want to use the extended warranty stuff that...). Some things (car rental, hotels) are much easier if you have a credit card. What is your spending profile (do you spend a lot on groceries? restaurants? shopping, travel?)? I can make a few recommendations (or you can go to the credit card recommendation thread).
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Oct 2, 2012 15:33
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Tubgirl Cosplay posted:For someone with no debts besides student loans, able to save ~1/3 of their income, and with no real plans that'd require anything beyond said savings what value would be gained by opening a line of credit? I hadn't really considered one for a while because I could cover all my expenses through savings and didn't need to add paying interest and fees on stuff I could afford to my list of headaches for thin months, but now that I'm more established income-wise and have room to plan beyond the next six months I'm trying to structure my finances a bit beyond cash-in > cash-out and generally curious as to whether there's anything to look into further there, but don't know what to look for or whether there even is anything. You sound like you would be fine with or without a credit card/line of credit. Just one bit of clarification, since you have student loans, you actually do have plenty of credit history, so you don’t need to get one to “build credit”. I am not big on credit card debt, nor am I especially big on credit card rewards, but having one does make renting cars, travel, hotel rooms a lot easier, and they can balance things out if you hit a rough month. I generally stay out of the credit card rewards thread because I have a fundamentally different view than most of the people there. My experience as a loan officer is that it’s fine to have one card that you get something back from, but just leave it at that. See if your credit union offers a rewards card. If you try to get too strategic about it, using this one at restaurants, that one for groceries, another one because of the signup bonus if you do a balance transfer, etc, at best it is diminishing returns for the effort, and at worst you outsmart yourself, overspend, and lose track of things.
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Oct 2, 2012 16:07
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Sophia posted:Actually I think that says that of the 1,000 companies they manage 401(k)s for, 83% of them offer advice to their employees, likely about investment options or how to use it effectively. 401(k)s are becoming really popular but they're still too expensive to administrate for 83% of employers to offer them. Small employers wouldn't be able to absorb the costs. Yep, I missed the word advice. What a difference a word makes.
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Oct 2, 2012 19:56
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Graduated last April. I'm living in Canada with my parents (I pay for all my expenses but my parents only charge me $300/month for rent, food and utilities because they rule). I have a full-time job, no debts and want to move out in three years with the largest nest egg I can. I might buy a house, but am unsure. I'm a little weary of cementing myself in my city, but I have three years to figure that out. Should I be striking some kind of balance between house saving and RSP (retirement) savings? My current method is $7:$1 on my TFSA to RSP monthly contributions. While not putting a lot of money strictly to my retirement, I'm still working on a house down payment (20% of cost). My basic idea would be pay off a mortgage ASAP, and then once I'm free of it, sock all my former mortgage money to retirement savings. Since Canada lets you withdraw up to $25,000 from your RSP as a first time home buyer (but you have to replace it within 15 years with at least 1/15 a year), should I just be socking it all (up to $25k) into the RSP for income-tax purposes? reflex fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Oct 2, 2012 |
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Oct 2, 2012 22:04
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Zeta Taskforce posted:If you try to get too strategic about it, using this one at restaurants, that one for groceries, another one because of the signup bonus if you do a balance transfer, etc, at best it is diminishing returns for the effort, and at worst you outsmart yourself, overspend, and lose track of things. As someone who does exactly this, I think you are definitely right that for someone who does not like to deal with finance stuff, sticking to a single credit union/other "basic" rewards card is the best idea (no annual fee, just there for the odd hotel/car rental or whatever). Start (probably stay) simple.
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Oct 3, 2012 01:15
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reflex posted:Graduated last April. I'm living in Canada with my parents (I pay for all my expenses but my parents only charge me $300/month for rent, food and utilities because they rule). I have a full-time job, no debts and want to move out in three years with the largest nest egg I can. I might buy a house, but am unsure. I'm a little weary of cementing myself in my city, but I have three years to figure that out. Don't be in a hurry to buy in most Canadian markets; I know I'm sure not. And as a general rule, you should max out your TFSA before thinking about RRSPs (unless you're in a gross tax bracket, but if you're doing 7:1 TFSA to RSP contributions that doesn't sound like it's the case).
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Oct 3, 2012 07:14
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Oh? I figured if was to buy a house in about 5 years, I would want to try and max my RRSP to what is allowable for my down payment, then chill that out afterwards? When I was at the bank, it seemed like they contradicted themselves when I was asking questions.
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Oct 4, 2012 04:01
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Are there any highly recommended IRA brokers out there? I need to roll my 401k over from my previous employer, and I'd just do it at Wells Fargo where I do all my other banking, except they get really lovely reviews. I just want something that's inexpensive and doesn't have stupid hidden fees. I'm pretty hands off in my allocations.
hayden. fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Oct 4, 2012 |
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Oct 4, 2012 06:30
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Vanguard.
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Oct 4, 2012 13:10
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I have 12k sitting in my BofA Checking account collecting spiderwebs. I have no student loans, no credit card, no car/house payments. If I want to put away 9k of that money for emergency funds(car/rent/whatever) where should I put it? I guess to put it in simpler terms. I'm a debt free 24 year old and I have 9k. What would you do with that money? I don't really have any idea. e; Living with my parents for at least the next 2-3 months GZA Genius fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Oct 4, 2012 |
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Oct 4, 2012 20:09
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GZA Genius posted:I have 12k sitting in my BofA Checking account collecting spiderwebs. I have no student loans, no credit card, no car/house payments. If I want to put away 9k of that money for emergency funds(car/rent/whatever) where should I put it? Nice job to have saved that much. An emergency fund is never going to be exciting, and these days it is going to earn about half a percent if you are lucky. Ing is paying 0.8% and that is as good as anything. But all savings accounts and money markets are more or less the same.
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Oct 4, 2012 20:35
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ya I was afraid of that. If I want to get started on a Roth IRA and put in 5k to get it started where would be the best place to go? The long term investment thread is a little daunting. e; I guess after talking to my dad I already have a foreign investment account with Vanguard and I can just open up a Roth IRA with them and have two separate accounts with them? GZA Genius fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Oct 4, 2012 |
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Oct 4, 2012 21:31
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GZA Genius posted:ya I was afraid of that. If I want to get started on a Roth IRA and put in 5k to get it started where would be the best place to go? The long term investment thread is a little daunting. Vanguard! Go to their Personal Investor Site, open a Roth IRA and put money in it. Then choose funds! The choosing funds part is the "daunting" bit, but heck, you could just buy $5,000 of the S&P 500 ETF and be outperforming the majority.
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Oct 4, 2012 21:37
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If you're with BAC, check if M-L offers any sort of maintenance fee waiver on their IRAs, I know Chase does. You might consider that route.
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Oct 4, 2012 22:47
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Vanguard! Go to their Personal Investor Site, open a Roth IRA and put money in it. Then choose funds! The choosing funds part is the "daunting" bit, but heck, you could just buy $5,000 of the S&P 500 ETF and be outperforming the majority. Just buy a Target 20XX retirement fund. You're done. If you want to get all crazy, do that, then start reading Four Pillars.
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Oct 5, 2012 01:01
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