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Rexfumado posted:Reading this thread makes me think I might be bad with money as well. I'm 28 and single, and even though I have a good income of around 100k, I have almost nothing to show for it. I have less than 15k in the bank and this is maybe enough to qualify as an emergency fund, but not much else. I don't really try to save much money; instead I opt for a very high standard of living. I pay over $2500/month in rent to live in a really fancy apartment in the nicest neighborhood in Chicago, I have a nice car, and I spend quite a bit on entertainment, restaurants, vacations, etc. I have excellent credit and no debts, so all of this spending is not necessarily out of my means, but it still feels kind of irresponsible. Right now, I think you're suffering from a lack of imagination more than anything. You see yourself working this job until 60, and then retiring. Like, even if you suddenly got a raise of 50k a year, you wouldn't be able to find a way to make your life better. Would your life be more interesting or better if you found a way to take six months off of work every so often and live in a foreign country? Or if you were able to take seven years off of work when you have kids? I mean, right now you don't value money very much so you spend it. I think you could think of ways to use your money, and your time on this planet, in a more enriching manner. But it is your life. No Wave fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Aug 29, 2013 |
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Aug 29, 2013 20:22
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There's no need to live a life of denial to save a bit of money - just make a budget and figure out how much you need to save per month for a deposit, and have that sum automatically deducted and put in an account you don't normally use. Consider that money off limits unless catastrophe strikes or you decide to purchase a house. You should find you adjust your spending unconsciously to your new income. Buying a house young is either a good or bad choice depending on you. It ties you to one city, so you'd better be sure you want to make a life there. If it is better for your career to move around a bit, rent. You will know when it is time to buy (usually when marriage and kids come along, if they do.) You might be able to save a bit on the fancy apartment, assuming that you spend most of your time out or at work, it shouldn't make much difference to your lifestyle. If you can live near work and walk or bike there, you can also save on the car - either getting rid of it, or downgrading to a more economical one that you just use for leisure.
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Aug 29, 2013 20:52
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Rexfumado posted:<$1000/month I save now Does this include your 401K and roth IRA? if so, you're not saving enough. As others have said, you should be able to max both out in your situation. Other than that I see no problem living the yuppie lifestyle if you've got the income to back it up.
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Aug 29, 2013 21:40
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Thanks for the replies everyone.HooKars posted:It's really really easy to spend to your income, no matter what your income is. Rent alone is eating up 30k. And if he says he's saving for retirement and actually means he's maxing out his 401k and IRA then he actually is saving quite a bit. I dont save much of my monthly net income at all (I make less than him but I think I saved a similar amount when I made double what I make now), but technically I save at least 20% of my income because that's what gets taken out of my paycheck for my 401k. I don't have an IRA, just a company pension and a Vanguard 401k. I just checked and I'm almost maxed out on the 401k - I suppose I could contribute a little more to fully max it out. And sadly yes, I've used Mint in the past and it made me kind of sick to realize how much I spend on bars, restaurants, entertainment, clothes, gadgets, etc. This is where my downfall truly lies - I'm kind of an impulsive spender when it comes to things like these. I would agree that I do have "something to show" for my money, as far as having lots of material stuff goes and taking cool vacations. I just feel slightly guilty or ashamed that for my income I have such a paltry bank account. SlapActionJackson posted:Does this include your 401K and roth IRA? if so, you're not saving enough. As others have said, you should be able to max both out in your situation. No, not including the 401k. Yuppie is pretty accurate I guess, which feels weird because my parents would always complain about those "stupid yuppies" when I was growing up.
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Aug 29, 2013 22:15
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Siddhartha changed his life's path at age 29. Mini story to stay on-thread topic: My brother ignored all pleas to get his house inspected before he bought it. Countless repairs and a trashed roof later, he ended up declaring bankruptcy in his 20s, abandoning it. He told our mom that he sold it.
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Aug 29, 2013 22:35
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Rexfumado posted:Thanks for the replies everyone. Sounds like you are doing it right to me. Enjoy your life and the money you have extra. You are saving $12k a year on top of 401k + match and a pension. What else do people expect of you?
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Aug 29, 2013 23:01
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One of my friends had a fly as hell Chicago penthouse for only 1800/mo, you could find one of those and save the difference. He is good at burning money too but working in finance pays so he'll probably never have to worry about it.
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Aug 29, 2013 23:07
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spwrozek posted:Sounds like you are doing it right to me. Enjoy your life and the money you have extra. You are saving $12k a year on top of 401k + match and a pension. What else do people expect of you? Yeah, exactly. I guess if you want to retire early or something you might consider putting more towards savings, but I'd say you're ahead of most people by saving 12K a year.
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Aug 30, 2013 00:56
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razz posted:Yeah, exactly. I guess if you want to retire early or something you might consider putting more towards savings, but I'd say you're ahead of most people by saving 12K a year. Saving 12% of your take home isn't exactly stellar. He's certainly not bad with money since he doesn't appear to live above his means.
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Aug 30, 2013 02:11
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tiananman posted:Saving 12% of your take home isn't exactly stellar. He's certainly not bad with money since he doesn't appear to live above his means. He also has a pension and the matched 401k, it's not like he's going to retire with forty bucks in checking and the shirt on his back. E: Storytime~ When I was a kid we had neighbors who would invested all their money in inventions. They did pretty well for themselves (I think the husband was a pharmacist and the wife was an accountant) but they would invest in the kind of poo poo you saw on infomercials, like videophones, all-in-one lawn trimmers, solar powered phones, poo poo like that. I assume they ended up okay but it was a weird way to plan for the future. Declan MacManus fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Aug 30, 2013 |
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Aug 30, 2013 02:25
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A friend of mine, lets call him Terry, didn't really have a lot of money, a lot of smarts, or a great plan for the future. But, after high school, he spent money that he had (or he took out a loan, I'm not quite sure) and went to a computer technical school to get a job as a computer help desk technician. He told me that it was awesome because they got to plan networked computer games instead of do any sort of study. He basically paid a ton to have a multi-month long LAN party. Unsurprisingly, he never ended up as a help desk tech.
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Aug 30, 2013 03:40
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tiananman posted:Saving 12% of your take home isn't exactly stellar. He's certainly not bad with money since he doesn't appear to live above his means. If he's making 100k, saving 17k for his 401k (that's what it takes to max it out) and around 1k per month out of what he gets after that, that's around 25% of his gross salary and significantly more than 12% of his take-home pay. Rexfumado, you should check out the stickied long-term investing and retirement thread. EDIT: I mean, you should really consider whether you think you're actually getting $1000 more enjoyment out of your 2500/mo apartment compared to a 1500/mo apartment, because you should be able to have a lot of fun with that $1000/month or whatever (and you might have even more fun with a two-week $5000 vacation every year instead). And you should definitely have an emergency fund and look into getting an IRA. But as long as you're taking steps to not gently caress your future up with debt or not-enough-retirement, I wouldn't worry too much about living it up while you're young. Colin Mockery fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Aug 30, 2013 |
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Aug 30, 2013 05:11
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Declan MacManus posted:When I was a kid we had neighbors who would invested all their money in inventions. They did pretty well for themselves (I think the husband was a pharmacist and the wife was an accountant) but they would invest in the kind of poo poo you saw on infomercials, like videophones, all-in-one lawn trimmers, solar powered phones, poo poo like that. I assume they ended up okay but it was a weird way to plan for the future.
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Aug 31, 2013 00:16
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Saw my cousin yesterday, he's in his 40's. He's living with my grandmother at the moment. He got evicted from his rent-stabilized NYC apartment for non-payment of rent. He basically forgot to renew his lease, which you're allowed to by rent stabilization law, and the landlord has to accept it. They can only jack up your rent around 4% (changes every year by committee) if you renew your lease. If you move out though, the landlord can charge the new tenant fair market rent. After forgetting to renew his lease, the landlord just stopped accepting his rent and started eviction proceedings. My cousin didn't even wonder why his rent wasn't being taken out of his account like normal. He went out of town, came back to an eviction notice, and the landlord was able to change the rent from $1400 a month to $3000 a month. Can't say I blame the landlord.
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Aug 31, 2013 02:06
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SpelledBackwards posted:So, they were the Dinks from the show Doug? Mr. and Mrs. Dink (i.e., Dual Income No Kids) always had the latest fishing gear or what have you to show Doug. Reminds me of that episode of Rugrats where Chucky's dad won the lottery but lost all of his money when it turned out the Ear-Wiz actually increased waxy buildup. Anyway did they invest by giving the inventor money or did they just buy stuff off the TV and sell it?
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Aug 31, 2013 02:29
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dreesemonkey posted:Bad with money:  " .... while completely ignoring the collapse of the real estate industry that happen just 5 years ago.You can't bring your house to the grocery store, buddy. And after you've paid off your HELOC, credit cards, and that car loan for the nice Jag you financed, will you really have that much money left? melon cat fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Aug 31, 2013 |
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Aug 31, 2013 05:13
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How about financial professionals who are bad with money? Or sometimes other people's money.  http://disciplinaryactions.finra.org/ You can search just by date. Usually any 2 week period will get you lots of results. #2009016159104 from 8/14/13:  He was on track to do enough trading in that person's account to spend over THREE TIMES THEIR BALANCE in commissions alone.
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Aug 31, 2013 19:28
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Zero One posted:How about financial professionals who are bad with money? Or sometimes other people's money. I once overheard a colleague of mine do an application for a line of credit for a client. I'm quoting him verbatim here: "Now that we've set you up with this HELOC, I'd definitely recommend putting it into the stock market." Then I heard another one say to a client, "I think the Facebook IPO will be a great buy", and he wasn't being sarcastic at all. 
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Aug 31, 2013 22:47
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Zero One posted:How about financial professionals who are bad with money? Or sometimes other people's money. Yeah, yeah, it happens. The company where I used to work had to institute rules preventing advisors from "churning", which is constantly moving money around (or in our case, moving money the second sales fees were waived) for the commissions. One person I know dropped from nearly 400k to just over 100k in a single year, income-wise.
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Aug 31, 2013 22:56
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Orange_Lazarus posted:Reminds me of that episode of Rugrats where Chucky's dad won the lottery but lost all of his money when it turned out the Ear-Wiz actually increased waxy buildup. The first one. They were like patrons of the arts, except instead of the arts it was stupid inventions that no one needed.
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Aug 31, 2013 23:51
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melon cat posted:Heh, interesting that you mention that. In my line of (previous) work I found that financial "professionals", from Accountants, to advisors, to fellow account managers, actually had the worst personal finance habits. The worst part of it all is that many of them were giving people advice on how to handle their money. To be fair, I think Facebook is up from it's IPO now. It had issues but saying that isn't the worst thing you can do. The HELOC though... that's just  At least FINRA disqualifies reps if they go bankrupt or default on loans.
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Sep 1, 2013 02:09
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Uranium 235 posted:And saving for a down payment is going to take time. Can you get a good house in a good neighborhood in Chicago for $250,000? Because I don't see how you can save up for a 20% down payment for anything more expensive than that in only 2 years. Well, actually I can see how--you'd have to move into a cheaper apartment.
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Sep 1, 2013 22:36
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melon cat posted:Heh, interesting that you mention that. In my line of (previous) work I found that financial "professionals", from Accountants, to advisors, to fellow account managers, actually had the worst personal finance habits. The worst part of it all is that many of them were giving people advice on how to handle their money. "Do as I say, not as I do" is something that happens in a lot of fields, so this doesn't really surprise me. That said it's probably easier to be a bit looser with money when you're aware of the financial tools available to you. I've been reading through that FINRA disciplinary action site and the complaints I've read tend to be either really outlandish, like the guy who took out $100,000 from his clients accounts and transferred it to himself, or really petty in contrast, such as the "personal banker" (I'm guessing that's code for 'bank teller'?) who was done for forging a customers signature and taking out $8500.
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Sep 2, 2013 02:22
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This is much more stupid, but someone on reddit posted a meme that said "If you have to wait to get your paycheck to go out to eat, then you can't afford to go out to eat" The amount of butthurt in the thread was off the chart. People being personally offended about how they spend their money. I know it's reddit and all, but it was very entertaining to read.
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Sep 2, 2013 19:22
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I'd love to read that if you have the link handy.
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Sep 2, 2013 22:07
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I was thinking the same thing in a Goonmeet thread (but didn't say it) where we used to go out fairly often on Wednesdays, but one week a few people said they weren't paid until Thursday, so they wouldn't have money to go out until then and that we should move it back to that day. In my mind of course, I was telling them not to go out at all then.
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Sep 2, 2013 22:20
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CelestialScribe posted:I'd love to read that if you have the link handy. http://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/1lgkpp/your_budget_doesnt_change_overnight/
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Sep 2, 2013 22:44
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CelestialScribe posted:I'd love to read that if you have the link handy. Best in small doses.
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Sep 2, 2013 22:46
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TOO SCSI FOR MY CAT posted:http://www.reddit.com/r/AdviceAnimals/comments/1lgkpp/your_budget_doesnt_change_overnight/?sort=old My favorite is this (which is super indicative of the mentality discussed in this thread): quote:Actually, I just got a job with a 33% raise. Yes, sometimes your budget changes overnight. The conflation of income and budget for personal finance is what gets people into trouble more often than not. "I make more so I should spend more!"
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Sep 3, 2013 01:38
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froglet posted:"Do as I say, not as I do" is something that happens in a lot of fields, so this doesn't really surprise me. That said it's probably easier to be a bit looser with money when you're aware of the financial tools available to you. Personal bankers open accounts/sell products to individual bank customers where as a Business banker would do the same for commercial customers. I looked up that term on site and found a good one. Some bank manager in Texas got a customer to deposit $100 million dollars and then forged bank documents saying that Chase Bank was issuing a promissory note worth $18 million to that client. "He was not authorized by the bank to issue those documents" is an understatement.
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Sep 3, 2013 02:40
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Higgy posted:My favorite is this (which is super indicative of the mentality discussed in this thread): Well I think there is a bit of a difference between eating ramen 3 times a day, to going out and buying produce to upgrading to the biggest HD cable package because you now can make it rain. I guess it's what keeps the economy moving. I wonder what the economy would be like if people started saving 20% of their income.
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Sep 3, 2013 13:05
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Things would slow down but nothing would really change if everyone saved an equal amount, if the poor/lower classes started saving a higher percentage than the rich (and could hold onto it for a long time) then things would change because wealth would slowly transfer from the top to the bottom.
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Sep 3, 2013 13:25
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I have another friend who could be wealthy, but ends up spending most of his money. On the plus side (money wise), he has a trust that generates ~$3k a month (might be more now that he's older, may have more direct access to the money). He also has a job and makes roughly another $3k after taxes a month. So a decent income for the area. Their mortgage is tiny, like $300/month. Since I've known them, they've gotten 14(?) new cars. Brand new, not just new to them, but brand new. Some loans, some leases. I'll see if I can list them. Toyota Celica Toyota Corolla Mazda RX-8 Mazda 6 (lemon lawed) Mazda 6 Nissan Titan Acura TL Subaru STI Acura RDX Subaru STI Lexus IS250 Subaru STI Toyota Tundra BMW 335xi Obviously their priority is vehicles. For a while they wanted to buy a house (theirs isn't in the best neighborhood), but "couldn't afford a mortgage/down payment" on anything they liked so now they pay to send their oldest to a private school.
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Sep 3, 2013 14:14
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dreesemonkey posted:I have another friend who could be wealthy, but ends up spending most of his money. What are they doing with them? Just drive them for a bit and sell them?
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Sep 3, 2013 17:23
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Jesus, that guy is like the clone of my coworker. Every 2 years he gets a new car. Since I've known him RX-8 WRX STI Some sort of SUV/truck S2000 Volt Some sort of BMW I've known him like 8 years. So I guess a bit more than once every 2 years. I've talked to him before, he claims to have owned a car from every single car company at one point in his life. I believe him.
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Sep 3, 2013 17:59
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dreesemonkey posted:I have another friend who could be wealthy, but ends up spending most of his money. My uncle has had over 50 vehicles. He says he can't even remember how many he's had. He just gets a new one whenever he wants one, like 2-3 times a year. Last time I saw him he had a F-150 truck and said he just saw it in the lot and pretty much just drove in and swapped vehicles right then and there. Honestly though if I had a trust fund that gave me $3,000 a month and my housing expenses were $300 a month I probably wouldn't even have a job. That's like $500 more a month than my husband and I make combined. If it's a trust fund that's going to last until the guy dies, and if they're not going into stupid amounts of debt (and with a $300 mortgage it sounds like they're pretty good with money or at least comfortable with a modest home), then yeah, let the guy get all the new cars he wants. It's not like he really has to save up for anything, he gets $36,000 a year just for existing.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:17
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razz posted:Honestly though if I had a trust fund that gave me $3,000 a month and my housing expenses were $300 a month I probably wouldn't even have a job. That's like $500 more a month than my husband and I make combined. If it's a trust fund that's going to last until the guy dies, and if they're not going into stupid amounts of debt (and with a $300 mortgage it sounds like they're pretty good with money or at least comfortable with a modest home), then yeah, let the guy get all the new cars he wants. It's not like he really has to save up for anything, he gets $36,000 a year just for existing. I don't know details but they are in debt, student loans, credit cards, etc. I don't know the extent but a literal quote that my friend gave me before was "I figure if I can afford the monthly payments, it's fine". There has been a noticeable belt-tightening over the last few years, though they still live quite comfortably. They're certainly not drowning, I guess it's just different strokes for different folks. Their mortgage is so cheap because they bought the house at auction, and it's old. They've put a decent amount of work into it, but in the area they'll never get that money back out, which is another reason why they're kind of resigned to stay there I guess. I realize I'm pretty boring but if I had that extra kind of income I would definitely not have any kind of debt and use that money to make more money, whether it be straight up invesments or rental properties or the like. All it takes is some self-restraint and you'd be set for life, whether you wanted to work or not. Some backstory is his dad's family was old money or something. After his dad died and my friend turned 21, he started receiving the trust payments that his father was getting, though I guess his dad's share was more like $9k/mo. One of my friend's cousins pitched a fit that he would be getting so much money being so young, and someone made a decision for it to be around $3k/mo or something like that. It must be a BIIIIIG pool of money. I guess I can somewhat see his "live for today" mentality since both of his parents had died at a fairly young age.
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Sep 4, 2013 20:59
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CitizenKain posted:What are they doing with them? Just drive them for a bit and sell them? Yea, just get bored with them pretty much. They are the only people that I can think of where leasing makes sense. They're "stuck" with a car for a while, which slows them down, and since they're obviously not against making car payments it frees you from the responsibility of owning anything. The last few STI purchases weren't that stupid, they were never upside down on them, the dealer gives them amazing trade-in values. The current STI is actually paid off, too.
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Sep 4, 2013 21:03
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dreesemonkey posted:They are the only people that I can think of where leasing makes sense.
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Sep 5, 2013 00:39
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It's because driving through the car wash is hella fun, duh.
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Sep 5, 2013 14:01
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