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Dantu posted:Working my way through Your Money or Your Life, seems like the first 100 pages has been A) consumerism is bad, B) more money will make you unhappy, C) have 6 months expenses in savings. It gets better, right? I'm pretty sure the best part is the step where they go over a sort of stoic exercise for each purchase or category. Stay with it! The Four Pillars of Investing is loving excellent as well, I'm just about finished that myself.
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Oct 25, 2013 00:29
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Dantu posted:Working my way through Your Money or Your Life, seems like the first 100 pages has been A) consumerism is bad, B) more money will make you unhappy, C) have 6 months expenses in savings. It gets better, right? I thought the best part of the book was its definition of money, which was roughly that money is basically a physical representation of the time from your life spent earning it. It was really an epiphany for me, and has transformed the way I think about money.
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Oct 25, 2013 20:19
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Taco Avenger posted:I thought the best part of the book was its definition of money, which was roughly that money is basically a physical representation of the time from your life spent earning it. It was really an epiphany for me, and has transformed the way I think about money. That seems like sort of an odd way to think about money. I think about a job as 1, a way to get skills I want for the next thing I'd like to do, and 2, as a way to do something fun and challenging which helps people. The money I get paid along the way is nice because it lets me survive, but it isn't really why I'm doing my job.
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Oct 25, 2013 23:43
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semicolonsrock posted:That seems like sort of an odd way to think about money. I think about a job as 1, a way to get skills I want for the next thing I'd like to do, and 2, as a way to do something fun and challenging which helps people. The money I get paid along the way is nice because it lets me survive, but it isn't really why I'm doing my job. You're confusing job with money. You've correctly identified positive aspects of a job, and it sounds like your motivations for working are nice and valuable. However, if someone is paying you to do work, you're still trading your time for money. The YMOYL perspective just breaks down the steps of that trade. So if you work 10 hours and someone pays you 100 dollars, then you want to buy a pizza for 20 dollars, some people (like Taco Avenger) find it helpful see that pizza as two hours of work. If the pizza is something you do every week, then cutting the pizza out of your life saves you two hours of work, or a whole work day every month. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a day off to spend with my partner every month than a loving pizza.
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Oct 26, 2013 00:14
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tuyop posted:...I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a day off to spend with my partner every month than a loving pizza. A pizza-focused individual might consider budgeting as:
If that's too simple, go read Luca Pacioli's book on double-entry bookkeeping. Money happens to be a (generally) compact and standardized way to make purchases, but it's not required. If your landlord expects you to give them one pizza Sunday through Friday evening, you have no pizza except the four you carry home from work Friday, and you pay the grocer their weekly pizza on the way home, then you won't be able to "pay your rent" Sunday evening unless you skip eating (your daily pizza) over the weekend.
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Oct 27, 2013 17:01
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PhantomOfTheCopier posted:You're confusing money with pizza. Haha, well I was just trying to explain YMOYL's exercise of equating money with time. I think the point is just to take something abstract (money) and see it as something concrete (time). I mean, I have thousands of dollars so 5 here and 30 there don't really matter to me. But everyone only has 24 hours a day.
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Oct 27, 2013 17:48
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I spend cash almost exclusively. Is the YNAB app good for logging cash expenses?
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Nov 2, 2013 03:14
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Switchback posted:I spend cash almost exclusively. Is the YNAB app good for logging cash expenses? E: Quicken also has mobile apps these days, I don't use them so I can't comment.
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Nov 2, 2013 03:29
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Switchback posted:I spend cash almost exclusively. Is the YNAB app good for logging cash expenses? It's just as good as anything else I know about. You'll have to manually log in your expenditures, but it has a concept of a cash account that has its own register. The budget you set is dependent on the amount of money you've had come in, not on where that money resides in accounts. Ideally, you'd have one pool of cash money you just keep track of and let your budget categories take care of the planning overhead, instead of physically separating the money into different earmarked piles, which is unnecessary in YNAB. When you withdraw cash from any bank account, if that's where it's being kept, you just mark the transfer in the app.
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Nov 2, 2013 03:35
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Quick question for someone who knows Mint pretty well. I just started using it today. I have a certain amount of money taken out of my paycheck every period and put into a separate savings account, but there doesn't seem to be a way to put that into Mint so it doesn't show up as available income, but shows up on the graph of where my money goes. Am I missing something, or is this feature somehow not in Mint?
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Nov 14, 2013 00:06
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Schiavona posted:Quick question for someone who knows Mint pretty well. I don't think it works quite the way you're hoping. I found that moving money from account to account made the money 'disappear' - i.e. it never showed up in the graphs as "You 'spent' $150 this month on 'savings'. It just showed the transactions, and the savings account balance getting larger. That sense of "vanishing money" is one of the reasons that I ultimately ditched using Mint for YNAB.
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Nov 14, 2013 00:17
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Schiavona posted:Quick question for someone who knows Mint pretty well. It IS available income, just for spending on something later. There are many ways you could do this. You could categorize that income as the thing you're saving for. Say like, you make the savings account's income as "car". Then it'll count up your amount in "car" for you which will tell you how much you have available for car. Or you could exclude that account from mint. Mint isn't really a very good tool for planning like this. You'd be better served with some other software like YNAB or even Excel so that you can see how your line balances are increasing.
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Nov 14, 2013 00:19
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Mint is awesome at tracking your expenses, but its planning and budgeting capabilities really are lackluster. YNAB rocks at budgeting, but lacks the account monitoring convenience of Mint. I use both and they compliment each other really, really well. Open YNAB, open Mint, start copying transactions over, check that balances match, done. The only thing that would make it even slicker is if Mint would export a .csv of transactions already formatted properly to be imported into YNAB.
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Nov 14, 2013 06:54
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YNAB is half price right now. I was hoping they were going to have a deal for Black Friday.
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Nov 29, 2013 06:53
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Oh, awesome. I was wondering when the next sale was going to be. It looks like the sale ends in 3.5 days, so I'm going to download the trial and see if I like it.
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Nov 29, 2013 16:56
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It was a lot easier to budget my money when I didn't have any and all of it went to bills/rent/gas/groceries with maybe $5 a paycheck left over. I was really good at living like that. But now that I'm making decent money I've developed a lot of terrible spending habits. Sure, I'm saving some money, but not nearly as much as I should have been saving. Just missed the YNAB sale, oh well. Thinking I should try using Mint again, and try to have the discipline to put things in their proper categories this time rather than just giving up on it.
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Dec 3, 2013 15:42
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The YNAB Sale is still active on Steam (and you can extract the key from the steam version and use it with the standalone one if you want). http://store.steampowered.com/app/227320/
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Dec 3, 2013 15:45
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 YNAB has the second-highest logged time in my steam library after Terraria, which I have had for several years.
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Dec 3, 2013 15:51
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Mercaptopropyl posted:It was a lot easier to budget my money when I didn't have any and all of it went to bills/rent/gas/groceries with maybe $5 a paycheck left over. I was really good at living like that. But now that I'm making decent money I've developed a lot of terrible spending habits. Sure, I'm saving some money, but not nearly as much as I should have been saving. Or just nurture good spending habits. There's no software magic bullet that will stop you from spending all your money on gazingus pins if that's what you want to do.
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Dec 3, 2013 15:51
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Mercaptopropyl posted:Just missed the YNAB sale, oh well. What's the expected value of YNAB to you? For me? I've been able to throw several thousand dollars at debt that has saved me many hundreds of dollars in interest, so buying YNAB at full price was actually +EV for me.
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Dec 3, 2013 16:17
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Same. I love this program. I bought it when it was 75% off but how much I've used it in the last four months and how much value I've taken out of it, would have been worth it at the full $60. I'll probably buy YNAB 5 whenever it comes out. And it is still half off on Steam for a couple hours.
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Dec 3, 2013 16:42
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Key extraction eh? I must google that. I dislike having to update (or having to launch) steam constantly.
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Dec 3, 2013 16:44
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SiGmA_X posted:Key extraction eh? I must google that. I dislike having to update (or having to launch) steam constantly. You just go into the menu and there is an option that will give you your serial. It's either right in the program or you do it by opening up Steam and going into the application list and hitting properties or something. I forget offhand. You just gotta run YNAB through Steam at least once. http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/using-ynab-on-steam
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Dec 3, 2013 16:55
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:Same. I love this program. I bought it when it was 75% off but how much I've used it in the last four months and how much value I've taken out of it, would have been worth it at the full $60. I'll probably buy YNAB 5 whenever it comes out. Endorsed. The amount I've saved and gotten my act together has more than paid for the app (which I got 75% off; would happily pay full price now). Doubly so because my fiancee and I share the application across two computers and two phones flawlessly.
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Dec 3, 2013 17:40
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:You just go into the menu and there is an option that will give you your serial. It's either right in the program or you do it by opening up Steam and going into the application list and hitting properties or something. I forget offhand. You just gotta run YNAB through Steam at least once.
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Dec 3, 2013 22:37
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tuyop posted:Or just nurture good spending habits. There's no software magic bullet that will stop you from spending all your money on gazingus pins if that's what you want to do. I just get encouraged when I can see my efforts paying off. It still blows my mind that I have a bank account with a comma in it... after I've paid bills. I know this doesn't make any sense but actually seeing my problem areas and bad decisions on paper will make me actually want to do something about them. I haven't looked at my transactions/where my money's going in ages because while I know I'm spending way more than I should, I have zero debt, and my bank balances keep increasing by enough that it's hiding all the negative consequences. I don't plan to use it for long, I just know it will motivate me to stop acting like I just won the lottery. Kenny Rogers posted:Delving a little bit further into 'smart money management', and a little bit into silly money evangelism (disclaimer: stupid buzzwords ahead)... It will stop me from making a number of bad purchase decisions. Just one of which could make buying this +EV. But I get your point that I should buy it at any price or not at all. edit: I miss PITR. 
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Dec 5, 2013 02:32
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I'd like some input on my current budget, since I've got huge loans from a previous degree. For reference, I'm 22 years old and going back to school while working part-time. Debts: Credit Line: 58k @ 3%, down from 70k in july '13 (when I started working) Income: 4225$ during school year, 6200-8000$ during summer Spending: Rent: 630 Phone: 100 Internet: 60 Electricity: 30 (~60 bimonthly) Transportation: 75 Loan interest: 150 Groceries: 200 Spending Money: 200 Restaurants: 100 Clothing+Household Goods: 150 Guitar Lessons: 200 University tuition: 250 Pet Supplies: 50 RRSP+ Other savings: 600 Total spending: ~2795 Balance goes towards debt repayment. Any thoughts? Is this reasonable? I've been pretty good at following this budget since buying YNAB.
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Dec 7, 2013 20:13
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BlackWidowCult posted:I'd like some input on my current budget, since I've got huge loans from a previous degree. For reference, I'm 22 years old and going back to school while working part-time. You make a shitload of money for a student and only spend ~65% of your income. If this is accurate and you're being honest about it then you're doing great! To split hairs, your discretionary expenses are pretty high. 550/2795 is potentially a lot to spend on yourself and you should run the numbers through debt-reduction calculators to see if you're willing to suspend your debt-free date by months or years to learn guitar RIGHT NOW or get a couple fewer paninis a month. But that's splitting hairs.
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Dec 7, 2013 20:22
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Thanks! Glad to hear I'm not shooting myself in the foot. Working full-time until my debts are paid off would probably be the smartest course of action, but I can't bring myself to do it (which is why I'm switching careers).
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Dec 7, 2013 21:07
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So I used to be an oilfield engineer, and then I got fired. Now I'm an oilfield engineer again, but on severely reduced pay until my promotion next month. At my old job I spent too much money on travel and alcohol. My car died completely, so I borrow my brother's old honda to get to work for now. I live with my parents while I'm saving for a down payment on a house. So I guess I need a budget. Here's my budget:  "Spending" includes things like gasoline, food, alcohol, shoes, and anything else. "Left Over" is additional money I hope to have to deposit in savings at the end of the pay period. I have no debt, no car payment, and no rent. I have a checking account and one credit card. The credit card has a 9% APR with a $3000 limit. I use it to buy poo poo, and then pay it off bimonthly. I did carry a $1500 balance on it while I was unemployed from June - October, but I paid this off in full when I got my first paycheck. First question: Will carrying a $1500 balance on a credit card for like 6 months gently caress up my ability to get a house or car loan? Savings go in the brokerage account. Each pay period, I have $800 automatically taken from my checking account and put in a Vanguard brokerage account. The account holds 25% cash, 25% BND (bond index fund), and 50% VT (total stock market index fund). The purpose of this account is to save for a down payment on a car or house. This is because I am really bad about spending all of the money that I have available. This keeps the money somewhat unavailable. Each month, I spend a lot of money on eating at restaurants. I have cut my drinking down dramatically since September, now drinking no more than about $25 in beer and liquor per week, which is all right with me. Still eat a lot of expensive poo poo though. Second question: is this reasonable so far? Am I being wildly excessive in how much I spend on food and random poo poo? Should I up the automatic savings deposit to like $1200 per pay period? Another thing that I do not understand is how deductions for taxes are calculated. I looked up Federal and Oklahoma income tax schedules and found that it looks like they are way overestimating my tax burden. Third question: Is there a sample spreadsheet somewhere that shows how taxes are deducted from paychecks? Last point. I currently do not get job bonus, but I expect this to change in the next month. I expect it before taxes to vary between about $500 and $2500 per bimonthly pay period, averaging about $1000 per pay period. I have no idea on earth how to budget for this or estimate tax withholding for it. Fourth question(s): How do you budget a varying bimonthly job bonus? How much should I want to pay each month for a mortgage? How much should I want to save for a down payment on a house? Celot fucked around with this message at 03:58 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 03:56
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Celot posted:So I used to be an oilfield engineer, and then I got fired. Now I'm an oilfield engineer again, but on severely reduced pay until my promotion next month. At my old job I spent too much money on travel and alcohol. My car died completely, so I borrow my brother's old honda to get to work for now. I live with my parents while I'm saving for a down payment on a house. So I guess I need a budget. First question: As long as you made your payments on time, your credit rating is fine. Your creditors only care that they actually got paid back, not that you paid back so quickly that they didn't get a chance to make any interest off you (why would they want that?). High credit utilization does hurt your score, but only while it remains high. Anyone considering buying a house though should first ask themselves if they really, really want a house. Read through the OP of the house-buying thread. Second question: You should break down your spending category a lot more. You say you eat a lot of expensive stuff, so you need to be tracking how much is going into that so you know exactly how much it's costing you and what cutting out a filet mignon or two a month can do for you. That's the point of this budgeting thing. $80 for a weightlifting coach sounds like a rather unnecessary expense to me, too. You're paying about a thousand bucks a year for a guy to tell you to pick things up and put them back down again. Okay, I may be oversimplifying a bit, but weightlifting is a pretty repetitive activity to need regular coaching in. Does this guy really provide you with your money's worth of service on a monthly basis, compared to just posting in YLLS? Third question: the IRS has a withholding calculator if that's what you're looking for. If you have state and local taxes as well, Google to see if they have something similar. Fourth question: Once you receive your bonus, budget it out across the future months until you receive your next one. Never take on more obligations than you will reliably receive the income to pay for. House-buying megathread that-a-way. Do never buy.
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Dec 8, 2013 13:09
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Kilty Monroe posted:$80 for a weightlifting coach sounds like a rather unnecessary expense to me, too. You're paying about a thousand bucks a year for a guy to tell you to pick things up and put them back down again. Okay, I may be oversimplifying a bit, but weightlifting is a pretty repetitive activity to need regular coaching in. Does this guy really provide you with your money's worth of service on a monthly basis, compared to just posting in YLLS? SOMEONE has clearly never weightlifted before. It's a pretty technical activity, especially if he's interested in Olympic Lifting. I'd consider a good coach to be a form of health insurance against awful injuries or sloth.
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Dec 8, 2013 15:39
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Kilty Monroe posted:First question: As long as you made your payments on time, your credit rating is fine. Your creditors only care that they actually got paid back, not that you paid back so quickly that they didn't get a chance to make any interest off you (why would they want that?). High credit utilization does hurt your score, but only while it remains high. I made no payments for 6 months. I was supposed to be paying like 250 a month. quote:Anyone considering buying a house though should first ask themselves if they really, really want a house. Read through the OP of the house-buying thread. I live in Oklahoma City, which I'm told has the cheapest houses in the country. If my credit isn't hosed up, my credit union advertises home loans for 1.5% interest. Between those two things, it seems like I am in a good place to buy a house. quote:Second question: You should break down your spending category a lot more. You say you eat a lot of expensive stuff, so you need to be tracking how much is going into that so you know exactly how much it's costing you and what cutting out a filet mignon or two a month can do for you. That's the point of this budgeting thing. Good point. I'll have to start tracking this. quote:$80 for a weightlifting coach sounds like a rather unnecessary expense to me, too. You're paying about a thousand bucks a year for a guy to tell you to pick things up and put them back down again. Okay, I may be oversimplifying a bit, but weightlifting is a pretty repetitive activity to need regular coaching in. Does this guy really provide you with your money's worth of service on a monthly basis, compared to just posting in YLLS? YLLS can't watch you snatch or jerk. quote:Third question: the IRS has a withholding calculator if that's what you're looking for. If you have state and local taxes as well, Google to see if they have something similar. This is perfect. Thank you. quote:Fourth question: Once you receive your bonus, budget it out across the future months until you receive your next one. Never take on more obligations than you will reliably receive the income to pay for. House-buying megathread that-a-way. Do never buy. But the bonus comes every two weeks. It can even become the primary source of income. Celot fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 17:59
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It doesn't matter how advantageous your loan terms are, if you're not prepared to: - Foot all the costs related to homeownership. Check the thread for horror stories. - stay in place long enough to realize a return in the form of equity AND find a buyer at that price. - Lose out on market gains that you could have made by investing your downpayment. - Take advantage if whatever a house offers you that a rental can't. Then you really shouldn't buy. However, if a home is worth all those costs to you because of the last reason, then maybe you should get a house. But you seem pretty ambiguous about the basics so that may not be the case here and you would be better served by saving, investing, and renting until your life changes.
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Dec 8, 2013 18:06
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Well, if I was in your situation and those bonuses were coming in on top of that salary, and they are as big as you are saying, pretend they're not part of your wages at all and put them all towards that credit card until it is paid off, then just save the entire chunk. I mean, if you're living comfortably on your salary, just save all of it and when you want a car just buy it outright. I'd really recommend getting YNAB and making a bunch of saving categories in there and just start dumping those bonuses into them so you have those dollars earmarked in a way that you can see and appreciate, instead of just having a big pile of money in your checking account burning a hole in your pocket. Then you can easily budget for the taxes on those bonuses too. And yeah, definitely start keeping track of your specific expenses so you can see exactly where that $1200 a month is going. Another thing YNAB is good for! Seriously get YNAB it is great there is a 35 day free trial to test it out to see if it's worth the price for you. I swear too, everyone who posts in here lately makes like twice the money I do sometimes it infuriates me I need to get a better job. 100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 18:13
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:Well, if I was in your situation and those bonuses were coming in on top of that salary, and they are as big as you are saying, pretend they're not part of your wages at all and put them all towards that credit card until it is paid off, then just save the entire chunk. It's paid off. But yeah I could save it all I guess, at least until I have a car/house payment. It's just that with an estimable average pay, but unsteady pay, it's hard to say exactly what monthly payments you can afford. quote:I mean, if you're living comfortably on your salary, just save all of it and when you want a car just buy it outright. Now this would be cool. I just kind of feel like a freeloader borrowing my brother's civic all the time. quote:I'd really recommend getting YNAB and making a bunch of saving categories in there and just start dumping those bonuses into them so you have those dollars earmarked in a way that you can see and appreciate, instead of just having a big pile of money in your checking account burning a hole in your pocket. Then you can easily budget for the taxes on those bonuses too. Will do! Thanks. quote:I swear too, everyone who posts in here lately makes like twice the money I do sometimes it infuriates me I need to get a better job. Google "wireline operator" in your area and start calling away. tuyop posted:It doesn't matter how advantageous your loan terms are, if you're not prepared to: I believe I could reliably pay an appropriate sized mortgage. Property taxes in Oklahoma are about $1000 per $100,000 of market value. I've had to pay utilities for a rented house before, so that wouldn't be a surprise. Oklahoma City is my dream city to work in. And I could have pride, a garage, and an asset. And when I retire, I would only have to pay taxes, insurance, and utilities. But I'm not buying a house tomorrow, I'll wait at least another 6 - 12 months. Celot fucked around with this message at 18:34 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 18:32
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:I swear too, everyone who posts in here lately makes like twice the money I do sometimes it infuriates me I need to get a better job. I, in turn, make roughly twice what Celot makes, and face a lot of the same dilemmas. This is partly because I didn't get a good, solid financial education 20 or 25 years ago, so when I started making decent money for the first time EVER (way back in 1998) my expenses naturally expanded to fill 100% of my available income, and it's stayed that way.
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Dec 8, 2013 19:03
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quote:I believe I could reliably pay an appropriate sized mortgage. Property taxes in Oklahoma are about $1000 per $100,000 of market value. I've had to pay utilities for a rented house before, so that wouldn't be a surprise. Oklahoma City is my dream city to work in. And I could have pride, a garage, and an asset. And when I retire, I would only have to pay taxes, insurance, and utilities. It's not the mortgage or the utilities, it's being able to absorb the cost of a broken pipe or destroyed roof or all of your appliances dying in a three month period, or all the above without being ruined. Obviously most homeowners aren't that prepared but just because it's the norm doesn't mean it's desirable, especially when compared to dubious values like "pride" and "an asset". You're in a great place now to objectively look at the costs and benefits and make a sound decision. Also, a house for primary residence is not an asset the same way a car is not an asset. A house is a place to live. Financially, I'd* consider myself ready to buy a house with 20% down and an emergency fund equal to all of my expenses for a year. You may have a different perspective and that's ok too, I'm just putting that out there. I think that would take us three years of effort to get to including all our other goals. *married, one student, one mechanic, household income of ~$110 000 CAD and monthly expenses of ~$3000.
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Dec 8, 2013 19:32
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^^^ Yeah. The amount I spent on completely unexpected bullshit in the first two months of owning my house was itself $1000 per $100,000 of market value. You should be fine, just be expecting it and have some extra money when the time comes.
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Dec 8, 2013 19:36
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tuyop posted:It's not the mortgage or the utilities, it's being able to absorb the cost of a broken pipe or destroyed roof or all of your appliances dying in a three month period, or all the above without being ruined. Obviously most homeowners aren't that prepared but just because it's the norm doesn't mean it's desirable, especially when compared to dubious values like "pride" and "an asset". You're in a great place now to objectively look at the costs and benefits and make a sound decision. But it seems like I don't want to retire and still pay rent, when I could instead just pay insurance, upkeep, and taxes. And as I said, I am saving up for a down payment. I just don't see the advantage to renting over home ownership.
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Dec 9, 2013 04:50
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