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Sunday Ticket is a splurge that makes me feel richer than almost anything else I buy. It is seriously luxurious. I didn't buy it until I'd been making six figures+ for about three years. You mention you are interested in early retirement, which tells me you are likely familiar with some of the big blogs. Early Retirement Extreme, Mr. Money Mustache, and all the others. What those blogs are about, at heart, is lifestyle design. Not just living day by day and taking what comes, but thinking deeply about what you actually want out of life and then making that happen. Sit down, and really think about all the things you want out of life. That's a long timeline, so break it down - think about what you want out of the next year. Then think about what you want out of the next six months. And then the next month. Others in this thread may disagree, but I think it's ok if Sunday Ticket is on the list, even with your debt. People need outlets, and I don't really think most people have the constitution to do what the extreme frugality blogs call for - they need some things here and there to not feel deprived. Your problem though seems to be from reading this thread, that these things you want come out of nowhere. You should have known since last NFL season that you wanted Sunday Ticket. You should have had it in the back of your mind and been thinking about how you were going to pay for it, if it were really important to you. Watching the Cincinnati Bengals (don't laugh) is really important to me, and so I would make sacrifices to make that happen, or I'd find a way to make the money outside of my normal budget. Look on Craigslist "Gigs" for a day or two of weekend work, buy something low from a yard sale/thrift store and resell it high on eBay or Craigslist, do something to make a couple of hundred bucks and then buy yourself Sunday Ticket. You might have a marketable talent you could offer or service you could perform. There's usually a way. I am not a money expert, I've had serious issues in the past, so feel free to take my advice or leave it. I'm debt free other than a mortgage, but it's more because of a large income than frugality. But it's also because I've always had the attitude that if I want something, then I need to figure out how to get the money to pay for it (I've never had a 9-5 job) and it's a mindset that you could take to pay for these extras, and a mindset you could use to pay off debt.
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Jul 15, 2014 05:24
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imabanana posted:Others in this thread may disagree, but I think it's ok if Sunday Ticket is on the list, even with your debt. People need outlets, and I don't really think most people have the constitution to do what the extreme frugality blogs call for - they need some things here and there to not feel deprived. I agree, people need to allow themselves pleasure and you don't need 6 figs to afford cable/sunday ticket, but his budget cannot handle $1,400 with his wife going on FML which will result in the big question in the ledger being how much will the baby cost (the answer is a lot). A $1,400/yr cable bill is for when everything else is taken care of and you can stick to a drat budget. His outlets need to be a little more cost conscious at this point. Someone that allows themselves that size of an outlet at this point in their financial plan is called a Poor that doesn't understand money. Might as well "invest" in an above ground pool at that point and tell yourself it's cheaper than 10 years worth of season tickets for 3 to the water park. Think of the money we are saving! AgrippaNothing fucked around with this message at 13:14 on Jul 15, 2014 |
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Jul 15, 2014 13:10
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Yep definitely familiar with the blogs. I think the part that I'm still trying to take in is the lifestyle design. Like instead of sitting around playing expensive video games, it would be better to take a nice walk (which is much cheaper obviously). I noticed that Tuyop had a similar revelation in his thread; hopefully we can achieve this. I don't think I want to poo poo in a hole behind Walmart living in a tent as he so facetiously put it though. I think I'm feeling too unmotivated to put in any extra time. I already stay an hour late at work every day while waiting for my ride; I value my free time. Maybe as the season goes on and prices get cheaper though I'll reconsider. Thanks. That reminds me too: Sigma: I know you brought up the car being a bad choice, but if nothing else it was intended to be a good financial choice. Like I said the truck was starting to have serious problems like leaking or burning oil, it needed new tires, the stereo wasn't working, the cam phasers were knocking hardcore, etc. The old car had 18% interest and got about 12 MPG less than the Corolla. Road to hell and all that, but I think we're better off if for no other reason than being down to one car. Aristotle Animes posted:I agree, people need to allow themselves pleasure and you don't need 6 figs to afford cable/sunday ticket, but his budget cannot handle $1,400 with his wife going on FML which will result in the big question in the ledger being how much will the baby cost (the answer is a lot). Well to be fair the cable decision was a decision I knew I could get out of easily without paying anything (and not saying this just to you). But I get your point anyway. Just for a little bit of a positive note, I'd like to put out there that starting August we'll be cutting our expenses by $905.00 a month, or $10,860.00 a year. I've increased my commute time from 9 minutes to probably about 45 minutes. I think we're making necessary sacrifices - we just need to be careful not to pick up any debt and to watch our spending, and we'll be in a great place in about 5-6 months. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Jul 15, 2014 |
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Jul 15, 2014 18:02
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Knyteguy posted:I think I'm feeling too unmotivated to put in any extra time. I already stay an hour late at work every day while waiting for my ride; I value my free time. Maybe as the season goes on and prices get cheaper though I'll reconsider. Thanks. That is fine! Good for you for making that choice. Very often free time is the way to go. The important thing is that you are making a conscious choice.
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Jul 16, 2014 02:23
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OK not to be the Goon in the well or anything but I've decided I'm getting this for my PS3 console in August: https://nflst.directv.com/DTVAPP/nflws/index.jsp I'm going with the $239.00 package and I'll try to freelance the money August-September (which I've actually made a living on before). Really though my already established web business will passively pay for it by February or so. With 16-17 weeks of football and considering the gas to go to the sports bar, plus whatever my wife and I decide to get, this will be cheaper. Next year I will plan for this better since I'm better educated. I won't be getting cable. I will still be getting on OTA antenna though. Sigma also helped me come up with a plan for anything we may want to watch that isn't on a broadcast station. For everyone asking why I didn't plan for this sooner... it's because I haven't really been enough of a football fan to look into what it would cost beyond last year (which I streamed). This wasn't so much on a whim as it was ignorance of what it would take. Doing a little math based on our YNAB previous expenses, if we stay on track like we have this month, we'll be able to save right around a whopping $3,500 dollars even after paying for the Sunday Ticket in August since we're paying our rent this month. That's MMM levels of savings at 60% and with a car payment even. September will probably be around 65% if we continue to stay on track (which I'm determined to do). Couple things to note: New net income for myself: $1,961 after raise (accrued twice monthly) New net income for wife: $688 (accrued every 2 weeks) My paycheck will be going up about $200.00 a check once my insurance stops being pulled on August 1. Edit and since I'm being a conservative estimator my %saved figures don't take into account the paycheck increase after insurance drops from my paycheck. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Jul 16, 2014 |
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Jul 16, 2014 22:59
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Knyteguy posted:OK not to be the Goon in the well or anything but I've decided I'm getting this for my PS3 console in August: I don't have time to read back through the thread right now, but I swear I keep seeing a lot of "We will be able to save..." and "we are going to save...." and so on, but how much have you actually saved? And when is the baby due? I would hold off on buying fun stuff for yourself until you have hit some savings goals. For example, if you get the emergency fund up to three months worth of bills & expenses, then splurge. But it looks like you're heading down the zaurg path here of "I will totally straighten my poo poo out, right after I buy this one thing..."
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Jul 16, 2014 23:14
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April posted:I don't have time to read back through the thread right now, but I swear I keep seeing a lot of "We will be able to save..." and "we are going to save...." and so on, but how much have you actually saved? And when is the baby due? Come my paycheck (6 days from now) we will have $1,000 in the emergency fund, $400.00 to move, rent paid through August, and all the other predictable expenses covered. That's paying rent twice this month plus relatively hefty deposit. Hopefully moving costs less - I got a great deal on a 24' moving truck that should get it done in one load. Also at one point we had about $5,000.00-$6,000.00 saved. Since football season doesn't start until September and my wife gets paid 3 times next month we should have another ~$4,000.00 saved come September. If for some reason something comes up (an emergency) and we can't save that much, I won't spend any money on this football thing (Sunday Ticket for console) until after September unless we have we $4,500+ saved by September 1.  (this is more to keep myself motivated). I think we'll have more than that so it should be doable. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Jul 16, 2014 |
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Jul 16, 2014 23:25
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You should also condition the money you do save because you could save it pretty easily and then just spend it.
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Jul 17, 2014 00:08
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Veskit posted:You should also condition the money you do save because you could save it pretty easily and then just spend it. Agreed. Here's a really loving tough one: barring an emergency we will maintain a savings rate of at least 40% our combined net income a month (if mathematically possible - we don't have a month in our new place yet so I don't know, but if not then 33%) until February 2015 (baby due date btw April; sorry for missing that). This needs to be met without dipping into our current savings. Things like paying off debt, purchasing net positive assets (like a Vanguard index), and generally just using the money to improve our financial situation will be exempt from the emergency rule and will not count towards this. The savings categories won't matter - it can go towards a buffer, an emergency fund, or the baby fund, etc.  The at least in the 33%-40% figure is important. Those are the minimum goals.
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Jul 17, 2014 00:28
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Did you check if you were eligible for the Sunday Ticket streaming thing? I ask because I am not, which is too bad. It looks like they're only targeting apartment buildings and certain areas, probably because they're less likely to be allowed to put up satellite antennas. Punished because I live in a SFH 
KS fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Jul 17, 2014 |
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Jul 17, 2014 00:43
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KS posted:Did you check if you were eligible for the Sunday Ticket streaming thing? I ask because I am not, which is too bad. It looks like they're targeting apartment buildings only, probably because they're less likely to be allowed to put up satellite antennas. I hadn't - but it looks like we're eligible after I just tried it. Couldn't you just say you lived in an apartment, or use someone's address who does though? I'd guess they'll just give a username and password to log in.
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Jul 17, 2014 00:49
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You have only a thousand dollars in an emergency fund, you're having a baby and you're buying poo poo like this? I'm 3 months pregnant, with about a 20k e-fund, and I'm still semi-freaking out. You may not be zaurg, but you are still providing me lots of perspective. Thank you.
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Jul 18, 2014 02:46
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How much can you sell a baby for on the black market? That ought to pad the e-fund out a bit more. Assuming he's not Italian.
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Jul 18, 2014 04:42
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Eris posted:You have only a thousand dollars in an emergency fund, you're having a baby and you're buying poo poo like this? Buying poo poo like what? I haven't bought anything since we found out my wife is pregnant. In fact I sold about half of my valuable things. Also god forbid I buy one thing for an important hobby of mine (I've now decided on the $130.00 package even) after we save $4500.00 in a month in a half even while moving. I genuinely appreciate the advice here and I consider every single point, but it's important to remember that incremental rewards are an important part of training good habits. We'll continue to save at a rate of at least $2200.00 a month if my calculations are correct for the next 6.5 months (due date) leaving us with at least $18,000, plus we have our health savings account which should have a few grand if we continue our rate of contribution. And after we pay off the medical expenses from the birth up front then I'll be working at saving money twice as hard. Also that's a little neurotic don't you think? There are plenty of people who are lower middle class with no money in the bank that do just fine and have happy healthy kids. Jeez. I'd say having any money saved is the exception not the rule so we are going to be way ahead of the curve. It's obvious which choice is the winning side, but come on you could pay for the pregnancy uninsured with cash if you needed to. quote:How much can you sell a baby for on the black market? That ought to pad the e-fund out a bit more. Assuming he's not Italian. Is it bad with money that I recently looked into selling a kidney?  (seriously they can go for as much as $200,000 that's like half my retirement savings) If I sell my kid's kidney too we're at like $400,000. (I'm obviously just kidding).
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Jul 18, 2014 05:23
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Knyteguy posted:Buying poo poo like what? I haven't bought anything since we found out my wife is pregnant. In fact I sold about half of my valuable things. Also god forbid I buy one thing for an important hobby of mine (I've now decided on the $130.00 package even) after we save $4500.00 in a month in a half even while moving. I genuinely appreciate the advice here and I consider every single point, but it's important to remember that incremental rewards are an important part of training good habits. In your first post in this thread you were running a surplus of $2,000 a month on paper, and still using payday loans. Over the past two months combined you've put less than $300 into savings. Maybe you don't tell us when you're considering making a big purchase and decide against it, but so far there have been more excuses, apologies, and last-minute purchases than rational long-term decisions. I truly hope you do put $2,200 a month into your savings account, but hopefully you can see why people might be skeptical.
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Jul 18, 2014 05:39
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Knyte I will say I thought that post was harsh, especially if you stick to your guns and do what you said involving hitting those savings numbers, keeping them, and really pushing forward in having savings for you and your family. That said, your track record hasn't really shown what you actually are doing. You say things like "i'm going to" or "with this I'll be able to" or blah blah blah. Actually you know what, can you just post the net worth chart so I can figure out a little bit better.
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Jul 18, 2014 06:42
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Knyteguy posted:but it's important to remember that incremental rewards are an important part of training good habits. Rewards for what? You haven't saved anything. I would recommend you hurt yourself socking away money for a couple months before you pat yourself on the back. Right now you are telling yourself what a good man you are going to be so you'll just buy this one little thing. I backed off after you told us you were ditching the cable/nfl bill and immediately contemplated acquiring another, lesser bill, because I don't what to be a martinet and a dick that just yells at you and a few hundred isn't the end of the world so, I'm keeping things in perspective. I do however want to gently point out to you right now that you are rewarding behavior you haven't exactly attained, which just cultivates a habit of spending and could lead to "I'll just be extra good next month". So in short you are ruining your life. There i'm done, and that's all i'm going to say about this. *horrible jewish mother zips lip, locks and tosses key* ;-)
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Jul 18, 2014 12:51
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Knyteguy posted:Buying poo poo like what? I haven't bought anything since we found out my wife is pregnant. In fact I sold about half of my valuable things. Also god forbid I buy one thing for an important hobby of mine (I've now decided on the $130.00 package even) after we save $4500.00 in a month in a half even while moving. I genuinely appreciate the advice here and I consider every single point, but it's important to remember that incremental rewards are an important part of training good habits. So what's wrong with saying "After we have $5000 in the e-fund, I will reward myself with this $200 treat." What I am hearing from you is "Geez guys, I am just buying this one thing, I'm going to be saving up A LOT OF MONEY so get off my back already!" What's wrong with setting stretch goals & rewards for yourself, as opposed to rewarding yourself for planning to reach your goals?
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Jul 18, 2014 15:02
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Did you buy the $30,000 car at 11% interest before or after you found out your wife was pregnant? It's very easy to use as spreadsheet or program to look 12 months into the future and go "WOW Look we'll have $50,000 saved up!". It's a much harder thing to resist spending money as your savings climbs. I find often times that as your savings starts to hit milestones it's very easy to end up spending more. "Oh wow we have $10,000 in savings! We should go on one more trip before we have the baby with just the two of us!" "We've got $8,000 saved we can get the more expensive car seat!" I believe you've already admitted that to some extent this already happened once. IE that you had a decent buffer, got cocky with your money, and then spent it all back to $0. We just don't want to see another Slow Motion where you constantly change your numbers as you don't meet your goals while you scream "BUT I DESERVED IT! I DID SO WELL LAST MONTH! AND I HAVE $XXXXX COMING SOON SO IT'S OKAY".
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Jul 18, 2014 15:05
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I'll fully admit I am neurotic. I'm likely going to be fine. But my goal isn't to "pay for the pregnancy" its to build up a comfortable lifestyle so I don't have to say "no" to things me or my kid may want that I would like to say yes to. I just think its interesting that I don't consider myself as doing super well or anything -- according to my calculations, I'll likely be okay, barring anything horrific happening, and have the kind of lifestyle I want. But I still worry. I contrast that with your "yeah, we should have enough to move. And I have 1k in the bank, and some more is coming. Sounds like I'm ready for a baby!" and I realize that this is how a lot of people live. And are okay with it. And I think it's wild. I'm not telling you to live like a monk - I just find it hard to imagine a world where I have a baby coming, and so little cushion, and still treat myself to football cable packages or whatever.
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Jul 18, 2014 15:23
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April posted:What's wrong with setting stretch goals & rewards for yourself, as opposed to rewarding yourself for planning to reach your goals? Nothing. I think the thread is just turning in because there's a lot of frustrating of Knyte effectively puting in the plan but never being able to execute it and constantly looking at the need to buy things.
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Jul 18, 2014 15:44
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Veskit posted:Nothing. I think the thread is just turning in because there's a lot of frustrating of Knyte effectively puting in the plan but never being able to execute it and constantly looking at the need to buy things. coming back to say they bought a 26k car and were having a baby was enough to turn me
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Jul 18, 2014 15:46
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Jeffrey posted:coming back to say they bought a 26k Corolla and were having a baby was enough to turn me Fixed that for you.
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Jul 18, 2014 15:49
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Guys I think I'm really bad at communicating.Aristotle Animes posted:Rewards for what? You haven't saved anything. I would recommend you hurt yourself socking away money for a couple months before you pat yourself on the back. Right now you are telling yourself what a good man you are going to be so you'll just buy this one little thing. I backed off after you told us you were ditching the cable/nfl bill and immediately contemplated acquiring another, lesser bill, because I don't what to be a martinet and a dick that just yells at you and a few hundred isn't the end of the world so, I'm keeping things in perspective. I do however want to gently point out to you right now that you are rewarding behavior you haven't exactly attained, which just cultivates a habit of spending and could lead to "I'll just be extra good next month". April posted:So what's wrong with saying "After we have $5000 in the e-fund, I will reward myself with this $200 treat." What I am hearing from you is "Geez guys, I am just buying this one thing, I'm going to be saving up A LOT OF MONEY so get off my back already!" Knyteguy posted:Since football season doesn't start until September and my wife gets paid 3 times next month we should have another ~$4,000.00 saved come September. If for some reason something comes up (an emergency) and we can't save that much, I won't spend any money on this football thing (Sunday Ticket for console) until after September unless we have we $4,500+ saved by September 1. ----- Bugamol posted:I believe you've already admitted that to some extent this already happened once. IE that you had a decent buffer, got cocky with your money, and then spent it all back to $0. Knyteguy posted:Agreed. Here's a really loving tough one: barring an emergency we will maintain a savings rate of at least 40% our combined net income a month (if mathematically possible - we don't have a month in our new place yet so I don't know, but if not then 33%) until February 2015 (baby due date btw April; sorry for missing that). This needs to be met without dipping into our current savings. Also we bought the $22,000 car before we found out my wife as pregnant. It's not $25,000, and it's not $30,000. You guys are off by 15-35% of the car price here. I really don't want to explain our reasoning again when it's on this page. It's not helpful for anyone. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 16:19
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Like for real what kills me is some people in here say OK Knyteguy let us know if you want to make any big dumb purchases and talk to us about it. I do that and everyone is like holy poo poo you're a big failure dude $50,000 Volkswagon Beetle LOL. I get that some people want financial schadenfreude and all but there's no reason to be a dick about it? Then people also give me strategies (set a goal to save this amount of money, then you can reward yourself with something small if you want). I try to implement these strategies and I still catch the same crap. I feel like everything is inconsistent which is probably the nature of the beast on forums, but it's kind of confusing. Edit: and just to clarify: I know the actual reward of saving is having money saved.
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Jul 18, 2014 16:26
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The difference is you told us after you did it, perhaps because you didn't want us to tell you something other than what you wanted to hear. Sorry I got the number wrong, but you said yourself that you had 25k outstanding on the loan, regardless of whether it was from negative equity or the cost of the new car. (It will certainly cost you more than $26k at that interest rate though unless you are gonna pay it off soon.)
Jeffrey of YOSPOS fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 16:30
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Veskit posted:
 The dip there is from the car purchase. Jeffrey posted:The difference is you told us after you did it, perhaps because you didn't want us to tell you something other than what you wanted to hear. Sorry I got the number wrong, but you said yourself that you had 25k outstanding on the loan, regardless of whether it was from negative equity or the cost of the new car. (It will certainly cost you more than $26k at that interest rate though unless you are gonna pay it off soon.) When we bought the car I considered the thread dead, or I would've asked. Genuinely. Our goal is to pay off the car as fast as humanly possible. Our first goal is to save a bunch of money as padding; our second goal is to partition the money in order of how much it will help us. Hopefully we can get some help here on how to do that. But the first step is saving. One point that got lost in the conversation is my Grandmother said she will gift us $5,000.00 if we can pay off this car by March. That's half the cost of pregnancy. I don't know if we can do it but we will try. Thank you all again by the way. I appreciate the accountability even from people being negative. It motivates me. Edit: here's something I've decided since last night and a progress update:
Edit2: I thought this deserved more attention (got a laugh outta me): Aristotle Animes posted:So in short you are ruining your life. There i'm done, and that's all i'm going to say about this. *horrible jewish mother zips lip, locks and tosses key* Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 16:54 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 16:35
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So basically you're back to square one, and you're still doing the same things over and over again which is plan to save a bunch of money, and then somehow end up back to where you were. Knyte this is why the thread is getting frustrated with you because you're already planning your victory lap when you haven't even started walking. It's good to have goals, BUT I'm not sure why you have no immediate plans of what you're doing with your money RIGHT THE gently caress NOW to save it. For example the thread will respond to your plans much better if you just come in and say "Hey everyone, 500 is in savings and hte rest of the money is budgeted, here's where it's going" Then boom you're done everyone's happy. instead you come by with lofty dreams, say my goal is to save up 5000 dollars by x date and then buy a playstation to reward myself. I recommend coming up with more conscience monthly plans with the goal in mind. I've done very well in my budgeting just forcing a certain amount of money to go toward my debt, and then budget my money to the debt I paid off. I think it'd help you too instead of looking down that far down the road.
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Jul 18, 2014 17:01
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Veskit posted:So basically you're back to square one, and you're still doing the same things over and over again which is plan to save a bunch of money, and then somehow end up back to where you were. Knyte this is why the thread is getting frustrated with you because you're already planning your victory lap when you haven't even started walking. It's good to have goals, BUT I'm not sure why you have no immediate plans of what you're doing with your money RIGHT THE gently caress NOW to save it. For example the thread will respond to your plans much better if you just come in and say "Hey everyone, 500 is in savings and hte rest of the money is budgeted, here's where it's going" Then boom you're done everyone's happy. Yes we're back to square one. The slope back up has been made since I started posting in this thread again though. OK I'll give your suggestion a go. We have started walking like you put it but I don't think I'm conveying it. I was just telling my wife I wish we could save more this month to prove that (we actively talk about the thread daily).
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Jul 18, 2014 17:24
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Knyteguy posted:It's not $25,000, and it's not $30,000 Your car loan is $27,000 outstanding still at 10.99%. I understand that you probably rolled in the loan from your last car as part of the purcahse, but you effectively have almost a $30,000 car loan. Don't fool yourself and say you bought a $22,000 car. How many years is your car loan? How many years do you think it will take you to pay it off? There are varying degrees of "frugalness" on these forums the extreme being: "ONLY EAT BEANS AND RICE AND LIVE IN A BOX NEAR WHERE YOU WORK AND BUY A USED BIKE IF YOU HAVE TO TRAVEL" I'm not neccesarily as extreme as a lot of people on here. I bought a new car (granted I put $6,000 down and my loan is at 0.9%). I still have student loan debt that I'm not frantically paying down (I make a double payment and it'll be paid off in a few years). I spend $1,600 a month on rent (I live in CA and $1,600 is around 25% of net pay). However it feels like you still have somewhat of the attitude, granted it's gotten better, that you had when you started this thread. Everything is a one time expense. Everything is just this once. Just keep in mind that in November when you made this thread you were certain you were "in the black $2,000 a month!" and it's 9 months later and your financial situation hasn't really changed. At the end of the day it's your life and plenty of people get by just fine living paycheck to paycheck. It's really up to you to decide what really matters.
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Jul 18, 2014 18:03
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I took a look and your net worth was at -$8,000 in December. What happened between then and March? Can you post the full graph?
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Jul 18, 2014 18:17
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Knyteguy posted:Yes we're back to square one. The slope back up has been made since I started posting in this thread again though. Internet: is this a self install fee? Comcast charged me a $10 self install fee and I chatted with them and got it waived. Maybe you can too!
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Jul 18, 2014 18:20
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Bugamol posted:Your car loan is $27,000 outstanding still at 10.99%. I understand that you probably rolled in the loan from your last car as part of the purcahse, but you effectively have almost a $30,000 car loan. Don't fool yourself and say you bought a $22,000 car. Hey cool I'm glad you reposted. I was just replying to your post asking if we bought the car before my wife was pregnant. The answer is no by about 2 weeks or so. Car loan is 5-6 years. How many years to pay off? <= 1. At least that's the plan. quote:Just keep in mind that in November when you made this thread you were certain you were "in the black $2,000 a month!" and it's 9 months later and your financial situation hasn't really changed. At the end of the day it's your life and plenty of people get by just fine living paycheck to paycheck. It's really up to you to decide what really matters. I mean technically we are in the black right? It's all a matter of how much money we spend on frivolous crap. I'd like to note that before I got my good job about 1.5 years ago we were living on $19,000 take home a year. Everything we spend money on at this point that isn't rent, food, or gas is all frivolous crap to me. What matters to me is getting out of debt and saving money. Paycheck to paycheck is what I grew up learning, it's what I've lived the entirety of my adult life, but it's not how I want to live my life. My wife and I had a philosophical conversation last night about what the hell makes us happy in life. We decided that having a big house, the latest gadgets, a fast car, or any bullshit like that isn't it. It's also not going to be going into the office 9-5 every day for the next 40 years. We want the freedom to go take a (frugal) road trip around the United States, to hike the Appalachian Trail, to begin working on starting a charity we've been talking about for the past few years, to travel the world getting cool cultural experiences. Blah blah right? All I know is that when I'm actively posting in this thread our financial situation gets better. I hope that by the time my toxx clause runs out in February of 2015 I'll be able to hold myself accountable and I won't need to broadcast my life to thousands of strangers on the internet to accomplish our goals. I mean for fucks sake a baby is on the way. My problem is I've never had to save money for anything in my entire life. For about half my life I knew I had a large settlement coming (which I blew mostly on stocks and a used car), and beyond that hey hey financing. I'm desperate to overcome this problem... but it's getting better. This month has been our first real month of giving it an earnest go again. August will be the true test for us since we will have a lot of money that won't need to go towards bills. I understand apathy after 9 months of circular behavior. I didn't realize it's been that long. I'm very annoyed at myself that we blew all of our hard work over that time for poo poo we ended up selling. Hah.
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Jul 18, 2014 18:37
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Between you and SlowMo I've never been so entertained by financial chicanery and mental gymnastics. Keep it up guy!
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Jul 18, 2014 18:45
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SiGmA_X posted:Im on my phone so I don't want to comment much. Your plan sounds good IF you stick to it. It sounds like you both want to. So do it! I don't think it's a self install fee (they're sending a tech out)... but good idea I'll call and try to get it waived ($30.00 or so). in_cahoots posted:I took a look and your net worth was at -$8,000 in December. What happened between then and March? Can you post the full graph? Unfortunately we started over with YNAB last March because we weren't even tracking our spending anymore so the data would've taken hours and hours to reconcile. December's estimate may have been wrong though because I don't think we've ever been in that great of a situation. I could be wrong though. As far as what happened based off of memory: we didn't include a debt that my wife owed her grandma for a study abroad in Japan before we got married. We haven't taken on any new debt though besides what you're seeing in the current graph.
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Jul 18, 2014 18:48
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Knyteguy posted:Car loan is 5-6 years. How many years to pay off? <= 1. At least that's the plan. Just to confirm. You plan on paying on making, on average, a $2,500 car loan payment each month for the next 12 months. While going through having a baby, losing work time, and possibly your wife deciding if she wants to work or stay at home. Have you put this into YNAB and figured out how this changes your savings goals? EDIT: Being proactive it looks like you put in $2,000 a month which will not be enough to pay it off in <12 months with interest. 12*2000 = $24,000. Your loan = $27,000 ignoring interest. EDIT: Checking more closely it appears you put $500 for July. If you're going to budget to pay the car off in 12 months you should be budgeting the car payment you expect to make. Don't accidentally count your money twice. "We're going to save $2,000 this month! And we're going to pay an extra $2,000 on our car loan!" That equals $0. Bugamol fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 18:54
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Bugamol posted:Just to confirm. You plan on paying on making, on average, a $2,500 car loan payment each month for the next 12 months. While going through having a baby, losing work time, and possibly your wife deciding if she wants to work or stay at home. Er no admittedly I haven't done the math in depth (recurring problem?). I guess I'll reevaluate how much we can put towards the car based on our average savings in the next 3 months and then try to factor in the baby stuff as best as I can. I don't think I'll take an unpaid paternity leave though - I'll just use my paid vacation for 2 weeks. I want to be there for our child and stuff but it'll be better if I'm making money. I like Veskit's idea of forcing ourselves to put money towards the debt and everything else comes after. I have a toxx clause about the football thing but if I put that off for just one month (October 1) then we can put $1,000 towards the car in August at least and I won't get hit with the banhammer. Would putting extra money towards the car debt be a wise thing to do or should we focus completely on our emergency fund right now? $500.00 for July (it was actually $510) is the minimum payment. Got it regarding the double counting.
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Jul 18, 2014 19:14
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Knyteguy posted:I mean technically we are in the black right?  I couldn't get past here Knyte what are you doing. What are you doing. Stop that please. Also I recommend buffering up your emergency fund given your situation. You can't get cash from your car if you need it, so just eat those payments until you're funded for a poo poo scenario. Veskit fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 19:16
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Personally I would focus on getting a serious emergency fund built. Worst case scenario is that everything goes perfectly with your pregnancy, you find a cheap daycare, your wife quickly returns to work, and you take the money you've been putting in your emergency fund to pay off your car if you feel it's appropriate. It's very clear you have the desire, what is unclear is if you have the long term follow through. An overused phrase would be that budgeting isn't a sprint it's a marathon.
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Jul 18, 2014 19:20
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Veskit posted:
Er I meant in the black monthly, not in a total net manner. Is that better? What I really mean is that we have enough positive cash flow from our incomes that can be utilized to better our financial situation on a monthly basis. I really need to work on my communication. Bugamol posted:Personally I would focus on getting a serious emergency fund built. Worst case scenario is that everything goes perfectly with your pregnancy, you find a cheap daycare, your wife quickly returns to work, and you take the money you've been putting in your emergency fund to pay off your car if you feel it's appropriate. I have the willpower, I've proven that to myself countless times in my life. Since I quit smoking last October it's been a daily fight, but I'm doing it. My wife is getting a little bit better at helping me say no to the the frivolous things I want, too. I'll take your advice to get our emergency fund padded. Edit you too Veskit. I know I keep saying this but really thanks everyone for the help. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 19:30
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