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Spartan August is a go.
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Jul 20, 2014 21:12
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Slow Motion posted:Spartan August is a go. Alright man glad to hear it. It's a challenge.
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Jul 21, 2014 16:14
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PROTIP: Go buy all your groceries and fun stuff on July 31st so you can claim that it was money spent in July and not August.
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Jul 21, 2014 16:15
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Bugamol posted:I don't know if you mentioned this already, and I apologize if you did, but what is your plan for when you have the baby? Ok just wanted to clear up benefits with my wife (she worked all weekend). Only question I'm unsure of is insurance.
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Jul 21, 2014 16:20
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SiGmA_X posted:It was a compression fracture, I didn't leave my seat or anything crazy. We hit the tree at an estimated 45mph, and were traveling at just over 60mph. My buddy escaped with a broken wrist from the steering wheel. I have this obsession with seatbelt wearing - and it has saved my life without a question, perhaps a few times, this being a definite time. Sounds worse than it is, but its a constant source of 'ache' (a lot more, but you kind of get use to it?) without a doubt, and with the herniation from an accident in 2010 means constant mild back pain. You get use to it, I guess. I was on oxy for a while but I didn't like what that was doing to me and my life, so I stopped cold turkey and just *deal with it*. Exercise is a godsend. However, I was bad with money from the settlement back then.. My car was crazy fast for a few years, and then it broke right before I got out of my old line of work (auto tech) because of the herniation.. Now its stock and boring drat man my back hurts thinking about it. I'll also be totally jealous if you have a 500wtq car. I wonder if ours is even pushing 150  .Thanks for posting your budget categories I'll see if I can use that to help us reorganize a little.
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Jul 21, 2014 16:25
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Shootin for 500wtq again by 2025 now 
My car will be 32yrs old by then lol..
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Why is your goal for a baby fund $5,000 when you know you're spending at least $10,000 out of pocket on medical bills? Shouldn't your goal be about $10,000-$15,000? $10,000 for medical bills and $5,000 for miscellaneous expenses related to having a new baby. Car seats, cribs, clothes, etc.? Due date is February so you're looking at about 6 months to build these funds. Just to save up enough for your out of pocket medical expenses you are going to be stretched. You'll need to devote almost $2,000 a month or on the flip side this is going to be another bill to pay going into next year. You still seem like you're splitting your money too many ways. $2,000 towards car payment, $2,000 towards emergency fund, $2,000 towards baby fund, etc. This is one of the reasons I don't like YNAB. It does a great job of forcing you to look at the money you're currently spending (every dollar has a job), but often times causes people to not look at the big picture and what expenses they'll have in the coming months. Also did you ever answer on whether or not you have collision insurance? Your insurance seems insanely cheap for a new car that is grossly underwater. I'm paying $108 a month for a 2012 Honda Fit that isn't underwater. Lastly are you sure that your wife is getting 100% paid maternity leave for 6 weeks? It varies largely on the company and she may just be receiving short term disability which is only 60% salary I believe. Some companies will let you supplement this with partial PTO and others may pay 100%. Just something to make sure you get clarification on so you don't get caught by a surprise by not understanding your benefits.
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Jul 21, 2014 17:42
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Bugamol posted:Also did you ever answer on whether or not you have collision insurance? Your insurance seems insanely cheap for a new car that is grossly underwater. I'm paying $108 a month for a 2012 Honda Fit that isn't underwater. Yes we have collision. I'm not sure why it's so inexpensive either (I have an at fault totalled car on my record from about 8 years ago). Here is our current coverage:  This may go up a little bit when we move into a less nice neighborhood this week. My wife just talked to her boss and that's what they said regarding the maternity leave. I have no idea if it could be short term disability though. I'll ask her to clarify that. Bugamol posted:Why is your goal for a baby fund $5,000 when you know you're spending at least $10,000 out of pocket on medical bills? Well the actual pregnancy will mostly come out of the HSA which we're actively contributing to (and paying medical bills out of). I just haven't included that in my numbers yet. We're going to ramp up probably to 100% of her paycheck as we get closer. I don't think there will be a problem increasing the amount of money we contribute (will confirm), and her work contributes quite a bit every paycheck to the HSA too. I'll be sure to post exact numbers here though as we get a little closer for posterity and to make me think about it if nothing else. Assumedly we can contribute money to the HSA from my post tax income and we'll get a tax break too? We're going to need tax breaks this year I don't deduct enough. Also we may take on payments for the medical bills because our credit union gives us 2.5% APR on our checking account up to $10,000. It's not a ton or anything but hey free money. Only as long as there isn't a penalty or something though. Another thing I forgot to mention: my student loans will start coming out in August. Something like $86.00 a month or something. I don't really have a plan to burn these down yet because the car takes the cake interest wise. Edit: and yes we're stretching ourselves thin on savings goals. Right now the priority is to save up a lot of money. I figure once we have a few months worth of income we can decide what needs to go where exactly. I'm welcome to ideas though of course. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Jul 21, 2014 |
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Jul 21, 2014 18:01
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Sorry for the double post (last post was way too long), but one of the reasons we probably have cheaper insurance is we're number 6 in the safest driving cities: http://www.allstatenewsroom.com/cha...als-new-results
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Jul 21, 2014 18:10
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Did you report your car as "low mileage"? This could get you in some serious trouble if you get in an accident. If not then hey congratulations because that rate is incredible. My only parting advice would be to start putting all of these numbers into YNAB. If you plan on saving $2,000 a month put it in YNAB. If you plan on paying off the car in 12 months or even 24 months put it in your budget. This will hopefully give you a more realistic idea of how much money you have at the end of the day. I think one of your big focuses right now should be finding a day care so you can adjust your budget appropriately for post February. A quick Google search says that daycare can cost on average $1,000/mo. While I personally don't have kids the stories I've heard, largely depending on where you live and the quality of care you want, can change that number drastically. A guy I was working with at my last job was paying $1,600 / mo for his child (Bay Area CA).
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Jul 21, 2014 18:16
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Bugamol posted:Did you report your car as "low mileage"? This could get you in some serious trouble if you get in an accident. If not then hey congratulations because that rate is incredible. (last post I can respond to today so I can get some work done) I don't think I reported the car as low mileage. I tried to accurately estimate how many miles we drive based off our previous years and likely put 10,000 or 15,000. But yea thanks when we switched from State Farm in this thread we saved a ton of money. We used to pay at $30-$40 more a month. OK my wife and I both have this Thursday off (I have 5 days vacation starting Wednesday woop) so we'll go check out some day cares. If it's $1,000/mo then she can just be a stay at home mom. On a normal two week paycheck money she probably only grosses $1600/mo and that's working very late nights often enough to resent it as it is. I'd rather the baby have its mom available at all times. Maybe if Stephen Hawking or something is teaching there though
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Jul 21, 2014 18:27
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For baby stuff: Yard sales! There is so much barely-used baby stuff out there, I can't imagine why anyone buys new things for clothes, toys, etc. This is one part of becoming parents that my wife and I are looking forward to.
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Jul 21, 2014 18:47
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Nocheez posted:For baby stuff: Yard sales! There is so much barely-used baby stuff out there, I can't imagine why anyone buys new things for clothes, toys, etc. This is one part of becoming parents that my wife and I are looking forward to. This. The only thing that you have to buy new for a baby is the carseat, just because they're like helmets. If they ever take a jolt they've gotta be replaced. My parents raised us entirely out of goodwill and yardsales. I can't remember ever wearing brand new clothes and your kid won't even care or notice until they are in their tweens. Strollers, rockers, clothes, toys etc are all fantastic to get from goodwill.
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Jul 21, 2014 19:14
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Please have your wife check in regarding her benefits while on maternity leave re: her insurance. What I mean by this is, if she's getting paid through disablity, you guys may be required to cover the cost of her health insurance yourselves. Many companies who cover maternity via disablity require the employee to pay insurance themselves during that period, as in physically make the payment yourself because it won't be auto deducted from her paycheck since she'll be being paid via disability.
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Jul 21, 2014 21:48
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RheaConfused posted:Please have your wife check in regarding her benefits while on maternity leave re: her insurance. What I mean by this is, if she's getting paid through disablity, you guys may be required to cover the cost of her insurance yourselves. Many companies who cover maternity via disablity require the employee to pay insurance themselves during that period. I agree with this. It's fairly uncommon for companies to offer 100% salary while on maternity leave, but definitely not unheard of. You should just have her clarify how she will be paid. There's a variety of ways this can be handled: State Disability (60% I believe) State Disability supplemented by company State Disability supplemented by PTO use Employee Paid As RheaConfused mentioned depending on how she is being paid will affect lots of things. You also need to be sure that there will be no lapses in your medical benefits as I believe you mentioned that you are both on her insurance at this point. She should also get clarification on what the maximum benefit is. It's also probably a good idea to have at least a base plan in place in case she can't return to work during that benefit period.
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Jul 21, 2014 21:55
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The below thread from July 19th, 2011 gives me some perspective on Knyteguy. I hope you pull through this time buddy, but your track record is messy. Stumbled upon this on accident looking for another thread, but hopefully this will give you some perspective on your willpower. Archive Link: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3425957 Knyteguy posted:Hello Goons,
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Jul 22, 2014 00:24
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Ok just billed $675.00 for my company - should be OK to post again.Nocheez posted:For baby stuff: Yard sales! There is so much barely-used baby stuff out there, I can't imagine why anyone buys new things for clothes, toys, etc. This is one part of becoming parents that my wife and I are looking forward to. For sure. I still think it would be really cool to get some garage sale tips even if you don't want to make a thread. My mother-in-law's neighborhood is ritzy and does a neighborhood wide yard sale thing every year. We'll have to hit that up for sure next spring (I got a ludicrous amount of nice polo tshirts for like $5.00 last time). RheaConfused posted:Please have your wife check in regarding her benefits while on maternity leave re: her insurance. What I mean by this is, if she's getting paid through disablity, you guys may be required to cover the cost of her health insurance yourselves. Many companies who cover maternity via disablity require the employee to pay insurance themselves during that period, as in physically make the payment yourself because it won't be auto deducted from her paycheck since she'll be being paid via disability. Bugamol posted:Insurance OK I'll definitely have her look into it. We will very much be counting on her insurance for the foreseeable future. Bugamol posted:The below thread from July 19th, 2011 gives me some perspective on Knyteguy. I hope you pull through this time buddy, but your track record is messy. Stumbled upon this on accident looking for another thread, but hopefully this will give you some perspective on your willpower. Awesome; I wasn't able to find that thread before. I do know many goons were telling me to get rid of the business back then, and while we couldn't afford it it nearly took off. I was pretty much pressured from family too to get rid of it; so I did and this was the next situation: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3555678&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=123#post432200091 I still feel that if I had kept at it for just a few more months it would have made us quite a bit of money right now, as I was averaging 3-4 clients per month @ $30.00/mo each. I may revisit it again in the future because with my current knowledge I'd be net positive with the same amount of clients easily. Even still though I have kept the business going to this day (albeit not even close to my primary focus as before), and it is my current business income I've mentioned various times in the thread. On top of that it landed me my first contract web programming job, quickly made us far more money than it ever cost to run, and also was a huge part of why I landed my current job. That was one of my good with money decisions.Anyway I digress. Regardless of what happened in the old thread (I'll read through it again for a somewhat outside perspective of myself) I've really grown as an individual pretty much everywhere except financially-and I've been digging my heels into the ground hard to get there financially lately. I was pretty immature at that point in my life, and getting laid off just after getting an expensive apartment really hurt my confidence to provide and stay afloat. I'm kind of disappointed because I took my bad with money stories away from myself in that OP though. I was looking forward to posting those albeit in more detail. Anyway I can't comment more until I read the thread in its entirety again. Only 3 pages so that won't take long. From the first page I must admit that Mr Money Mustache really changed how people think about early retirement. The consensus was that we'd need around $12,000/mo to retire by 45. With our current income (about half that) I'm confident we could retire by 37-if we had no debt-with the right expense:savings ratio of course. Thanks for linking that.
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Jul 22, 2014 01:10
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^You retiring at 37... come on man. This will be an insane lifestyle change and income increase. A kid alone is estimated to cost about $250K to raise to 18.Bugamol posted:Also did you ever answer on whether or not you have collision insurance? Your insurance seems insanely cheap for a new car that is grossly underwater. I'm paying $108 a month for a 2012 Honda Fit that isn't underwater. You probably are paying way too much. $1300/year for full coverage in Denver ($500 deductible, $100,000 medical per person, etc) on a 2013 Ford Escape and 2014 Subaru Impreza. I would go shop around. spwrozek fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 01:13
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Bugamol posted:The below thread from July 19th, 2011 gives me some perspective on Knyteguy. I hope you pull through this time buddy, but your track record is messy. Stumbled upon this on accident looking for another thread, but hopefully this will give you some perspective on your willpower. But he's really super-serious this time! I mean this time right now, not back in November 2013 when he was serious and managed two months on budget before blowing himself back to square one. I spent some of my holiday last week reading both Zaurg threads (goldmined and gassed). And some of today getting caught up on this thread. Knyteguy - I have bad news: You are as bad as Zaurg. Just things off the top of my head for parallels: - Wasteful spending on football (Zaurg with his tickets, you with cable packages, etc.) - Wasteful spending in general (Zaurg's Wii vs. your PS4, etc.) - Using a budget to track (over)spending rather than set limits for certain categories - Managed to stick to their budget for two months, blew it every other month - Ignoring the thread for months as spending went out of control - Made a sound financial decision (selling a car/two cars) only to negate it with a bad one (buying an overpriced used CRV/leasing a new Corolla) - Endless rationalizations for "one-off" spending that broke the budget every month - Having a kid with absolutely no plan to budget for it - Student loans coming due that will put the sqeeze on an already sqeezed financial situation Really, the only saving grace seems to be that you downgraded to a more affordable apartment rather than doubling-down and buying a house. Though it's still early in the thread... Just look at the change from November to now. You went from a healthy budget with significant savings, to blowing it all back to square one by July, to facing student loan repayments, saving for the birth, and THEN (likely) losing your wife's income because it will be cheaper for her to stay home than daycare. Retire at 45? Ha - at this rate you will be lucky to retire at all. Since 2011 (when you decided to start working towards your goals) you have saved nothing for retirement, nor will your worsening financial situation in the near future allow you to save for it. And long term you will be torn between retirement savings and saving for your child's education. Can you make it? I think so - as do a lot of other posters - but not the way you are currently going about it. You have to get rid of this sense of entitlement that you don't think you have - the sense of entitlement that you deserved a PS4 because "a lot of time had passed between when you wanted one and when you bought it", that you deserve (expensive) football because "you need an outlet". You do need an outlet, but one that fits into a budget that will require low personal spending on wants to acheive any kind of stability (emergency funds, debt paid off, etc. etc.) It's great to have goals, but if you don't prioritize you will always sacrifice the long-term goals for short term "happiness" (which you derive from impulse spending). You have taken some positive steps, but, like the Zuarg thread, people are going to continue to be frustrated and harp on you until you can prove over the next three months that you can make a budget and stick with it. Otherwise it's going to be the same Zaurg cycle of "I'm really on it now guys!" - "Well we kind of went over this month, but I've got it covered" - "I gave back a loan to my mother so that we wouldn't be approved for a mortgage" - "Well my wife is pregnant again" - "I'm going to die homeless and penniless and no one will ever love me." (Forgive me, all, if this post is too harsh - having absorbed years of Zaurg's life in a matter of days, I only see Knyteguy going along the same tragetory). Ninja Edit: Retire at 37? What?
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Jul 22, 2014 01:27
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spwrozek posted:^You retiring at 37... come on man. This will be an insane lifestyle change and income increase. A kid alone is estimated to cost about $250K to raise to 18. No way man! Like Cicero said kids get expensive when you want them to get expensive (barring medical). Old me would have spoiled his kids just to look like I had money. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/05/26/what-is-the-real-cost-of-raising-children/ posted:Having said all of this, the final answer to the question is that as a family who does a moderate job at being natural and nonconsumer parents to our child, we find that it cost less than $300 a month to have a very young child from age 0-2. Cloth diapers, food, the odd piece of clothing we couldn’t get from hand-me-downs, the occasional stroller, car seat or baby toy, doctor visit, etc. This article was really the only reason I decided that I was ready to have a Knyteguy spawn. Early Retirement And like I said with our current income it is entirely possible to retire by 37. We make $86,000 a year in a pretty low cost of living area (equivalent to about $148,000 in SF Bay/NYC). At a 65% savings rate (which would be entirely possible for us with a paid off house ala MMM) we would be able to save $559,000 in 10 years - more than enough to retire at a 4% withdrawal. I've studiously done the math on it. That also doesn't take into account that in my current field (which I bill $150.00/hr for my company) I will likely be able to land a job making about $148,000.00 because my boss who doubles that mentoring me in it. For real he printed out something that shows me a career path he's leading me on. Even if I don't go that way I'm lucky enough to be in a really great field to make money in right now, and the 30s are the prime earning years statistically, and I'm not very far from that point. The only thing standing in our way to early retirement/financial independence is my spending habits and our relatively insignificant debt, and I'm absolutely confident that I can work through my bad spending habits (I've already started) to beat both of them. It's cool if very few of you have any faith in me because really you can only see what I happen to remember to post-you see an $800.00 optional expenses category, a Playstation 4, a new car, regression; but what I see is a lesson learned 
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Jul 22, 2014 01:51
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Nope, you weren't too harsh. Those are the cold, hard facts and knyte needs to step up to the plate. He has his wife on board, now it's time to follow through. Edit: I changed my mind, was typing when his reply came in. Knyte: your pie-in-the-sky dreams are going to be your downfall. you are setting yourself up for failure by thinking that you will hit those lofty goals for 15 years when you have not been able to make any progress in the past 3. Nocheez fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 01:57
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Knyteguy posted:It's cool if very few of you have any faith in me because really you can only see what I happen to remember to post-you see an $800.00 optional expenses category, a Playstation 4, a new car, regression; but what I see is a lesson learned
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Jul 22, 2014 01:59
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Nocheez posted:Nope, you weren't too harsh. Those are the cold, hard facts and knyte needs to step up to the plate. He has his wife on board, now it's time to follow through. Respectfully man having long term goals are healthy. Also not 15 years I'm 27 (10 years). That with no interest returns or dividends in that time too. Also everyone going nuts go read what I said again regarding the 37 thing. quote:With our current income (about half that) I'm confident we could retire by 37-if we had no debt-with the right expense:savings ratio of course. That end clause (with the right expense:savings ratio) kind of sums up the reason we likely cannot achieve that goal in 10 years. Maybe by 40.
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Jul 22, 2014 02:13
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You spent $24K the last 6 months. Even if you think you can get down to $3K a month (adding a baby!) that is $36000 a year. $86000 with 65% savings = $30100 to pay your taxes, live on, buy your football bullshit, fishing poles, who knows what the hell else. Oops... not enough money. You are so delusional, you just don't see it.
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Jul 22, 2014 02:14
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spwrozek posted:You spent $24K the last 6 months. Even if you think you can get down to $3K a month (adding a baby!) that is $36000 a year. We lived on an income of $19,000/yr just over a year ago without any assistance. I know exactly what it takes. That's an $11,000 increase which is more than enough. We also cut our biggest expense by $950/mo. In the next 6 months that will equal $5,700 in savings taking nothing else into consideration. Plus I didn't even say that we can or will retire by then, I said that we could with the right savings:expense ratio which I'm pretty sure is impossible with our debt levels at the moment. I was making a case for our income nothing else.
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Jul 22, 2014 02:19
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I don't think pie-in-the-sky even comes close to how unrealistic he is. Knyteguy posted:And like I said with our current income it is entirely possible to retire by 37. We make $86,000 a year in a pretty low cost of living area (equivalent to about $148,000 in SF Bay/NYC). At a 65% savings rate (which would be entirely possible for us with a paid off house ala MMM) we would be able to save $559,000 in 10 years - more than enough to retire at a 4% withdrawal. I've studiously done the math on it. Studious math is worthless if you are starting from bullshit numbers. I don't even know where to start. First, based on your own budget, you clear $63,600/year after taxes. So to save your $55,900/year you actually have to save 87% of your after tax income. While paying down a mortgage. And your debt. And, you know, eating and poo poo. Also, withdrawal at 4% a year? 4% x 25 = 100%, 37 + 25 = 62, so I guess you have a suicide pact or just don't plan on making it much past early 60's. IIRC average male lifespan is 74 and female is 82. And with that 4% you'll live on about $22,360/year. You can barely make it on $63,600. Are you starting to see how stupid this is? Did you account for inflation? Because 20 years from now that $22,360 isn't going to buy as much as it does now. Or is it going to all be growing at 8% because of your super-savvy investing knowledge? quote:That also doesn't take into account that in my current field (which I bill $150.00/hr for my company) I will likely be able to land a job making about $148,000.00 because my boss who doubles that mentoring me in it. For real he printed out something that shows me a career path he's leading me on. Even if I don't go that way I'm lucky enough to be in a really great field to make money in right now, and the 30s are the prime earning years statistically, and I'm not very far from that point. Chickens... hatched... quote:The only thing standing in our way to early retirement/financial independence is my spending habits and our relatively insignificant debt, and I'm absolutely confident that I can work through my bad spending habits (I've already started) to beat both of them. It's cool if very few of you have any faith in me because really you can only see what I happen to remember to post-you see an $800.00 optional expenses category, a Playstation 4, a new car, regression; but what I see is a lesson learned Ah, the "Imma gonna show you all" part of the thread. Zaurg did that too. Really, show all of us naysayers that you've got it together and can pull this off. But you're going to have to do it with balanced budgets and a real plan, rather than all this retire at 37 bullshit. How's this? Just have a few goals you know you can reach in the next few months, then, if you actually meet them, start looking long term. Right now some kind of spending control while saving for the blows you are going to take in the near future would be a good start. And hahahahaha kids cost $75,000 over 21 years. Did you settle on the $1,000/mo daycare or the loss of your wife's income that is key to your Freedom-37 plan? Edit: Forget it. You want to vehemently defend your stupid math, I'm done wasting my breath. At this point you can put up (post a budget) or shut up (close the thread). Aagar fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 02:19
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Aagar posted:I don't think pie-in-the-sky even comes close to how unrealistic he is. Dude you're hardly warranting a reply with how little either your reading comprehension is, or your lack of reading the thread. Where did I say we are spending $1,000/mo on daycare? We haven't even looked yet at prices yet and a little initial research is looking like it will be less than that. That was a simple hypothetical number thrown out by Bugamol. Do you even have kids or are you talking convention? At least that is from a guy with kids. quote:First, based on your own budget, you clear $63,600/year after taxes. So to save your $55,900/year you actually have to save 87% of your after tax income. While paying down a mortgage. And your debt. And, you know, eating and poo poo. We just cut insurance costs pretty drastically and I don't even know what our new income will be starting next month - how could you? Also I thought I mentioned we would need a paid off house which is yet another reason why I understand that we cannot retire in 10 years. The 4% withdrawal rate is probably safe for a lifetime. http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/05/29/how-much-do-i-need-for-retirement/
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Jul 22, 2014 02:25
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moana posted:Oh, did you sell your PS4? Yes - along with pretty much all of my other consumer mistakes made while the thread was dead. Even a family heirloom.
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Jul 22, 2014 02:26
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Aagar posted:And hahahahaha kids cost $75,000 over 21 years. Did you settle on the $1,000/mo daycare or the loss of your wife's income that is key to your Freedom-37 plan? What? you can't just leave a 6 month old to fend for itself?!
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Jul 22, 2014 02:27
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Knyteguy posted:Dude you're hardly warranting a reply with how little either your reading comprehension is, or your lack of reading the thread. Where did I say we are spending $1,000/mo on daycare? We haven't even looked yet at prices yet and a little initial research is looking like it will be less than that. That was a simple hypothetical number thrown out by Bugamol. Kids? Yes - two. Twin boys, in fact. Almost 4 years old. $2300/mo for daycare currently. It was $2700/mo before they turned 2.5. I think it was well over $3000/mo before 1.5 or so, so we had a nanny because the nanny was cheaper. Yes, it is expensive (Toronto - day care costs are nuts). You may have it cheaper in your area. But lets say $700/mo (even MMM admitted to the several hundred a month). That reduces your after tax income by another $8400/year. It's fine to dream, but Nocheez is right - the dreams you have now are just setting you up for failure.
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Jul 22, 2014 02:35
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Edit: gently caress it it's stupid.
Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 02:41
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August ahoy.
Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 02:55
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The problem with all your goals and plans is you put no concreteness to them. You don't know if they are actually attainable. You just throw out that you could do this or that or it won't cost THAT much, but I haven't checked. Your goals are not SMART! and they need to be. Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant (or Result Based) Time Specific They are just paint thrown on the wall... spwrozek fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 03:09
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No one is trying to be a dick here. We're all just seeing more of the picture that you aren't. We want you succeed and have some ideas for things you should be accounting for. What you ultimately do is up to you.
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Jul 22, 2014 03:14
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spwrozek posted:The problem with all your goals and plans is you put no concreteness to them. You don't know if they are actually attainable. You just throw out that you could do this or that or it won't cost THAT much, but I haven't checked. Wait.... SMART goals aren't something that my company uses as like corporate chat? Or is this post ironic. Or does my company have a good goal system 
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Jul 22, 2014 03:14
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Nocheez posted:No one is trying to be a dick here. We're all just seeing more of the picture that you aren't. We want you succeed and have some ideas for things you should be accounting for. What you ultimately do is up to you. Exactly. I'm coming across as harsh, but only to try and get you to see some of the craziness (like spwrozek says - it's one thing to state a goal and another to see if it's acheivable). I will freely admit - my wife and I have not been smart with money. We haven't been bad - we avoided all debt until we bought a house. But looking back I see some Zaurg in me (buy a house? Sure! We make real people money now), and my wife in Zaurg's wife (cf. needed a huge gift budget. At least she likes sales). That said, we've sat down recently and worked out a budget (boys are going to full day kindergarten, and before/after care is half what we pay for daycare). So you know where I'm coming from, here it is (and this will save me making my own thread because deep down I know we are fine. I'm just a worrier that's why my friends call me Whiskers): Income: Me $4,200 Her $4,200 Total $8,400 Expenses: Groceries $650 Insurance $315 Mortgage $1,900 Daycare $1,100 Gas (car) $400 Electricity $100 Gas (house) $120 Phone/Internet/Sat $250 Cell Phones $50 Blow (Me) $100 Blow (Her) $100 Blow (kids) $100 Charity $45 Water $50 Kids Activities $80 Gifts $150 Car Maintenance $400 House Repair(small) $100 Vacation $50 Clothes/shoes $100 Total $6,260 Savings: Emergency Fund $340 Retirement (me) $1,000 Education (twins) $800 Total $2,140 Income - Expenses - Savings = $0 Misc: Age: 37. Wife: 37. Wife gets a pension (will pay $30K/year IIRC.) Also Canada Pension Plan ($7,000/year each, if it still exists when we retire). Current Retirement savings (me): $40K Current Retirement savings (wife): $25K (this is on top of pension) Current education fund (twins): $30K Mortgage: $247K (at current payment/interest rate - paid off in 16 years) $15K of my retirement is liquid so doubles as emergency fund until we start building a separate savings for it $10K in cash I've been building for 8 months to buy a car (2011 Honda Civics are ca. $11-12K). And I worry I'm behind! Now, I made this budget based on tracking expenses for the last year, so it's really just formalizing what we are already doing. I've overestimated (I hope) some categories like car maintenance (I have a 2002 Honda Civic with 279K km on it so those costs are higher) and gifts (if we spend $1,800/year on gifts ... oi). I have probably underestimated clothes but we get a lot of stuff for the boys second hand - we really spend on shoes (they destroy quality shoes in 6 months). We also got Netflix ($7.99/mo), so I want to kill the satellite, and with a decent long-distance plan on the cells we could get rid of the home phone and have just internet. Cutting spending and maximizing savings is a continuous process, even for us old timers. Why I've posted this is so that you can look at yourself in 10 years (house, one or two kids), look at my budget that could be close to your own, and ask yourself how you could retire at 37? 45? 55? 65? At $1000/mo I'm saving 12% of take-home pay for retirement. I'd like to personally have $500K saved for retirement, and assuming 0% on my investments I'd have to save $1500/mo (rather than my current $1000) to get there by 62. I also want $200K for the boys for education (I'm assuming tuition in Canada will be $10K/year by then, then add living and eating). I will try to convince them to go into trades. Even if the house was paid off there would be no way we could save 65%. I'm going to need a new car soon. Roof will need doing in a few years. Insulation needs topping up. Some of the windows are drafty and need replacing. There are so many costs owning a house you'll find any extra cash will find a use quickly. You have the right attitude and plan now - knock down spending, get things under control in 3 months to prove you can do it. Then start aiming for killing all the debt, saving for a downpayment on a house, saving for retirement, education fund, etc. As a parting note: I perused the MMM blog - please, stop reading it. It is one person's experience of what I see as the best of best-case scenarios. 4% withdrawal of retirement funds (which he hasn't proved works, as he hasn't retired, and doesn't really address the arguements against it), kids costing $75K/21 years (also not proven - his kid is young) - this would be nice if the cards cut that way, but you absolutely cannot plan your financial future on best-case scenarios. Notice how I don't have medical expenses in my budget? Universal healthcare, baby. Wife had to have a C-section and boys were in the NICU for 10 days. That would have bankrupted us in the US. What if your wife needs a C-section? What if the baby is premature and needs to stay in the NICU? If you plan (and save) for the worst-case scenario then most likely you'll come out ahead (having not spent as much as you budgeted for in the worst case scenario). Seriously, I (and everyone) want you to succeed. So accept that we see (as people who have been around longer and can stick to budgets and whatnot) what you don't - that this best-case scenario MMM plan is doomed to fail. Veskit posted:SMART goals aren't something that my company uses as like corporate chat? Or is this post ironic. Or does my company have a good goal system Ha - I thought this was the personal goal system I as a model employee was supposed to have for myself in order to grow or move up or something. I actually think it could work a lot better as a personal financial goal reality check.
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Jul 22, 2014 04:24
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Veskit posted:Wait.... I have been using them since high school I suppose. I think it works because it actually sets the path in stone so to speak. It is how I ran a 5 min mile even. I think they work really well for finances (I think because they fit so well into the 5 parts). I think they even can work at work if you have the right people and bosses.
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Jul 22, 2014 05:11
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As an aside, I don't think he could possibly save enough to cover a 10-day NICU stay in the US. My portion of emergency post-birth surgery was $600 after insurance just for the doctor. The anesthesiologist and everything else under the sun were billed separately. Oh, and that was all charged separate from the birth itself. I honestly don't know what young people who have kids with serious medical complications do in the US. Go bankrupt? Charity care? Family?
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Jul 22, 2014 05:28
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OK just want to acknowledge that I've read every post here, but I need to get off the computer - I've got computer back so gently caress being on here right now. Some quick things: I actually never read Zaurgs whole story. I regret trying to be goofy when I chose the thread title. Regardless of who he is or what he's done I can absolutely guarantee I am not him. I am not weak (sometimes I am apathetic when I lose track though). In the 3 years since the original thread, 2 of those were us doing our damndest to survive. We weren't making any money, we generally survived and dug ourselves deeper because of payday loans, and it was generally hell. I didn't have room to save money, or any money we did get went towards like one luxury a month (like a nice restaurant). Getting a job that paid 3+ times what we were living off of a year? It has been nuts and we've went overboard enjoying it at first. When I thought I had a nice windfall of money coming through contracting yea I blew it and made bad decisions. We spent hours on the estimate (my boss and I) because the company seemed genuinely interested in us. That's why I say it is a learning experience instead of something I'll regret to the end of my days. Which brings me to my next point: Zaurg's wife wasn't on board with their finances much (all?) of the time. She wanted exorbitant birthday parties for a baby, and etc. My wife and I are both in this 100%. We both support each other and we have the same goals. I think that will go a long way towards achieving what we want. Also maybe instead of just saying that my ambitions are not achievable maybe it would help me to explain why they're not achievable. Every time someone says "you can't do that" especially without explaining more I think "gently caress you watch me". It might be irrational sometimes but that's a lot of what drives me. Now obviously I don't expect people to explain themselves every time, because well gently caress me too you're trying to help me out. But you'll need to excuse me if I get a little defensive or fight the point. To clarify: My short term goal for tomorrow (and the next day ad infinitum until we get to budget more in the categories) is to not spend any money on restaurants, alcohol, clothing, or entertainment. Just because I didn't post that in the thread doesn't mean it's not a goal. It has been a goal every day since we hit our discretionary budget. This thread would be really boring to read if I said that same thing every day for the next 100 days (I try to keep it a little interesting), but it is still a goal. For August I also have set goals (to beat Slo Mo, and I'm not going to risk losing). It will take my daily goal*30 to achieve this, and I know that. I also have more specific goals that I'm not going to post so Slo Mo won't have an edge (watching you buddy). I think it's a goal that meets the SMART guidelines. I also know that following my short term goals will lead me to my long term goals - if not exactly. Finally to answer the insurance/baby medical disaster question: I don't know. I assume our max out of pocket with insurance would cover that? Worst case scenario I just don't pay it. I've done that with plenty of medical bills when we were really poor (I mean really not me currently poor). It doesn't affect things as badly as you may think. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 05:56
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I was gonna say that it might not be fair to Slo Mo for your competition that he's in a much higher cost of living area, but then I realized your discretionary spending will be for two people vs his one, so I guess it evens out.
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Jul 22, 2014 06:01
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I think it would be useful for you to post your household purchases in August. I've harped on you before for your pet care costs, but your 'necessary' monthly expenses seem extremely high on a regular basis. You might be able to save just by switching to generics/ shopping on Amazon or Costco. Even lumping your errands together on a weekly or biweekly basis would save on gas.
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Jul 22, 2014 06:39
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