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Bugamol posted:Keeping all of that in mind, you should definitely stop spending money on anything that isn't essential. If you're having trouble staying in your discretionary spending now it will only intensify with a new baby/child. Cute clothes, cute toys, cute whatever. By my napkin math last night we should be able to manage about $18,000 saved by the time the baby is here (going off months quite a bit more expensive than this month). That's not including the HSA. That's about 6 months worth of expenses. I'm not going to count on that but if we just stay buckled down and no big emergency happens we'll be alright. The daycare we can probably get down to about $500.00-$750.00/wk ($1k/mo was a really really nice one with better equipment than the community college I went to) since we figured that we can rotate family to watch the baby once every 3 weeks, and my wife has a day off during the week. The net then would be closer to $650.00 plus insurance... but yes still not sure if it's worth it. We had a long discussion last night about ways she could get some passive income going in the interim, while I do the same. Moana's situation has inspired me to try to write a small book.
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Aug 13, 2014 21:45
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Droo posted:I have never felt the need for one, and I feel like they are more likely to miss something about my personal situation than I am. It's also not cheap. Do you recommended hand filing then? Turbotax and H&R Block gouge for small businesses. $300 to file I think? Edit: signal:noise Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Aug 13, 2014 |
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Aug 13, 2014 21:47
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Knyteguy posted:I'm ignorant regarding this, but is there any reason we should consider an accountant for 2015? Taxes seem to be getting more complicated every year. I never bothered with one for my personal stuff, but I hired a small business accountant when I started my own company, and he's a loving sorcerer when it comes to finding deductions. You can write off all kinds of random poo poo, including a portion of your utilities if you use a home office solely for the business. Stuff I'd never imagine writing off are apparently fair game, and people smarter than me have been saving tons of money year after year. My little brother started a business relating to 3d printing and various machining tools, and apparently he can just write off the drill bits he uses. I live in CA and have family in NY, and I get to write off the cross-country flights because I have a partner there and meet with him each time I go. I made my wife a 2% owner so her flights get covered as well. I could certainly file all the paperwork myself, but I'm sure I'd miss all the little things he was able to find for me. Most tax people worth a drat will see you for a half hour or so for free. Explain what you're doing and ask what they can do for you. Remember, you're hiring them, and you can walk away from the meeting with no obligation to ever talk to them again.
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Aug 13, 2014 21:52
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No I use Turbo Tax (the H&R block one almost screwed me out of $700 once but I noticed and will no longer use their software). I have a spreadsheet that is like 95% accurate that I put stuff into during the year, and then just put it all into the tax software and e-file. You don't need anything special to file your business income (except the right version of taxcut) unless your business actually has its own tax ID. In that case I dunno how it works. Typically business income for an individual is just another source of 1099 type income and deductions - there isn't anything particularly special about it. Unless it does actually have its own tax ID. I think you said you live in Nevada or something which is even easier - state taxes were at least half as obnoxious as federal taxes when I had to file in Illinois. Federal tax only is pretty awesome.
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Aug 13, 2014 21:55
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OK well our business income has only been $1,500 this year. If we hit $5k-$10k+/yr again I will start shopping around for someone to talk to. I've heard that before about accountants Icarus. Nevada yes. No state taxes is pretty sweet. It's like we make a lot more money than we actually do. Thanks for the help with the tax questions.
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Aug 13, 2014 22:05
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You should have more money taken out of your check starting now. If you owe too much you get to pay a penalty on top of what you owe... Yay.
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Aug 13, 2014 22:09
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spwrozek posted:You should have more money taken out of your check starting now. If you owe too much you get to pay a penalty on top of what you owe... Yay. The penalty is a joke, but ya it's true should start buffering what you owe now rather than getting a bill later.
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Aug 13, 2014 22:11
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Knyteguy posted:By my napkin math last night we should be able to manage about $18,000 saved by the time the baby is here (going off months quite a bit more expensive than this month). That's not including the HSA. That's about 6 months worth of expenses. I'm not going to count on that but if we just stay buckled down and no big emergency happens we'll be alright. Most daycare doesn't work like this, you pay for the whole week even if you don't show up, sometimes you pay for the week you are not there but at a reduced rate (1/2 price or something). They want to make money so they can always find another child that will pay all the time.
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Aug 13, 2014 22:14
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Knyteguy posted:The daycare we can probably get down to about $500.00-$750.00/wk ($1k/mo was a really really nice one with better equipment than the community college I went to) since we figured that we can rotate family to watch the baby once every 3 weeks, and my wife has a day off during the week. The net then would be closer to $650.00 plus insurance... but yes still not sure if it's worth it. We had a long discussion last night about ways she could get some passive income going in the interim, while I do the same. Moana's situation has inspired me to try to write a small book. From a career standpoint, going back to work even with net zero over being a SAHM pays off in the long run in most fields. Having an unemployment gap of even a couple of years (which could expand to 5+ years if you have more kids) makes it hard to come back into full-time employment. In the meantime you've lost those years of potential promotions and career development. Whether that's worth being there for full-time primary care of infant/toddler is something she needs to weigh. Stay-at-home parenting has the definite potential to devolve over time into a homemaker/breadwinner situation, which isn't a good fit for a lot of people.
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Aug 13, 2014 22:18
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Yeah most daycares if you want full time care require you to pay for full time care. We pay our rate every week regardless of how many days he is there and get two vacation weeks we can use where he doesn't go and we therefore don't pay. I know of no daycares here that would be OK with two on one off for the whole year. Edit: and I'll believe that $18k you are saying you can save when I see it. How much have you saved since starting this thread!
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Aug 13, 2014 22:31
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spwrozek posted:Most daycare doesn't work like this, you pay for the whole week even if you don't show up, sometimes you pay for the week you are not there but at a reduced rate (1/2 price or something). They want to make money so they can always find another child that will pay all the time. The $1,000/mo one did require payment for a full week regardless (not sure about vacation) but the cheaper one allowed for 3 days/wk at a discounted rate. I can't remember what it was though. Engineer Lenk posted:From a career standpoint, going back to work even with net zero over being a SAHM pays off in the long run in most fields. Having an unemployment gap of even a couple of years (which could expand to 5+ years if you have more kids) makes it hard to come back into full-time employment. In the meantime you've lost those years of potential promotions and career development. This is my primary concern here, but it's ultimately up to her. I don't like the breadwinner/homemaker dynamic if only because there's less of a safety net if something happens. Edit: sheri posted:Edit: and I'll believe that $18k you are saying you can save when I see it. How much have you saved since starting this thread!
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Aug 13, 2014 22:34
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quote:The daycare we can probably get down to about $500.00-$750.00/wk ($1k/mo was a really really nice one with better equipment than the community college I went to) Is that first price just a typo? Is it actually 750/month? You can also get a tax credit of 20% (higher if you make under 43k) of the cost of childcare for your kid up to $3,000 max per child (so if you spend 10 grand on daycare you get yet another $2000 tax credit).
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Aug 13, 2014 23:02
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Droo posted:Is that first price just a typo? Is it actually 750/month? $750/mo yes that was a typo. Well poo poo that turns the really nice $1,000/mo place into $834/mo for 5 days a week. They don't charge weekly so it actually is about on par with other places during 5 week months. Might be worth it. The place teaches Spanish, sign language, math, arts, reading, critical thinking, music, respectful conversing, etc. They self report violations if they catch them and encourage parents to look at their violations. They have new computers with learning games and smart boards and stuff, and it gets cheaper as the kid gets older too. Hrm.
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Aug 13, 2014 23:18
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wow look at all these justifications for overspending on your not-yet-born child for music lessons and computers, jfc
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Aug 14, 2014 00:34
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moana posted:wow look at all these justifications for overspending on your not-yet-born child for music lessons and computers, jfc Are you being facetious? Poe's law and all. If not then wow thank you for being so helpful. I will savor the day when I have to spend a week's worth of hard work for strangers to watch my kid. It's not like I'm a musician or study computers daily and would be unable to provide these for my kid for free instead (at least until they reach a certain point). Also I just realized I read Droo's statement wrong. I thought he said a 20% credit if you spend more than $10,000.00 a year, not 20% on all of it regardless.
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Aug 14, 2014 00:50
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Knyte. I'm going to harp on you again, like I always do, like I always have, like I'm going to now. Why, can't you just budget for this month with specific goals in mind, and not plan on how to spend your money past THIS MONTH only. Between napkin math, and trying to add more into your budget for frivolous spending all all these things it's just a worrysome pattern. Veskit fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 01:18
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Knyteguy posted:Are you being facetious? Poe's law and all.
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Aug 14, 2014 01:25
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Knyteguy posted:Hm well I think I might itemize because of the business... but then again I think I went with the standard deduction last year because I didn't have enough writeoffs anyway. Business deductions aren't itemized, they're deducted from your business income on Schedule C.
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Aug 14, 2014 01:46
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Your child isn't born and you're talking about spending extra money on high-end daycare so that years from now they can do music and language lessons and have computers with learning programs. Am I the crazy one here? Really? I get it if the other daycare was run by methheads, but the only differences you've mentioned have been fancy bells and whistles that a two-year old would turn away from in favor of a cardboard box. I feel like I'm gonna be looked down on for "depriving" my child if all I give them for the first few years is lots of love, attention, and library books. IME expensive childcare and schooling has become an arms race in this country for people to yell about how much they love their children (hell, I've heard parents bragging about how much per hour they spend on SAT tutoring). I just don't like the taste of it. How about you save up all that money you would be spending on the high-end daycare and use it to buy them a music instrument when they're old enough to actually care about it?
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Aug 14, 2014 01:59
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moana posted:Your child isn't born and you're talking about spending extra money on high-end daycare so that years from now they can do music and language lessons and have computers with learning programs. Am I the crazy one here? Really? I get it if the other daycare was run by methheads, but the only differences you've mentioned have been fancy bells and whistles that a two-year old would turn away from in favor of a cardboard box.
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Aug 14, 2014 02:01
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Veskit posted:Knyte. I'm going to harp on you again, like I always do, like I always have, like I'm going to now. Veskit I definitely appreciate your input. I have been trying to focus more on the present quite a bit. Only reason I did the napkin math was because my wife asked me last night "If we save this month every month how much will we have when the baby is born?" It came out to 22k after rent, and I gave us a $4k buffer for stuff that was probably missed. I've realized that it's wasted effort thinking too far ahead at this point. Kiwi Ghost Chips posted:Business deductions aren't itemized, they're deducted from your business income on Schedule C.  .Cicero posted:Yeah I can't tell either. In any case a good daycare is a very reasonable expense. Good to know about the daycare though I don't have much of a clue about it all. I found a good website that helps estimate what to should pay for daycare by city, so I'll use that to help us budget too. One thing I'm really considering is paying my sister to nanny. Things didn't work out with her husband (murky term here) and she's pregnant and has no job. She has about 6 years professional nannying experience. Obviously I'm not going to be able to employ her completely, but I'd bet we could work out $500.00/mo for 3-4 days a week with her.
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Aug 14, 2014 02:02
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moana posted:Your child isn't born and you're talking about spending extra money on high-end daycare so that years from now they can do music and language lessons and have computers with learning programs. Am I the crazy one here? Really? I get it if the other daycare was run by methheads, but the only differences you've mentioned have been fancy bells and whistles that a two-year old would turn away from in favor of a cardboard box. moana I think the big thing here is the differences I've mentioned. The ratio of kids to teachers is 1:4 at the more expensive place, and 1:6 at the cheaper place. There's way more individual attention and human contact. Plus I was thinking the difference was much smaller between the two because of my tax credit miscalculation. If you're looked down on for that stuff then they're retarded. All a child needs is lots of love, attention, and well I guess library books. You're in a way better position than we are to provide that stuff based on what I know of your story (from what you've posted in other threads), and your kid will probably be the better for it. I'm genuinely envious. Please don't take your resentment or feeling of other stupid parents out on me though. I agree with you. I wish we didn't have to daycare at all, and we won't be spoiling our kid with stupid stuff (just attention). Cicero posted:I think it's more that those things are examples of how it's a higher-quality daycare in general, not that he's deadset on a newborn having music lessons and computers.
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Aug 14, 2014 02:07
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Droo posted:Is that first price just a typo? Is it actually 750/month? I don't know this if this is true, we get $600 back on our taxes for spending over $7000. Maybe because we both work?
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Aug 14, 2014 02:15
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Knyteguy posted:Veskit I definitely appreciate your input. Then why in gods name are you planning on things two years from now with children, doing this savings math, trying to plan your spending for next month, trying to spend more money this month and all of these things. You have an insane amount of help for future planning that you don't need to worry about until you fix your day to day life. Or am I missing how to budget properly in thinking that really he needs to pull things back and budget for the now and let the net of goons carry him with some decent enough tools to have the savings, and make good decisions in the future?
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Aug 14, 2014 02:16
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dreesemonkey posted:I don't know this if this is true, we get $600 back on our taxes for spending over $7000. Maybe because we both work? Apparently you're limited to $3000 of expenses, not the credit amount like I thought. So your max ever credit with 1 kid is only $600 (at 20% rate).
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Aug 14, 2014 02:29
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Veskit posted:Then why in gods name are you planning on things two years from now with children, doing this savings math, trying to plan your spending for next month, trying to spend more money this month and all of these things. You have an insane amount of help for future planning that you don't need to worry about until you fix your day to day life. No, you are right. Until he proves he can save in one month the rest is quite pointless.
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Aug 14, 2014 02:30
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Veskit posted:Then why in gods name are you planning on things two years from now with children, doing this savings math, trying to plan your spending for next month, trying to spend more money this month and all of these things. You have an insane amount of help for future planning that you don't need to worry about until you fix your day to day life. I'm also probably going to take back the Kindle. We're going to be celebrating my mom's birthday in the next couple weeks and I want to partake. I'm going to get another soon though because it really is nice having a tablet reader. It got at least 12 hours of use on Sunday - my lazy day. Droo posted:Apparently you're limited to $3000 of expenses, not the credit amount like I thought. So your max ever credit with 1 kid is only $600 (at 20% rate).
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Aug 14, 2014 02:42
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Please don't think I'm berating you; I didn't see where you had mentioned the teacher ratio and it seemed uber silly to get all fussed over spanish lessons for an infant. I honestly think that one-on-one interaction with a loving parent is the best childcare you could ever have, even if the parent doesn't speak another language or play another instrument or program computers. It's a struggle for me as a high-earner who sincerely WANTS to take time off to raise my future kid, when Sheryl Sandburg et al are telling me I shouldn't, I should stick my kid in a day care and keep working, keep working, be the mom that does it all, and daycare makes more sense from a long-term earning perspective. I know that. I know that when I have a kid and quit working, it'll drop six figures off of our income and I'll never get those years of earning back. But dang, it seems worth it to me, and I'm cutting expenses like crazy trying to make it so it's not as hard of a decision when the time comes to slash my income. If it were closer to breakeven, I'd be out of my job in a heartbeat. So that's why it stresses me out to see you spending money on things and then thinking about spending more money on fancy daycare, and then looking at what you have to do to pay for all those things. I hope that for your wife she can make the decision on how to raise your child without being swayed too much by the money aspect of it. Of all the hosed-up things in this country, the near-mandatory daycare is one of the most hosed up to me.
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Aug 14, 2014 02:43
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Knyteguy posted:crockpot burritos moana posted:Sheryl Sandberg slap me silly fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 03:00
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slap me silly posted:... is the worst enemy of feminism. One, why the hell should you try to do it all? Two, why should you capitulate to the prevailing culture to do it? No Wave fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 03:13
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My 22 Month old did her first 18 months at an at home daycare and her last 4 at a "preschool". She's not even 2 and coil care less about the bells and whistles. When i pick her up she is usually wandering around with Legos. She's not too into computer programming and mastering a musical instrument just yet. She just likes being a kid.
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Aug 14, 2014 03:29
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No Wave posted:She's not... she appears to be leaning towards taking time off to raise her kid. slapmesilly: I want to do it all! Work is fun! But spending time with your kid is fun too. And while both the early years of childhood and the early years of compound interest are things you don't get back once they're gone, only one of them seems like something I'd regret. It's just frustrating to read article after article telling me it's a bad idea to quit my job to raise kids. I feel like instead, we should be telling people to ax their spending by a lot so that they CAN raise their kids without it being an issue. But I suppose that's not 'merkin values or something. Okay, I'm done ranting now, promise.
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Aug 14, 2014 03:41
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You never know how you'll feel about staying home or not until you have kids. I love my kid he is funny and just starting to talk and loves me and my husband so much but drat it is nice to get some adult interaction and have to analytically use my brain in different ways then I do when I'm parenting.
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Aug 14, 2014 04:05
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Knyteguy posted:One thing I'm really considering is paying my sister to nanny. Things didn't work out with her husband (murky term here) and she's pregnant and has no job. She has about 6 years professional nannying experience. Obviously I'm not going to be able to employ her completely, but I'd bet we could work out $500.00/mo for 3-4 days a week with her. I don't really remember the sister situation that well but it sounds like you trust her, and that you would trust her with your child, and that she is experienced with raising kids. So in one fell swoop you could 1) have a safe place for your baby while you and your wife are busy, at work, or needing time alone, 2) give your baby more time with his/her family, rather than strangers (who I'm sure are competent, but it's not the same, you know?), 3) really help out your sister, and 4) pay less money for a 1 to 1 situation than you were going to for a 6 to 1 situation. Seems clear that you should talk to your sister before researching any more daycares.
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Aug 14, 2014 04:52
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Knyteguy posted:
Do you find that you buy things just to make yourself feel good? How long does this feeling last? How much of the unnecessary stuff you bought in the last couple years do you wish you wouldn't have bought? Impulse control is a huge part of personal finance, and to make long-term changes in impulse control, you need to change the way you think, which will change the way your brain functions. A book on CBT (and perhaps some CBT sessions) would benefit you more than any book on personal finance would. Until you start changing the way you think, you are going to continue on this cycle of buying poo poo to make yourself feel good, ultimately regretting it and feeling lovely again, swearing to correct your ways, and then wash - rinse - repeat. You're basically an addict trying to white-knuckle sobriety. It might work for a month or two, but do you have you will-power in your current mind space / worldview to change your lifestyle permanently? EDIT: Also, I'm not trying to be a jerk. Your problem is incredibly common in our culture--I shudder to think how much money goons have spent collectively on steam games they've never even installed. Consumer culture has hard wired us into this behavior, and it's difficult (but very possible) to re-wire your brain. il serpente cosmico fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 04:55
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The real issue is days ago you bought a Kindle and blew like half your blow budgets by combining with your wife and putting some in another category, etc. Then you claim it's okay because you're definitely not going to spend more. Not going to happen. You're sticking to the budget. Now days later you're trying to pad an extra $100 into blow because you've run out. Now that's everyone jumped on you about that you're considering returning the Kindle that days earlier you assured everyone was a great purchase and an investment so you can spend money on something else. And we're still only a handful of days into the month. Can't you see what's wrong here?
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Aug 14, 2014 04:59
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il serpente cosmico posted:I shudder to think how much money goons have spent collectively on steam games they've never even installed. 
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Aug 14, 2014 05:19
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Bugamol posted:The real issue is days ago you bought a Kindle and blew like half your blow budgets by combining with your wife and putting some in another category, etc. Then you claim it's okay because you're definitely not going to spend more. Not going to happen. You're sticking to the budget. Now days later you're trying to pad an extra $100 into blow because you've run out. Now that's everyone jumped on you about that you're considering returning the Kindle that days earlier you assured everyone was a great purchase and an investment so you can spend money on something else. And we're still only a handful of days into the month. He's not even really returning the Kindle, he's returning it temporarily so that he can buy something else he wants more. Next month he'll be in the same situation and buy the Kindle again, so he'll be out the same amount plus a 10%ish restocking fee. You don't have to be a genius to see the parallels to the payday loans he used to be mired in. Knyteguy, do you see the value in actually setting a budget and sticking to it? Your mother's birthday is the same day each year; the only reason you didn't take this into account two weeks ago is willful ignorance. You rushed into buying something because you wanted it now. There will always be something you want now, and there will always be bullshit ways for your brain to rationalize the purchase. Your goal should be to recognize when these things happen, and to head them off.
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Aug 14, 2014 05:40
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If your wife can stay home, and is happy to do so, do what you can to make it happen. Don't stress over your wife having a hard time going back to work later - that's loser mentality. Listen, I tried to get this across with the book recommendation, but you have two levers in life when it comes to money. You have the savings lever and the income lever. Most people can't do that much about the latter. You seem willing to hustle, you've tried starting a side business already, and so I think you can do something about your income lever. And while being frugal is good, and I am not suggesting otherwise, it's a lot more powerful to be able to do something about the income lever than it is to obsess over your budget. This is like what I said with Sunday Ticket. If your wife staying home means you lose $1,000 in income or whatever (whatever you'd net after daycare expenses) then find a way to bring in $1,000 more a month. This is something you are capable of doing.
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Aug 14, 2014 06:03
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imabanana posted:If your wife can stay home, and is happy to do so, do what you can to make it happen. Don't stress over your wife having a hard time going back to work later - that's loser mentality. While I don't disagree with the rest of your post, this is silly. Sanely estimate the expected loss in income from this, weigh that against your wife's feelings, and decide which option makes the most sense together. You don't have to ignore the opportunity cost to recognize that your wife's feelings are important and have genuine value.
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Aug 14, 2014 07:38
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