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Saint Fu posted:This would result in you paying a little more in interest every month on the outstanding loan, but it's probably the right call. This way you have more time to ride it out to hopefully find more ways to save some money or start earning more in a side gig. I'd say the two options are exactly the same except in some weird emotional sense. The e-fund is there to help keep you from going into debt in an emergency, right? Well, you're already in debt so all it's doing now is forcing you to pay more interest on the balance of your debt than you have to, so dump the emergency fund into your debt and save yourself the interest. If you have another emergency, there are only two potential scenarios, with or without your e-fund: A: You keep the emergency fund for another month or so, pay another X amount of interest to your creditor, experience an emergency, drain your emergency fund (and then some, probably), and continue paying interest or having more debt. Because you didn't pay off the debt as fast as possible, your net result is still a negative net worth, and that negative is higher. B: Dump everything into debt to reduce your interest payments. For another month or so, you have no interest payments and save X amount in interest, experience an emergency, and probably go back into debt anyway. In this case, you come out ahead because you paid less interest in the time before the emergency than in scenario A. For sure have some kind of semi-liquid capital so that you can recover from emergencies, but since you're already in debt that capital might as well just be your credit. The difference, and the reason emergency funds are so popular, is that cash in the bank is apparently supposed to have some intrinsic value that makes it harder to spend than credit. It's more efficient to just do the psychological legwork and save yourself money.
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Feb 24, 2015 14:13
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Yesterday I pulled the trigger and shifted 5.5k from my savings to fund my ROTH IRA for the year. Then I took a look at the price I'd funded it at, and felt like I'd gotten gutpunched. Two weeks ago, shares of the fund I'd bought were 2% lower! Even worse, if I'd done it in January, I could've made a full 5% in a month! I spent a minute stewing and grunting and being a general mess before realizing that it doesn't matter, I probably won't be touching this money for another 35 years, and trying to time the market is still dumb. In The Four Pillars, Bernstein mentions a few times that you can't really experience the despair of a massive investment loss until it happens. If I got that worked up over gains... well, I'm going to have to steel myself for the future.
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Feb 24, 2015 15:12
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Taco Box posted:In machining, all the money gets made in overtime, at time and a half. The common wisdom is to live on what you make @ 40 hours per week and bank the rest. Not all of us followed that wisdom and only learn the hard way during downturns. When I'm at 55-60 hour weeks, my take home is around $1800 every two weeks. At 40 hour weeks, it's $1183 every two weeks. I knew the downturn in hours was coming and have been socking money away and getting out of subscriptions and services as fast as I could, but I wasn't fast enough. Where are you that a skilled machinist is only make ~20/hr?
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Feb 24, 2015 15:14
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No Butt Stuff posted:Where are you that a skilled machinist is only make ~20/hr? Houston, and I'm not a machinist. I'm an 'inspector trainee' officially but I'm a CMM programmer/operator.
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Feb 24, 2015 16:01
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Taco Box posted:In machining, all the money gets made in overtime, at time and a half. The common wisdom is to live on what you make @ 40 hours per week and bank the rest. Not all of us followed that wisdom and only learn the hard way during downturns. When I'm at 55-60 hour weeks, my take home is around $1800 every two weeks. At 40 hour weeks, it's $1183 every two weeks. I knew the downturn in hours was coming and have been socking money away and getting out of subscriptions and services as fast as I could, but I wasn't fast enough. I'd also suggest tightening up your budget more. Less date nights, less vacation, less alcohol... It's not forever, it's until you get your poo poo cleaned up. No Butt Stuff posted:Where are you that a skilled machinist is only make ~20/hr?
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Feb 27, 2015 12:00
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Double post wtf iOS?
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Feb 27, 2015 12:00
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Small-ish question. A small private company I used to work for recently got a minority-investment from a bigger company. This made the industry-news websites, which is how I found out. I was given shares when I was employed there, but no paperwork other than on my contract was that I had X share of the company. I left 3 years ago and the shares expire 10 years after I left, so they're still good. Do I get anything out of this? Should I email the HR department or something? I haven't really had contact with them since, but we're on good terms. Also I imagine the value, if any, would be really small so I'm not expecting any sort of real windfall. I just don't know how this sort of thing works for employees (or former employees).
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Feb 27, 2015 19:56
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Having trouble staying motivated to keep on keepin' on with budgeting and all dat. It just feels like I'll never get to a point where I'll have extra money to do fun things with! I'll be done saving for grad school in 13 months. That will free up $330/mo. I'll get my raise for getting my Masters in 19 months. That will add ~$300/mo net. I'll finish paying off my car in 24 months. That will free up $400/mo. Never again! So in two years I'll have $1k more a month, just gotta get there. -- At least my electricity bill went down 33% this month! 
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Feb 28, 2015 22:49
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After visiting my parents today and seeing dogscantbudget's thread updates... why is it all of us take up the hobby of finding poo poo to blow money on when we make a lot of it? My dad makes like $500K a year, and they spend it on some really asinine, albiet cool, poo poo. I mean I visit them today and my Mom has a new bike with this Bionx electric drive system and that drat thing will do like 20 MPH by itself. My Dad bought himself some new drone thing, after already having a parrot drone. It's an Iris 3d with a gopro hero (which I'd love to have for making cycling/running videos) and gimbal mounts and so on... He hasn't worked more than 60 hours since December and just this month they've blown close to $5K on toys because it was their anniversary. Why? Why do people do this? My mentor at work says that his Sociology teacher when he was in college said humans adapt to nothing faster than an increased standard of living. My Dad says that expenses always rise to meet income. My brain hurts. I hate that I do this too. 20% raise? buy a MINI! I hate being a loving primate moron.
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Mar 1, 2015 03:22
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Well, I mean, in the last 12 months I've received like 40k in various random bonuses and haven't spent a dime of it (It's all now worth like 48k  ), so it's not like it's a human nature thing, dude. Get critical with your spending and have some conviction.
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Mar 2, 2015 00:01
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Taco Box posted:He hasn't worked more than 60 hours since December and just this month they've blown close to $5K on toys because it was their anniversary. Why? Why do people do this? I view it is the buzz that you get from leveling up in an rpg. Your brain likes these positive things and shopping seems to fit the bill for most people. I hit a point where buying more crap didn't really inspire me a few years ago. It's nice to get these things but there are a lot of other things more important. I have film and audio equipment that is all for hobby purposes. The gear doesn't get a lot of use but at least I make a few films and music videos each year, better than sitting around never being used. However, how much crap do you need to buy? I've hit saturation on all the useful stuff. Everything else I just consider if I'll even have time to use it and realise no I won't. Convincing yourself not to buy stuff is pretty important.
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Mar 2, 2015 00:31
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tuyop posted:Well, I mean, in the last 12 months I've received like 40k in various random bonuses and haven't spent a dime of it (It's all now worth like 48k I also see no problem with someone making 500k near-blowing 10%+ of take home, as long as they hit solid savings goals.
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Mar 2, 2015 01:41
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Started to build an emergency fund and then my car needed 1.1k in emergency repairs. Glad I had the beginnings of an emergency fund to cover it.
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Mar 2, 2015 02:29
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Taco Box posted:After visiting my parents today and seeing dogscantbudget's thread updates... why is it all of us take up the hobby of finding poo poo to blow money on when we make a lot of it? My dad makes like $500K a year, and they spend it on some really asinine, albiet cool, poo poo. I mean I visit them today and my Mom has a new bike with this Bionx electric drive system and that drat thing will do like 20 MPH by itself. My Dad bought himself some new drone thing, after already having a parrot drone. It's an Iris 3d with a gopro hero (which I'd love to have for making cycling/running videos) and gimbal mounts and so on... Ultimately you work to make money so you can go enjoy the things you like to do. If you live within your means and save for later who cares if you blow money. Some hobbies are cheap and some are expensive. I love to ski and snowboard and literally would do anything to do them. It is expensive (I probably spend about $2500 a year on it) and making good money makes it easier but that is about it.
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Mar 2, 2015 05:04
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I would be buying so much junk if I made 500k/yr
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Mar 2, 2015 13:58
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dreesemonkey posted:I would be buying so much junk if I made 500k/yr Yeah, I want those drat cell phone lightbulbs that make your room purple at a whim. Does your dad have those lightbulbs, Taco Box?
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Mar 2, 2015 14:24
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I think if I made 500k a year it would be so hard to resist mindless consumption. I'm stubborn and would be shameful of it though, so I would try my best. What I would probably do is start businesses and mask my consumption through them. "What? I need a drone for my aerial picture taking business! Sure, my grandma is my only client, but she likes the leaves in the fall and isn't mobile enough to see them for herself!"
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Mar 2, 2015 15:23
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My wonderful Nana, who I love dearly, won the lottery like 15 years ago. She never had expensive tastes to begin with, and she still doesn't, but I've seen the woman at Wal Mart… It's astounding how much money one can spend at Wal Mart.
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Mar 2, 2015 15:44
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Rick Rickshaw posted:I think if I made 500k a year it would be so hard to resist mindless consumption. I'm stubborn and would be shameful of it though, so I would try my best. A quadcopter with/ go pro / gimble would probably be one of my first impulse buys. That poo poo is so freaking cool.
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Mar 2, 2015 16:54
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tuyop posted:Yeah, I want those drat cell phone lightbulbs that make your room purple at a whim. Does your dad have those lightbulbs, Taco Box? I bought some of these as my one big gadget purchase last year. The software is poo poo and the hardware is inconsistent. Do not bother.
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Mar 2, 2015 17:06
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Wife and I paid off her reasonable priced vehicle today. We immediately put the majority of the funds [roughly 70%] into reoccurring donations for local nonprofits like the boys and girls club and food pantry. Feels good man.
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Mar 2, 2015 17:56
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Does anyone know approximately when YNAB is likely to be on sale on Steam again? Or are those sales completely random?
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Mar 3, 2015 08:40
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:Does anyone know approximately when YNAB is likely to be on sale on Steam again? Or are those sales completely random? It's on sale for $45 (or $30, I can't remember) during the Steam Spring/Fall sales. It goes to $15 for 24 hours on New Years Day and for 24 hours during the Summer sale.
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Mar 3, 2015 13:21
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Why the gently caress did I buy a house? I got a letter telling my my escrow will be short by $825.81 and if I don't make up that shortage, my house payment jumps to $785 a month from $668. If I do pay the shortage, it still jumps to $716. Honestly, I feel so defeated in life right now. I just today got my tax refund and was going to wipe out a huge chunk of debt. Now I have this poo poo to deal with. Since they've cut hours at work, all I can do is exist. I am at subsistence levels now. Does life ever get easier? I feel like every time I get ahead, something like this happens. Some days I just want to hang myself from a hoist and be done with this poo poo. E:  I'm underwater on the Mini and if I sell my car to make up the difference, I'd have enough to get one $5k beater or 2 $2500 beaters. 
BloodBag fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 13:42
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Why the poo poo does a house have 325 HOA fees? Is there a communal racquetball court? I thought only condos could have fees so high.
Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 14:13
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I know insurance is cheap where I live, but I pay about the same monthly for 3 vehicles, including an older M3 and a late model Lexus. And drat, $325 HOA fees on a $716 mortgage that includes insurance and taxes? $117 on a phone? That's not just one line is it? Sorry man, not trying to kick you while you're down but it seems like you're flushing a lot of cash down the toilet. e: numbers Easychair Bootson fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 14:16
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We're interviewing to fill two vacancies at work and we're down to the final six candidates. I took one of them out to lunch yesterday and I really liked him. In addition to being well-qualified for the job, he also would fit in well with our office culture which is important to us. I have a bad feeling about the whole thing though because the guy works in a town four hours away and has two kids here (3 year old and 3 week old) so it would be great if we could bring him back to town. But 4 of the other 5 candidates are really great too and so there's an excellent chance we're going to have to cut him from the list and keep him away from his kids. Why can't we give everyone good a job 
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Mar 3, 2015 14:40
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Nail Rat posted:Why the poo poo does a house have 325 HOA fees? Is there a communal racquetball court? I thought only condos could have fees so high. It's a ~*townhouse*~ The only way to get close to where I work and not have a $250,000 mortgage or live in stabby-town.
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Mar 3, 2015 14:48
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Congratulations on the purchase. I love my townhouse. But my "condo" / "HOA" fees are only $250, with a $1400 mortgage/taxes payment. And no special assessments on the books either. You're paying almost as much in HOA fees ($408.33) as your mortgage.  At least my principal payment on my mortgage each month is double what my condo fees are.Does the $325 cover any utilities? Mine just covers water.
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Mar 3, 2015 15:53
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By the way, at your income level and with your bill problems I would highly recommend Republic Wireless. I make six figures but I just switched to them four months ago from Verizon and got their cheapest phone ($100). $30 a month after taxes and you know what, it's still a smartphone that's 90% as good as any other smartphone. That last 10% isn't worth $90 a month(especially when that's almost 5% of your takehome).
Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 15:57
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Rick Rickshaw posted:Congratulations on the purchase. I love my townhouse. But my "condo" / "HOA" fees are only $250, with a $1400 mortgage/taxes payment. And no special assessments on the books either. You're paying almost as much in HOA fees ($408.33) as your mortgage. My HOA is larger than my principal and interest. My home was $85K in a reasonably safe neighborhood about 5 miles from my work. My wife's work is 13.1 miles from here in the opposite direction. We put 20% down and have a conventional mortgage at 4% My principal and interest is $324.64. HOA is 'walls out' coverage, excluding the AC. I really don't feel I get my money's worth, frankly. We couldn't afford a single family home, and the less expensive townhomes up the road with a cheaper HOA are literally falling apart from a lack of maintenance. They cover water/sewer and trash. HOA was $300 three years ago, but last year it went up $5, this year it went up $20. Houston's housing market was booming hard until oil took a poo poo. Zillow says my little housy (1800 sq. ft, 2 car detached garage) is supposedly worth $200K.
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Mar 3, 2015 16:01
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Taco Box posted:My HOA is larger than my principal and interest. My home was $85K in a reasonably safe neighborhood about 5 miles from my work. My wife's work is 13.1 miles from here in the opposite direction. We put 20% down and have a conventional mortgage at 4% Sounds like you're doing all right then. You just have to get rid of your other debts, I guess?
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Mar 3, 2015 17:29
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Just did my monthly transfer to savings and my total amount in savings happened to work out to be $7777 
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Mar 3, 2015 22:54
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Taco Box posted:Why the gently caress did I buy a house? I got a letter telling my my escrow will be short by $825.81 and if I don't make up that shortage, my house payment jumps to $785 a month from $668. If I do pay the shortage, it still jumps to $716. Honestly, I feel so defeated in life right now. I just today got my tax refund and was going to wipe out a huge chunk of debt. Now I have this poo poo to deal with. Since they've cut hours at work, all I can do is exist. I am at subsistence levels now. Does life ever get easier? I feel like every time I get ahead, something like this happens. Some days I just want to hang myself from a hoist and be done with this poo poo. Did you investigate the escrow shortage to figure out why you are short? There's basically two possibilities, your homeowner's insurance went way up or your taxes went way up (or both). There may be things you can do about either.
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Mar 4, 2015 00:14
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BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:Did you investigate the escrow shortage to figure out why you are short? There's basically two possibilities, your homeowner's insurance went way up or your taxes went way up (or both). There may be things you can do about either. Taxes. Harris County Appraisal District is very aggressive with their appraisals and I should've thought that this would happen like six months ago when they sent the paperwork. I should have contested back then, but it's too late now. Please believe I'll be contesting from here on out though. Houston may seem like an affordable place to own property by just looking at housing prices, but the taxes are where they get you. TX has no income tax, but the property tax is off the loving chain here, as is the sales tax. I pay over $3200 a year on an $85k mortgage, and it's gone up this year. The sales tax is also 8.25%. So while it may look great, owning here is expensive, and HCAD, like I said, is very aggressive.
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Mar 4, 2015 01:06
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Taco Box posted:Why the gently caress did I buy a house? I pay $850 for my own room/bathroom in a 4 bedroom house. Yay California.
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Mar 4, 2015 02:03
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Just dropped $2300 on an eight day vacation for two in April. I feel sick.
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Mar 8, 2015 02:58
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tuyop posted:Just dropped $2300 on an eight day vacation for two in April. I feel sick. Where ya going?
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Mar 8, 2015 03:03
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pig slut lisa posted:Where ya going? A fairly low star resort in Varadero. It's the only place we could stay, let alone fly to, for less than 3500-4000 (and 60 hours of travel). Because gently caress Edmonton. I've also only been to a resort once and I kind of hate the whole concept. But really, we just want a week where we can enjoy the outdoors together and stop thinking about anything. We agreed that an all inclusive vacation somewhere south made the most sense given those criteria.
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Mar 8, 2015 03:35
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Nothing wrong with that. Money exists to be spent. Have a good time.
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Mar 8, 2015 20:46
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