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Droo posted:So to summarize, you will most likely (I'd say at least 90% of the time) be better off by not paying more than the minimum on your mortgage, and instead investing the extra money you would have paid. For a counter opinion, I say unless you can get a guaranteed rate more than your mortgage rate, just pay off the house. There will be plenty of opportunity to speculate on stocks after you house is paid off.
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Feb 29, 2016 00:21
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nelson posted:For a counter opinion, I say unless you can get a guaranteed rate more than your mortgage rate, just pay off the house. There will be plenty of opportunity to speculate on stocks after you house is paid off. Return expectations aside, doing it your way would result in people permanently losing tax-advantaged account space by not contributing as much as they could to IRA and 401k accounts for many years.
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Feb 29, 2016 00:58
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So, I'm having a personal dilemma on savings/loans. I graduated law school with ~$100k in loans. Between paying that down and saving, I have about $50k in loans left, plus $65k in cash savings. I have a 401(k), but it has only about $10k in it. Additionally, I have about $20k on an auto loan @ 0.9%. I loving hate having student loans, but a full payoff would decimate my savings base (I could likely rapidly rebuild, but that in itself is a psychological issue for me). Should I go ahead and just pay off the balance of my student loans (that vary in interest rate from 6-8%).
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Feb 29, 2016 03:23
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Don't need to think in all or nothing absolutes. Pay as much as you can while still feeling OK with your cash on hand/emergency fund.
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Feb 29, 2016 03:43
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Sab0921 posted:So, I'm having a personal dilemma on savings/loans. I would pay them off. You would still have 15k as an emergency fund, and you said yourself you could rebuild it quickly. Most people recommend 6 months of expenses in cash, so unless your monthly expenses are running 10k/month I would say you're a little heavy on cash anyway. It's hard to beat a guaranteed 6% return.
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Feb 29, 2016 04:05
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Dale Sveum posted:I would pay them off. You would still have 15k as an emergency fund, and you said yourself you could rebuild it quickly. If I eliminated the student loan payment, our expenses likely run ~$5k-$6k per month, so I'd need some extra savings before I pull the trigger. Thanks!
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Feb 29, 2016 04:56
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antiga posted:Don't need to think in all or nothing absolutes. Pay as much as you can while still feeling OK with your cash on hand/emergency fund. This. Based off your post on expenses you should be good to pay one quarter to half of your student loans off and still have a healthy emergency fund.
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Feb 29, 2016 05:14
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Droo posted:Mortgage interest is complicated, and because a lot of it will be paid off in the future it's not really the same as paying it all now because of inflation, so thinking about the number of dollars you will pay in interest is not the best way to think about it. Except that mortgage loans front-load the interest so you are, in fact, paying most the interest now.
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Feb 29, 2016 05:36
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The very argument that net present value was invented to obviate.
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Feb 29, 2016 06:53
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So... Ideally, pay off as much of the mortgage as early as possible with what's left over AFTER investing in tax-advantaged accounts? I contribute my max to 401ks at work and the annual cap on Roth IRAs, and plan to continue to do so, but will probably not be investing super heavily in anything that's not tax-advantaged.
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Feb 29, 2016 19:40
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Inflation is very low to non-existent at the moment. This means that mortgage debts are just debts like any other at this point in time. So yes tax advantaged accounts first then mortgage second. There are circumstances where different choices are made but this is the newbie PF thread.
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Feb 29, 2016 23:38
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Hello thread! So I've been plagued with poor money handling my whole life due to bad habits, low will power and various other personal faults. I think I'd like to finally make an attempt to correct this by building a budget using mint.com, trying to stick to it and, mainly paying down the load of credit card debt I've accumulated! I currently owe something like 14k on a single 12.49% APR card that I also use to purchase everything from groceries to work expenses to hobby stuff &c. My only other debt is a 13k~ car loan with a super low APR. I'm totally guilty of retail therapy and, frankly one of my biggest problems is that floating this big unsecured debt along has rarely impacted my life in any way obvious enough for my stupid brain to recognize it as a problem. I'll get a couple grand ahead, maybe get the debt down to 11k or something and then feel like I've done good and splurge again. Or get depressed and buy a bunch of silly things, childish stuff like that. So one idea I was considering was using one of those debt consolidation offers? or refinance things? I get in the mail all the time so that the credit card I use for convenience is no longer also my primary source of debt. If I got like a 14k loan at 6% APR which some spam on mint.com indicated might be possible, then set up a payment plan to eliminate that in like 2 years or something, I feel like I would have a much easier time mentally of sticking to a budget and really limiting my spending habits. Basically I'm wondering if transferring debt to a 0% APR credit card with a balance transfer fee, or securing a debt consolidation loan or whatever its called, and then trying to religiously pay off my existing credit card every month, makes sense as a strategy to finally tackle this dumb debt problem? For other background info, I have excellent credit, make about $4k a month, do not have a spouse or any dependents or pets and I rent a room in a house. I have an IRA with a tiny piddling amount of money in it, have about $1k on hand at all times for emergencies in my checking account plus another $5k in cash in a safe. Budget is something I'm working on right now but I just know I'll fail at it if I don't have a solid plan for tackling this debt at the same time. If you need any info or whatever please let me know - there's a lot of smart people and good resources here and hopefully I'm finally in a mental place where I can take advantage of them haha
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Mar 8, 2016 02:03
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If you take home $4k/month, have no dependents, and rent a room in a house in an American city not named San Francisco or New York, you shouldn't even need to worry about a debt consolidation loan. Unless there's some massive expense floating out there that you haven't mentioned, you should be able to kill off $14k in the space of eight or nine months with some discipline. You should be able to easily knock that out in a 0% balance transfer card like the Chase Slate. The important things are to establish a payment plan yourself, and think of the money as already gone. When you want to buy some expensive new toy, you have to realize that you can't, because you already got into debt buying stupid poo poo and you have to pay off that debt first. "Credit card debt elimination" needs to be an expense just like rent or your car payment, and it needs to be a big one. You can't pay rent for a few months and then tell your landlord/housemates, "hey, I did really well there for a little while, so I'm going to stop paying rent now." If you treat killing off your debt the same way that you do other fixed expenses, you can do it. If you don't think of it that way, you're going to fall back into overspending very easily. Also, good God, don't keep your emergency fund as cash in a safe.
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Mar 8, 2016 02:50
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You can probably get a credit card with 0% APR and transfer the balance. The rest of your issue is behavioral.
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Mar 8, 2016 03:08
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I do live in a pretty high cost of living area but my rent isn't very high. And yeah, my problems are definitely behavioral! I'm trying to give myself as much of an edge in facing this problem so I don't just back slide and give up like I've done before. So if I'm reading the Chase Slate thing right, it's $0 in fees to transfer balances for the first 60 days and then 0% APR for the first 15 months on balance transfers? I assume the idea is that most people, like me, plan to pay off the bulk and then fail to do so, then the rate hike after 15 months is where they make all their money? So if I transfer the entire load from my current card over there then make a plan to pay it off at like $1200 a month, I should be good in a little less than a year, provided I don't gently caress up and start over spending in any other category. And yeah like I do overspend a ton or else I wouldn't be grappling with debt, with how simple my life is otherwise. Like, just for your amusement I spent $700 on restaurants/delivery last month which is definitely super hilarious and terrifying when you actually come face to face with it thanks to mint! So yeah. Rent/car payment & insurance/debt repayment/utilities are all fixed and knowable and that should then allow me to plan the rest of my budget accordingly. Thanks for the advice guys, heres hoping I can follow through on it!
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Mar 8, 2016 04:25
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You should think about starting a thread in here if you think that would help you keep yourself accountable. We like threads and yours would be a good one since you're going to kill that debt super fast once you tweak the shopping and eating out.
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Mar 8, 2016 06:25
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This is a big life change, and here's my advice: 1. You can change, but not overnight so dive in and be patient. 2. Tools are maybe 10% important. The rest is attitude, your values, and having a process (not the part tied to tools, the part where you check on your progress frequently). Posting a thread can be a tool, but how frequently you post updates, and how you measure progress is your process and matters more. 3. Don't get down on yourself, just get back on track. Emphasize successes constantly as they happen and don't dwell on the inevitable mistakes. Be honest about patterns, but don't let depression drive this. 4. Treat your depression if you're not already. Get help with that. 5. Don't incur new risky debts to consolidate until you demonstrate you are on track and fully in control. Focus on building successful behaviors before focusing on optimizing. 6. Get a partner to help and hold you accountable. Virtual or real. 7. You've got this, and it's going to feel amazing on the other side.
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Mar 8, 2016 19:05
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I'll definitely think about starting a thread! Accountability would be good but I'm a little worried how I'd handle mass internet bullying lol - I definitely want to at least give myself a shot for March to see if I can stick to the budget I'm putting together. Speaking of - this is hard! Based on the budget I've worked up I'm already ahead of where I should be in several categories, definitely going to have to do some introspection and really try and nail down where my priorities are if I'm going to be able to cut enough fat out of my spending to actually be serious about paying down debt. Is there any real downside to applying for this Chase Slate thing? It seems like if I can get that moving I'll save myself $130 a month in finance charges like right away and, if I'm good about sticking to the payment plan - and I'm usually pretty good about stuff like that, I shouldn't really have to worry about failing the goal and ending up with a card loaded with debt with a higher APR than the one I have now. Worst case I imagine I'll end up just wracking up debt on my current card again, which will be a hopefully much smaller amount at least. Unless there are pitfalls with doing the balance transfer route I'm not aware of? It can hurt my credit score I assume but my credit score is pretty great right now and I'm not planning to use it for anything else anytime soon either. So thanks for your advice guys and thanks for the point by point list porkface, that's a very helpful archetype for me to work with! 1. About change, I'm trying to be somewhat lenient with myself about this like I know if I go all draconian with this first budget I'm much more likely to despair and fail. If you're wondering how someone can spend $700 on restaurants in a month, I do end up eating in San Francisco a fair amount and I basically eat out for lunch every single day. A $14 sandwich is not like a rare or even eyebrow raising object here, though for my budget obviously it should be. I've tried packing lunches before but given it up every time, mostly out of laziness. What I'd like to do first is tackle all the eating out I do outside of work, since that makes up probably half the 700 bucks above or more and is a lot more superfluous. I've definitely ordered delivery when the fridge is full of food I could cook easily. 2. The process part I'm most interested in is shifting the debt to another credit card I don't use, so it feels much more like a loan that needs to be paid back with fixed payments per month. I feel like that will make me understand how constrained my actual budget is a lot better than if I just leave everything in one place, plus it saves money on finance charges. If I'm making a dumb mistake here let me know! For the time being I'll be checking mint every day to see where I am on my budget and working on changing and adapting behaviors to allow meeting my budget to be possible. 3. This'll be hard. I'm very prone to getting down on myself and quitting things. Roped in with number 4, I am in therapy, covered by health insurance thankfully, and trying to treat the underlying cause of my depression and mood issues. It's going to be a long rear end road here too and I occasionally worry I may be tackling too much with this, trying to lose weight, and handle the budget all at once. 5. I'm hoping a balance transfer card doesn't count as risky new debt? 6. That would be great! All my friends know I'm bad with money but, because I don't complain a ton about it and I still go out to eat and do everything with them, nobody really takes me to task haha - be it selection or whatever, I don't have any friends who are super focused on or concerned with money. My friends are all either broke or have been living with an adult mindset to finances so long already that they can't even really comprehend my dumb problems lol 7. Thanks!! Messages of encouragement really mean a lot to me  Jeez sorry this post is so long! I do super appreciate the advice and help already though!EDIT: Oh yeah and poo poo I forgot why I came back to post in this thread originally - how do I budget reimbursables? My company pays for bridge toll, public transport and mileage (gas equivalent) and other fees like parking and license renewals I incur on the job. My job involves a ton of driving so it's not weird to get a $120 bill a month just for bridge tolls, but all of that is reimbursed every paycheck. Do those actually need to be in the budget when they fluctuate a lot and are essentially a net 0? ZenMastaT fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Mar 8, 2016 |
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Mar 8, 2016 20:31
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Balance transfer isn't a risky debt. It's effectively a debt consolidation loan with 0%, but often the terms do load the card with the high interest rate. I was going to suggest just doing large payments to your existing card to get the balance down but in item 2 you note that you would prefer to treat it like a separate loan/account. In that case balance transfer an amount you can definitely pay off in the 0% period. Zero percent is a better rate than any consolidation loan. You probably should test yourself to see how much you can actually pay off your card. If you can pay an additional $1000-$1200 per month above your monthly credit card spend you could potentially transfer the whole amount (if they approve transferring that much). If you do start a thread the ones who end up with the worst comments are those that make bad decisions that hurt themselves financially. It's usually a pattern of reckless spending, then tell the thread after the fact when it's too late to change.
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Mar 8, 2016 22:22
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Devian666 posted:Balance transfer isn't a risky debt. It's effectively a debt consolidation loan with 0%, but often the terms do load the card with the high interest rate. The risk is (for some people) that they now have another credit card and can go deeper into the hole.
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Mar 8, 2016 22:49
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Whether or not you make a balance transfer, you should take any credit cards you have and put them away. Literally lock up the cards, cut them up, freeze them in a block of ice, whatever. If you have this information saved in Amazon or steam or whatever, remove it. You have $14,000 in bad debt, you do not want to put yourself in the situation of transferring that to another card and then racking up more debt on your newly clean card. If you want things, then you pay for them out of your actual cash. Making a thread is kind of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you will get a lot more specific, targeted help on addressing your problems, and having a thread here will give you a certain accountability for when you come in to report how you passed/failed on the month. That can be good. On the other hand, you will absolutely get people giving you grief about whatever poor decisions you have made, and probably insisting that you stop eating out and lunch off a bag of boiled rice and beans until you have a secure retirement. If you don't think you can take a little heat for your mistakes, it might not be a good idea. You have to be able to bear some scrutiny. But if you can, it can be pretty helpful - there are a good number of people who have started threads and turned themselves around, even people who made hilariously bad decisions and suffered proportional forum flames for them.
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Mar 8, 2016 22:49
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porkface posted:The risk is (for some people) that they now have another credit card and can go deeper into the hole. This is a very real risk. If credit card spending stays out of control then Ashcans has put forward the iceblock method of controlling spending. New habits are needed. If there's a balance transfer to an unused card AND the current card is paid off completely each month then there can be improvement. If not freezing or cutting up the cards puts a halt on spending.
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Mar 8, 2016 23:11
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Thanks for the risk perspective on the balance transfer! I suppose I ought to hold off for a month to see how badly I manage with the budget I've created for myself. You'd think doing this only a week into a new month would let me start with a mostly clean slate but I'm already at the halfway point on restaurants and more than halfway on shopping for the entire month, based on the numbers I gave myself. I have a feeling, even as easy as this budget will probably look to most of you, it may end up being a little much for my coddled easy living self lol I've included a screenshot of it below, hopefully you can let me know if any of this seems outlandish or if I forgot anything super obvious (I forgot rent until it posted today haha)  The food budget totals out to $450 for a month which I'm sure is very high for a single person. That said it's about half of what I spent last month, just counting restaurants, and I figure the largest part of my behavioral change needs to happen there. I know myself well enough to know that if I go from eating out whenever I want 7 times a week for like 10 years to packing a lunch 5 days a week and boiling pasta in the evenings, I'll break and slip back into bad habits. So I'm trying to do a graduated process. Shopping is the other major frivolous category and I do tend to do a fair bit of it. Clothes are my thing right now and the large budget you see there also represents me cutting back haha - same process as above, try to downshift one gear at a time instead of jumping all the way from 5th to 1st. The everything else category is for things I miss, hopefully, and it's over right now because mint has miscategorized an $80 electric bill into it. I only pay half of that in actuality but I'm not really sure how to represent that through mint. Likewise gas has a big $120 budget but at least half of that gets reimbursed through my company in the form of mileage, so things are a little wonky. I also shorted my expected income by $250 since, while I average $4k a month, it occasionally dips down to 3700 or so depending on my hours. Anyway sorry for another rambling post, I probably should have my own thread at some point but I definitely appreciate the insight you all have, especially from those people who have been in my stupid position, or at least paid witness to it 100 times haha As for freezing the credit card in ice, as a monument to my own foolishness, hopefully things won't have to come to that. I really enjoy having mint track basically every part of my expenses, I almost never use cash (although I withdrew $100 today while I was considering the advice of the thread) and it makes it very easy for me to know exactly where my money is going, when I'm paying attention, without simultaneously making things so inconvenient that I give up on them as a bad job. If I were about to have a kid, about to lose my job, about to buy a house, then I could definitely see implementing that - and it may come to it anyway eventually if I'm really incapable. But I'd like to leave some measures for the future instead of trying to enact them all at once. ZenMastaT fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Mar 9, 2016 |
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Mar 9, 2016 04:19
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ZenMastaT posted:As for freezing the credit card in ice, as a monument to my own foolishness, hopefully things won't have to come to that. I really enjoy having mint track basically every part of my expenses, I almost never use cash (although I withdrew $100 today while I was considering the advice of the thread) and it makes it very easy for me to know exactly where my money is going, when I'm paying attention, without simultaneously making things so inconvenient that I give up on them as a bad job. If I were about to have a kid, about to lose my job, about to buy a house, then I could definitely see implementing that - and it may come to it anyway eventually if I'm really incapable. But I'd like to leave some measures for the future instead of trying to enact them all at once. You should strongly consider not using your credit card for anything since carrying a balance means you don't get that interest-free grace period on new purchases. So everything new you buy on your card immediately starts accumulating interest.
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Mar 9, 2016 06:50
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I guess my thought was that, starting next month, if I can transfer all my current credit card debt to a 0% APR card and actually make the required payments on it, I should be able to pay off the current card every month which would then result in no longer carrying a balance month to month which generates a finance charge. Of course if I can't control my spending in actuality or if I can't transfer enough debt then that plan makes less sense. Hopefully by April I'll have a good idea for how feasible this all is.
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Mar 9, 2016 07:19
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You can handle reimbursements two ways - one, set your budget for the final amount you would intend to pay, and then when you get the reimbursement, allocate it to that category as a credit. This will balance out over the long term, but it will also look like you are 'over' between your payment and reimbursement. The other option is to set your budgets for those areas as what you will actually pay, and place the reimbursements as a separate income category. This provides some advantages on tracking, because then fi your utility bill goes over you know it is because it was actually overspent, not because you are waiting to be paid. Yea, your spending on food and shopping is high, but I understand what you are saying about coming down from the heights to nothing potentially tripping you up. It's not perfect, but it's more important for your reform to realistic and lasting, or you'll just have a great budget for five weeks and then self-destruct. What you should be doing is being mindful about when and what you are spending - just what you have done is a good start, in that now you are seeing your money go and where it goes to. There are a number of ways you can work to control your spending behaviorally, as well. You have to work out what it is you are actually getting from your purchases and if that can be replaced at a lower cost, and trying to curtail bad spending habits. I can go into more detail on this if you want. I know you said you have about $6k as an emergency fund, which is good. Ideally you want to start building that up, and then start putting more money toward your long-term savings (like retirement), but I think its ok to not have those on the budget right now while you're working things out. Keep that in mind though, as to how you want to spend your money as you bring spending under control and pay down your debt.
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Mar 9, 2016 15:50
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Track reimbursements and associated expenses separately so that you can make sure they reconcile and that your employer isn't accidentally or deliberately screwing you.
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Mar 9, 2016 16:09
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I think $150 for groceries might actually be a little low, personally, although maybe not if you eat out lunch every day
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Mar 9, 2016 17:40
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Yeah I was thinking about the food budgets this morning since I need to go grocery shopping like, today, if I actually want to be able to stop eating out at work every single day. I'm definitely going to blow the groceries budget in order to try and keep restaurants under - hopefully I can avoid blowing both... I would for sure be interested in more detail Ashcans! My silly spending habits are my main area of concern and, while I feel like I have a pretty good handle on what I do that's so stupid, it's hard to be objective so I could easily be missing obvious things. I know for example I'm exceedingly guilty of spending on convenience. I'm usually happy to order delivery from a place with like a $7 combined delivery charge rather than just go drive there myself to take the meal out. Obviously ideally I'd just be making whatever at home instead, and saving the whole $50 bill instead of $7 of it. I should also have mentioned, I'm trying to build a separate savings for medical expenses which are unfortunately fairly likely in my future - although the when and the how much isn't very clear yet. Nothing life threatening but more for ease of life. I'm trying to budget $200/mo for this as well, which is included in my current budget. This could also be used as a further emergency fund if necessary. I do have some other off-book assets that I usually forget about. I know my mom has something like $10k in a savings account from when her mother passed away that was supposed to go to me. I basically asked her to hold onto it since I managed to squander an earlier inheritance super quickly and didn't trust myself not to do the same again. Pathetic, I know - should have been a wake up call but, in the end all it seemed like was a fool and his money to me. The State of California also has 113 shares of Prudential Financial that belonged to my late Grandfather. The process to retrieve them is about as byzantine and obtuse as a bureaucracy can be, while still giving you explanations on what to do online. I'm finally going to get off my rear end to try and collect the various death certificates needed to claim this, hopefully. For the reimbursables - my company just lumps the amount in with my paycheck, I mean it's a designated line item so I know how much it is, but is there a way to separate that out using mint? Likewise can I sub-categorize things as a reimbursable and a bridge toll, or a license fee? Basically how do I actually set up the mechanism to know how much I should be reimbursed and how much I actually am being reimbursed?
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Mar 9, 2016 20:27
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Wasn't sure if this was the right place to post this but here it goes: A deposit for a secured credit card from my bank popped up in my activity that I know 100% for sure I didn't do myself so the next day when it cleared I immediately called up to get the card cancelled and the deposit back. I changed all my passwords, made it so my phone is my only approved online banking device and all that jazz. Now I've been on the phone with the bank for a while trying to see if they can track down where the charge was initiated (if thats even possible) since I have my suspicions that a family member who has access to my PC may have attempted to request the card. (They're really desperate financially right now, and have stolen card information from my parents in the past.) Bank has given me the run around so far on tracking down when or where the activity happened aside from the day, and im wondering if I should just give up and be happy that I caught in time or should I keep trying? Also is closing it immediately like that going to effect getting a secured card in the future in anyway? I currently use Bank of America.
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Mar 9, 2016 20:28
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My deceased grandparents left me shares in a small company that recently had an IPO. The shares are now worth about $240k I'm getting three schools of advice. One is to cash it out and invest it for retirement because combined we both have about 30k in our 401k accounts. The second is to wait while the company grows and cash more for the stock later. (Many family members are involved in the company and believe the stock will split and grow.) The third, what I feel is best, is to pay off my home loan of $165k and be debt free, have a emergency fund and then start investing heavily in retirement with the money we save from not having a house payment. The third feels the safest. My concern is that we are behind in our retirement savings and only have 30k saved in our 401k accounts and a 3 months emergency fund at 38 years old. I don't want lifestyle creep to make the money we save on a house payment disappear into the nether each month. Honestly, the second appeals to my greedy side, but I can't stomach the risk. There is talk of a stock split and share price growth to double or triple where it is now. I'd feel like crap if I sold and the stock doubled or something right after. Those numbers sound really good and the price had already doubled from last years ipo. The third choice of investing it for retirement sounds good too. My thought is that it would get us back to close where we should be at this age in our retirement savings. Maybe I'm not doing the math right, but if the investments grew at a better rate than our mortgage loan rate of 3.5% mortgage, we'd be doing ok right? Paying off the house or investing are the only real choices that feel responsible. I just don't know which option is the wisest but I feel pressure to secure the money before something  happens.
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Mar 9, 2016 21:50
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Risky to have it in one single stock, as everyone will point out. Since you can't put the lump sum in retirement accounts, I might consider paying off some or all of the house, and maxing out retirement accounts each year.
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Mar 9, 2016 22:03
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Deegan posted:The second is to wait while the company grows and cash more for the stock later. (Many family members are involved in the company and believe the stock will split and grow.) Do not do this. You'll either end up looking like a genius or idiot by dumping the shares immediately, but having that much of your net worth locked up into a single stock is never the right answer. If you think it will grow and have money to throw around gambling, keep a few thousand dollars of shares as your fun speculation money. Not $240,000. As for deciding between option 1 and 3, I don't really see why you're focusing so much on "well it would be nice to bump up our retirement savings". By doing that, you'll still need to pay off your house, which will remove the opportunity to invest further into retirement savings. If you pay off the house, you can then use a higher percentage of your income to catch up on retirement. The decision will likely depend on what you're paying on your home loan vs. what you expect to make by investing the money (in a taxable account, since you'll only be able to deposit small portions of it directly into a tax-sheltered IRA). You can also use that cash to do things like set your work compensation to go 100% into a 401k and use the cash to supplement, in case you decide to go the route of paying off some of the house/investing some of the cash. Blinky2099 fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Mar 9, 2016 |
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Mar 9, 2016 22:14
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Getting rid of the stock is a really solid move. You're not involved in the company, you don't like the risk, you don't need to take the risk, so dump the risk. You have to discount the family opinion almost entirely because they're involved and will be the most wishful of wishful thinkers. The only downside is that you might be bummed out if you miss some growth in a few years, at which point you can say "Aw drat. Well, I made a really good decision at the time." Which will be true. As far as where to put the money, top two priorities would be to max out 401k/IRA limits or pay off the house - do them in whatever proportion you like. Blinky2099 posted:keep a few thousand dollars of shares as your fun speculation money
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Mar 9, 2016 22:20
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Blinky2099 posted:The decision will likely depend on what you're paying on your home loan vs. what you expect to make by investing the money (in a taxable account, since you'll only be able to deposit small portions of it directly into a tax-sheltered IRA). You can also use that cash to do things like set your work compensation to go 100% into a 401k and use the cash to supplement, in case you decide to go the route of paying off some of the house/investing some of the cash. I have never heard of this before and it is a really appealing idea. Also, my wife really really likes the peace of mind of having a free and clear house. I know I'd be obsessing/sweating over the stock ticker every day if I left it longer in the market. Thanks for the advice!
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Mar 9, 2016 22:55
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I think a good way to think of it is this: if someone gave you $240,000 in cash, would you invest it all in this company's stock? I am going to guess the answer is no. You would probably do one of the other things you are talking about - invest it more broadly for retirement, pay off your house, otherwise secure it in a safe way. If you wouldn't buy that much stock, why keep it that way? Personally I would pay off the house, set aside a substantial emergency fund, and then focus the rest on long term savings. And ok, probably spend a couple hundred bucks unwisely to celebrate, if I am being honest. You're thinking about how you will feel if you sell the stock and in five years it's worth five times as much. Well, how will you feel if you don't sell the stock and in five years it is worthless, knowing you could have cashed out and cleared your debts?
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Mar 9, 2016 23:02
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Ghosthotel posted:Now I've been on the phone with the bank for a while trying to see if they can track down where the charge was initiated (if thats even possible) since I have my suspicions that a family member who has access to my PC may have attempted to request the card. (They're really desperate financially right now, and have stolen card information from my parents in the past.) ZenMastaT posted:Yeah I was thinking about the food budgets this morning since I need to go grocery shopping like, today, if I actually want to be able to stop eating out at work every single day. I'm definitely going to blow the groceries budget in order to try and keep restaurants under - hopefully I can avoid blowing both...
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Mar 10, 2016 01:45
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I like that breakfast sandwich idea a lot! I don't actually do much incidental spending, it's just like super common for me to drop $15-20 per lunch like every day and then eat out again 3-4 nights of the week. I'm very lazy about cooking, definitely one of the main things I need to confront - for health reasons too! I adjusted groceries up another $50 by bringing fast food down to $20 and restaurants down another $20 too. I don't really eat much fast food anyway besides subway at work when I'm in a hurry. I usually only take a 30 minute lunch, which includes like time to get wherever, order and back again - obviously that's improved by bringing a lunch to work too. So basically, for the rest of the month I need to pack a lunch in every day and I should have enough left over to eat out like maybe 2 times total until April. That's probably too much of a reduction for me to be super happy with long term, but I overspent a bunch in the first part of this month before I actually made the budget. Hopefully I can spread things out a little more evenly next month and not have to deal with the privation of my own crappy salad & sandwich combo every day at work lol Food being my main weakness, I can tell I'm already like trying to do mental gymnastics on the other categories in the budget to find areas I could squeeze more money out of - these habits are going to be hard to break!
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Mar 10, 2016 03:44
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There is a great thread in GWS about eating well on the cheap. Can't link now, but check it out!
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Mar 10, 2016 04:11
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| # ? May 25, 2024 05:08 |
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Make a thread.
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Mar 10, 2016 05:22
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