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I found the name of the product that my bank uses, and it's this: https://www.mx.com/products/moneydesktop I swear by it, but it looks like it's only for banks/credit unions to deploy for their members. I don't think they realize what a goldmine they are sitting on with personal users. It's far easier to use than YNAB, and has lots of graphs and data built into it.
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Jan 18, 2017 18:20
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I'm 25 years old, about to start baby's first real job in May. I live in Canada. No debt, no money or assets. Looking for some advice on my first budget and general financial plans: My job pays 46k a year, supposing I have to pay 15% taxes then that works out to $39100 or $3258 per month. I currently live with my parents although I'm looking to move out to my own apartment. Given that I have no money right now, I plan to save my salary for 2 months before moving out. That'll give me about $6500 or maybe $6000 after expenses, which should cover first and last and give me a (very small) buffer of extra cash. I plan to invest the maximum ($5000) into a TFSA per year for retirement/emergency fund. I also plan to save slightly less for short-term savings which I can use as needed for larger purchases not covered on my budget. Here's the budget I worked out, including the aforementioned savings: Monthly Income 3258 Monthly Expenses Rent -1450 TFSA Savings (5k / yr) -420 Short-Term Savings -400 Food/Household -400 Transit -150 Internet -60 Prescriptions -50 Cat -50 Phone -40 Haircut -30 Misc/Entertainment -200 Balance 8 Any suggestions or comments would be highly appreciated. The rent is an estimate based on the type of places I've been looking at. Is it too expensive for my salary? Is 2 months pay enough savings to have before moving out or should I try to stay with my 'rents longer? Is it wise to put that much aside into the TFSA even though my salary is low? Within 2 years my goal is to make closer to 70-80k, my salary is quite low for my field (software developer) but I'm coming from the arts so I took what I could get to get entry-level experience. I'm tempted to start putting retirement money into the TFSA in 2 years from now so that my budget isn't as tight, but my dad highly recommended to start saving immediately. e: I'll need a new laptop (~1500-2000) within the next year or so also. What's the best way to budget for this? Is my short-term savings of $400 an OK idea to cover and track this type of purchase? denzelcurrypower fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Feb 14, 2017 |
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Feb 14, 2017 22:35
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That rent is pretty loving high, unless you're living in maybe downtown Toronto or something (I live in the states and rent a house in Philadelphia in a hot neighborhood for $1200 a month, split with my girlfriend, for some context) You can live in a regular lovely apartment and not in a fancy apartment complex and poo poo.
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Feb 14, 2017 22:46
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I would say that you should put as much aside into your TFSA as you can without compromising your budget or making yourself unhappy (so, you know, don't eat gruel or forsake all fun). Money you can set aside now has that much more time to grow, and creating the habit of determined saving early on is also very valuable. I agree that the apartment looks pricey, especially relative to your income. I would look for a way to bring it down without making yourself miserable. I understand wanting to move out on your own and I think that's reasonable, but maybe you can find something cheaper, or even split something with a roommate? Remember that its much better to start with something too modest and move up next year than it is to start with something too expensive and be stuck bleeding dry the lease. I would try to get a three-month buffer before you move out. Unless you have a timeline that you are working toward, that extra cushion can be very important and also give you a lot of piece of mind. Moving and settling in can come with a number of unexpected expenses, too.
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Feb 14, 2017 22:55
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Live with your parents, eat canned beans and save it all 
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Feb 14, 2017 23:07
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Sockser posted:That rent is pretty loving high, unless you're living in maybe downtown Toronto or something Thanks for the advice, guys. It is indeed Toronto, although not downtown. I haven't picked a place yet but the average with utilities included seems to be about $1400 for a 1 bedroom. I'll be moving in with my girlfriend and she might be contributing to rent depending on if she gets a job or not, but she'll likely end up doing a Masters and therefore I'll be sole contributor.
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Feb 14, 2017 23:22
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It's not just the 44% income allocated to rent that's scaring people, it's the unlisted, potentially hidden expenses: Electricity, heating and cooling, water, sewage, garbage.
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Feb 15, 2017 00:45
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If you want a decent quality of life your GF is going to have to work.
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Feb 15, 2017 00:58
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PhantomOfTheCopier posted:It's not just the 44% income allocated to rent that's scaring people, it's the unlisted, potentially hidden expenses: Electricity, heating and cooling, water, sewage, garbage. All of those are included in the rent of the places I've been looking at. The gf situation is just going to be for a year or two. Out of curiousity, what exactly seems to be lacking so much in my budget due to the high rent and lack of working partner? Most people posting here end up throwing away 1-2 grand a month on car expenses and repaying debts, neither of which I have, so it doesn't look too bad to me. I'm open to suggestions though, not trying to get defensive here I just am a bit confused at the push back. E: Forgot to add I have a potential 5k raise at a 6 month performance review, although obviously that can't be counted on as a guarantee so I haven't included it in the budget. denzelcurrypower fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Feb 15, 2017 |
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Feb 15, 2017 01:02
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The pushback is because high rent is a stupid place to blow a lot of money. Are you looking at 2BRs? Look at 1BRs. Are you looking at 1BRs? Look at studios. Are you looking at studios? Look at efficiencies. Are you looking in Seattle? Look in Tacoma. Are you looking in Denver? Look in C. Springs. Your time isn't worth enough (and your money is worth too much) to let this be half of your monthly income. edit: just seen that you're looking in Toronto. This site tells me there are several neighborhoods in Toronto proper in which you can get a 1BR for < $1000. http://www.blogto.com/city/2016/01/the_top_5_neighbourhoods_for_cheap_rent_in_toronto/ As does http://www.padmapper.com EAT FASTER!!!!!! fucked around with this message at 14:18 on Feb 15, 2017 |
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Feb 15, 2017 14:11
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Ornithology posted:All of those are included in the rent of the places I've been looking at. Ok, credit where credit is due, you have budgeted out a good savings rate and definitely having no debts is a big positive. I don't bother coming down on people for their debts because by the time they post here they realize they hosed up, but once you have them you don't really have much choice but to pay them, so grilling people over it isn't really useful (unless its so bad they should just declare bankruptcy, I guess). BFC does give people heat on stupid car choices though, especially if they are in a position to get rid of it. The reason I am wary of your rent rate is because paying 40% of your income is a lot on anything, and doing it on rent is risky - you are probably going to be on the hook for a year lease, which means that if you decide that you hate the place you have very limited options. I have been in that position myself, and it sucks because you have to watch your income get poured into a dumpster fire that you hate, and it can embitter whole other aspects of your life. Are you confident that you are going to like this living situation enough to lock in that spending? Maybe you would be happier spending that much less on rent and having that much more to spend on doing things or going places. It also sounds like this is your first time living away from home, and you're moving in with your GF. That isn't bad, but it does mean that you might not have experience with all the costs of living under your own roof. Do you know what your move-in expenses will be? Are you going to need furniture? Do you currently rely on your parents for something that you won't be able to when you are on your own? For example, are you going to be ok doing all your shopping on transit, or do you need to budget something there? You should also think about how its going to feel when you are basically paying for everything for you and your girlfriend. Are you going to be ok with that? Some people are fine being a sole earner, but it is also really easy for people to get irritated when they are paying for everything in a household; beyond BFC advice, this is something you should really talk about with your girlfriend before you move in. If you feel like you have considered all those things and addressed them and you want to move ahead, then your budget isn't bad - you'll still be saving and you'll have money to spend on yourself. Just make sure you have done that before you lock yourself into it for a year.
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Feb 15, 2017 15:20
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Ornithology, I don't think anyone is really scared, but there are some little things hiding here that always turn out to be the elephants when people end up in the Bad With Money thread or Personal Finance. You have a budget, which is awesome! It contains most of the typical expenses, so it seems rather safe. It's certainly doable. But we like to play at  s advocacy here
None of these things necessarily apply to you, but, if they do, you'll want to determine their potential impact to your security for the next year.
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Feb 15, 2017 17:33
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Are you looking in Denver? Look in C. Springs. Let's not get crazy here.
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Feb 18, 2017 23:40
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22 Eargesplitten posted:Let's not get crazy here. lol I think I meant Aurora here but no, no I am going to advocate that you commute an hour and ten minutes by car every day into some of the worst traffic in the US.
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Feb 19, 2017 01:36
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Has anyone got a recommendation for a pretty customisable budgeting app (prefer webapp, definitely not something that I can only enter stuff on via phone) that does't necessarily require bank access? I used to use Toshl but they updated it a while ago to force you to use certain mandatory catagories, which messed up my system and I wound up ragequitting. I am in Australia and banking with Commonwealth, saw today they have their own sort of service, which I've signed up for, but there's a 48 hour lag and I'm not sure how well I'll like it. I charge everything on my debit card and generally keep expenditures as low as I can get them, so we're not talking lots of rounding up random cups of coffee/meals out/bar tabs/etc. What I am looking for is something I can manually enter and catagorise expenses in weekly, as well as set a few recurring ones (such as spreading out $30/mo phone service payment to $7.5/week, splitting my fortnightly paycheque in half, etc), and do stuff like generate a pie chart of weekly expenses, line graph to compare weeks, etc. I normally sit down and do a weekly review of everything (spending, work, fitness, to-do's, etc) every Sunday, so this is not really much of a hassle for me. I am also not keen on giving a third party service access to my bank account to automate this, as it violates Commonwealth's TOS and potentially leaves me high and dry in the case of fraud. From what I understand YNAB isn't really useful for me as I'm not really trying to stay within certain spending limits, just track what I do spend. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Feb 19, 2017 |
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Feb 19, 2017 01:49
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https://financier.io/ is a free YNAB type budgeting software, you could use it to track expenses only if you wanted to. To get the most out of it though it costs $12 a year to get sync between devices. The only weakness based on what you said is the charts/reports function. Currently it only has a month net worth chart.
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Feb 19, 2017 02:29
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I had a similar frustration with toshl when they rolled out the update last year. But I recently just relearned it and honestly it can do exactly what it sounds like you want to do. Does cost US$18/yr for the pro version if you want to have incomes and budgets included. Free if you only want to track expenses.
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Feb 19, 2017 18:46
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Checked for templates in Google Sheets?
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Feb 20, 2017 08:14
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Is 15% income tax correct? That seemed to be a bit hand-waved at the beginning. At least in the US there are fairly decent comprehensive payroll tax calculators, but I really have no idea for Canada and maybe it is all very simple.
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Feb 20, 2017 22:08
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Is 15% income tax correct? That seemed to be a bit hand-waved at the beginning. At least in the US there are fairly decent comprehensive payroll tax calculators, but I really have no idea for Canada and maybe it is all very simple. If you're referring to my post, my salary fits neatly into the (minimum) 15% tax bracket for 46k income and below. Thanks for the other considerations everyone else, I'm taking them into account and will see which I can do about finding somewhere with cheaper rent.
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Feb 21, 2017 06:00
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Which budgeting software is best if I want to plan for 6-12 months in the future? My wife and I are both grad students and our income fluctuates from month to month (as well as our expenses), I'd like to be able to forecast my budget for the coming months. Which software/app should I use?
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Feb 21, 2017 23:32
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This is my favorite thread in the whole forums but nobody ever wants to make a budget. 
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Mar 28, 2017 14:33
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It really is a shame, budget creation part of it doesn't seem to warrant very much activity. Perhaps we should include budget critiques/discussion as part of the thread (not sure if there is already a place for it).
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Mar 28, 2017 16:37
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Mordiceius posted:Which budgeting software is best if I want to plan for 6-12 months in the future? My wife and I are both grad students and our income fluctuates from month to month (as well as our expenses), I'd like to be able to forecast my budget for the coming months. Which software/app should I use? A month later and no one answered my question.  I took a glance at YNAB and it seemed nice, but it seemed geared toward someone that has (relatively) income/bills every month. I'm looking for something to say "Here is where I am at this moment. Here is my projection for April. Here is my projection for May. etc. etc. etc." Thus allowing me to project out 6-12 months into the future. Any advice?
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Mar 28, 2017 19:20
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I haven't used YNAB in a while but it feels like it would be extra good for budgeting with irregular income. It's philosophy of "never spend money until you have it" means you won't unexpectedly hit shortfalls. You'll know how far out your money will last.
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Mar 28, 2017 19:57
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Boxman posted:I haven't used YNAB in a while but it feels like it would be extra good for budgeting with irregular income. It's philosophy of "never spend money until you have it" means you won't unexpectedly hit shortfalls. You'll know how far out your money will last. Am I able to list out money that I know will be coming in the future though? For example, I know my wife gets student loan money next month. We don't have it now, but I know she'll get it. And I know her and I both will receive student loan money in August. We don't have it now, but we will receive it. Am I able to account for all of that and get an image of where I would be in December?
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Mar 28, 2017 19:59
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I don't actually know the answer to that, but my understanding is that YNAB philosophy doesn't really agree with that sort of planning. You expect to get money next month, but you don't have it. Probably it will be there, but what if there is a delay? What if something gets screwed up and it doesn't clear when you expect? YNAB wants you to budget things against the money you actually have, so you know exactly what you can definitely cover. I don't know if Mint would work any better. You can set budget items for specific times (like 'I will get one payment on this date') but I've never used it in that way to really test to see how it handles it. It is generally more disposed to the approach you're talking about though.
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Mar 28, 2017 20:03
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Ashcans posted:I don't actually know the answer to that, but my understanding is that YNAB philosophy doesn't really agree with that sort of planning. You expect to get money next month, but you don't have it. Probably it will be there, but what if there is a delay? What if something gets screwed up and it doesn't clear when you expect? YNAB wants you to budget things against the money you actually have, so you know exactly what you can definitely cover. Yeah. And I'm just trying to get a rough projection for the future months. Like, based off the money in my account right now, I don't need budgeting software to tell me that the money would not survive to December. But I also know there will be thousands of dollars of student loans coming in. And I want to be able to forecast about a year out. It seems like Mint might be worth looking at.
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Mar 28, 2017 20:29
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I don't really have a particularly formal budget, which is probably a mistake. I have allocated money to things like rent, utilities, savings, etc, and then non-allocated money which covers everything else. Maybe I'll make a target budget and everyone can throw rocks at it.
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Mar 28, 2017 21:04
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EVERYONE SHOULD MAKE A BUDGET, IT'S SO FUN!
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Mar 28, 2017 22:10
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:EVERYONE SHOULD MAKE A BUDGET, IT'S SO FUN! Miscellaneous (something always comes up): +$1,500/mo Total: $3,500/mo Am I doing this right
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Mar 28, 2017 22:14
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Blinky2099 posted:What I think I could live happily on today: $2,000/mo I have the next 4 years of monthly budgets drafted. I'm sure some things will come up, but it's always a discussion in our house - this decision X today pushes back other, long-term goal Y.
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Mar 28, 2017 22:23
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Mordiceius posted:A month later and no one answered my question. This thread has kinda turned into a YNAB confab so there's unfortunately little discussion of full budgets that properly include income planning. I'm not terribly comfortable revealing my "technique" beyond what's elsewhere posted in the thread, but I'll let you know when I build the app (not in 2017). Now then, your best bet is to start with a spreadsheet because you can easily build summary views that allow you to plan income and expenses separately, handle very active or high priority categories by including more detail, schedule distant transactions into higher interest accounts, and so forth. Until you have a better idea of which items are actually important, it will be difficult for you to evaluate packaged software solutions. There is a subtle point here that everyone should start with their annual budget. It is a simple matter to estimate income and expenses for the entire year. Before you all get scared about "changing heating costs", I'll point out that the exercise is most useful in determining risk categories, and those should guide your monthly budgeted overages and long term savings plans. As reluctant as I am to ever admit any utility to spreadsheet software, this is one circumstance where the short term benefits are apparent. This type of thing, and budgeting in general, requires a database to be done correctly, but most are not comfortable sitting down with a good DB. Unfortunately, forecasting and financial planning software tend to cost money, and is mostly targeted to small business owners.
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Mar 28, 2017 23:46
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You guys want me to post my full budget? Because I will loving do that. Won't be until tomorrow though. But it's dope.
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Mar 29, 2017 02:20
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:EVERYONE SHOULD MAKE A BUDGET, IT'S SO FUN! Post your budget.
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Mar 29, 2017 03:57
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Here's January.         TraderStav fucked around with this message at 11:19 on Mar 29, 2017 |
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Mar 29, 2017 11:14
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Here's February. No time for commentary now but tee up questions.          
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Mar 29, 2017 11:37
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I have 2 different flavors of budget, because there are 4 "bonus" months during the year, and 8 "normal" months. All of our taxes and maximum tax-advantaged retirement contributions come out ahead of any of this budgeting ("pay the government and then yourself.") Our budgeted spending in a "normal" month totals approximately 75% of our remaining take-home while the same spending in a bonus month totals roughly 50% of our take home, with the remainder (not on this list) used to accomplish long-term financial goals like savings and servicing debt above the level of scheduled minimum payments. They are line items on my budget and I recommend that they be on yours also, but I've pulled them off this budget because they vary so significantly. Those goals and objectives can be seen in the financial goals thread. So without further ado: My business school tuition is our single biggest line item, and represents 15.6% of a normal month take-home (NMTH) Our mortgage is 8.7% of NMTH Our student loan minimums are 8.3% of NMTH Our first car payment is 7% of NMTH Child care is 5.4% of NMTH Groceries average 3.1% of NMTH Our second car payment is 3.0% NMTH Our first child's 529 contribution is 2.8% of NMTH We allocate approximately 2.6% of NMTH to a furnishing our house We budget 2.1% of our NMTH to upcoming vacations We budget 2.1% of our NMTH to eating out at restaurants (including work lunch) Baby miscellany including diapers totals 1.6% NMTH at this time Gasoline totals 1.6% NMTH Cell phones and internet total 1.8% NMTH The dogs cost us roughly 1.3% NMTH Car insurance totals us 1.1% of NMTH Electricity, gas, trash and water total 1.1% Upcoming non-reimbursed travel budget represents roughly 1% of NMTH Entertainment discretionary (including Netflix) is a 0.8% NMTH line item Pharmacy, clothing, spending money, birthdays, Christmas, charity all get 0.5% line items Subscriptions total represent less than 0.3% of NMTH. I usually catch all the categories going like this, at least all of them that reoccur! something always comes up
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Mar 29, 2017 16:32
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TraderStav posted:Here's February. No time for commentary now but tee up questions. I really dig the presentation, going to have to steal these for my budget.
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Mar 31, 2017 15:12
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Diplomat posted:I really dig the presentation, going to have to steal these for my budget. Thanks, I use a plugin for Powerpoint called Thinkcell (it's expensive, but my company pays for it) which makes it stupid easy to create. I'm in the process of creating a blog where, in part, I'll be providing these budget updates with tons of commentary and how it fits into all of our goals. I love writing and talking about my and others finances, so it's something I've been wanting to do for a long time. But, it's not up yet as I still haven't picked a name. Sucks trying to pick what I want.
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Mar 31, 2017 15:33
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