BFC Newbies Thread: 33% of the interest paid is tax delectable

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velocirapstar: Oct 8, 2018; Get Confident, Stupid!

If I'm basically living paycheck-to-paycheck (although I have a decent chunk in savings, retirement, etc) while on a $130k salary, I'm assuming making its own :effort:

post about my spending and budget would be the best way to be ridiculed and/or assisted by thoughtful goons?

(Full disclosure: this lessens the comedy factor but I have 0 debt aside from my mortgage and credit score of 823 so it's not like I'm in dire straits immediately, just looking to make some improvements)

# ? Oct 8, 2018 22:18

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# ? May 13, 2024 05:52

Hoodwinker: Nov 7, 2005

I mean, my immediate guess is that you're some combination of house-poor with too many weekly activities that involve horses. Could you elaborate on your situation?

# ? Oct 8, 2018 22:20

TraderStav: May 19, 2006; It feels like I was standing my entire life and I just sat down

velocirapstar posted:

If I'm basically living paycheck-to-paycheck (although I have a decent chunk in savings, retirement, etc) while on a $130k salary, I'm assuming making its own post about my spending and budget would be the best way to be ridiculed and/or assisted by thoughtful goons?

(Full disclosure: this lessens the comedy factor but I have 0 debt aside from my mortgage and credit score of 823 so it's not like I'm in dire straits immediately, just looking to make some improvements)

Please include the breed and color of your horses too.

# ? Oct 8, 2018 23:11

Grumpwagon: May 6, 2007; I am a giant assfuck who needs to harden the fuck up.

velocirapstar posted:

If I'm basically living paycheck-to-paycheck (although I have a decent chunk in savings, retirement, etc) while on a $130k salary, I'm assuming making its own post about my spending and budget would be the best way to be ridiculed and/or assisted by thoughtful goons?

(Full disclosure: this lessens the comedy factor but I have 0 debt aside from my mortgage and credit score of 823 so it's not like I'm in dire straits immediately, just looking to make some improvements)

Generally it is recommended that you start a thread and link it here.

Go for it! BFC (sorry, BOO) likes new threads. You like having savings. It's a win-win.

# ? Oct 8, 2018 23:50

Spokes: Jan 9, 2010; Thanks for a MONSTER of an avatar, Awful Survivor Mods!

velocirapstar posted:

If I'm basically living paycheck-to-paycheck (although I have a decent chunk in savings, retirement, etc) while on a $130k salary, I'm assuming making its own post about my spending and budget would be the best way to be ridiculed and/or assisted by thoughtful goons?

(Full disclosure: this lessens the comedy factor but I have 0 debt aside from my mortgage and credit score of 823 so it's not like I'm in dire straits immediately, just looking to make some improvements)

You earn over 10k a month and have no debt. Hell yes I want to read this post

# ? Oct 9, 2018 00:00

velocirapstar: Oct 8, 2018; Get Confident, Stupid!

Hoodwinker posted:

I mean, my immediate guess is that you're some combination of house-poor with too many weekly activities that involve horses. Could you elaborate on your situation?

Sure - putting together a separate thread with more gory details. This has been a long-time coming, I just haven't really sat down until recently (for exciting reasons you can discover below!) to understand there is this much of a problem.

I basically need a complete financial overhaul, from budgeting and spending on a monthly basis to investing, but to start:

Overview

36yr old married with 2 kids, expecting 3rd child (not my idea) in Feb 2019
Base pay of $125-130k the past 3 years with variable/bonus
Wife hasn't drawn a paycheck for 5 years and is not currently employed to stay home with kids, this will likely continue for the next 2-3 years
Bought house 6 years ago for $375k, still owe about $220k on it; monthly mortgage payments are $1,750 which seems fairly reasonable - value has increased to something between $500-550k
Wife is very keen on moving to bigger house with better schools as we live in a house built in the '50's that's already too small (ex: kids are sharing a room) for our needs; I'm not as enthusiastic about it and at minimum, want to get some financial discipline before we seriously consider
No loans, student or otherwise, currently - possibly looking at getting MBA in next 2-3 years

General Finances
Currently have about $150k in savings - given my salary and earnings the past 3-4 years, I feel like this should be higher but clearly my monthly expenditure hasn't helped
Have about $350k in various investments that are overwhelmingly oriented towards retirement
- ie about $275k of this is in 401k, the rest is Employee Stock Plans and 529 for kids
- Closed out my eTrade and other accounts 7-8 years ago so I've sat on the sidelines and missed out on the biggest stock market upturn in my life while my $100k in checking/savings has yielded virtually nothing
My W2 last year was $265k through 8 months

More Details
Own outright 2 family cars (2004 Camry and 2013 Audi); will likely need to replace the Camry with SUV or similar in next 12 months with new kid
Worked at large tech companies from 2007-2017; most recently with startup in 2018 and looking at this type company again - this had had impact on costs like healthcare
We do use Mint for a consolidated picture of our finances, with data in there since mid-2010; however I didn't really dig into it and use the analytics until recently
Live in relatively low cost part of country (Southwest US) which makes it all the more frustrating
Do not live ostentatious lifestyle - no fancy clothes, exotic trips, or exorbitant/frequent dining out. Ex: took our 1st family vacation earlier this year to Disneyland, which was paid for almost entirely using points
Sadly, no ownership or that I'm aware of

Spending
Mint says between 2012-2018 our monthly average spend has been $8,184; income of $9,211
- Monthly expenses are somewhat inflated as some of the spending is opaque
- I've used the same credit card for travel expenses the past few years, plus wife pays with check/cash for various monthly expenses like utilities and house/yard work
Potential Changes on Horizon
- We've been spending $500/month for health insurance the past 14 months as the small company I joined cost an insane amount for poor coverage ($1100/mon w/ $12k deductible); this will hopefully drop by a couple hundred with my next job
- Preschool for 2 is $900/month; this will go away in May of 2019

I was laid off at the end of August with 2 weeks severance :siren:

- (I'm all too aware that I'm very fortunate to have some savings to allow me time to search for a new job; it could take another 2-3 months at this rate)

- I was ALSO terminated last August (no severance) and didn't start again until Feb of this year at aforementioned $130k base. So we've have no cash flow for about 8 of the last 14 months :smith:

I'll post more details as to monthly spend in its own thread and link it here.

What other info would be helpful for people to review to make recommendations?

# ? Oct 9, 2018 01:32

Hoodwinker: Nov 7, 2005

velocirapstar posted:

Spending
Mint says between 2012-2018 our monthly average spend has been $8,184; income of $9,211
- Monthly expenses are somewhat inflated as some of the spending is opaque
- I've used the same credit card for travel expenses the past few years, plus wife pays with check/cash for various monthly expenses like utilities and house/yard work
Potential Changes on Horizon
- We've been spending $500/month for health insurance the past 14 months as the small company I joined cost an insane amount for poor coverage ($1100/mon w/ $12k deductible); this will hopefully drop by a couple hundred with my next job
- Preschool for 2 is $900/month; this will go away in May of 2019

Found it. Holy poo poo what is your actual breakdown of costs? You say it's opaque, but you need to loving figure it out.

Post your thread up and I have some more comments I can make.

# ? Oct 9, 2018 01:44

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

I decided to let Intuit have my info in trade for getting to look at charts in Mint. Mostly seems pretty intuitive and well explained as far as letting me see where my money is going (oh god so much fast food :cry:

), but it definitely isn't wholly accurate. Anyone have any tips for using the thing to figure out how much money I'm really spending where?

Basically I'm trying to figure out what "six months living expenses" really means :saddowns:

# ? Oct 9, 2018 01:57

Hoodwinker: Nov 7, 2005

Ciaphas posted:

I decided to let Intuit have my info in trade for getting to look at charts in Mint. Mostly seems pretty intuitive and well explained as far as letting me see where my money is going (oh god so much fast food ), but it definitely isn't wholly accurate. Anyone have any tips for using the thing to figure out how much money I'm really spending where?

Basically I'm trying to figure out what "six months living expenses" really means

Why is it not wholly accurate?

# ? Oct 9, 2018 02:05

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; Can't post for 18 hours!

velocirapstar posted:

Sure - putting together a separate thread with more gory details. This has been a long-time coming, I just haven't really sat down until recently (for exciting reasons you can discover below!) to understand there is this much of a problem.

I basically need a complete financial overhaul, from budgeting and spending on a monthly basis to investing, but to start:

Overview

36yr old married with 2 kids, expecting 3rd child (not my idea) in Feb 2019

Base pay of $125-130k the past 3 years with variable/bonus

Wife hasn't drawn a paycheck for 5 years and is not currently employed to stay home with kids, this will likely continue for the next 2-3 years

Bought house 6 years ago for $375k, still owe about $220k on it; monthly mortgage payments are $1,750 which seems fairly reasonable - value has increased to something between $500-550k

Wife is very keen on moving to bigger house with better schools as we live in a house built in the '50's that's already too small (ex: kids are sharing a room) for our needs; I'm not as enthusiastic about it and at minimum, want to get some financial discipline before we seriously consider

No loans, student or otherwise, currently - possibly looking at getting MBA in next 2-3 years

General Finances

Currently have about $150k in savings - given my salary and earnings the past 3-4 years, I feel like this should be higher but clearly my monthly expenditure hasn't helped

Have about $350k in various investments that are overwhelmingly oriented towards retirement
- ie about $275k of this is in 401k, the rest is Employee Stock Plans and 529 for kids
- Closed out my eTrade and other accounts 7-8 years ago so I've sat on the sidelines and missed out on the biggest stock market upturn in my life while my $100k in checking/savings has yielded virtually nothing

My W2 last year was $265k through 8 months

More Details

Own outright 2 family cars (2004 Camry and 2013 Audi); will likely need to replace the Camry with SUV or similar in next 12 months with new kid

Worked at large tech companies from 2007-2017; most recently with startup in 2018 and looking at this type company again - this had had impact on costs like healthcare

We do use Mint for a consolidated picture of our finances, with data in there since mid-2010; however I didn't really dig into it and use the analytics until recently

Live in relatively low cost part of country (Southwest US) which makes it all the more frustrating

Do not live ostentatious lifestyle - no fancy clothes, exotic trips, or exorbitant/frequent dining out. Ex: took our 1st family vacation earlier this year to Disneyland, which was paid for almost entirely using points

Sadly, no ownership or that I'm aware of

Spending

Mint says between 2012-2018 our monthly average spend has been $8,184; income of $9,211
- Monthly expenses are somewhat inflated as some of the spending is opaque
- I've used the same credit card for travel expenses the past few years, plus wife pays with check/cash for various monthly expenses like utilities and house/yard work
Potential Changes on Horizon
- We've been spending $500/month for health insurance the past 14 months as the small company I joined cost an insane amount for poor coverage ($1100/mon w/ $12k deductible); this will hopefully drop by a couple hundred with my next job
- Preschool for 2 is $900/month; this will go away in May of 2019

I was laid off at the end of August with 2 weeks severance
- (I'm all too aware that I'm very fortunate to have some savings to allow me time to search for a new job; it could take another 2-3 months at this rate)

- I was ALSO terminated last August (no severance) and didn't start again until Feb of this year at aforementioned $130k base. So we've have no cash flow for about 8 of the last 14 months

I'll post more details as to monthly spend in its own thread and link it here.

What other info would be helpful for people to review to make recommendations?

What else are you spending to get up to over 8k spending each month? That seems very high when you are living in a low COL area and not servicing any other debts.

It seems like you are doing pretty well if you can scale your lifestyle down a lot for retirement and never get fired.

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 13:59 on Oct 9, 2018

# ? Oct 9, 2018 02:05

Spokes: Jan 9, 2010; Thanks for a MONSTER of an avatar, Awful Survivor Mods!

velocirapstar posted:

I'll post more details as to monthly spend in its own thread and link it here.

What other info would be helpful for people to review to make recommendations?

Please do! Honestly you could probably c/p that post into its own thread and go from there.

$9200 income
$0500 health insurance
$0900 pre-school
$1750 mortgage

You have over $6000 that isn't accounted for here. Where does it gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo? :eyepop:

I'd say post your mint categories (if not the specific line items) for the last couple months so we can take a look and berate you

# ? Oct 9, 2018 02:07

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

Hoodwinker posted:

Why is it not wholly accurate?

Figured out how to recategorize, turned out my disability income not being properly listed as income, and ditto my rent payments going the other way.

Guess I answered me own question :v:

(e) Oh no wait I did have one. Is there any reason to add my billers separately to Mint if my payments to them are already going through tracked accounts?

# ? Oct 9, 2018 02:08

velocirapstar: Oct 8, 2018; Get Confident, Stupid!

Hoodwinker posted:

Found it. Holy poo poo what is your actual breakdown of costs? You say it's opaque, but you need to loving figure it out.

Post your thread up and I have some more comments I can make.

Yeah, I figured it was coming from that big opaque $2k, just haven't done the grunt work to dig in and see where it's all going.

Don't know if it's better or worse than being house-poor because that's at least easier to identify, although probably much harder to change. Hopefully this review will reveal where we can make changes. Appreciate your insight and comments.

Ciaphas posted:

I decided to let Intuit have my info in trade for getting to look at charts in Mint. Mostly seems pretty intuitive and well explained as far as letting me see where my money is going (oh god so much fast food ), but it definitely isn't wholly accurate. Anyone have any tips for using the thing to figure out how much money I'm really spending where?

Basically I'm trying to figure out what "six months living expenses" really means

Yeah, that's what I did as well and now trying to decipher. To this and point #1 above, my first step this week is to go into the Trends section and start updating the "Uncategorized" and "Other" categories for the past 3-6 months to hopefully give me a clearer picture.

Hopefully we can both figure it out!

# ? Oct 9, 2018 02:08

Hoodwinker: Nov 7, 2005

Ciaphas posted:

Figured out how to recategorize, turned out my disability income not being properly listed as income, and ditto my rent payments going the other way.

Guess I answered me own question

Yeah it's up to you to properly categorize everything but once you do it's pretty automatic.

# ? Oct 9, 2018 02:08

Duckman2008: Jan 6, 2010; TFW you see Flyers goaltending.; Grimey Drawer

velocirapstar posted:

Sure - putting together a separate thread with more gory details. This has been a long-time coming, I just haven't really sat down until recently (for exciting reasons you can discover below!) to understand there is this much of a problem.

I basically need a complete financial overhaul, from budgeting and spending on a monthly basis to investing, but to start:

Overview

36yr old married with 2 kids, expecting 3rd child (not my idea) in Feb 2019

Base pay of $125-130k the past 3 years with variable/bonus

Wife hasn't drawn a paycheck for 5 years and is not currently employed to stay home with kids, this will likely continue for the next 2-3 years

Bought house 6 years ago for $375k, still owe about $220k on it; monthly mortgage payments are $1,750 which seems fairly reasonable - value has increased to something between $500-550k

Wife is very keen on moving to bigger house with better schools as we live in a house built in the '50's that's already too small (ex: kids are sharing a room) for our needs; I'm not as enthusiastic about it and at minimum, want to get some financial discipline before we seriously consider

No loans, student or otherwise, currently - possibly looking at getting MBA in next 2-3 years

General Finances

Currently have about $150k in savings - given my salary and earnings the past 3-4 years, I feel like this should be higher but clearly my monthly expenditure hasn't helped

Have about $350k in various investments that are overwhelmingly oriented towards retirement
- ie about $275k of this is in 401k, the rest is Employee Stock Plans and 529 for kids
- Closed out my eTrade and other accounts 7-8 years ago so I've sat on the sidelines and missed out on the biggest stock market upturn in my life while my $100k in checking/savings has yielded virtually nothing

My W2 last year was $265k through 8 months

More Details

Own outright 2 family cars (2004 Camry and 2013 Audi); will likely need to replace the Camry with SUV or similar in next 12 months with new kid

Worked at large tech companies from 2007-2017; most recently with startup in 2018 and looking at this type company again - this had had impact on costs like healthcare

We do use Mint for a consolidated picture of our finances, with data in there since mid-2010; however I didn't really dig into it and use the analytics until recently

Live in relatively low cost part of country (Southwest US) which makes it all the more frustrating

Do not live ostentatious lifestyle - no fancy clothes, exotic trips, or exorbitant/frequent dining out. Ex: took our 1st family vacation earlier this year to Disneyland, which was paid for almost entirely using points

Sadly, no ownership or that I'm aware of

Spending

Mint says between 2012-2018 our monthly average spend has been $8,184; income of $9,211
- Monthly expenses are somewhat inflated as some of the spending is opaque
- I've used the same credit card for travel expenses the past few years, plus wife pays with check/cash for various monthly expenses like utilities and house/yard work
Potential Changes on Horizon
- We've been spending $500/month for health insurance the past 14 months as the small company I joined cost an insane amount for poor coverage ($1100/mon w/ $12k deductible); this will hopefully drop by a couple hundred with my next job
- Preschool for 2 is $900/month; this will go away in May of 2019

I was laid off at the end of August with 2 weeks severance
- (I'm all too aware that I'm very fortunate to have some savings to allow me time to search for a new job; it could take another 2-3 months at this rate)

- I was ALSO terminated last August (no severance) and didn't start again until Feb of this year at aforementioned $130k base. So we've have no cash flow for about 8 of the last 14 months

I'll post more details as to monthly spend in its own thread and link it here.

What other info would be helpful for people to review to make recommendations?

Am I reading $150k in savings, and $350k in retirement right?

If so
-nice job
-that�s way too much in savings vs investment (but I�m not close to that so who am I to judge)
-good for you for trying to figure out costs more

Definitely always get better at saving and not spending, I know you are saying you have 2 kids and 1 on the way, but your post is basically �I have $500,000 at age 36 between savings and retirement funds, also I have no debt and have a decent mortgage, and my finances are out of control, please help.�

I�m not trying to mock you, because you have way more in savings than me. You have way more than most of America. Hell, kudos for wanting to keep staying financially responsible. But, and someone correct me if I�m wrong, I�m pretty sure that even with 2 kids with 1 on the way, you�re looking pretty good.

# ? Oct 9, 2018 04:54

Hoodwinker: Nov 7, 2005

Duckman2008 posted:

Am I reading $150k in savings, and $350k in retirement right?

If so
-nice job
-that�s way too much in savings vs investment (but I�m not close to that so who am I to judge)
-good for you for trying to figure out costs more

Definitely always get better at saving and not spending, I know you are saying you have 2 kids and 1 on the way, but your post is basically �I have $500,000 at age 36 between savings and retirement funds, also I have no debt and have a decent mortgage, and my finances are out of control, please help.�

I�m not trying to mock you, because you have way more in savings than me. You have way more than most of America. Hell, kudos for wanting to keep staying financially responsible. But, and someone correct me if I�m wrong, I�m pretty sure that even with 2 kids with 1 on the way, you�re looking pretty good.

I was going to point this out if they actually made a thread. There's definitely stuff to tighten up and it sucks they missed out on market growth but $500k by 36 is basically my goal so you're doing fine. Also it's not just $500k, it's +$155k from home equity too.

# ? Oct 9, 2018 05:00

velocirapstar: Oct 8, 2018; Get Confident, Stupid!

Duckman2008 posted:

Am I reading $150k in savings, and $350k in retirement right?

If so
-nice job
-that�s way too much in savings vs investment (but I�m not close to that so who am I to judge)
-good for you for trying to figure out costs more

Definitely always get better at saving and not spending, I know you are saying you have 2 kids and 1 on the way, but your post is basically �I have $500,000 at age 36 between savings and retirement funds, also I have no debt and have a decent mortgage, and my finances are out of control, please help.�

I�m not trying to mock you, because you have way more in savings than me. You have way more than most of America. Hell, kudos for wanting to keep staying financially responsible. But, and someone correct me if I�m wrong, I�m pretty sure that even with 2 kids with 1 on the way, you�re looking pretty good.

Yes, correct on all points and appreciate your comments.

I genuinely hope my posts don't come across as "oh, poor little rich boy" or a humblebrag or whatever lame - I'm aware that I'm extremely fortunate to have done well by most measures the past few years and to have the cushion that I do. Ten years ago I was working abroad making $500 a month so am proud that I have been able to do ok yet know this can be fleeting (hell, I've lost 2 jobs in just under a year while the unemployment is the lowest in decades so I'm lucky I can probably find something relatively soon).

A bunch of E/N :downswords:

but I want to be more financially responsible for a few reasons:

Although I've done well financially, it's definitely come at great personal cost and I'm pretty burned out. It's significantly exacerbated mental health issues and taken a toll on virtually all relationships I have, most critically with my spouse; not due to money per se rather the workload, stress, travel, expectations etc from my job(s). This also contributed to my termination last year (I was a high performer but after a massive reorg in Q1, I butted heads with my new boss after having to travel 80% and DGAF about clashing with him).

I've mused to my wife about possibly something different but there's very few jobs in my city that wouldn't be similar in terms of expectations/stress with comparable compensation and I'm not sure how much longer I want to be doing what I've done. Especially with the most recent loss of my job (this one was due to a RIFF), my concern is that in taking a different kind of role that paid significantly less than what I've made, I'd quickly go through my savings at my current burn rate.
Like you said, I'm not having my money work for me particularly savings vs investment - I'm clearly not an active investor so some passive gains when I can afford some risk and having virtually everything tied up in savings earning nothing is dumb.
Having 3 kids that I hope to put through college, I don't want finances to hinder where they go due to cumbersome loans.
We will likely need to buy a new house in the next 1-3 years that will probably cost between $600-750k - given today we're basically in the red despite making $100k after taxes and a relatively low mortgage/interest rate, probably wouldn't get better. There's a good chance we would also move somewhere with higher CoL too and I'd like to build some discipline now.
I've had virtually no serious hobbies or passions of my own the past 7-8 years; obviously having kids takes up a lot of time and I love them dearly but I haven't really been able to enjoy this financial security I've earned. Having a better grasp of the spending side would at least allow me to better plan things like traveling internationally again, getting a fun car for track days, or even going in with extended family members on boats and/or horses.
I'd like to be able to retire even a couple years earlier if I can - I realize especially given all the cuts to safety net, lower wages, SSN, etc. this would be a phenomenal luxury for 95% of people alive. I'm not doing hard labor outside for minimum wage or multiple retail jobs like many others; I'm in a well-paying but relatively high-stress white collar job/industry. My father passed away at 67 and while it's not super-young, he was in better shape than I would be in 30 years; given current retirement targets for people of my age, I don't want to have to be carried out of the office in a pine box and my life since the kids were born has basically been Cats Stevens' "Cats in the Cradle."

I'll save the rest of my firstworldproblems.txt for my own thread.

tl; dr - bunch of reasons why I want to save more money despite having a good net worth

# ? Oct 9, 2018 06:07

GoGoGadgetChris: Mar 18, 2010; i powder a
granite monument
in a soundless flash

showering the grass
with molten drops of
its gold inlay

sending smoking
chips of stone
skipping into the fog

Do you do any drugs or gamble? Daily trips to bars and restaurants?

Kids are expensive but it seems like a ton of your money is unaccounted for, especially for a guy with no hobbies who is working most of the time he's awake.

# ? Oct 9, 2018 09:02

Medullah: Aug 14, 2003; FEAR MY SHARK ROCKET IT REALLY SUCKS AND BLOWS

People that have money saved and ask how they can save more are generally the ones who end up retiring and living happily ever after, so I applaud you for that! I can even imagine having 150k saved up by age 36.

# ? Oct 9, 2018 13:00

velocirapstar: Oct 8, 2018; Get Confident, Stupid!

GoGoGadgetChris posted:

Do you do any drugs or gamble? Daily trips to bars and restaurants?

Kids are expensive but it seems like a ton of your money is unaccounted for, especially for a guy with no hobbies who is working most of the time he's awake.

I do not do drugs or gamble. When I'm gainfully employed, I generally am working in my home office for 10 hours a day if I'm not traveling. I seldom go out for lunch or dinner on my own unless I can expense it.

So you are correct in there is a good chunk unaccounted for - I'm going to post a thread sometime this week with some of categories according to Mint plus expected "mandatory budget," which is like $5k firm a month. It's that extra $1-3k a month we somehow manage to incur that's bugging me and need to dig into.

velocirapstar fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Aug 5, 2022

# ? Oct 9, 2018 17:22

Ham Equity: Apr 16, 2013; The first thing we do, let's kill all the cars.; Grimey Drawer

So... you're having relationship problems, not enough time spent with the wife and two kids you already have, have a house and car that's big enough for two kids but not three... and you decided to have another kid? Even though you've already got two?

I recognize it's a little late now, but that was really, really dumb.

# ? Oct 9, 2018 17:40

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; Can't post for 18 hours!

Thanatosian posted:

So... you're having relationship problems, not enough time spent with the wife and two kids you already have, have a house and car that's big enough for two kids but not three... and you decided to have another kid? Even though you've already got two?

I recognize it's a little late now, but that was really, really dumb.

# ? Oct 9, 2018 18:23

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; Can't post for 18 hours!

velocirapstar posted:

tl; dr - bunch of reasons why I want to save more money despite having a good net worth

You say that you have about 5k of "mandatory" spending each month.

I'm seeing about 3.8k from housing, childcare/preschool, healthcare, and assuming a relatively normal utilities and grocery bill. You have a little over $8.1k as an average monthly spend.

I know you say that the rest of the spending is opaque, but you have to have some general idea of what you're spending between 2k and 4.5k on each month, right?

You said that you know it's not vacations, consumer electronics/toys, drugs, gambling, or any material goods. With all of those ruled out, I have no idea what you could be spending 2k to 4.5k on each month without knowing.

A few people have asked you and you said it is "opaque," but do you have a general idea or guess? Because you are sending more than the average American's annual take home income into the void each year and have no clue where it is going.

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Oct 9, 2018

# ? Oct 9, 2018 18:30

velocirapstar: Oct 8, 2018; Get Confident, Stupid!

Thanatosian posted:

So... you're having relationship problems, not enough time spent with the wife and two kids you already have, have a house and car that's big enough for two kids but not three... and you decided to have another kid? Even though you've already got two?

I recognize it's a little late now, but that was really, really dumb.

Yeah, I'm well aware and alluded to that in the original post. Wasn't my ideal scenario either but wife came from a bigger family and she wanted 3 if possible since we first met and I'm ok with it.

Part of the reason I'm going through this overdue exercise now is that we should be able to support these new things on my income, just need more awareness and discipline.

# ? Oct 9, 2018 18:36

EAT FASTER!!!!!!: Sep 21, 2002; Legendary.

I would recommend you use YNAB or Financier to really break down a line-by-line of spending.

# ? Oct 9, 2018 18:50

Ciaphas: Nov 20, 2005; > BEWARE, COWARD

(preface: again i know it's a bad idea. still might take the money plus 5k prior roth contribution and Quit Job for six months because my mental health is in the shitter at this place and that's no lie)

Just checking on the rules for penalized retirement withdrawal. If I take out, say, $16k, that's first penalized by 10% then taxed by my bracket, right? So probably $10k take-home at my bracket? It's either that or the other way around where they cut me a check for 16k and my account eats the taxes/penalty, right?

# ? Oct 9, 2018 19:15

vortmax: Sep 24, 2008; In meteorology, vorticity often refers to a measurement of the spin of horizontally flowing air about a vertical axis.

So, I had a collection agency come after me in 2014 for a student loan that they said I owed. As far as I know, I paid off all my loans back in 2012, and they haven't shown up on my credit report once since then. I sent a debt verification letter under the FDCPA via CMRR, which was signed for, but I never got anything back from the agency (ConServe).

In 2015 I got two calls and another letter from them. I sent another FDCPA letter CMRR to them noting that they'd already racked up three violations since they never verified the first time, and that I needed verification. Again it was received but I never heard back.

Today I got a letter from a new collection agency about this same debt. I'm sending the FDCPA letter Monday. But whether or not they even try to verify, do I have a chance at going after ConServe for violations?

# ? Oct 14, 2018 02:23

Ham Equity: Apr 16, 2013; The first thing we do, let's kill all the cars.; Grimey Drawer

vortmax posted:

So, I had a collection agency come after me in 2014 for a student loan that they said I owed. As far as I know, I paid off all my loans back in 2012, and they haven't shown up on my credit report once since then. I sent a debt verification letter under the FDCPA via CMRR, which was signed for, but I never got anything back from the agency (ConServe).

In 2015 I got two calls and another letter from them. I sent another FDCPA letter CMRR to them noting that they'd already racked up three violations since they never verified the first time, and that I needed verification. Again it was received but I never heard back.

Today I got a letter from a new collection agency about this same debt. I'm sending the FDCPA letter Monday. But whether or not they even try to verify, do I have a chance at going after ConServe for violations?

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3234974

# ? Oct 15, 2018 15:29

Badger of Basra: Jul 26, 2007

I'm planning to put $3000 into the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund but after doing some reading and looking at the expense ratios I can't decide if I should get the Investor Shares or ETF. ETF has the lower expense ratio so it seems like I should do that? Everything I've read says ETFs and mutual funds are functionally the same unless you're really concerned about tax liability or want to trade them around a lot (I don't want to).

Badger of Basra fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Oct 17, 2018

# ? Oct 17, 2018 05:00

SpelledBackwards: Jan 7, 2001; I found this image on the Internet, perhaps you've heard of it? It's been around for a while I hear.

IIRC you can buy fractional shares of investor or admiral shares, but not of ETFs. So if the share price is high, you may leave a lot of money uninvested if you buy ETFs and the price doesn't divide cleanly into the amount of money you've got to purchase with.

# ? Oct 17, 2018 05:47

alnilam: Nov 10, 2009

This morning I got a flurry of emails in the space of an hour from a number of savory-sounding characters:

Radiant Cash
Lending Alliance
Honest Loans
Loan Pro
Duke Loan

all "confirming my application" for an up-to-$1000 loan (if it's not obvious, no I did not apply for these lol). One of them straight up says denied. They also all refer to me as James XXXXXX which is nowhere near my name.

Several of them say to call OR click here to confirm the details. A few of them don't.

Is this identity theft of any sort? I would assume it was spam if there weren't several in a row, now I really think some guy named James is using my email to try to get small personal loans. But he's not using my actual name. Also my credit is frozen at the 3 major agencies.

Should I uh, do anything about it? Or is it a spam trap and if I reply to any of these companies I will be buried in spam?

e: lol they're still coming, add Loan Pro, Fast Financial, AdvanceFunds, and Safe Lenders to the list

alnilam fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Oct 17, 2018

# ? Oct 17, 2018 13:57

BEHOLD: MY CAPE: Jan 11, 2004

It is probably some idiot using the wrong email address. Just keep an eye on your credit and dispute the reports if anything untoward shows up, not that it could if your credit is frozen. I speak from personal experience as I have a Gmail account address of lastname@gmail.com that I registered in beta never really stopping to think that hundreds of millions of people would be using Gmail 12 years later. It's certainly not a common name but none the less I very routinely get mistaken correspondence for other people including all sorts of financial information which I generally ignore unless it seems unusually sensitive or pressing.

# ? Oct 17, 2018 14:27

alnilam: Nov 10, 2009

BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:

It is probably some idiot using the wrong email address. Just keep an eye on your credit and dispute the reports if anything untoward shows up, not that it could if your credit is frozen. I speak from personal experience as I have a Gmail account address of lastname@gmail.com that I registered in beta never really stopping to think that hundreds of millions of people would be using Gmail 12 years later. It's certainly not a common name but none the less I very routinely get mistaken correspondence for other people including all sorts of financial information which I generally ignore unless it seems unusually sensitive or pressing.

My credit card monitors my FICO score for free, should I just keep an eye on that since I only get 1 free report a year from the agencies?

This James guy is real good at computers, if he accidentally typed the wrong email he's done it like 16 times at this point. Some are now repeats so I guess he's wondering why he didn't get the email from the place and applied again :shrug:

e: also just checked my google account activity and no suspicious devices or sign-ins.

alnilam fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Oct 17, 2018

# ? Oct 17, 2018 14:36

tumblr hype man: Jul 29, 2008; nice meltdown; Slippery Tilde

alnilam posted:

My credit card monitors my FICO score for free, should I just keep an eye on that since I only get 1 free report a year from the agencies?

This James guy is real good at computers, if he accidentally typed the wrong email he's done it like 16 times at this point. Some are now repeats so I guess he's wondering why he didn't get the email from the place and applied again

e: also just checked my google account activity and no suspicious devices or sign-ins.

You should probably but a freeze/block on your credit reports at all 3 major agencies (TransUnion, Experian, Equifax). You should probably do this unless you have a specific reason not to (getting a mortgage in the short term? What about a car?, etc.) since it's free to place the freeze and lift it now.

Its gonna suck but it might be worth calling a couple of the places and asking about an application in your name and proceeding from there.

# ? Oct 17, 2018 14:50

alnilam: Nov 10, 2009

I already have a block at all 3 big agencies but maybe I should log in and confirm the block.

I'd call the loan places I'm getting emails from, but I'm worried it's a spam trap and if I show myself I will be inundated.

# ? Oct 17, 2018 14:55

asur: Dec 28, 2012

SpelledBackwards posted:

IIRC you can buy fractional shares of investor or admiral shares, but not of ETFs. So if the share price is high, you may leave a lot of money uninvested if you buy ETFs and the price doesn't divide cleanly into the amount of money you've got to purchase with.

This is correct, but Vanguard appears to intentionally keep the ETF per share price reasonable. The ones I've looked at have been between $100 - $200. It's not a big deal either way through as Vanguard will automatically switch the mutual fund if you meet the requirements for Admiral. I don't believe this is a taxable event, but if it's in a non-tax sheltered account I'd probably check.

# ? Oct 17, 2018 17:27

Girbot: Jan 13, 2009

Depends on the platform. You can buy fractional sales of anything through M1 Finance. Obvious downside is the short daily trading window and automation (which can be turned off). But if you're only going to be buying and holding over a long term, it's definitely an option.

I use it to add to Amazon and Apple on dips without needing to buy whole shares.

Girbot fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Oct 17, 2018

# ? Oct 17, 2018 20:25

DarkHorse: Dec 13, 2006; Nap Ghost

alnilam posted:

My credit card monitors my FICO score for free, should I just keep an eye on that since I only get 1 free report a year from the agencies?

This James guy is real good at computers, if he accidentally typed the wrong email he's done it like 16 times at this point. Some are now repeats so I guess he's wondering why he didn't get the email from the place and applied again

e: also just checked my google account activity and no suspicious devices or sign-ins.

Probably a mis-configured autofill if it's that many.

You can do a google search for the sites and see if they look legit enough to notify them (don't click any embedded links) but otherwise I wouldn't bother.

# ? Oct 18, 2018 13:44

100 HOGS AGREE: Oct 13, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Whats the way to freeze all the bureaus now? Isn't it easier than it used to be?

# ? Oct 18, 2018 22:15

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# ? May 13, 2024 05:52

tumblr hype man: Jul 29, 2008; nice meltdown; Slippery Tilde

100 HOGS AGREE posted:

Whats the way to freeze all the bureaus now? Isn't it easier than it used to be?

It's free now but the process still sucks.

You'll have to fill in all your info, correctly answer 4 questions about stuff in your file and then they'll freeze it. You'll get a PIN to unfreeze it, save this or you have to reverify all that info again when you want to unfreeze.

Depending on the depth of your file this can be a pain in the rear end, especially if you're an authorized user on some of your parents'/spouse's accounts and don't have the details at hand.

# ? Oct 19, 2018 14:50

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > BFC Newbies Thread: 33% of the interest paid is tax delectable

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