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I have the opportunity to refinance my mortgage. My interest rate will drop from 3.57% to 3.05%. My refinancing costs will be about $1200, and I'll start seeing ROI after six months. Seems like a no-brainer, but wondering if there's something I'm missing here.
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Jul 19, 2019 06:29
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CelestialScribe posted:I have the opportunity to refinance my mortgage. My interest rate will drop from 3.57% to 3.05%. Assuming your house is worth at least what you originally financed it at, this is a no-brainer. But stupid amounts of paperwork.
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Jul 19, 2019 06:56
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H110Hawk posted:Assuming your house is worth at least what you originally financed it at, this is a no-brainer. But stupid amounts of paperwork. It's increased in value about 12%
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Jul 19, 2019 07:39
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Emergency funds are nice when a porcupine decides to chew on your cars wiring harness....
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Jul 24, 2019 04:26
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spwrozek posted:Emergency funds are nice when a porcupine decides to chew on your cars wiring harness.... No comprehensive insurance?
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Jul 24, 2019 04:34
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I listened to this at work last night and thought it was really interesting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15a5V5gvkws It's from 2011 so the figures are likely a bit dated, but a guest in the discussion did a big study on how prominent a role individual savings plays for people from different countries, from a contemporary and historical perspective, and wrote a book on it. He charted the percentage of peoples incomes that they put into savings in any given year, and was able to pick out some interesting trends. Seems kind of tough to nail down specific things that encourage societies to save money, aside from world wars. There was a bunch of propaganda about it back in the day when you had all the rationing and war bonds and what not and he shows some of it in his presentation. The idea being that someone who wasn't saving to guarantee their own future would be planning to rely on the state later on in life, which was unpatriotic in a time when all resources needed to go towards the war effort. One was a British poster that accused irresponsible spenders of working for Hitler. Kind of funny compared to today when credit cards are so promoted, and were even at the height of the war on terror. Aside from that things don't seem straightforward. You would think that savings rates would be tied to prosperity in some way. If people are making more money overall, then they'll have a surplus to save, but that hasn't always been the case. You would also think that in countries with high social floors, and extensive welfare systems, people would be among the least frugal, but actually some of the Scandinavian and other European countries are leaders in this savings metric. On the other side of that coin, you would think countries with limited welfare systems would lead to increased savings rates for citizens but as we see in America today, that also isn't always the case. Interesting stuff, and a really tough issue. Worth the listen if you've got an hour to kill. Volkerball fucked around with this message at 07:56 on Jul 24, 2019 |
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Jul 24, 2019 07:46
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H110Hawk posted:No comprehensive insurance? I run a $1000 deductible so not really worth it. If I am being completely honest the $1100 probably will not dip into my E-fund at all and I will be able to pay it out of my normal monthly income. But I do like having the E-fund and it is a good example of why you should have one.
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Jul 24, 2019 14:12
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spwrozek posted:I run a $1000 deductible so not really worth it. Yow - You might look at reducing that. It's often dollars/year and is ideal for this exact scenario. (You can have different comp and collision deductibles.) Good job having an e-fund though to not have to sweat about it. 
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Jul 24, 2019 14:56
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Volkerball posted:Seems kind of tough to nail down specific things that encourage societies to save money, aside from world wars. There was a bunch of propaganda about it back in the day when you had all the rationing and war bonds and what not and he shows some of it in his presentation. The idea being that someone who wasn't saving to guarantee their own future would be planning to rely on the state later on in life, which was unpatriotic in a time when all resources needed to go towards the war effort. One was a British poster that accused irresponsible spenders of working for Hitler. Kind of funny compared to today when credit cards are so promoted, and were even at the height of the war on terror. There's a pretty significant difference between an existential total economic mobilization war and the brushfire poo poo that is the GWOT, I don't think that's a meaningful comparison at all.
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Jul 24, 2019 15:21
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H110Hawk posted:Yow - You might look at reducing that. It's often dollars/year and is ideal for this exact scenario. (You can have different comp and collision deductibles.) Good job having an e-fund though to not have to sweat about it. When I ran all the numbers switching from $500 to $1000 it made sense at the time. It was $200/6mo cheaper and been doing it for 3 years. So I suppose I am still $600 ahead. In my financial situation I am not really worried about it.
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Jul 24, 2019 15:30
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spwrozek posted:When I ran all the numbers switching from $500 to $1000 it made sense at the time. It was $200/6mo cheaper and been doing it for 3 years. So I suppose I am still $600 ahead. In my financial situation I am not really worried about it. There you go, that's spendy for comprehensive deductible. I think when I went from $500->$250 it was like $10/year. Going from $500-$250 on collision was as you said was basically a year or two in difference.
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Jul 24, 2019 15:59
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H110Hawk posted:There you go, that's spendy for comprehensive deductible. I think when I went from $500->$250 it was like $10/year. Going from $500-$250 on collision was as you said was basically a year or two in difference. Yeah I will look at everything again when I renew in October though. A good reminder!
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Jul 24, 2019 16:19
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Unsure if it's been posted before but remember many of you can get a nice $125 windfall thanks to Equifax loving over your privacy. It's almost your moral obligation to make them hurt by claiming it.
Nam Taf fucked around with this message at 07:41 on Jul 27, 2019 |
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Jul 27, 2019 07:30
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Nam Taf posted:Unsure if it's been posted before but remember many of you can get a nice $125 windfall thanks to Equifax loving over your privacy. It's almost your moral obligation to make them hurt by claiming it. Claimed the $125 for my wife and I and the credit monitoring for my two kids. They are both under 6, so who knows what could happen in the next 11 or 12 years before they have a legitimate hard credit pull.
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Jul 27, 2019 12:39
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Nam Taf posted:Unsure if it's been posted before but remember many of you can get a nice $125 windfall thanks to Equifax loving over your privacy. It's almost your moral obligation to make them hurt by claiming it. The total payout amount may be much less than $125 since there is only $31 million available for claims: https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/26/8932398/equifax-settlement-125-claim-wont-get-money-alternative-reimbursement-compensation Still, free money.
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Jul 27, 2019 12:50
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H110Hawk posted:Yow - You might look at reducing that. It's often dollars/year and is ideal for this exact scenario. (You can have different comp and collision deductibles.) Good job having an e-fund though to not have to sweat about it. As a general principle, you should have the highest deductibles you can afford on all insurance policies you carry, and you shouldn't insure limited risks you can comfortably afford to cover. I would have liability only insurance on my cars if it was allowed.
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Jul 27, 2019 12:54
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drainpipe posted:The total payout amount may be much less than $125 since there is only $31 million available for claims: https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/26/8932398/equifax-settlement-125-claim-wont-get-money-alternative-reimbursement-compensation This settlement is brilliant work by Equifax's attorneys, that company wipes its rear end with $31MM
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Jul 27, 2019 12:56
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Am I a bad husband if there's a tiny part of me that wishes for my wife's startup to crash and burn? She just seems so miserable whenever she works on it and there's only so much I've been able to do to help it along. I know the first few years of any start-up are a pain in the rear end but I want my wife back 
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Jul 27, 2019 18:52
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That is tough man. Honestly you should probably have a very honest conversation with her about how you feel and the toll it is taking in your both. Maybe frame it on with her in mind and not you. You don't want to crush her dreams, you want to support her, just need to take a tactful approach.
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Jul 27, 2019 19:24
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spwrozek posted:That is tough man. Honestly you should probably have a very honest conversation with her about how you feel and the toll it is taking in your both. Maybe frame it on with her in mind and not you. You don't want to crush her dreams, you want to support her, just need to take a tactful approach. I absolutely want her to chase her dreams, and would never tell her not to. And by a lot of measures she's done a very good job of building a business and the working relationships that go with it. But as it turns out, starting a business takes more time and money than any entrepreneur could ever predict! I think she has a bad habit of looking at other startups and seeing their successes, and not realizing that everyone is coming at it from a different starting point. Part of it is that her parents started their own (now very successful) company and she feels compelled to one-up them or whatever. But she doesn't realize that they had a much better support structure for starting a business than what we have right now. I'm trying to get her to focus more on what other entrepreneurs did in their early days and trying to ignore that they might have had a leg up in starting, or had some lucky break that cascaded into long-term success. Also reminding her that everyone who's starting a business is miserable and constantly second-guesses their decision. I don't know. I think I misspoke when I said that I want it to fail, because it would be good for both of us if it succeeds. It's more like I won't mourn for the business if it goes belly-up, though obviously I will be heartbroken to see her lose it. I just don't know what else I can do to help her other than finding some way to double my salary. You are right in that it is about her happiness first and mine second though.
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Jul 27, 2019 20:02
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I'm sitting at my managers desk and there's an annual summary of our company's 401k plan. I read through it because I'm bored, and at the end of 2018 1003 employees were in the plan, with a total value of $11.7 million. So an average of about $11,000 per employee. That seems...low.
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Jul 27, 2019 20:21
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i looked at the most recent of ours that i had kicking around from end of 2016. we do pretty good! 61 participants $14.5 million in assets annual employer and employee contributions of $865K so that's average annual of $14K per employee contributed annually, and 238K in assets per employee. I am a bit under the average which is honestly pretty good to see in that it means my peers and the olds are socking away that dolla.
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Jul 27, 2019 20:52
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BAE OF PIGS posted:I'm sitting at my managers desk and there's an annual summary of our company's 401k plan. I read through it because I'm bored, and at the end of 2018 1003 employees were in the plan, with a total value of $11.7 million. So an average of about $11,000 per employee. I imagine it's a pretty bimodal distribution: majority contributes a tiny amount, a smaller subset maxes it out, and the rest is thinly spread between. And the biggest majority just doesn't participate 
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Jul 27, 2019 21:05
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C-Euro posted:I absolutely want her to chase her dreams, and would never tell her not to. And by a lot of measures she's done a very good job of building a business and the working relationships that go with it. But as it turns out, starting a business takes more time and money than any entrepreneur could ever predict! I hear you man. I went through this for 2 years with my partner. She is killing it now so ultimately very worth it. It is tough though. It was good that I was able to pay everything if needed, we had months where I paid 80% of everything (maybe more). I am at a wedding now but I will shoot for a bit more of a response later.
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Jul 27, 2019 21:59
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spwrozek posted:I hear you man. I went through this for 2 years with my partner. She is killing it now so ultimately very worth it. It is tough though. It was good that I was able to pay everything if needed, we had months where I paid 80% of everything (maybe more). I am at a wedding now but I will shoot for a bit more of a response later. I appreciate it. She's stubborn as hell so I know she has it in her, but naturally I don't like seeing her unhappy and get frustrated when I can't do more to help her. I feel you on the paying for everything part too, outside of her half of our rent and her phone bill I've been paying for pretty much all of our living expenses since she started this project. If we get nothing else out of this startup, we'll be budgeting pros by the time it ends. C-Euro fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Jul 27, 2019 |
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Jul 27, 2019 23:40
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This situation is the one that comes up where I’m glad we just have a shared account and there’s no telling who pays for what. Like why put that stress on your relationship.
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Jul 28, 2019 00:28
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tuyop posted:This situation is the one that comes up where I’m glad we just have a shared account and there’s no telling who pays for what. Like why put that stress on your relationship. Shared account or not it is really obvious who pays...
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Jul 28, 2019 01:00
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Yeah we have a shared bank account but I track my individual spending so I know I'm not spending too much money on Pokeymon cards every month. We both try to leave a little buffer each month in case the other person has a bad spending month.
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Jul 28, 2019 01:30
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spwrozek posted:Shared account or not it is really obvious who pays... I guess it’s a big philosophical shift for us as well then. Like even though I see [her employer] $900 and [my employer] $1500 on the spreadsheet it just never enters my mind to prorate the rent or her cafeteria purchases or whatever. We just have $2400 coming in and it goes out based on what we discussed. 
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Jul 28, 2019 01:48
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The idea of spouses not being a one-entity financial team seems foreign to me too, but whatever works for people.
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Jul 28, 2019 01:51
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I get that. I was that way when married. But honestly if you are fully supporting someone while they try to make it, it is pretty black and white. Just because he knows doesn't mean there is Animus or anything. When you expect to contribute together and don't it is hard. A lot of people split because of finances. So understanding and being good with whatever the situation is and how you and your partner handle it is very important to long term stability.
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Jul 28, 2019 02:10
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BAE OF PIGS posted:I'm sitting at my managers desk and there's an annual summary of our company's 401k plan. I read through it because I'm bored, and at the end of 2018 1003 employees were in the plan, with a total value of $11.7 million. So an average of about $11,000 per employee. You can look up your company's 5500 filing here and get the entire thing as a PDF: https://www.efast.dol.gov/portal/app/disseminate?execution=e1s1 The 2018 ones should be up there within the next couple weeks
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Jul 28, 2019 02:41
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spwrozek posted:I get that. I was that way when married. But honestly if you are fully supporting someone while they try to make it, it is pretty black and white. Yeah it's cool, I see it as an investment in our future by letting her spend most of her paycheck on this business that will, with any luck, be making money someday. Plus prior to starting the business she was putting way more into our savings account each month than I was, so it balances out. Like everything else in a relationship, trust and open lines of communication make it that much easier.
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Jul 28, 2019 17:36
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I am having one of those moments of extreme appreciation for Vanguard, My employer, the Benefits department, and my 401k in general. I wish everyone was able to be in such a good situation with ERs.
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Jul 31, 2019 01:05
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spwrozek posted:I am having one of those moments of extreme appreciation for Vanguard, My employer, the Benefits department, and my 401k in general. I wish everyone was able to be in such a good situation with ERs. I just started a new job. My old 401k had Vanguard, but the new one does not, which is sad. For the same year of Target Date type fund, the expense ratio would have gone up from .15 to .65. It's loving outrageous. For now, I just put it into one of their index fund offering, which at least has the benefit that it actually has an even lower expense ratio of .015. I guess I should go switch my Vanguard to an actual 3 fund portfolio instead of the TD to lower those expense ratios, but laaaaazy.
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Jul 31, 2019 11:27
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The target funds for later years are really heavy into VTIAX which is .11%, so with that weighted into the total expense ratio for doing the three fund, it's probably costing you less than .1% to be lazy.
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Jul 31, 2019 11:37
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That reminds me I’m overdue for a rebalance. I’d gladly pay the extra 0.nothing for target year funds.
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Jul 31, 2019 11:50
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My fiancee was just offered, and accepted, a position in Olympia, WA. We live in Madison, WI. She's an archaeologist with a master's degree, and it seems to be impossible to find anything in her field that has benefits, isn't seasonal, and pays a living wage unless you have a PhD and 20+ years experience, but she managed to get a well paying job with the DOT that seems to be of the "I'm not leaving until I retire" variety. I'm very happy for her, and us, and looking forward to exciting things ahead. She will be doubling her current salary, and start off making more than I currently make with the potential for a raise in 6 months. All that being said, I'm about to find myself unemployed and looking for a job for the first time in nearly 11 years and the thought of it is giving me anxiety.
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Aug 2, 2019 21:34
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BAE OF PIGS posted:My fiancee was just offered, and accepted, a position in Olympia, WA. We live in Madison, WI. She's an archaeologist with a master's degree, and it seems to be impossible to find anything in her field that has benefits, isn't seasonal, and pays a living wage unless you have a PhD and 20+ years experience, but she managed to get a well paying job with the DOT that seems to be of the "I'm not leaving until I retire" variety. I'm very happy for her, and us, and looking forward to exciting things ahead. She will be doubling her current salary, and start off making more than I currently make with the potential for a raise in 6 months. Could be worst, your degree could be in archaeology.
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Aug 2, 2019 21:40
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I was just in Madison a few weeks ago. It's a pretty cool city. I had a really good time there. Never been to Olympia but hopefully it's not a big step down for you guys.
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Aug 2, 2019 21:46
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