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This pay cycle, my net worth will go from ($130) to approximately $350. It's not much, but getting above $0 was a big goal for me.
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Dec 11, 2012 05:47
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iamthepinkylifter posted:This pay cycle, my net worth will go from ($130) to approximately $350. It's not much, but getting above $0 was a big goal for me. That's huge, dude. Congrats. You too, other dude. 
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Dec 12, 2012 02:03
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I got a promotion today! I started as a temp with the company in August, went full-time in November, and just interviewed for and received a promotion to a newly created position within the company today. The job came with a 20% pay increase (it is still not an impressive salary but 20% is 20%, haha). I graduated in May, this is my first "real-person" job. I have a really good health care plan now! I'm thrilled here, and I should be completely financially independent within the next few months, which is a huge deal for me
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Dec 14, 2012 05:37
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I maxed out my Roth IRA for 2012! I also got a little raise and a training bonus at work 
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Dec 15, 2012 01:40
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I applied for a job that sounded really awesome to me. I got a phone interview, and the woman basically said "Look. I thought your resume and writing sample were awesome. I'd love to meet with you for a face-to-face interview. However, I have to tell you that this position pays about 5K less than your current position. So if you'd rather not go further in this process, that's fine- but we'll keep your resume on file, and we'd love for you to keep checking our website for higher-level positions in this department." So I chose not to go on to the next interview, but man, that just felt really good to hear, even if I never do apply for another job at that company. I didn't think I was qualified for higher-level positions at this point in my career (15 months of experience), but hey! Some random lady thinks I am!
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Dec 15, 2012 21:33
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I paid off all my credit card debt a few weeks ago It was only about £2k but had been around on minimum payments for like 6 years and I was too busy dealing with various life fuckery to even think about it, but now I'm way more sorted and have been in a decent job nearly 18 months and it's really nice feeling like a grown-up. I was also hitting the bottom edge of a £2k overdraft when I got back into work which is gone now. A positive bank balance is a weird new awesome thing to see, next step is an ISA.
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Dec 16, 2012 15:58
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My wife and I paid off the last of my student loans in October, making the final payment one week before my co-op (and income) ended. I basically spent the whole month staring anxiously at our spreadsheet with my fingers crossed. So we are officially out of debt. Over the last three years, we've paid off two sets of student loans, I've completed an MBA by going to school at night and working to pay for it during the day, and somewhat successfully made the transition out of journalism and into finance. I dumb-luck rolled my way into the co-op and then the new-company job I have now, which is supposedly temp to perm, fell in my lap the day after I got in touch with my staffing agency. It has been terrifying, and continually not knowing whether or not I will have stable income in six months for almost two years has not been fun, at all. On the other hand, looking at our spreadsheet each month and seeing the numbers go up instead of down is the best feeling ever.
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Dec 19, 2012 16:38
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My wife and I work at the same place and today the board approved a cost of living increase to go along with our merit raises (we're local government, basically) so we're both getting a 4.5% boost this year. Not earth shattering but I'll gladly take what I can get, hopefully it will counteract the "tax cliff" thing if nothing else.
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Dec 19, 2012 17:42
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I got fired from a T-mobile store about 3 weeks ago for saying that T-mobile coverage wasn't as widespread as Verizon to a manager, and for not having a T-mobile phone. So, I decided to start my own marketing business as a vendor for a home builder in northern Virginia. I work directly with the sales reps to develop and deliver direct marketing materials (doorknockers and flyers). I had been doing it over the summer and made 400-800 a job depending on the quantity I delivered because I was working as a temp through an official vendor for the builder. It was good money then, but I had been toying with the idea of doing it on my own and branching out once I was in a position to negotiate and deal with the home builder directly (at that point I wasn't). Fast forward to me getting fired and I'm livid. This is the second time this year I've been fired from a company for bullshit corporate pettiness and I'm sick of working for someone else. I also refuse to go back to sending out hundreds of resumes to companies I don't even want to work for who won't give me the time of day in the hopes that I will be hired and treated like poo poo at the next gig I land. I spend some time getting my ducks in a row and set myself up as a vendor for the home builder I've been working with. My pay doubled, and the sales reps are beginning to talk about how successful my lead generation has been. Two reps qualified for a trip to the Bahamas due to the increased traffic and sales generated by my deliveries and targeting. I was making around 14 an hour with commissions at T-mobile and getting 400 bucks or so every two weeks with one paycheck a month coming in as commissions. Not exactly much. In my new position as a direct vendor for the home builder I'm billing out roughly 6k a month for development and delivery. That's my first month as an independent vendor, and there are indications that the springtime will be an even bigger boon. I've also been asked to write copy and help with the design of the materials going out for delivery, which I will incorporate into the per-unit cost of delivering them. I have jobs planned out for January, and am in the process of extending my network from Winchester Virginia, to inside the Beltway of DC, down to Richmond VA, and all the way out to Charlottesville VA. My expenses for the month of December included gas for my car and some sandwiches at WaWa. Everything else was profit. So, just like that, I'm a small business owner and I couldn't be happier.
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Dec 20, 2012 20:03
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That's awesome. 3 weeks transition from corporate slave to business owner.
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Dec 20, 2012 22:57
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Like every month, I paid into my student loans and then went and entered the totals into my excel file. This month, for the first time ever, three of the four lines went down instead of up. I'm finally paying enough off that the accumulated interest for the month is no longer outstripping what I'm paying in (for all but one of them)! Next I need to start snowballing on the one bad interest one and after that, someday I'll be paying principal instead of interest! 
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Dec 23, 2012 21:44
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I paid off my car and I got promoted to general manager at work! ...staying at $10/hr. And mostly because I'm the only guy on the team that has a college education, and the boss hasn't had anyone seriously sit down and do the paperwork since he started 15 years ago. Uh, I should probably make a thread later because basically I have to overhaul EVERYTHING and figure out what the hell is going on here. Still, not being electrocuted and cut to pieces on a daily basis is a big step up.
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Dec 26, 2012 10:40
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Visited my financial advisor now in december. You got pleasant problems! Long story short, I'm making enough to hit the federal tax level and he helped me invest in a pension fund. Any cash put there is not taxed until I take it out, and it's taxed at 15%. However, I can't take it out until I'm 55. As federal tax here brings me up to 50% it's a pretty good deal as long as you can spare the cash.
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Dec 28, 2012 15:04
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After a dog adoption and Christmas spending I was still able to go +$800 to my savings this month. This, with a 2% equity pay raise and a 3% merit based raise made December the first net positive month since a moneybomb of a wedding earlier in the fall (which was cashed but still painful).
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Dec 30, 2012 21:48
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Last week I: Paid off my car loan Paid off my credit card Kicked my parents off my bank accounts they were joint owners on I am now a 100% debt-free financially independent adult.
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Jan 1, 2013 05:11
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We're going to start using Google voice + prepaid phones for emergencies so I'm going to call Sprint today to see if I can get out of our contract, even if it costs us $200 bucks as I suspect it will it's still worth it in the long run even if the upfront costs are high. Started cooking at home and now I'm bringing my lunch to work. That's a minimum of $100-$150 bucks saved every month if I can pull it off. Started funding the 2013 Roth, they raised the limit to $5,500 this year! Just got healthcare for the first time in years. Although that's an extra $250 down every month  At least now I'll be a bit more focused at work and maybe a raise will come my way.I really wish there was a thread on this forum for people interested in life hacks/frugal living. I keep suspecting that there has to be some way I can save more money but the truth is I'm probably just scraping underneath the couch for loose change by now. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 14:34 on Jan 4, 2013 |
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Jan 4, 2013 14:28
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Love this thread. Great seeing all these goons getting control of their finances and money. In our own incremental improvement, the GF and I have combined our finances and started to do monthly budgets. Neither of us have really budgeted before and having combined our incomes we're suddenly communicating a whole lot more about money as well. We also discovered that we have almost $1000 a month between our incomes that wasn't earmarked for anything that kept getting siphoned away on little things here and there. Additionally we paid off our last consumer credit loan leaving just the mortgage at $110k and about $70k in student loans between us. We had already allocated about $1700 a month to our debt snowball so if there really is $1000 left over at the end of the month we can really start kicking the hell out of those student loans. For anyone that's interested, we're using Mint to track our spending, this excel spreadsheet for calculating and projecting our debt snowball and a slightly modified version of this family budget template from Microsoft to get all this under control. It's amazing how good it feels to start seeing balance statements on loans approach and reach $0 while watching the amount of money left over at the end of the month continue to increase.
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Jan 4, 2013 14:52
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2012 was the year I got my act together. 1. Began the year with $15,987.22 in credit card and loan from family debt. Paid off completely. 2. Started a Roth IRA account, albeit an account builder. 3. Started an emergency fund, and got $2700 saved by years' end. 4. Bought a new computer, a major purchase, with cash. 5. Started saving for a new car, estimating I have 3 or so years left on current vehicle. Plan is stay focused in 2013. I've found having clear goals helps me tremendously. 1. Get Roth IRA balance up to $2500 so I can begin investing those funds (targeting March 1 for this, throwing every extra dime I have at it). 2. Fully fund emergency fund (6 months expenses by years' end). 3. Continue current savings for replacement car, and begin saving for first home (building up to goal of monthly savings amount by years' end that will be automated). 4. Max Roth contribution for 2013 (by years' end).
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Jan 6, 2013 22:23
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That is much more than an incremental improvement, congrats!
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Jan 7, 2013 03:12
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I started my first salary-paying, RSP-matching job in November. On the RSP-managing website, there are two columns: book value and market value. The market value of my portfolio is $2.88 over what I have put into it so far (very low risk funds). Sure, it's just pocket change, but I'm earning interest on money that is half what my work is putting in on top of my salary. I'm getting paid to take free money. 
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Jan 7, 2013 16:49
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College dropout with incredibly defaulted loans. The state has garnished my wages administratively and has told me I cant make payments anymore even if I want to. I keep getting the receipt letters for the payments my company makes out of my wages. For whatever reason the letters they send say that if I pay 7k my loans will be made current even though they won't let me make payments. My performance bonus was 7k after tax this year. So I wrote them a check. I honestly don't know if they'll even deposit it but it felt good dropping it in the mail.
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Jan 12, 2013 11:03
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I don't know if this counts as an "improvement" because I didn't do anything, but when I applied for a home loan (applied to be qualified for a home loan? I'm still fuzzy how this works) they of course did a credit check and I got my credit score in the mail: all 3 hovering between 750-775. Until this official number, CreditKarma.com has been telling me my score was something like 680. Too bad CreditKarma's assessment of my credit holds no official weight  Pleasant surprise!
Damn Bananas fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Jan 12, 2013 |
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Jan 12, 2013 14:48
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I got a 17.00% rate of return in the last 12 months on my 401k. Granted, I only have $4900 in there right now, but I'm still really happy with that and will continue to be even if I get half of that this year.
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Jan 13, 2013 05:35
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I just payed off the last $864.38 of credit card debt. I expect my next statement to be nonzero, and have a couple bucks of accrued interest from this last month to pay off, but other than that, I have zero credit card debt, and it feels great! First time I've been cc debt free since 2004 or 2005. It kind of makes me sick to think about how much interest I've paid over that amount of time. edit: poo poo, didn't mean to double post. GAYS FOR DAYS fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Jan 14, 2013 |
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Jan 14, 2013 20:48
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My company allows me to buy their stock at a discount out of my paycheck. It's risen significantly over the past year and my investment has grown by 44%.
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Jan 14, 2013 22:20
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Tonight I came home from work to find a FedEx package from Chase, approving my Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) request that I filed just over two months ago. I have to make four mortgage payments by the first of the month for the next four months, and they are $330 less than what I had been paying. I need to review what happens next, but I am very hopefully they will offer a modified principle on my condo, because two weeks ago I got a state property assessment that valued my place at nearly 1/3rd what I originally paid for it seven years ago. Next major improvement is building my emergency savings.
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Jan 18, 2013 00:11
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Bought a pretty nice car last weekend straight cash to replace one that had a blown head gasket and wasn't worth fixing. Paying yourself a car payment for a future car definitely works.
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Jan 18, 2013 20:24
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That's awesome. Congrats. What kind of car? Per the recommendation of this forum, I've started placing some money from each paycheck into a separate account for car related expenses. It's not a lot, but every dollar counts. While right now the main focus is putting money into the car I currently own (if it runs, why bother getting a new one?), hopefully sometime down the line that fund will be dedicated to purchasing a new car instead of keeping an old car running.
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Jan 18, 2013 20:59
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Finished my masters in Ed Admin with a 4.0. (at the age of 29) Not a bad increase from my BS of 3.28 (just missed graduating with honors). High school was a 3.0. Considered something Ph.D level but realized I still have 10k undergrad and 7k grad loans to pay back first. Hoping to get into hall directing to help pay off some of those loans and maybe take some classes for cheap (higher ed admin maybe?).
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Jan 19, 2013 06:57
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My wife and I took a little out of our savings account, and finally paid off her student loans. Other than our mortgage which is about $140k, we're finally debt free and have close to $20k in a tax-free savings account. The mortgage is 2.99% fixed for 5 years, and we're getting 2% in the TFSA. Each year we're allowed to pay up to 15% of the initial amount of the mortgage as an additional payment, which is about $21k per year. Is it worth putting the money on the mortgage, or stashing it away somewhere?
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Jan 19, 2013 18:29
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Do you see yourself owning that home for the rest of your life? It really boils down to what you think is more valuable to you, owning your home outright or saving for retirement. Most people here will suggest retirement, especially with your low interest rate.
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Jan 20, 2013 02:39
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Oxphocker posted:Considered something Ph.D level but realized I still have 10k undergrad and 7k grad loans to pay back first. Hoping to get into hall directing to help pay off some of those loans and maybe take some classes for cheap (higher ed admin maybe?). I work at a state university, and if you go this route you will want to check the tuition remission policy. It might only cover up to grad level courses and not Ph.D. Also, you have to complete six months of employment before you can use the benefit.
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Jan 20, 2013 16:07
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Orange_Lazarus posted:We're going to start using Google voice + prepaid phones for emergencies so I'm going to call Sprint today to see if I can get out of our contract, even if it costs us $200 bucks as I suspect it will it's still worth it in the long run even if the upfront costs are high. I know in internet time this post is years old, but have you looked at Ting wireless? They run on Sprint's network, but you only pay for the minutes/texts/data that you actually use. The downside is that they don't subsidize their phones so there may be an initially higher cost (and they have a limited selection), but it might be worth looking at compared to what you're considering.
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Jan 24, 2013 17:44
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Thanks to the GBS sticky I read the entire Zaurg trilogy with increasing alarm over the last two weeks, and today paid off two credit cards completely and the balance due on a third.
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Jan 25, 2013 12:52
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Doccykins posted:Thanks to the GBS sticky I read the entire Zaurg trilogy with increasing alarm over the last two weeks, and today paid off two credit cards completely and the balance due on a third. Zaurg trilogy? I guess you're including the novella in You Look like poo poo as well? Good job paying off your cc debt. RogueLemming posted:I know in internet time this post is years old, but have you looked at Ting wireless? They run on Sprint's network, but you only pay for the minutes/texts/data that you actually use. The downside is that they don't subsidize their phones so there may be an initially higher cost (and they have a limited selection), but it might be worth looking at compared to what you're considering. I still haven't picked up the Tmobile plan yet but I'm definitely going to look over this. Their cheapest plan would cost me about $120 bucks a year if I don't use any minutes at all. Something tells me I should just go with T-Mobile though considering their phones are cheaper, I would pay at the beginning of each year and I know exactly what I'm getting ahead of time. I'm guessing it's 2 cents per minute if I choose the 0/0/0 plan with Ting? It says 2 cents per minute after I run out of minutes if I have the XXL plan but it doesn't say if that's the same charge if I go with the XS: 0/0/0 plan. https://ting.com/plans Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Jan 25, 2013 |
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Jan 25, 2013 14:51
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Orange_Lazarus posted:I'm guessing it's 2 cents per minute if I choose the 0/0/0 plan with Ting? It says 2 cents per minute after I run out of minutes if I have the XXL plan but it doesn't say if that's the same charge if I go with the XS: 0/0/0 plan. It's a bit different than prepaid phones in that you don't really pay per minute (until you exceed their largest plans). You pay by tier of usage. So, take minutes for example. The XS plan is $0 for 0 minutes. If you use 0-100 minutes, you would be in the S plan. 101-500 minutes is the M plan, and so on. Same thing for texts and data (where 0 usage may make more sense). You pick which range best fits your normal usage, so you have a general idea how much your bill will be each month. However, if for some reason you deviate outside your normal usage, they adjust the tier. So, if you're on the S plan for minutes (0-100), and you use 300 minutes, they bump you up to the appropriate tier (M for 300 min) for that month. Thus, you would be charged $9 (M plan) that month for minutes instead of your normal $3 (S plan). Conversely, if you have the M plan and only use 50 minutes, they knock you down to the S plan for that month and CREDIT you the $6. It may sound iffy, but if you went over your plan on a major carrier, you could get hit with fees and penalties. If you run out of minutes on a prepaid, you just can't place any calls (not good in an emergency). If you don't use your minutes on a major carrier, you pay anyway. If you don't use minutes on a prepaid, they expire. So I think Ting is reasonable. My last plan was with Verizon, and with a 20% discount my bill was still over double what Ting costs me. One last thing I will say is that I've found Ting's customer service to be second to none. I've had both Sprint and Verizon and got nothing but headaches, but Ting is always responsive and helpful. I don't mean to sound like an advertisement for them, just trying to give you enough info to make your own comparison.
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Jan 27, 2013 18:32
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After being let go by my previous shitbag employer at the end of July - which was really them doing me a favor because (in addition to a number of other problems too numerous to address here) I put up with the following and similar for years:
I'm starting a week from today with HP in their enterprise technology services group, in a far easier position for about the same pay plus benefits that will actually be worth paying for. I'm taking a very small paycut (about $.40/hour) but in exchange the clientèle will be far more professional, I won't have to work on photo printers and moving up into a large company I might actually have upward mobility and won't piss away another decade of my life without having as much as a kind word from my boss to show for it. I'm still in something of a "can't believe I landed a job with one of the top 10 companies in the US" state despite having accepted their offer about two weeks ago.
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Jan 28, 2013 08:08
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Started using YNAB this month. Really put me on a track to get out of my CC debt (I zeroed out 2 CCs and have 2 more (the big ones) as well as track all of my transactions and stick to a budget. Learned that budgeting only the money you have and giving every job something to do really helped prevent me from buying random poo poo all of the time. Looking forward to the next few months working like this so I can finally get my stupid ex-gf CC debt cleared out.
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Jan 30, 2013 21:31
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Shadowhand00 posted:Started using YNAB this month. Really put me on a track to get out of my CC debt (I zeroed out 2 CCs and have 2 more (the big ones) as well as track all of my transactions and stick to a budget. Learned that budgeting only the money you have and giving every job something to do really helped prevent me from buying random poo poo all of the time. Looking forward to the next few months working like this so I can finally get my stupid ex-gf CC debt cleared out. Fantastic! Just wait until you can start saving for the larger purchases, the sense of achievement I get from buying something outright that I actually had to sit down and plan out for is a real boost.
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Jan 31, 2013 23:57
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devmd01 posted:Bought a pretty nice car last weekend straight cash to replace one that had a blown head gasket and wasn't worth fixing. Paying yourself a car payment for a future car definitely works. Yeahhhh. This has turned into a nightmare and probably will have to end up paying 3 grand out of pocket and then suing in small claims court to recoup. In this past month I have also had to deal with the car that died, a rock hitting the windshield of the other car we own (fixed free thanks insurance), a major crack that necessitated a windshield replacement developed a few days later on the same car ($300), did our taxes and discovered we owe about $1500, this newer car repair nightmare, as well as paid a speeding ticket deferral ($245). The best part? I give zero fucks about how much all this costs, it's more the annoyance of having to deal with yet another goddamned thing going wrong that I have to pay money for. Fund your emergency funds people, it makes life so much less stressful.
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Feb 1, 2013 17:33
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