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4.5 years ago I graduated from a technical college with a net worth of negative 5 grand. Today I'm sitting at a net worth of 70k, on track to pay off my car in half the term and seeing 19% and 10% returns on my RRSP and TFSA investments. Also finally started to learn about the Forex market which i absolutely love. Financial stuff is fun!
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Feb 28, 2013 20:24
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MJBuddy posted:You need work? Hiring? :P I'm actually going to be hiring people that I know first and then looking to pick people up on a per job basis as time goes on. Pay for workers is 30 cents a unit.
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Feb 28, 2013 20:48
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According to Mint, Our net worth just hit $60,000.. Too bad I have to pay the mortgage soon. 
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Mar 1, 2013 14:53
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This is a really small thing to be proud of, but: we got on a budget and we're actually talking about money instead of just freaking out when we don't have any more. It feels really good, because even when we can't/shouldn't buy something we know why. We're not afraid of money anymore. The mystery is gone.
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Mar 4, 2013 00:02
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On Terra Firma posted:I'm actually going to be hiring people that I know first and then looking to pick people up on a per job basis as time goes on. Pay for workers is 30 cents a unit. I live in your area and I'm a fan of part time work while on the job search. If you have any listings up, just yell (probably in the job postings thread).
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Mar 4, 2013 08:07
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My credit score went up by 38 points and I've saved enough for a down payment on a new car that I'll probably need in the next year. I'm really excited about this.
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Mar 9, 2013 18:35
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Kind of a wash financially, but a big step for me in the right direction. My student loan was a private loan of 16k @ 13.22 interest, and I had $4,100 on a credit card for when I bought new furniture after a move. I just took out a 22k loan at a lower rate via Lending Club to pay both off and now I will be debt free in 1 year, 11 months per my monthly payments + additional principle paydown  I have a hard time budgeting extra money and always just end up using it for mini-vacations, so this at least forces me to pay off that loan quicker (the student loan, which was set for a 22 year payoff), I consider it an improvement
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Mar 12, 2013 13:10
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Paid off credit card #1 and should be able to pay off credit card #2 in full by the end of this month. Have also put together a emergency account with $5500 for me and the girlfriend. And going to start contributing the max to my 401k as of next pay period. Feels good; still have a ways to go. I still have a $20k student loan, and a car loan on top of those - but the revolving credit is #1 for me to knock out. Then I'm going to start throwing massive funds at the others.
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Mar 12, 2013 20:44
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I finally saved up $10,000 and then I quit my job and blew it all on starting my own business. Good thing I like to work 80 hrs a week and not get paid.
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Mar 14, 2013 05:03
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Leroy Diplowski posted:I finally saved up $10,000 and then I quit my job and blew it all on starting my own business. Good thing I like to work 80 hrs a week and not get paid. Just kidding, good luck. 
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Mar 14, 2013 07:08
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My wife and I just paid off the last of our student loans, which means we are now completely, 100% debt free! Feels good man.
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Mar 16, 2013 23:28
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So my fist major run of fliers is almost done, with just around 2k more to pass out tomorrow. I also have another approved job for the following week for an additional 3k fliers to do around Fairfax VA. Total fliers for March will be 38400. 38400 x .75 = $28800. I'm going to be paying roughly 9k out just for the people that helped deliver them but considering I started this business out of nothing in December and am going to have a net profit of around $19800 after quitting my lovely cell phone sales position in December, I'd say that I'm doing pretty loving good. 
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Mar 23, 2013 09:16
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On Terra Firma posted:So my fist major run of fliers is almost done, with just around 2k more to pass out tomorrow. I also have another approved job for the following week for an additional 3k fliers to do around Fairfax VA. That's really incredible. Be sure you stay on the up and up w/r/t taxes!
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Mar 23, 2013 17:35
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March 8th, I had -$550, no job, and had just relocated halfway across the country because...I was broke, and while i had a job out there due to some dick moves by family members my work-from-home plans fell through. Today, I have two jobs, still have -$26 net, but I also got a car registered, have had to pay $300 in rent to my sister, and took care of various other miscellaneous expenses (medications, etc). By the end of today I'll be in the positive again after getting paid from job #2, since I'm getting cash until he can get me into the payroll system. So in under a month, I've managed to go from negative money to...well, a less negative amount of money, and taken care of everything that needed to be taken care of, and will be starting april in the black with the intention to remain so for the remainder of my days. And working with YNAB (while grossly overestimating how much I'll be paying/mo for utilities.), it's looking like I'll have $200 extra or so a month to save up to A) have an emergency fund for the first time ever and B) get my mom's low mileage but in really lovely shape for having 75k/mi on it car all fixed up. Dr Jankenstein fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Mar 23, 2013 |
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Mar 23, 2013 18:50
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Credit card debt free in 2009. My wife and I fully own our cars as of May 2011. Saved up an emergency fund to $16,000 in October 2011. Started out with $37,000 in student loan debt in March 2010, and now we're down to $15,250. We have a baby coming in May and my hope continues to be that we'll find a way to pay off this student loan this year. My fingers and toes continue to be crossed.
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Mar 27, 2013 04:26
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Back in september I started lurking this forum - I read about what other people have done with their personal finances, how much they monitored them, what they did, and then I discussed with my wife if we should do some of the same measures. We bought a budget/follow-up piece of software (Money for the mac), and since then we've monthly done the following: 1. Register all cash-flow (all bill's, purchases etc., all accounts - no exceptions) 2. Create a plan for financial improvement, and follow-up on all tasks already in progress 3. Evaluate the baseline, and rebudget 4. Give explanations for any deviances from budget or plan - Now it may seem like going quite overboard - but this methodology is something that we both use at work, and which we're both quite comfortable with. Our bank automatically categorize our purchases for us, but that is somehow insufficient for us - we need to do it ourselves to gain a complete understanding. Suffice to say that just the awareness has improved our finances substantially, furthermore that our constant meeting with this primary topic has brought the needed focus in our everyday expenditure. I have contacted several of our most used vendors, and documented our yearly spend with them, demanding a fixed rebate - and gotten accounts giving me from 10 to 25%. We have moved expenses away from certain stores and vendors whom we perceive as having too low value for money to see that kind of activity from us, we have gotten our taxes in complete order, getting money back. We have contacted the people who owe us money, and gotten that out of the way too. Now I believe we're ready for the next step - namely start saving with a purpose - not only to see numbers grow. We have yet to agree what we should save towards - I am wanting an appartment in Rome, my wife is not yet sure if we should get something in Tuscany instead. What I guess I am trying to say is - Thankyou for the inspiration. Edit: I guess I forgot to mention that the first target is having 1 yrs pay in our accounts to be able to walk the via francigena, and not give a gently caress about money while doing it. Happy Hat fucked around with this message at 11:32 on Mar 29, 2013 |
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Mar 29, 2013 11:30
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quote:I have contacted several of our most used vendors, and documented our yearly spend with them, demanding a fixed rebate - and gotten accounts giving me from 10 to 25%
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Mar 29, 2013 22:52
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Cicero posted:Wait what? You were just like, "We spent a lot of money at your store, give us some of it back"? And they did it? I work at a University so the scale is a lot bigger, but our vendors do the same, from 2-5% back at the end of the year. Everything from IT to office supplies.
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Mar 29, 2013 23:51
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Cicero posted:Wait what? You were just like, "We spent a lot of money at your store, give us some of it back"? And they did it? No... The proper way of phrasing it is probably 'discount on future purchases' - sorry.. English is not my first language.
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Mar 30, 2013 00:22
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ntd posted:I work at a University so the scale is a lot bigger, but our vendors do the same, from 2-5% back at the end of the year. Everything from IT to office supplies. Happy Hat posted:No... The proper way of phrasing it is probably 'discount on future purchases' - sorry.. English is not my first language.
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Mar 30, 2013 07:08
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Cicero posted:Hmm well that does make more sense. Basically what it means is that I've taken my expenses, categorized by place of purchase, and gone to some of the places that we frequent often, asking them for an account to get a rebate on all future purchases. This works with smaller businesses, not with large ones. It won't get me any money back, but if I plan on spending a couple of thousand somewhere during the next year, I will now save a couple of hundred when doing so... I did this with 4 different stores, and all of them have given me rebate, the largest one being 25% - the smallest 10%.
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Mar 30, 2013 11:56
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Nice. I don't know that that would happen, here.
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Mar 30, 2013 15:43
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Happy Hat posted:Basically what it means is that I've taken my expenses, categorized by place of purchase, and gone to some of the places that we frequent often, asking them for an account to get a rebate on all future purchases. This works with smaller businesses, not with large ones. It won't get me any money back, but if I plan on spending a couple of thousand somewhere during the next year, I will now save a couple of hundred when doing so... Any examples of the stores you managed to pull this off at? I can't think of one I frequent that would offer something like this, I suppose it would have to be a really small business. Now I'm wondering why haggling stopped being a societal norm (as opposed to firm pricing) in the United States, or maybe it started elsewhere? Most people wouldn't even consider trying what you did because "haggling" (loosely applies here) is considered to be "undignified". Even a tight-wad like me wouldn't consider doing it because I'd assume most companies would just laugh when approached over a discount because why would they give me a discount when they have so many other suckers around willing to pay premium without even thinking about it?
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Apr 2, 2013 13:56
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Just had my two year review and had my salary bumped up by $6000. Holy crap it feels good.
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Apr 2, 2013 18:55
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I'm currently doing a 30-day trial of the Progressive Snapshot to see how much I can save with my car insurance. Currently on pace for 20% off, but I don't know on what base price I'll be getting the discount.
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Apr 3, 2013 16:16
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I'm debt-free - I'm fully funding my 401(k) and my ROTH IRA, I have a balanced budget and a 1 month buffer of income plus and emergency fund, now I'm setting aside cash for vacations!
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Apr 5, 2013 19:28
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Orange_Lazarus posted:... Most people wouldn't even consider trying what you did because "haggling" (loosely applies here) is considered to be "undignified". Even a tight-wad like me wouldn't consider doing it because I'd assume most companies would just laugh when approached over a discount because why would they give me a discount when they have so many other suckers around willing to pay premium without even thinking about it? I think that is a part of it. They will get enough sales off people paying full price, but really they would be willing to make more sales at a smaller margin because hey... more money right?
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Apr 6, 2013 00:36
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Orange_Lazarus posted:Any examples of the stores you managed to pull this off at? I can't think of one I frequent that would offer something like this, I suppose it would have to be a really small business. 2 Clothes stores - 25% and 20% Outdoors store - 20% Kitchen equipment store - 10% Clothes stores are a good bid, because their markups is in the several hundred percents. They're all small business (well - not small, but owned by someone identifiable), except the outdoors store which is a chain. What I did was demonstrate to them that I had substantial purchases with them, but some of those guys just gave out the discount at the mere mention of me wanting it, which leads me to believe that it is something that should be done more often. Edit: Sorry - corrected the kitchen store - had stated that one at 15%, is 10% Happy Hat fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Apr 9, 2013 |
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Apr 8, 2013 06:45
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Just paid off my last car loan, felt so good calling them up for the payout figure and making the deposit to close the account. Now it's just a 3k cc and I am debt free bar the mortgage
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Apr 16, 2013 10:20
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I just paid off one of my student loans. Of course it was the smallest one. And I still have a ton to pay off. But it still feels like an accomplishment!
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Apr 18, 2013 04:10
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Paid off my second(and second-highest interest) student loan with my tax return. (Return was $3000 because of goofy poo poo with me only being in my real job half a year and the other half being my $8/hr student job. Not sure if I should stick the remainder in another loan or into an IRA, but it's not like it's going anywhere while I decide*). Two $2000 loans down, $7000 loan next on the chopping block.  *I might be naughty and spend $20 of it on Godiva chocolate. That's allowed, right? The rest of it will definitely go to retirement or loans, though.
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Apr 18, 2013 13:12
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Well, I haven't posted much in here, but in the past 3 years my wife and I have been able to clear off $15000 in total debt, buy a house (not like we should have, and it was a huge pain in the loving rear end), get two cars that aren't going to fall apart at any second. I still have about $3000 in credit card debt, and my $1200 in savings that we finally built up is going to be wiped because I ran over a road pylon and hosed my car up. Insurance covered most of it, but my deductible I had to cover and some other ancillary expenses. I'm also putting into a 401k (not taking full advantage of matching pay because it hits my paycheck too hard right now). My wife and I use our credit cards for day to day purchases, but the ones I use for Gas and hers gets paid off every week. Mine (The 3k one) is being chiseled down. So I still have the goals of: Pay the CC off, go full on matching 401k, get the cars paid off, then we get to spend more money on house maintenance and other stuff. Stupid roof being 10k+ to fix.
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Apr 24, 2013 16:22
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After a long time of making sure my student loan payments were paid on time and building up a credit history, I applied for a major credit card and got approved. I'm sure I'll get an initial ding on my credit at first, but getting approved made me feel like less of an idiot.
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Apr 25, 2013 23:38
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After almost 4 months of being unemployed after getting laid off, I got a job offer! Pros: -Really solid company -12% raise BTAX, 17% raise ATAX -Great opportunity to move up in the org since I'll be one of 2 engineers under the age of 55 Cons: -It's in Dallas and my girlfriend of two and a half years isn't in a position to move there with me right now 
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Apr 26, 2013 23:56
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I just paid off and canceled a CC with 3k security on it. What a wonderful feeling to finally be free of that albatross. Looking forward to getting rid of the rest of them!
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May 3, 2013 14:42
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So in 2 months, I now have: A solid $200 emergency fund that I contribute to every paycheck Started paying off student loans that have been in collections for over a year Started paying off a credit card from when I was 18 that has a 7500 balance on it and was charged off by citi but has since bounced to like 4 different collection agencies. I just wanna pay it off and be done with it. My own apartment [i]spending money[i] All this from being 550 in the red and with nowhere to live and no job march 8th. My goal is to by this time next year be debt free and able to afford a nice little condo or townhouse with my mom. (she's not in the best of health and living with my sister is not helping things at all.) Considering that 10% down on a nice little townhouse or condo is all of 8800, that's a totally doable savings goal between the two of us by next year. Hell, that's a totally doable savings goal for *each* of us to avoid PMI. There's even the perfect unit that the seller's agent doesn't sound too hopeful about moving at all in the near future.
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May 4, 2013 22:52
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Not as much about my improvement as a friend's, but my former supervisor and now close friend is wanting to replace his aging heap of a car. I'm a SINK and have lots of savings, while he is married with a kid and unexpected house issues keep dipping into his savings. He was telling me about his plans to buy his parents' old car and the potentially awful financing situation available if the amount he planned to borrow ($2-4k) didn't qualify as an auto loan (low rate) at his bank, and instead moved over to a personal loan with a much higher rate. We're in the process of working out a personal loan between us. Initially I was going to not charge him any interest, but he and his wife insisted they pay me more interest than the bank would've gotten on the lower auto loan rate. I'll talk them down to something less than what the lower rate was, but I'm glad to see I can help them get some better stability and a more reliable car with a lot less paperwork on their end and only minimal paperwork on mine. Good thing I turned down an offer to join his team at work, since I'd rather not owe money to my boss.
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May 8, 2013 06:41
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SpelledBackwards posted:Not as much about my improvement as a friend's, but my former supervisor and now close friend is wanting to replace his aging heap of a car. I'm a SINK and have lots of savings, while he is married with a kid and unexpected house issues keep dipping into his savings. No good deed goes unpunished. I hope it works out OK for you, if not I'll see you guys on Judge Judy
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May 8, 2013 14:54
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SpelledBackwards posted:Not as much about my improvement as a friend's, but my former supervisor and now close friend is wanting to replace his aging heap of a car. I'm a SINK and have lots of savings, while he is married with a kid and unexpected house issues keep dipping into his savings. Paperwork paperwork paperwork make sure your ducks are in a row or you will be soooo sorry
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May 9, 2013 01:03
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With today's payment i'm down to less than 50% of the original balance of student loans and the smaller higher interest one will be done by the end of the summer. Paying almost 4x the minimum payment every month, let's do this poo poo!
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May 9, 2013 18:31
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