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I don't really care about my credit score since I don't want to borrow money again, but since I got a lowes card a few months back and started using it (paying it in full each time, of course), my credit score jumped almost 20 points this month. 831, holy gently caress.  Useless bragpost, I know. Just wanted to share somewhere.
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Jul 11, 2013 15:03
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SpelledBackwards posted:That kicks rear end, good for you! Not really for this thread, but in line with your fortunes, my boss gave me an extra something today on top of the max $75 bonus award (i.e. reimbursable dinner) I got a few months ago. Grats!! Best I usually get from my boss is a headache 
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Jul 12, 2013 01:42
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 , gently caress you Sallie Mae!...now to hardcore tackle the other one, at least it's at a much more reasonable 2.75%.
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Jul 12, 2013 19:20
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Congrats dev, that is kickass! This month is a good month: my retirement savings just passed the 100k mark, something I'd hoped would happen before I turned 30, success! And my boss just gave me a $6600 bonus 
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Jul 15, 2013 18:22
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moana posted:Congrats dev, that is kickass! oh wow!! Congrats on that  Pat yourself on the back cause you totally deserve that  And a bonus on top of it? Sweet!
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Jul 15, 2013 18:31
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moana posted:Congrats dev, that is kickass! That is definitely something to be proud of, nice job! Both my wife and I are over 30 and we've yet to hit $100k combined Bleh.
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Jul 16, 2013 14:55
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moana posted:Congrats dev, that is kickass! This is pretty incredible, way to go! Nothing quite as accomplished as that particular milestone, but this week I struck the final blow in my ongoing war against our lovely couch by purchasing a new one. From La Z Boy. With cash. Feels good / fancy, man.
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Jul 16, 2013 19:51
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I just got promoted from 'seasonal' to 'permanent part-time' at the retail store where I work. Also got a $.60/hr raise to boot, meaning I'm making over $10/hr now. This just in time for hours to be cut as our summer season is coming to a close. So yeah, better pay, less hours; will probably have to pick up a second job. This is the incremental improvements thread after all.
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Jul 17, 2013 23:53
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After four years of rotating employment through contract gigs and periods of unemployment, I finally got a real salaried gig with benefits and everything! Insurance kicks in September 1st, 401k with 25% matching up to 8% starts in October—and increases by 25% match each year until 100% match at up to 8% of salary. Kind of excited to finally get started. I feel a little late on it, I'm 27, but it's good to finally be putting my stupid English degree to work. Plus picked up The Four Pillars of Investing thanks to the forum recommendation. On that note I've sorted out my monthly expenses, have started budgeting, and am working on a three-month emergency fund right now. Goal is ~$4k, I've got ~$1k so far. Also, after carrying four digit balances on my credit cards for way too long, I've got my singular remaining card that I'll be keeping for emergencies down to $700, and it'll easily be taken care of in the next few months. Also also, without thinking about it or doing anything other than taking more responsibility for my financial status, my credit score's up from the mid-low 600s to 720. Thanks BFC! 
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Jul 18, 2013 18:43
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This is me after 6 months of really budgeting and doing some good work. I've had a few recent lapses but at least I'm not incredibly negative now. That debt bump from 3 months ago is a result of travel for work rather than a sudden surge in spending. Edit: Actually that wasn't very up to date. This is my most current net worth graph. I could kill the debt if I wanted to but its currently at 0% interest for another year and I'm going to kill it off by the beginning of September anyway. Edit 2: Travel and company reimbursement is the reason why my asset flow is so weird. I like to think that the debt-to-asset ratio is what I should be concentrating on since that gives me the best idea of what I'm doing with myself. Shadowhand00 fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Jul 24, 2013 |
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Jul 19, 2013 19:55
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Well, when I was single I was a budgeting queen, but being married has been an entirely different ball game. Right now we owe: $479.68 on credit card #1 $4,331 on credit card #2 $1,762.03 on a student loan On the upside, both cars are completely paid off. Downside: our insurance rate just majorly spiked, from $75/month to $209/month. I called around for rate quotes from other places, and no one can beat the $209/month with GEICO, not even USAA, who wanted $400/month. They said the rate went up because my husband is a new driver (he got his license in November 2012) and also he is under 25, so we're kinda stuck because statistically, he's in two of the worst accident groups. Another downside: We only have $75 in savings. This is because we just went on our honeymoon, and our savings was earmarked for paying off the hotel tab so we wouldn't add additional CC debt. I'm glad the honeymoon is over with and that we didn't come out of it with additional debt. Anyway, my incremental improvement is that I bought the You Need A Budget software. I plugged in both our incomes and did the best I could to create a budget line for what we realistically spend in a month. Even for things like haircuts, my husband's beer money, contact lenses, etc. That way we could minimize surprises. I'm going to do cash envelopes for consumables like groceries and gas starting on August 1. According to everything I put into YNAB, we will be able to pay off credit card #1 completely next month, and start rebuilding savings. The total amount going to savings should be around $700, but it's split between various items like a new car fund, vacation fund, emergency fund, Christmas fund, etc. I can't wait for September, when we will probably be able to throw about $1,000 at the student loan next. I'd love to do it in August, but I'm attending an out of town wedding that I had to include $300 in the budget for (gas, hotel, wedding gift, etc). And my husband needs his Mac fixed so he can sell it which will fetch a decent amount of money. The computer guy has been holding onto our Mac for a month already, and I don't want to put him off until September. But anyway, yay, budget. My goal is to pay off CC #1 and the student loan in full, and then only owe about $2,000 more on CC #2 by the end of 2013.
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Jul 24, 2013 16:56
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Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:But anyway, yay, budget. My goal is to pay off CC #1 and the student loan in full, and then only owe about $2,000 more on CC #2 by the end of 2013.
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Jul 24, 2013 17:08
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SpelledBackwards posted:What are the interest rates on all 3? Would it benefit you more to work on CC #2 before the student loan? Well, on #1, there hasn't been any interest charges yet, because what we owe on it was all charged in the last 30 days. I just want to get rid of it before we do wind up paying interest, then stop using it (but I don't want to close the account because I'm trying to get my credit score up, plus it has a high limit which is good for travel protection--I pulled it last week and it is 669, which I was surprised at because I've never had late payments on anything, I honestly was expecting it to be 700+). The interest rate on the student loan is less than on CC #2, but there's something psychologically that I like about killing a balance, so I figured I'd just go in order smallest to largest anyway.
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Jul 24, 2013 17:18
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dreesemonkey posted:Another incremental improvement to report. Today we had out health insurance meeting. Changing our insurance plan to one that is a smaller network. We've been very fortunate thus far with our health so we're taking a gamble I guess but they claim 90% of the people don't need the larger network, and when they use it it's mostly for pre-existing conditions. So hopefully we won't regret that. In the end it looks like we're going to be saving ~$90/mo net. Got my first paycheck with our health insurance change, and my guess was pretty good, it'll be about $90/mo difference, which is awesome. In other (minor) incremental news, my little sister, a recent college grad, is going to be paying towards her own cellphone plan now to our other sister, which will save us another $30/mo. These savings will likely just go to grocery giftcards / care packages for her since her fellowship doesn't pay much at all and we'd like to still do something for her.
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Jul 26, 2013 14:48
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You're paying other people's cell phone bills?
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Jul 27, 2013 17:47
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razz posted:You're paying other people's cell phone bills? Yes, I'm 9 years older than my younger sister so it was a nice thing we could do for her while she was in college. I'm surprised how much people question this on here, does no one else like their siblings?
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Jul 28, 2013 23:49
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dreesemonkey posted:Yes, I'm 9 years older than my younger sister so it was a nice thing we could do for her while she was in college. Don't worry - until my brother got a job, I was helping him out with his cell phone bills as well.
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Jul 29, 2013 00:31
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My net worth has gone above -$35k this month, slowly knocking away those student loans!  I'm on course to pay off the last $1500 of my smallest size/highest interest rate student loan by the end of the year, and I've cleared $2400 of over-payments to it since the beginning of this year, which is a goddamn lot for me. I'm thinking of not overpaying nearly as much in August so I can pay for the COMPTIA A+ certification tests I've been meaning to take since May but haven't been able to budget for. My first annual review at work is coming up at the end of August and I'd like to be able to use that as some additional leverage, or be able to look for better paying work elsewhere in the future. What do you guys think?
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Jul 30, 2013 15:25
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How much are the tests?
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Jul 30, 2013 16:00
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Around $185.
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Jul 30, 2013 16:11
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Lyon posted:Around $185.
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Jul 30, 2013 16:17
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:Each. You gotta take both too. It sucks that those tests are so worthless but so many companies require them and they're that damned expensive.
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Aug 2, 2013 20:34
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Finally got paid by a client for a decent sized job I did a few months ago, and was able to pay off the remainder of my back taxes, netting me an extra $200/month to split between debt and building an emergency fun. Let the debt snowball begin!
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Aug 2, 2013 22:55
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The tests sound like a good idea to me - even if they only translated into a $0.25/hr boost, they'd still pay for themselves in a little over half a year.
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Aug 3, 2013 00:13
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My savings are finally the highest they've ever been. They've fluctuated at or around $5k for over 2 years and kept dipping due to one thing or another (Hey, buy a new car! Hey, get married!). I haven't had to dip into savings in almost 6 months now, which is a big accomplishment for me. A couple more months and I'll tip over 5-digits. This is unprecedented and exciting for me.
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Aug 3, 2013 03:00
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Like my beautiful red title says, I was unemployed for almost 9 months after my last marketing analyst-type gig (first real job out of college, paid $40k) and aborted attempt at starting a business. I used a local job board to get hired to an analyst gig at a cable company making in the low $60s a few months ago. Now I've accepted a new manager-titled gig at another telecom company (also found this on a job board) making $80k+bonus. For someone with a BA from a public school graduating in 2009, I feel pretty good about where I'm sitting now and doubling my salary in a year, and I've even gotten a few pings on my LinkedIn from local recruiters. I gotta say, if you've got a mildly analytical background and are interested in working in telecom, Denver is the place to be right now.
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Aug 3, 2013 05:10
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devmd01 posted: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. Quoting myself from a while back, had the actual court date this week representing myself pro se, just checked the case online and the judgement was in my favor. Don't let businesses gently caress you and take it lying down. Now to collect, which shouldn't be too hard as the business has plenty of assets that could be sold by the sheriff should it come to that.  Tip for anyone considering small claims: be persistent with filling out paperwork, have a clear timeline of events prepared with as much supporting documentation/evidence as possible, have at least 3 copies of everything for the actual trial (one for you, the court, and the defendants), prepare questions ahead of time, and subpoena anyone and everyone that can provide expert testimony on your behalf. devmd01 fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Aug 9, 2013 |
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Aug 9, 2013 16:09
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devmd01 posted:Quoting myself from a while back, had the actual court date this week representing myself pro se, just checked the case online and the judgement was in my favor. Don't let businesses gently caress you and take it lying down.
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Aug 9, 2013 16:24
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OK, can I just take a minute to brag how helpful our first budget has been this month? Everything has been paid on time, with no ugly surprises. Well, stuff always got paid on time before, but this time there was a specific plan for leftover money. I came in $100 under what I thought I'd spend while out of town for my friend's wedding. I put $200 in an account earmarked for future car repairs. What do you know--my inside drivers' side door handle broke. That $200, plus the $100 under budget from the wedding, plus the $229 left after bills get paid in our next paycheck this week, should more than cover fixing it when I bring it in on Wednesday. It's like we can just deal with it in peace instead of panicking about it or charging it on a credit card! I can also go shopping for some new work clothes guilt free in cash, and next weekend hopefully we can go on a date night, also with cash. My husband warned me that he might lose $450 out of his check on the first, because the Army was overpaying him for a few months by $150/month. Instead of freaking out, I know everything we need is covered, and maybe we can just reduce our debt snowball by $450 next month. We have to wait and see if they notify when they are going to take the money back. Finally, I got a check in the mail on Friday for $649 from an account I closed. On Monday I will deposit that and send a huge payment to my student loan which is less than $1800 from payoff! 
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Aug 11, 2013 04:07
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Hip Hoptimus Prime posted:I can also go shopping for some new work clothes guilt free in cash
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Aug 11, 2013 05:01
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SpelledBackwards posted:New-new, or new to you? Because you could save a bit more by purchasing used clothes, assuming they'll be suitable for you. I have to buy new-new because I am tall *and* plus sized, so finding stuff at Goodwill is extremely difficult. But I'm in the process of losing weight, and honestly, we aren't that hard up that I need to go to garage sales and thrift stores (though I'm not above that at all). I'm only getting a few new things, as I don't want to spend a whole bunch on stuff that will be too big in a month or two.
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Aug 11, 2013 12:50
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Teacher Loan Forgiveness Application: Approved Amount Forgiven: $10,500 % of Loan Forgiven: 100% YES! YES! YES! Completely debt free.
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Aug 20, 2013 14:51
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spinst posted:Teacher Loan Forgiveness Application: Approved That's great. Do you get taxed on the forgiven amount?
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Aug 20, 2013 19:58
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dreesemonkey posted:That's great. Do you get taxed on the forgiven amount? Nope!
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Aug 25, 2013 18:01
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"Your credit card utilization has decreased by 46% since your last score update on Mar 26, 2013" YAY YAY YAY  (Of course, my stomach is growing and I'll have to take off work for that soon--incoming expenses, ahoy!)
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Aug 27, 2013 18:00
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Went to get pre-approval for a car loan (small, I'll have 60% of the car paid for at signing!) and my credit score is sitting at 805. holy poo poo! also was approved at 2.24% (thanks CU) which is literally one-third the rate of my last loan 7 years ago. I know this is a function of the economy at large, but it's still pretty fun. Gunshow Poophole fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Aug 27, 2013 |
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Aug 27, 2013 19:09
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I went home for lunch today and I had an envelope from the people servicing one of my student loans. I opened it up, and they knocked $400 off for making on time payments for 36 months straight. I still owe over $7000 on just that loan, but its still nice and unexpected.
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Aug 28, 2013 19:59
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Finally paid off the last of my mistake money today. I'm now within budget and have no outstanding credit card debt! I do have a car payment but that has minimal impact to my overall budget at the moment.
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Sep 5, 2013 22:50
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In August of 2012, I moved to a new city to start a new job. My new company gave me exactly $0 for relocation expenses, but fortunately, my parents were willing to pay for all that and let me pay them back interest-free. Last month, I made the final payment that zeroed out that loan. Today, I noticed that the outstanding balance of the next loan in my debt snowball sequence (a store credit card from a local furniture store) has dipped below the $1,000 mark for the first time since I started that account. That debt will also be completely gone by no later than mid-January of 2014.  Next one after that is a (relatively small, partially-paid-off) student loan, followed by a car loan. Debt freedom, here I come!
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Sep 11, 2013 04:38
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Just moved to a new location and in addition to savings and paychecks and school money (not loan). I have a bit more money than I am used to. As of right now I have a little over 14 grand in my savings. But I am currently unemployed and a full time student. Based on grants, unemployment, and my other military payments (gi bill, some 6 week school they are sending me to, and a bonus upon completion) I will be receiving a further 40-50 grand in compensation by July of next year. I had to take out a small student loan a few weeks ago because I had to pay to relocate myself and the reimbursement took nearly a month. During that time I had to dip severly into savings but have since recouped. Due to this I have in debt: 7.3k in my vehicle, and 3.7k in student loans. I just checked and while we used to be positive on the jeep it appears that now the recall means that we will only get money through a private sell. Trade in will net -700 dollars while private sale will net 1k. The car will net 1.8-3k depending on trade in or private. Since we now live near Boulder, CO we are wondering about replacing both vehicles for a used 4wd vehicle. I plan on getting the car ready for private sale and trying to get rid of it for a while and trying to determine the type of vehicle I'll be getting. I bike to the bus and only need a vehicle for my wife so only having the jeep isn't an issue. Wife doesn't work either but my weekly UI is about 500, and my monthly Gi bill stipend is about 1600. If I had no savings this would cover my bills until my next grant payment in the spring (mid-january). That being said I really like the idea of having this much in an emergency fund but should I go ahead and pay off the jeep or should I just wait until I have a buyer lined up? The money to pay the jeep off is in a savings account in a different bank from the bank that maintains the loan. It'd take about 5-7 days for the funds to clear through a ACH transfer. Plus if I paid off all my debt I'd have about 3k in savings but be completely debt free. I'm not really sure what to do in this situation but I know that we want to get a 4wd before the snow starts. 
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Sep 14, 2013 18:54
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