How to Create a Budget

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > How to Create a Budget

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Old Fart posted:

This is just personal preference, but I don't like recording found money as income.

I'd log the transaction as income, but give it a category. That way it doesn't show up as income for the month, it just affects the balance of the line item. You could even create an "Uncle" category and isolate it all there, so that when you make reports, you can easily remove it from the equation.

I use Quicken not YNAB, but this is basically how I do it.

# ? Aug 24, 2013 00:13

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# ? May 3, 2024 01:38

Kenny Rogers: Sep 7, 2007; Chapter One:
When I first saw Sparky, he reminded me of my favorite comb. He was missing a lot of teeth.

100 HOGS AGREE posted:

Hey man I never said meth.

New season of BrBa is on my mind. :v:

# ? Aug 24, 2013 17:15

HooKars: Feb 22, 2006; Comeon!

Okay, so this was my first month of YNAB. We've come to the end of the month and it's pretty obvious that I was overly cautious in some categories and didn't spend anywhere near the budgeted amount. I'm just curious how most people handle this or if it really matters how I treat it. There are a few categories that I want to roll over and add up, but some that I dont think really needs to.

# ? Aug 26, 2013 23:33

100 HOGS AGREE: Oct 13, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Just take money out of some categories and put it in others? This is like one of the basic YNAB rules.

# ? Aug 26, 2013 23:44

HooKars: Feb 22, 2006; Comeon!

100 HOGS AGREE posted:

Just take money out of some categories and put it in others? This is like one of the basic YNAB rules.

I just wanted to make sure there was no real disadvantage to changing all my budgets to match my actual outflows and zeroing things out. I can't really think of a time where I would want to know what my budget numbers were in August 2013 vs. what I actually spent, but I wasn't sure if anyone had any views on that. I was just going to make the budgets match the actual spending and then move the leftover money to my savings categories.

# ? Aug 26, 2013 23:56

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

HooKars posted:

I just wanted to make sure there was no real disadvantage to changing all my budgets to match my actual outflows and zeroing things out. I can't really think of a time where I would want to know what my budget numbers were in August 2013 vs. what I actually spent, but I wasn't sure if anyone had any views on that. I was just going to make the budgets match the actual spending and then move the leftover money to my savings categories.

Disclaimer: I have yet to use YNAB.

So you're going to change September budget amounts to reflect real spending in August, and add more to savings? That sounds entirely ideal to me. Now, depending on category you may want to leave a higher monthly budget amount and roll it over. For me, car maintenance, electronics, books and animal care (maybe more...) fall into that category.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 00:01

HooKars: Feb 22, 2006; Comeon!

SiGmA_X posted:

Disclaimer: I have yet to use YNAB.

So you're going to change September budget amounts to reflect real spending in August, and add more to savings? That sounds entirely ideal to me. Now, depending on category you may want to leave a higher monthly budget amount and roll it over. For me, car maintenance, electronics, books and animal care (maybe more...) fall into that category.

Every dollar has to have a job. I had a wedding this month, a vacation, some birthdays - just a lot of odds and ends that I wasn't sure how much they were going to cost. I was about $500 too generous overall in those categories so I now have a lot of freed up cash this month that didn't actually go towards its assigned job. I could let them all roll over to those categories next month but it's not really necessary for me to have that much money in gifts and travel at the moment so I was planning on changing my August budgeted numbers to match my August spending and freeing up the $500. When most people do that, do you just move that money into savings and kind of take it out of the equation, in a sense? I've already budgeted for September but I could use that $500 to begin budgeting for October... do people generally like to have more than one month budgeted out or just one month ahead? I don't think it really matters but sometimes people feel things have a psychological advantage or they do things a particular way because they feel its beneficial in some way. Wasn't sure if anyone had any insight.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 00:15

Kenny Rogers: Sep 7, 2007; Chapter One:
When I first saw Sparky, he reminded me of my favorite comb. He was missing a lot of teeth.

HooKars posted:

Every dollar has to have a job. I had a wedding this month, a vacation, some birthdays - just a lot of odds and ends that I wasn't sure how much they were going to cost. I was about $500 too generous overall in those categories so I now have a lot of freed up cash this month that didn't actually go towards its assigned job. I could let them all roll over to those categories next month but it's not really necessary for me to have that much money in gifts and travel at the moment so I was planning on changing my August budgeted numbers to match my August spending and freeing up the $500. When most people do that, do you just move that money into savings and kind of take it out of the equation, in a sense? I've already budgeted for September but I could use that $500 to begin budgeting for October... do people generally like to have more than one month budgeted out or just one month ahead? I don't think it really matters but sometimes people feel things have a psychological advantage or they do things a particular way because they feel its beneficial in some way. Wasn't sure if anyone had any insight.

I'd (and DO) stick the extra dough from August in a category called "Buffer" - when you have a month's worth of expenses in that category, there are various methods you can use to transition that to having an actual buffer. Cross that bridge when you get there.

Re: One month or multiples...
Lots of people recommend you use YNAB "as designed" and only work with "from now until next payday", and not "until the end of the month" or even "this whole month".
As designed, you don't assign dollars to jobs until you have the cold hard cash in your hand.
There's a good reason for this - it's how you know you're not spending dollars you don't actually have in your account.

Now, it's been a few years since I've overdrawn, AND I've been using YNAB "properly" since March, so I feel comfortable using YNAB for medium range forecasting, since my income is also super stable.
I have added (fake, sort of) transactions to my "Cash" account that match the projected income that I'll receive from my paychecks. I date them for each payday.
I have the next few months budgeted out ahead of time (to the 03 January paycheck at this point), so I have projected what I can spend each month in each category.
On payday, I go into the "Cash" account, right click, and Move To -> Checking. I then adjust the dollar figure in the Inflow column to match the actual deposit amount, then adjust the jobs my dollars have a little bit to make the budget balance back to zero.
I've got some screenshots on how I do this a little further up in the thread. Shouldn't be hard to find.

Here's the official topic on the matter.

Kenny Rogers fucked around with this message at 02:38 on Aug 27, 2013

# ? Aug 27, 2013 02:30

HooKars: Feb 22, 2006; Comeon!

Kenny Rogers posted:

Lots of people recommend you use YNAB "as designed" and only work with "from now until next payday", and not "until the end of the month" or even "this whole month".
As designed, you don't assign dollars to jobs until you have the cold hard cash in your hand.
There's a good reason for this - it's how you know you're not spending dollars you don't actually have in your account.

Well, I'm only budgeting with cash in hand like YNAB suggested. I applied my paychecks in August as "Income for September" so it all got added there, so now I've divvied it up for September and I think I'm fine to cover September with cash in hand.

Do you find having a general buffer category makes it easy to drawn upon that category when you're overbudget in another category? I worry if I'm overbudget in groceries one month or something, it might be easier to pull from "buffer" than it is to pull from "Fun Money" "vacation savings" or even "October rent" -- like it kind of negates the purpose of every dollar having a job, and therefore a consequence from spending it. How big do you let your buffer get?

It looks like from the post you linked, you touched on the matter though. I was just kind of wondering if people felt it was good to get more than a month in a buffer account. Or if that's just silly (I have an emergency fund) and I should just move it out of the picture into savings (I don't really use YNAB to track my savings accounts)

(and I love that you budget $1.89 each month)

HooKars fucked around with this message at 03:45 on Aug 27, 2013

# ? Aug 27, 2013 03:25

Old Fart: Jul 25, 2013

When I was sporadically employed and not saving at all, I "gave every dollar a job" several months into the future using money I had already earned. This let me know how long I could survive at my current standard of living if the work dried up immediately, and gave me a good visual of my progress. Letting a category roll over didn't matter so much, because I'd adjust future months to give myself the same living expenses and extend my lifespan.

Now that work is more steady and I'm putting into savings and long-term goals, I'm budgeting a month ahead, and anything extra goes to a buffer category. I over-estimate the monthly bills, and zero out once they're paid, which gives me wiggle room for other categories (or I can just dump the overage into the buffer category).

I have one cardinal rule: DO NOT TAKE FROM THE SAVINGS OR BUFFER. Over-spending on groceries or buying extra concert tickets doesn't count as an emergency or life-altering situation. These are choices I've made, so the money comes out of other categories. No exceptions. I borrow from next month's regular budget before I touch the savings or buffer (and I really try not to do that, either).

The categories that roll over are the "quality of life" categories like vacations and camping and clothing and the like. This allows me to take from them if I over-spend on another line item, because there's usually something hanging around. If I spend too much on restaurants, then I can take it out of my music fund. The only "monthly consumables" expense I roll over is the cat fund, so that I have something for emergency vet visits.

I don't know if this is how you're "supposed" to do it, but it works for me. YNAB can be fairly powerful and flexible for what it is. Long-term future projection not so much, but daily maintenance and analysis of past spending is great.

Old Fart fucked around with this message at 13:00 on Aug 27, 2013

# ? Aug 27, 2013 12:57

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

We've messed up and "charged" overages in discretionary categories to our buffer before. Its primary use is to grow to our next month's income and then be depleted and refilled every month, but I don't consider it emergency money. It's more like... well, a buffer to iron out significant unpredictable increases in expenses.

Now, to borrow from, say, an amortized annual or biannual line category like insurance or tires, that's something I'm super careful not to do. It just fucks with the whole works.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 15:09

Kenny Rogers: Sep 7, 2007; Chapter One:
When I first saw Sparky, he reminded me of my favorite comb. He was missing a lot of teeth.

HooKars posted:

Do you find having a general buffer category makes it easy to drawn upon that category when you're overbudget in another category?

Yes, but I'm super-aggressively paying down debt, and pulling from my buffer if I go over is (at this point) a better option than doing what I was doing last winter - I'd pay $350 down on the Barclay Card, run out of money the Tuesday before payday, then charge lunch and a tank of gas, eating up almost 1/3 of the progress I'd made for the month.

Now I have some money in the buffer, and if I overrun someplace and can't draw from another category (take $75 from Groceries and put it in Buy Lunch and Fuel and Consumables) which is my first choice, I'll take it from Buffer. It sets my goal of having a month's cash in the bank back a little bit, but it's an interest free loan from myself.
Once I have the CC Debt paid off (which looks like Mid-January at this breakneck pace), then all that newly-extra money will be split between Buffer and Savings.

quote:

I worry if I'm overbudget in groceries one month or something, it might be easier to pull from "buffer" than it is to pull from "Fun Money" "vacation savings" or even "October rent" -- like it kind of negates the purpose of every dollar having a job, and therefore a consequence from spending it. How big do you let your buffer get?

My goal is to let the buffer get to about $4000, then (per one of the methods I found in the YNAB forums) I'm going to enter a bogus $4000 outflow, categorized as "Buffer". My buffer will be zero at that point, and I'll have a 'hidden' $4000 in my checking account. It's not savings, it's not an emergency fund. It's my buffer.
You touched on it. Savings and Emergency Fund - neither of them are your Buffer, so there's not really a reason to have more than a month's worth.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 16:51

Bulky Bartokomous: Nov 3, 2006; In Mypos, only the strong survive.

Any reason YNAB gets all the love over mint.com?

# ? Aug 27, 2013 18:54

100 HOGS AGREE: Oct 13, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Dantu posted:

Any reason YNAB gets all the love over mint.com?

I've done both and mint kinda sucks for budgeting into the future, especially when you have non-monthly bills. And their goals aren't that great either, each one needs a separate account tied to it. I didn't really feel like using mint was affecting my spending at all, but using YNAB is a more involving process for me. It's hard to explain because I don't really have the vocabulary for these financial things.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 19:25

signalnoise: Mar 7, 2008; i was told my old av was distracting

Mint is too automatic for me. I need to be forced to LOOK at my spending.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 19:28

glug: Mar 12, 2004; JON JONES APOLOGIST #1

Hello thread I just found.
YNAB is on sale on steam for $15 now. I had it wishlisted because it looked pretty cool, glad to know there's a thread discussing budgeting specifically with people using this

Of course there is. It's rare I don't find an SA thread for anything I'm looking at.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 19:37

Cruseydr: May 18, 2010; I am not an atomic playboy.

glug posted:

Hello thread I just found.
YNAB is on sale on steam for $15 now. I had it wishlisted because it looked pretty cool, glad to know there's a thread discussing budgeting specifically with people using this

Of course there is. It's rare I don't find an SA thread for anything I'm looking at.

Just came here to say the same thing. I was halfway through my free trial so the timing is just right :woop:

I can budget out!

# ? Aug 27, 2013 20:03

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

glug posted:

Hello thread I just found.
YNAB is on sale on steam for $15 now. I had it wishlisted because it looked pretty cool, glad to know there's a thread discussing budgeting specifically with people using this

Of course there is. It's rare I don't find an SA thread for anything I'm looking at.

I must figure out how to buy this without steam! Or, get a steam account. To google I go, thanks for the heads up!

# ? Aug 27, 2013 21:04

Bulky Bartokomous: Nov 3, 2006; In Mypos, only the strong survive.

Can you use YNAB on more than one computer? I love my desktop, but don't have access to it for probably 5 nights a week due to my current living situation.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 21:59

100 HOGS AGREE: Oct 13, 2007; Grimey Drawer

Dantu posted:

Can you use YNAB on more than one computer? I love my desktop, but don't have access to it for probably 5 nights a week due to my current living situation.

The main program, yes, you can retrieve your product key within the program.

You can also use the mobile app and Dropbox to add transactions, but it needs the software to do anything else.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 22:08

Kenny Rogers: Sep 7, 2007; Chapter One:
When I first saw Sparky, he reminded me of my favorite comb. He was missing a lot of teeth.

Dantu posted:

Any reason YNAB gets all the love over mint.com?

Mint is a loving *phenomenal* tool for learning how you have been spending your money (note the emphasis on the past)
YNAB is a phenomenal tool for figuring out how you are and then will be spending your money - with an emphasis on TODAY and the future.

glug posted:

YNAB is on sale on steam for $15 now.

I think I'm going to buy two more copies to just keep in my inventory until I know someone who really would benefit. So far I bought it for myself, my GF, my mom, and a friend in Florida...it's just that good.

Kenny Rogers fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Aug 27, 2013

# ? Aug 27, 2013 22:25

PhantomOfTheCopier: Aug 13, 2008; Pikabooze!

Kenny Rogers posted:

Yes, but I'm super-aggressively paying down debt, and pulling from my buffer if I go over is (at this point) a better option than doing what I was doing last winter - I'd pay $350 down on the Barclay Card, run out of money the Tuesday before payday, then charge lunch and a tank of gas, eating up almost 1/3 of the progress I'd made for the month.

It seems that this should be impossible in a valid, complete budget. If your priority is to tighten expenses, you cannot go over in a single expense category. You should budget ("plan") the credit card payoff period by allocating a fixed amount to that repayment monthly. If you have leftover funds going into the next cycle, you could decide to reallocate that to debt repayment; for example, if you save $20 on gas this month because you skipped a longer trip, you could decide to use that $20 on the next month's CC overpayment at the expense of not having $20 extra sitting in fuel.

If you have an emergency buffer, it should be untouchable except in actual emergencies. In the situation you describe, a pile of blow money seems... unnecessary, as it does not contribute to your personal goals for savings and net worth.

Kenny Rogers posted:

Mint...
YNAB...

Mint is certainly designed to track expenses. YNAB is certainly designed to propose outflows of cash or monetary capital on hand. Most in this thread with monthly budgets and long-term plans seem to be using spreadsheets. I've yet to see a reasonable free or low-cost application that does budgets well, or puts all these together.

We get a smattering of everyone here trying to "plan ahead" at least a little bit, or trying to figure out how to do that (Mint counts because how you have spent your money is an integral part of figuring out what is reasonable to spend in the future). We accept users of jars, envelopes, classic ledgers, stacks of monopoly money or poker chips representing your checking account, whatever might allow you to forecast, allocate, track, and prevent over-spending.

:backtowork:

# ? Aug 27, 2013 22:54

lament.cfg: Dec 28, 2006; we have such posts
to show you

You can install YNAB on an infinite number of machines, and cloud sync your budget so it's available everywhere. They're also working on a web client, which is awesome.

# ? Aug 27, 2013 23:41

Omne: Jul 12, 2003; Orangedude Forever

Anyone else having trouble purchasing from Steam? It keeps telling me there was an error at the point of entering in payment info. I've tried multiple payment methods, same error every time

Edit: I got it purchased, it just refuses to install. I click the install button, and nothing happens. Looks like I need to create a new budget category in YNAB for waste

Omne fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Aug 28, 2013

# ? Aug 28, 2013 00:07

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

I use mint, YNAB, and Excel for all the budgeting we do.

Mint has a more... pleasing categorization scheme for my tracking purchases and captures balances and transactions from everything in a very time-saving way.

I use a more straightforward categorization scheme in YNAB but it's the best thing for all the enveloping and rules and stuff.

Excel has long-term forecasts, total debt graphs, my automation flowchart(s), and quick notes using formulas that I want to save.

Speaking of automation flowcharts. That is the best loving intermediate step to take in your financial life.

Comme Ca:

This is quite different now, but that's the image I found from my thread.

# ? Aug 28, 2013 01:46

HooKars: Feb 22, 2006; Comeon!

tuyop posted:

I use mint, YNAB, and Excel for all the budgeting we do.

Mint has a more... pleasing categorization scheme for my tracking purchases and captures balances and transactions from everything in a very time-saving way.

I use a more straightforward categorization scheme in YNAB but it's the best thing for all the enveloping and rules and stuff.

I used to love Mint because it really captured my networth of all accounts in one place. I could kind of see it all go up and down with the stock market and stuff and that was just kind of interesting. Lately, it has pretty much sucked at that, but I don't think it's Mint's fault. I think a lot of investment accounts and savings accounts have tightened up their security so you need a unique code or you get a text with a unique code every single time and it kind of ruins it all. Also, Mint trying to auto connect with my 401k actually locks my account every single time. It's just gotten a little frustrating than when I first started.

I use Mint a similar way as I use YNAB in that I'm pretty flexible with it. I don't really care if some categories are over so long as other categories are under and my overall budget bar is looking okay. But YNAB helps me more with the "Goals" portion of it all and what I'm really doing with the money that I dont spend or what I'm taking from if I go overbudget in another category. I used to think I had a ton of extra cash in my checking account but now that I've assigned each of those a job, I can see that really, if I want to be on track to put $5k in my IRA, I really dont have quite as much as I thought to go on vacation or for miscellaneous wants and needs, which kind of got lost before. But I didn't use the goal portion of Mint.

I also like the manual tracking. It definitely has made a difference, though I still like Mint's automated version as well. I check both often and Mint will notice when automatic payments like Netflix, Cable, etc. have gone through, whereas I might not check my credit card statement everyday and realize that it's happened.

I'm still terrible at keeping trash of where my cash spending goes in both YNAB and Mint.

# ? Aug 28, 2013 02:01

Old Fart: Jul 25, 2013

I don't keep track of cash spending. I do have a cash "account" because part of my income is cash, but I treat it like my banking accounts. I keep it put away in my apartment, not in my wallet.

It generally only has four transactions: deposit, change for laundry, transfer to checking, and withdrawal. Withdrawals are taken out of the "personal allowance" budget line item.

If I spend it on food, baseball cards, or hookers & blow, it doesn't matter, because it's mine to do with as I please. It was already accounted for as a lump allowance payment. Everything else is debit or credit, and budgeted accordingly.

# ? Aug 28, 2013 03:32

HooKars: Feb 22, 2006; Comeon!

Old Fart posted:

I don't keep track of cash spending. I do have a cash "account" because part of my income is cash, but I treat it like my banking accounts. I keep it put away in my apartment, not in my wallet.

It generally only has four transactions: deposit, change for laundry, transfer to checking, and withdrawal. Withdrawals are taken out of the "personal allowance" budget line item.

If I spend it on food, baseball cards, or hookers & blow, it doesn't matter, because it's mine to do with as I please. It was already accounted for as a lump allowance payment. Everything else is debit or credit, and budgeted accordingly.

I've been trying to get better about it just because I know that most of my cash spending is at bars or restaurants (we have a lot of cash only places - even nice, rather expensive BYOBs can be cash only) so while I budget $200 for restaurants and bars, I probably spend more like $300-$400 because that's where a large part of my cash spending allowance goes as well. It just feels like I'm being a little dishonest with myself and I'm not sure I really want to be throwing that much onto restaurants and bars even if it fits in my budget. Same goes for when I realize that a not insignificant amount of my cash spending is on stupid things like starbucks or soda during work. It just feels like a bad habit I'm ignoring because it's cash and because it fits within my decided "I get $200 cash to spend on whatever the hell I want", but if it was on my credit card - I wouldn't be quite so nonchalant about it. It's really just something I want to be more aware of going forward. I think it's important to not be judgmental about your partner's fun money (so long as it's not disruptive in some other way) but I dont think there's anything wrong with being judgmental about my own and being aware of what it's going to and I think it's actually important. If I were to change my "Fun Money" categorization to "Booze and Munchies," I start feeling a little bad about the fact it can creep up to $200. In addition to restaurants. Right now, I try to categorize it in YNAB as I withdraw it from the ATM by the main reason I've gone to the ATM -- so "Bar Money," "BYOB Money" and then I don't bother dividing it up if I take out $20 but spend $15 on Bar and $5 on Starbucks.

I also occasionally make the mistake of not paying attention to what I do with my cash and budgeting twice. Like if I get a haircut and tip $10 cash, I occasionally forget when entering the information and add Haircut and Tip to personal care, when really the tip is already accounted for when I recorded taking the cash out of the ATM.

# ? Aug 28, 2013 04:13

Kenny Rogers: Sep 7, 2007; Chapter One:
When I first saw Sparky, he reminded me of my favorite comb. He was missing a lot of teeth.

PhantomOfTheCopier posted:

It seems that this should be impossible in a valid, complete budget. If your priority is to tighten expenses�, you cannot go over in a single expense category. You should budget ("plan") the credit card payoff period by allocating a fixed amount to that repayment monthly�. If you have leftover funds going into the next cycle, you could decide to reallocate that to debt repayment; for example, if you save $20 on gas this month because you skipped a longer trip, you could decide to use that $20 on the next month's CC overpayment at the expense of not having $20 extra sitting in fuel.

If you have an emergency buffer, it should be untouchable except in actual emergencies�. In the situation you describe, a pile of blow money seems... unnecessary, as it does not contribute to your personal goals for savings and net worth.

� My priority isn't to tighten expenses so much as pay down debt. It's also not my priority to allocate 100% of my "unnecessary" or "extra" income to paying down debt. $548/mo on $1700 total debt and minimum payments of $70/mo. is sufficiently aggressive, while still leaving me 200-300 wiggle room per month for 'fun things' and 'savings' so as to not hate myself. Sometimes, dining out counts as a 'fun thing', and I move money from one category to another.
� I do have a fixed repayment amount - $548/mo. I don't allocate 'leftover' funds to debt payments because the progress that I'm making is sufficient, without being so austere that I feel broke all the time. Even now, I'm making $66,500/year and I sometimes feel like, "Where the HELL is all my money going?". Then I remember, "Oh, yeah. Paying down debt. $1700 to go. drat, that feels good."
� It's not an emergency buffer. It's a YNAB buffer - I'm trying to pay down debt AND build up some reserve so that I'm living on last month's income. If I dip into the YNAB reserve because I went over in, say, Fuel and Consumables because it's a 5 week month, and YNAB deals poorly with anything but named months, I have unspent money in some categories (this month, it's groceries) that I can shuffle over to Fuel, and if I'm close to the wire on all the categories (indicating that I budgeted exceptionally well except for this one thing), I dip into my YNAB buffer to cover the difference, and I don't feel guilty doing so.
Once the debt is paid off (Mid January at this rate), the YNAB buffer (to August), then the Emergency Fund (to March '14), then the Investment Account (to February 2023, when I retire) will fill up with that $550/mo. that I'm paying off the credit cards with right now. And The Plan will definitely change as circumstances dictate over the next couple of years.

# ? Aug 28, 2013 06:49

tuyop: Sep 15, 2006; Every second that we're not growing BASIL is a second wasted; Fun Shoe

I wouldn't say that 10% of your income toward debt repayment is a "breakneck pace", but at least you have a plan!

# ? Aug 28, 2013 12:23

Kenny Rogers: Sep 7, 2007; Chapter One:
When I first saw Sparky, he reminded me of my favorite comb. He was missing a lot of teeth.

tuyop posted:

I wouldn't say that 10% of your income toward debt repayment is a "breakneck pace", but at least you have a plan!

It's a tick more than 15% of net income, and a tick less than 40% of discretionary income. It's a sustainable pace. Fast enough that I'll be debt free within 18 months (from when I started, ~5 months to go!), but not so fast that (like I said) I feel like I'm astonishingly broke all the time, and can't afford *anything* that's not rent or groceries, etc.

# ? Aug 28, 2013 14:30

an skeleton: Apr 23, 2012; scowls @ u

So, I recently started at a new university that I expect to go to for 4-5 semesters before I graduate. Hopefully only 4, but definitely not more than 5 if I can help it. Anyway, after tuition and a couple of expenses, I have about ~$6,000 in loan money to last me for the semester.

I have budgeted at

code:

$1800 Rent (4 months)
+ $1200 food (4 months including eating out, so partially entertainment I guess)
+ $675 Books/Back-to-school expenses (glasses, haircut, books, this might be lower and does not account for selling back books)
+ $640 gas/travel 4 months (this one im not sure about, might be too high, maybe should lower it by investing in a bike...?)
+ $635 (fun, beer/dates, club dues, miscellaneous, emergency, hookers, jk)
= 4950 (if my calculations are right

now 6000-4950 = 1050, so that's the difference. I have never made a budget before, hopefully this is someone accurate. All the loans I have taken out for this semester are federal or through a state program (Texas CAL loan) and so at the very least they are not private, even so they are still loans so I am considering sending back 1,000 immediately. It is also of note that I haven't really taken out very much in terms of loans before (only 3500), and it was a subsidized loan so it is not accruing interest. I am scared of budgeting wrong or being unprepared though, so maybe I should just hold onto it. Any opinions on my budget or what to do with the extra money?

edit: Also if it is of interest I expect to leave University with a Comp Sci degree and hopefully 1-2 internships + club/possibly a business fraternity membership and multiple independent projects under my belt, so I'm hoping that will justify about 35-40k in student loan debt, assuming I don't start chipping away at it in those 2 years.

an skeleton fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Aug 28, 2013

# ? Aug 28, 2013 18:28

Kenny Rogers: Sep 7, 2007; Chapter One:
When I first saw Sparky, he reminded me of my favorite comb. He was missing a lot of teeth.

an skeleton posted:

So, I recently started at a new university that I expect to go to for 4-5 semesters before I graduate. Hopefully only 4, but definitely not more than 5 if I can help it. Anyway, after tuition and a couple of expenses, I have about ~$6,000 in loan money to last me for the semester.

I have budgeted at
code:
$1800 Rent (4 months)
+ $1200 food (4 months including eating out, so partially entertainment I guess)
+ $675 Books/Back-to-school expenses (glasses, haircut, books, this might be lower and does not account for selling back books)
+ $640 gas/travel 4 months (this one im not sure about, might be too high, maybe should lower it by investing in a bike...?)
+ $635 (fun, beer/dates, club dues, miscellaneous, emergency, hookers, jk)
= 4950 (if my calculations are right)
now 6000-4950 = 1050, so that's the difference. I have never made a budget before, hopefully this is someone accurate. All the loans I have taken out for this semester are federal or through a state program (Texas CAL loan) and so at the very least they are not private, even so they are still loans so I am considering sending back 1,000 immediately. It is also of note that I haven't really taken out very much in terms of loans before (only 3500), and it was a subsidized loan so it is not accruing interest. I am scared of budgeting wrong or being unprepared though, so maybe I should just hold onto it. Any opinions on my budget or what to do with the extra money?

edit: Also if it is of interest I expect to leave University with a Comp Sci degree and hopefully 1-2 internships + club/possibly a business fraternity membership and multiple independent projects under my belt, so I'm hoping that will justify about 35-40k in student loan debt, assuming I don't start chipping away at it in those 2 years.

I don't know if it's brilliant advice, or a dud, but were it my money, and if I knew now, what I wish I knew when I was in my 20s...

You're going to be paying back student loans for a LONG time. The $1000 extra is not really going to be a HUGE deal to your 35 year old self.

I'd take the full $6000.
Put $1500 in checking for this month.
Put $1500 each in 30, 60, 90 day Certificates of Deposit at your bank.
Grab YNAB off Steam for $15 and use that to budget $1240/mo each month, putting the other $260/mo. into an emergency fund savings account.

The CDs keep the money out of reach, but they mature Just In Time, so you *know* that you'll be able to pay rent and eat come December.
If you stick to your YNAB budget, on January 1st, you should have $1040 of your loan money in savings. At THAT point, if you feel like you've got a good handle on things, then you can pay it toward the loan.
It's best of both worlds. It can give you tremendous peace of mind that the money is there if you get hit by 100 HOGS AGREE's uncle's meth dealer. But it comes at a cost. That cost is paying interest on that $1000 for 4 months, so...what, $60 or something? Worth it in my book.

It's perhaps not an idealized use of every dollar, but it addresses your desire to get through to the end of the year without going broke in a big way.

Kenny Rogers fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Aug 28, 2013

# ? Aug 28, 2013 19:57

DirtyTalk: Apr 7, 2013

So, this summer really demolished me in terms of finances. I have a spending problem, Im 23, earn a pretty decent salary, and have a girlfriend that is currently broke that I pay for everything for.

I really want to fix this before poo poo gets out of control.

I remember seeing that there was a Goon that provided a budgeting service. I tried to find it but I didn't come across it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

# ? Aug 29, 2013 12:39

Walked: Apr 14, 2003

DirtyTalk posted:

So, this summer really demolished me in terms of finances. I have a spending problem, Im 23, earn a pretty decent salary, and have a girlfriend that is currently broke that I pay for everything for.

I really want to fix this before poo poo gets out of control.

I remember seeing that there was a Goon that provided a budgeting service. I tried to find it but I didn't come across it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

That was pillowpants I think. Not sure if he still is doing it here.

Either way; if YNAB is still on sale on Steam, get that. $15 and the app is awesome.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 13:43

Nocheez: Sep 5, 2000; Can you spare a little cheddar?; Nap Ghost

DirtyTalk posted:

So, this summer really demolished me in terms of finances. I have a spending problem, Im 23, earn a pretty decent salary, and have a girlfriend that is currently broke that I pay for everything for.

I really want to fix this before poo poo gets out of control.

I remember seeing that there was a Goon that provided a budgeting service. I tried to find it but I didn't come across it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Pillowpants does the budgeting service. yourfinancetracker@gmail.com is his e-mail address. http://www.yourfinancetracker.com/ is his website.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 14:05

Kenny Rogers: Sep 7, 2007; Chapter One:
When I first saw Sparky, he reminded me of my favorite comb. He was missing a lot of teeth.

DirtyTalk posted:

So, this summer really demolished me in terms of finances. I have a spending problem, Im 23, earn a pretty decent salary, and have a girlfriend that is currently broke that I pay for everything for.

I really want to fix this before poo poo gets out of control.

I remember seeing that there was a Goon that provided a budgeting service. I tried to find it but I didn't come across it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

I agree. YNAB (even at full retail price) and this thread will get you started. If you miss the sale, You'll probably have the full $60 tucked safely back in your pocket by the end of September. If you don't miss the sale, you'll probably have the $60 tucked away by the end of next week.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 16:39

lament.cfg: Dec 28, 2006; we have such posts
to show you

Buy YNAB and post a new thread in this forum to let us help you with your debt and budgeting :getin:

# ? Aug 29, 2013 16:43

DirtyTalk: Apr 7, 2013

It's still on sale

I'll download it today, and then hopefully I can get my poo poo back together again.

Goal is putting $10k back in my savings account.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 19:29

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# ? May 3, 2024 01:38

PhantomOfTheCopier: Aug 13, 2008; Pikabooze!

You know, you can budget with a piece of paper and a pencil for gently caress's sake.

At least 40% of posts in the previous two pages were about trying to get YNAB to work. :shepicide:

Anyone who reads the last ten posts of any page in this thread should know of the obsession with it.

Maybe we should try to be a bit less addictive and a bit more engaging. Ya know, something like, "Well poop, DirtyTalk, that sucks. Was there a specific area where you know you overspent, or was it just a bunch of money blowing out the windows and such? It's typically easiest to reign in spending by identifying your largest frivolous expenses and then setting a limit for yourself each month. Do you have credit card statements that might reveal some of your expenses from the summer (many CC companies shows categories of expenses online), or any records that might help you create a plan for the next few months?"

Lucky for all of you this should be the last post on the page, so it will soon be forgotten and we'll be back to the steady increase in our YNAB monopoly.

# ? Aug 29, 2013 23:31

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > How to Create a Budget

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