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I've been budgeting pretty well since I got my job in August. I've got two grand in my savings emergency fund which isn't great (it took a hit a couple months ago when I wrecked my car) but I'm gonna leave it be for now and next month I'm going to raise the overpayment on my smallest and also highest interest rate student loan another two hundred dollars up to 500, and the last payment will be in October and I can move on to the next one. I might raise that higher depending on what happens next month. I've been hammering on this loan since I dumped my entire federal tax return on it at the beginning of the year. Super psyched about paying it off. I also realized today that when I was hired into my job a couple months ago I was automatically signed up to contribute to a 401k so I'm thinking of axing it. My employer does match up to 4% contributions but I feel like the interest on 40k in student loans doesn't make it worth it and the money is better served paying down those loans. There's only like 200 bucks in that fund right now anyway and it's just sitting there, being useless to me. 100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 15:19 on Jun 28, 2013 |
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Jun 28, 2013 15:14
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It's actually 25%. So it's worth it even if the amount I'm getting from the company is less than the amount of money I'm losing per month total in interest payments on my collective loans? I did the math and it's a couple grand a year in interest, the amount I'm getting from the matching will be like... ~260 dollars It feels so much more psychologically satisfying to pay more towards the loans then pay this money towards this 401k that I don't really know much about. I feel like my life is on hold until I am out from under the thumb of this poo poo.
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Jun 28, 2013 16:29
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That makes sense thanks. I guess I was overthinking it because of daunting large numbers.
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Jun 28, 2013 16:55
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PhantomOfTheCopier posted:Pay off loans, attacking the highest interest rates first, but not at the expense of having no money and carrying a credit card balance. I just finally sent in the paperwork (actual paperwork! in the mail! In the year 2013!) to get my last two loans on autopay, which will lower the interest rate by a quarter percent, which is nice. I'd been slacking on it because who the hell sends letters to anything for any reason.
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Jul 5, 2013 16:35
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Just nabbed the YNAB sale like 15 mins before it expired. Looking at this it lets you set a Cash account so the way I'm going to do it is do a transfer from checking to cash and then add the cash transactions manually like I intend to do everything else. I put the YNAB cost in my entertainment category for the month because I am going to enjoy doing this manually, I've been using Mint for a year but there are all these little annoyances that inputting everything manually will help with. Dealing with cash being one of them.
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Jul 14, 2013 19:10
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Combat Pretzel posted:Create a regular budget based on your monthly income. Any surplus, which probably are a few/several thousand, stuff that into the emergency savings envelope. --edit: And/or create a bunch of envelopes for (upcoming) projects and expenses you might want to budget for, and stuff money into it. I went through one of the YNAB live web sessions and the main point the guy was making that I didn't realize is even if you need to budget a bunch of things for the whole month, only budget in YNAB down to $0. I, for instance don't have enough money I'm willing to touch to budget all of July yet, so I only should budget for things I want the money I have now to do. I'll go back and add in the rest of my bills for the month once I get paid on Friday. He suggested adding a buffer budget to sock extra money away until that hits your average budget for a month so you can start budgeting for next month, then take that money back out and hide the category once you're done with it. You can even eventually start marking your income as for next month instead of this month, when you earned it. The main thing YNAB tells you to do is to loving ignore your bank account balance when doing spending, instead look at the money you have budgeted for that category. You want to eat out tonight? You don't have $1k, you've got $50 in your Restaurants category, so don't spend more than that $50 dollars. And if you do, look at your budget and lower down a different category to compensate. The video tutorials are actually really useful. 100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Jul 14, 2013 |
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Jul 14, 2013 21:23
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I really like YNAB because I actually like going in and recording every expenditure I do because often, the thought that I have to pull out my phone and go in and record something will make me think "Hmmmm, do I really need to spend money on this?" Usually the answer is no. Mint is great and all but with YNAB my budget feels a lot more proactive than reactive. And I like sitting down and balancing my budget, I actually enjoy getting all my poo poo in order and taking a closer look at what I've been spending my money on. This feels a lot closer to the way my parents/grandparents budgeted, except on a computer. I'll still keep my Mint account because it's useful to be able to see an updated overview of all my accounts but I am definitely a YNAB convert.
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Jul 15, 2013 20:56
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I'm actually leaving my student load debt offbudget like how you have it. I still record how much goes out to those loans, but I like budgeting extra to my loans every month and not setting it as a massive negative number makes it a lot easier to figure out exactly how much I'm going to overpay. I don't have any other debt and I can just look in the sidebar and see the total amount I owe anyway.
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Jul 15, 2013 21:10
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Transfers don't get categories in YNAB because you track the spending in the account that made the purchase, not when transferring money into that account to balance it out. You don't really need to transfer money to those specific categories, just transfer it into savings and then earmark that money for a saving goal
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Jul 31, 2013 17:08
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Yeah that's the main thing, only budget money you have. I'm chomping at the bit to get paid tomorrow so I can budget more, I look forward to it so much you guys. I love when I find some money or a friend pays me to help out with something because then I can budget more.
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Aug 1, 2013 21:29
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Sometimes I'll put income into a category if I like, put a pizza on my credit card or something and one of my friends gives me some cash to cover their part of it. The other thing I do is make a "Reimbursement" category in my budget if like someone sends me to the store and gives me cash, cause I gotta put that stuff on my credit card for the sweet sweet points. Briantist posted:Edit: recommended if you have and use a paypal account a lot already. I really don't like them as a company. v
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Aug 22, 2013 20:37
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Yeah, I thought about doing that but a lot of times my uncle will give me like 80 bucks and send me to pick up a bunch of things for him, and I don't want his purchases mucking up my numbers for the stuff I buy because I want to track how much money I'm spending on myself because I'm still trying to figure out my monthly averages. So I just dump it all in the reimbursement category so I know this purchase was someone else's poo poo and it shouldn't affect my planning for next month.
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Aug 22, 2013 21:04
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Hey man I never said meth. 
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Aug 23, 2013 02:06
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I always put it as income because often he'll give me a hundred bucks, I'll spend 70 of it and he'll be like keep the change I don't give a poo poo. He's pretty lax with money. So I come out with income to add to my budget anyway.
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Aug 23, 2013 18:07
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Just take money out of some categories and put it in others? This is like one of the basic YNAB rules.
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Aug 26, 2013 23:44
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Dantu posted:Any reason YNAB gets all the love over mint.com?
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Aug 27, 2013 19:25
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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. You can also use the mobile app and Dropbox to add transactions, but it needs the software to do anything else.
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Aug 27, 2013 22:08
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There aren't any as far as I know but you can win copies after sitting through the web classes. The ones taught by real people. It also occasionally goes on sale on Steam.
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Sep 25, 2013 12:07
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Brennanite posted:Now for questions, how do you account for large-but-rare expenses in your budget, things like car insurance or new tires or whatever.
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Oct 1, 2013 23:40
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I would start by documenting every expense you make, as you make it. get the YNAB trial and the mobile app, carry around a notebook, whatever works for you. Do something to force yourself to document every cent that leaves your wallet, to a) narrow down where all that money is going and b) force yourself to stop and think "ok, hold on, before I write this down and spend this money, do I really need to spend this money right now?" I'd recommend against Mint, Mint is pretty retroactive in tracking spending and I think you need to be a lot more proactive doing it. Sometime just making yourself stop for a minute and think before you make a purchase is enough to remind you of your priorities. It works for me anyway, I'm a lot more cognizant of my spending since I stopped relying on Mint and started using YNAB and decided I'm going to document everything myself. I'd look into the federal loan consolidation, it might give you a more reasonable interest rate and just because the loan term is 30 years doesn't mean you have to take 30 years to pay it off, there's no penalty to overpaying and with a lower payment for now you can take the money that would have gone to the federal loan and throw it on the private one and pay those loans off more efficiently. That'll take discipline though so first thing is to take care of your budget. And don't let your parents or anyone else pressure you into making financial decisions you're not comfortable with. My dad tries to do that to me all the time, usually his advice is terrible. Everything else looks ok, except your grocery budget, 300 bucks is pretty high for one person, especially with how much you appear to eat out. You could also maybe bring that phone bill down if that's an option. You've got all that savings so you're doing ok on that front at least. 100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 23:44 on Oct 3, 2013 |
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Oct 3, 2013 23:32
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I've never considered the parts of my wages that I pay as taxes to be a part of my earnings at all, it's a complete non-thought. No sense getting wrapped up in it because there is basically nothing that can be done. death and taxes
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Oct 15, 2013 14:54
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Yeah that seems dumb. Why would you calculate spending based on money that isn't yours to spend?
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Oct 15, 2013 14:59
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 YNAB has the second-highest logged time in my steam library after Terraria, which I have had for several years.
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Dec 3, 2013 15:51
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Same. I love this program. I bought it when it was 75% off but how much I've used it in the last four months and how much value I've taken out of it, would have been worth it at the full $60. I'll probably buy YNAB 5 whenever it comes out. And it is still half off on Steam for a couple hours.
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Dec 3, 2013 16:42
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SiGmA_X posted:Key extraction eh? I must google that. I dislike having to update (or having to launch) steam constantly. You just go into the menu and there is an option that will give you your serial. It's either right in the program or you do it by opening up Steam and going into the application list and hitting properties or something. I forget offhand. You just gotta run YNAB through Steam at least once. http://www.youneedabudget.com/support/article/using-ynab-on-steam
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Dec 3, 2013 16:55
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Well, if I was in your situation and those bonuses were coming in on top of that salary, and they are as big as you are saying, pretend they're not part of your wages at all and put them all towards that credit card until it is paid off, then just save the entire chunk. I mean, if you're living comfortably on your salary, just save all of it and when you want a car just buy it outright. I'd really recommend getting YNAB and making a bunch of saving categories in there and just start dumping those bonuses into them so you have those dollars earmarked in a way that you can see and appreciate, instead of just having a big pile of money in your checking account burning a hole in your pocket. Then you can easily budget for the taxes on those bonuses too. And yeah, definitely start keeping track of your specific expenses so you can see exactly where that $1200 a month is going. Another thing YNAB is good for! Seriously get YNAB it is great there is a 35 day free trial to test it out to see if it's worth the price for you. I swear too, everyone who posts in here lately makes like twice the money I do sometimes it infuriates me I need to get a better job. 100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 18:13
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You should always view tax deductions as a bonus for things you would have done anyway, imo.
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Dec 12, 2013 23:28
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YNAB is 75% off again on Steam! 15 bucks, go buy it.
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Jan 1, 2014 20:17
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Well, your school poo poo comes out to $823 a month accounting for all three semesters, so you're looking at about two grand a month there total. And you don't include any budget items for poo poo like... car maintenance, new clothes, gifts for friends and family, all of that poo poo that people call "one time expenses" and don't plan for. So, on that budget IF it is adequate and IF you manage to only spend that much a month, with your current funds you can last a little under 14 months without any additional income before you are flat broke. The more you add the shorter that time gets. There's not really much else we can say, if it's just you eating that food budget you can probably reduce it a bit if you never eat out I guess, because eating out gets real expensive real fast and cooking is significantly cheaper What I would do if I were in your situation is buy YNAB (because I am a shameless shill for it and it is on sale for $15 dollars until tomorrow on Steam) put in all your accounts, allocate all that money you have right now into a Savings category and then subtract from that category a set amount every month to live off of. Go ahead and budget out the entire year if you want and watch how fast your money drops. Then remember this is only an idealized goal and reality will probably not be as nice as you want it to be. Then start tracking your expenses religiously and be absolutely fanatically committed to capping your monthly expenses and never pulling extra out of your savings for stupid bullshit come hell or high water. Because having debt blows. I don't recommend it. If I got a job during all that I would just take less out of my savings each month to stretch it out as far as it could go. 100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Jan 3, 2014 |
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Jan 3, 2014 01:40
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I just abandoned Mint completely. I had pretty much stopped using it a month after I started using YNAB and since I track everything manually anyway my important balances (checking, credit card) are always up to date and all I really have to do is log in to a couple websites at the end of the month and add some reconciliation transactions for accrued interest on my loans and poo poo. By the way, what is Quicken meant to be used for? I've never even looked at it because all my needs are currently met and my finances are not complicated.
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Jan 4, 2014 02:07
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I generally stump for YNAB because I love it and it works really well for me but I think if anyone thinks buying a piece of software will instantly fix their problems with money with little effort on their part then that person is an idiot. I don't get why you're spouting so much vitrol, it's just fuckin software, it works for some people and not for others, and there's no such thing as a magic bullet and it's not pretending to be one. Chill the poo poo out.
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Jan 18, 2014 01:28
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That's what I'm doing now that I've paid off my car this month. Gonna take that and the amount I'm gonna save on insurance and sock it away in a car fund.
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Feb 3, 2014 01:31
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Well part of the point of YNAB is to do it all manually so you're more cognizant of your finances. If that's not for you that is OK, YNAB is not for you.
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Feb 10, 2014 21:30
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I do all my budgeting based on two paychecks a month so those three paycheck months are a nice bonus. Much of my budgeting is convincing myself I have way less money than I actually do.
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Apr 6, 2014 15:17
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Yeah this might be a case where "seek therapy" is the answer you need. You could do a lot if you cut the games and smokes out of your budget. The only way to cultivate a habit is to do it constantly for an extended period of time.
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Apr 14, 2014 22:07
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I'm at 3,200, which is two months of income for me. Because I don't make poo poo. I actually have more like 5 grand saved but much of the rest of that is earmarked for insurance and moving out and stuff. So I could plunder some of those if I needed. Eh gently caress it.  My income's been a bit higher lately because of a shitload of overtime.
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Apr 25, 2014 23:39
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PhantomOfTheCopier posted:Brave to reveal all, so now we can attack. Edit: Keep in mind too my monthly income is usually 1600, these last several months have been a bit fatter because of a bunch of mandatory overtime that has now dried up, taxes, a tiny Christmas bonus, and the third paycheck I got in January. I paid like two grand on debt in February which also wiped out the last of my car loan, and that payment I decided to start saving instead of piling onto my student loans even more. So in an emergency I can tamp down on my meager discretionary spending and free up another 286 by not overpaying on my debt. I'll probably increase that debt overpayment in the future when my income increases but I decided my short term priority is to save extra for a while cause I intend to move when I find a new job. 100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 13:55 on Apr 26, 2014 |
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Apr 26, 2014 13:30
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First, look at all those beautiful categories; I approve wholeheartedly! Second, working with such tight amounts of money is no fun, but seriously consider getting terribly cruel with some of those lines on your budget. Depending on your actual interest rates, you probably want to get aggressive with over-paying your student loans. Pretty much this:
If all else fails, send in a double payment and see what happens. And don't sign on to loans that won't let you prepay.
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I only spend that much per month on groceries because my uncle is constantly making food and telling me to eat it. Half the time when I buy food and go to make dinner he preempts me and has dinner ready by the time I get home. I'm pretty fortunate with my situation here, what with the low rent and how much stuff I have access to in this house, enables me to save and put a lot more toward my loans than I could otherwise.
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Apr 27, 2014 02:01
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tuyop posted:Want that rent. Mine's 275/mo 
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May 8, 2014 18:35
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Yeah I've gotten up to a 4 month emergency fund thanks to some windfalls and a better job and I'm pretty content with my savings. It's probably actually more like six months, I have a bunch of saving goals in YNAB I could pilfer if I really needed to. Now I'm just hammering on my private student loan debt, I've got 9k left. After that who knows, I owe 21k to the feds but I might not hammer on that immediately and take a couple month break from pulling my belt tight. 100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 19:36
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