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Stew Man Chew posted:He's a hotshot analyst at E&Y, and lives/works in a high cost-of-living area, but considering they've only been together for four years and married for 8 months, I cannot fathom their perspective on putting out near 3/4 million on a piece of property. This is a completely reasonable amount of money to spend on a house or living space in many parts of the country. Personally, I'd never spend that much for a condo (but would for a house) but people have different preferences and some people are willing to pay a premium to live in the city/near work/in a good nieghborhood/an area with good schools/etc. Also, they're married, so I'm not sure why it matters how long they've been together. They've decided they're going to commit to each other for the rest of their lives and I'm assuming they're still very much in that mindset 8 months in. I also think some people confuse complaining about how expensive something is with someone not being able to afford it. I used to complain about how expensive my rent was in NYC all the time but I could still afford it. I just didn't like paying it or feel like it was necessarily worth as much as I was spending. For Content: I can't figure out what my best friend does with her money. I know she doesn't make a ton but she graduated debt free (parents paid) from college and has been living with her parents ever since. Her parents dont charge her rent, she doesn't pay anything for groceries or utilities and her parents still like to surprise her with clothing and purses and things. But whenever I ask if she wants to do something like take a trip, she can never afford it and is "trying to save for a down payment to move out" and talks about slowly paying down her credit card bills all the time. She's 31, which means she's been living rent free, grocery bill free, utility free, etc for TEN years, how can she still have credit card debt and not be able to afford one month's rent to move out? I'm pretty sure the only thing she has to show for her money is her mini-cooper, but she has a car payment on that so I cant imagine that ate up a chunk of her savings. I blame the fact that she's always dating dead beats and ends up paying for everything in the relationship and lending them money. Her current boyfriend has a running tab and she won't tell me how much he owes her because she knows I"ll be angry.
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Jul 1, 2013 22:32
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canyoneer posted:I heard a guy on the radio interviewed during a news piece about the student loan rate going up. He's the student body president at the University of Arizona. As noted, the estimated cost of attendance at University of Arizona is $25,228 for a resident of Arizona if you live on campus, so graduating with $70k in debt is really not some crazy thing. If you just add up their actual cost of tuition and housing, without all the bullshit categories, it comes to over $80k so $70k over four years seems relatively good. If he were a non-resident, it'd be far worse. https://financialaid.arizona.edu/undergraduate/estimated-cost-attendance Not everyone is cut out for a math/science/engineering degree but will still benefit financially from a college degree. Making decisions based on degree rankings is really, really dumb for a generic liberal arts degrees. Far better to go to the best school in your state, even if its ranked #48 for that degree, than to pay a ton of extra tuition to go to an out of state school ranked #30 or something (there's something to be said for Harvard/Yale/etc with national recognition but Im betting that wasnt an option), plus you lose the alumni connections and local prestige if you want to live in Arizona if you go out of state. Razz posted:A friend of mine and her husband make 90K+ combined and she is CONSTANTLY complaining about how much her rent is. It's $800 a month. So like... 10% of their income. Life's so hard for some people! Some people are just natural born complainers and it really doesn't say anything about whether or not they can afford something or not. Or on the flip side, they could also be great savers who are both maxing out their 401k and so living on a much lower net salary than what you imagine they're seeing month to month. As a girl whose friends don't blow all their money on computers and technology or cars, I think a big shock and adjustment for a lot of my friends came when they started buying clothes for themselves -- not designer labels, but from stores that we perceived to be the "nice" mall brands. So nothing incredibly fancy in our minds but a step above Old Navy and Express to nicer more adult clothing like Banana Republic or J Crew. It's absolutely mind blowing how expensive some of that stuff is and how at the same time, it's really not perceived as "designer" or anything special at all.
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Jul 4, 2013 15:25
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How do you even...?? Why would you go into $70k worth of student loan debt for a polisci degree from a school
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Cicero posted:I doubt that kind of lifestyle is sustainable even on 100-120k/yer. That's a ton of spending right there, I'd have a hard time believing they're not in debt, or at the very least, a hard time believing they're covering their retirement. The 100-120k/yr is a guess-timate though. It's hard to know how much people make. $80-$90k combined for two educated full grown working adults is not exactly "making good salaries" as she first described it though. I would bet they have a mortgage, car payments and the student loan payments that she mentioned but that they're paying the minimums and able to afford the loan payments so they may not feel stressed month to month, yet still may not really be saving Silly Hippie" posted:and his mom spends ~$600 a month on drugs off the top of my head) Um. HooKars fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Jul 10, 2013 |
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Jul 10, 2013 22:17
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Delta-Wye posted:I wonder if there is something to be said about just saying 'fuckit' once you are deep enough and not even try and live in a manageable way. Dead people don't have to pay off credit cards It almost seems like that -- they've already assumed there wont be any inheritable assets for the kids so why not finance the kids' lifestyles as much as possible now and when they die, the debts of the kids die with them (not with the student loans but for things like the credit cards -- the kids just have their parents credit card numbers but not any kind of piggy backed account that might make them jointly liable upon the parents death)
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Jul 10, 2013 23:45
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Authentic You posted:I've never understood destination weddings or destination bachelor/ette parties (wtf, I've not heard of these - do they go elsewhere to some tropical locale to have a party and then come back for the wedding?). What's wrong with reserving a party room at a cool restaurant in town and then having a nice wedding that's in a place that's accessible/affordable to all your guests? A lot of time destination weddings are actually financed by the guests -- like if you have X amount of guests show up, your wedding is completely paid for in terms of food/flowers/dj/etc. it can actually be really affordable for the couple themselves. And other times it serves as a way to keep the wedding to small. And for a lot of people, it's a place that's meaningful for the couple themselves. They cant help it that it's not a super duper convenient place for one or both families. I would love to have a destination bachelorette personally. I only have a few close girl friends though and we all want to travel and want to travel together but have a hard time arranging our schedules. I feel like a destination bachelorette would be a good way to get everyone together. I dont see how it's any different than a vacation with friends or how it's not just a guy equivalent to Vegas. there are some realllly affordable deals for mexico and the caribbean now a days
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Jul 13, 2013 04:03
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Chupe Raho Aurat posted:I wish, she has roughly 60k in the bank*. She seems to think this is plenty but all I could think was "That's not even a years wages" Any chance one of your siblings needs a little more "help" than you guys? That's the big reason that I could see large expenditures and secrecy without drugs/gambling - if she's essentially protecting one of your more careless siblings. Can you set her up with something like Mint and track it for her to see where the money is going? That way you'll know her actual salary and expenditures. I really can't imagine watching my mom go into financial ruin and just being like "Oh well, the money just keeps disappearing!" -- I know it's not your money but if she doesn't want you looking at it for her, there's probably a reason for it and she knows where the money is going.
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Aug 2, 2013 04:48
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Lolie posted:Does "a down payment to move out" mean a deposit on her own home, because I sure know quite a lot of people who've saved between $50,000 and $100,000 for a deposit on a home of their own by living at home for the first decade of their working life. People who are doing that mean something different to the rest of us when they say they "can't afford" something. Its not that they don't have the money - they just tend to regard their savings as untouchable. Sadly not. She's talking about saving 1-2 months rent so she would feel comfortable moving out into her own one bedroom. She just finished paying off the last of her credit card debt which came from things like buying her (now ex) boyfriend an awesome tv that she couldn't afford. She's looked at a few apartments but I think she keeps coming to the conclusion that renting is a waste of money when she can live for free at her parents so eventually she probably Will be that person. She's just at about $2,000 saved now. She'll probably save quickly now though she has a new mooch of a boyfriend who has a running tab with her as well. Can't blame her for not wanting to rent though - we live in a very high cost of living area. HooKars fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Aug 3, 2013 |
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Aug 3, 2013 23:04
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Lightning Zwei posted:Holy gently caress. How do you sleep at night? I have friends from law school like this. Once you attain a certain level of student loan debt, and realize you're going to be paying it off for 20 years anyway, if you don't find a job you like (or can't find one at all), you just head back to school and rack up more debt -- then get on the IBR student loan forgiveness plan. It's an income based payment so how much you have in loans doesn't matter except at the time of forgiveness when you have to pay taxes on the amount outstanding that's forgiven. Just have to put up with 25 years of student loan payments if you're not in public service.
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Aug 8, 2013 13:54
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No Wave posted:But then they save more, and their assets increase, and yours dwindle. First they buy a house, which they get to own forever. In a few years they get to own more things - decent furniture, a backyard, they even get to have kids and feel confident that college is within reach. They are building a life, and you are relying on some poorly thought-out plan involving cattle for emotional support. By the time you're forty - a mere 13 years from now - it's becoming clearer and clearer that there is more and more that they will get to do that you won't. And eventually they will make money without going to work at all, and you will be in the hole, every month, without having spent a cent on yourself. Except they already said they didn't want kids and don't care about home ownership. You can build a great life without those things. Most 30+ year olds with a mortgage will be in far greater debt than $50,000 and they may or may not own their home outright ever. Add in kids and they may or may not have increasing assets either. You're surrounding yourself with some very financially responsible hypothetical friends. More likely, those friends have a lease on their SUV, a large mortgage and possibly credit card debt. They will likely service their loan debt quicker than someone who wants to own a house and is paying down a mortgage (which is 15-30 years of debt for most people) and be debt free. They'll start contributing to their 401ks late which will hurt, but if they're frugal and money conscious they'll be ahead of most Americans. They will likely get ahead of their counterparts as two child-free people in their 30s and 40s while their friends are realizing that kids can be pricey. They won't be tied down to any home so they're free to move around, travel, do whatever they have in mind for their life. They have a backup plan with cattle if they can't find jobs. But it's obviously an extreme backup (most Americans don't have a good backup plan for losing a job either aside from unemployment).
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Aug 8, 2013 16:11
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No Wave posted:Two hundred thousand dollars at age 60 (estimation: making max 401k contribution for the next two years), or another master's degree. What kind of a choice is that? A lot of people choose having a job they love over money - it's not some no brainer. If the masters degree helps them get to their dream job or even if they just really love education and learning - if those are things they prioritize then they may as well go after it. People go into massive amounts of debt for shelter that they like, that seems more weird than doing it for something that will likely spend at least 40hrs a week doing for almost 40 more years doing. There are certain things in life people are willing to go into debt for and be tied to a large payment for awhile. Most people think undergrad is worth it, so did she, and now she's pursuing higher education in a way that pays her. That education may be worth more to her than putting $16000 in a 401k. You began your argument by comparing them to their financially savvy friends and what awesome fulfilling lives they'll have with their homes and kids and nice furniture. In reality, their friends are much more likely to have debt of their own that they accumulated while getting those things. And you listed a bunch of things that they have no interest in like a home or kids. If you're not starting a family, it's not unheard of to prioritize things like a great job or travel instead. Edit:: sorry moana HooKars fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Aug 8, 2013 |
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Aug 8, 2013 18:46
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Not really a bad with money story but this just happened to me so I thought I'd share:: I have some accounts from back in the day that I really never touch. Ones an investment account and the other is a high interest savings account. I get statements for them in the mail but aside from that, I don't have them set up to monitor online anymore (I used to but they changed their site and I had problems reregistering and logging on). Apparently there's been no activity related to those accounts for awhile now and apparently after a certain period of time, the state will try to seize it. I got a notice in the mail asking me to sign saying I'm alive basically or else they'd begin the seizure process. It scares me to think that if I hadn't opened that letter promptly (or my mom hadnt - it came to her address) - my money could potentially be tied up in some state action. It also annoys me - I pay taxes on the interest from those accounts every year - do they think some dead person is doing that? It's not a story about being bad with money but it was a wake up call to stay on top of all my accounts and a realization that not being proactive in keeping up with your accounts could turn someone with a decent amount of savings into someone bad with money.
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Aug 8, 2013 19:06
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Dangerous Mind posted:Yea. I'm just saying it's frustrating because my mom really needs the money (more than my sister and I do since FAFSA and scholarships cover tuition) for food, utilities, etc. Are you and your sister living at home? It sounds like he wants to help you guys out someway but not your mom. Also, you and your friends actualy compare child support?? I never had a clue about that kind of stuff when I was a kid. I still don't. Child support is also usually a court determined amount based on a set equation that depends on a lot of factors so him having to pay less than ur friends probably means he can't afford to pay more based on the courts equation. He's not being a complete rear end in a top hat bc your friends daddies can pay more - it's an infividualized amount based on his situation. HooKars fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Aug 18, 2013 |
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Aug 18, 2013 05:11
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Dangerous Mind posted:Not actually compare, but more like I heard it from my mom who talked to his mom, etc. Your mom needs a new job. Desperately. That's where your focus should be if you want to help your own situation. And again, child support is an equation based on many factors like his income, her income, any new family he may be supporting etc. you can't compare child support amounts. If theres a difference, theres a reason for it. Your phrasing here is poor - it really seems like you care more about your moms support, which would be alimony, than your own financial support, which is child support.
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Aug 18, 2013 05:37
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Dangerous Mind posted:Honestly, it's more about supporting my mom than my own financial support. I mean, I have my own job and so does my sister so those small things like clothes and fun for ourselves is completely taken care of. Perhaps that's how "he pulls it off" - some states will also factor in the students own financial income when determining support after high school. This can include financial aid, loans, and jobs. He may not owe your family as much as he used to. The other way he may legally get out of it is if you or your mom aren't actively providing him proof of enrollment or grades. Make sure you're documenting everything and receiving everything you're owed. If he's really not paying the amount he's supposed to be paying then your mom needs to take that up with the court. There are ways that his wages can be garnished or something similar to ensure that he pays each month. Edit: As mentioned below, the money should be filtered through your mom if he's paying child spport, but you said you don't understand his thinking. I'm just saying that it seems like he wants to help you guys out but perhaps he feels like the money isn't being spent on you and is going to your mom and he's trying to avoid that. Well intentioned though the money he's giving you isn't going to count as the child support he owes, if he owes it. In certain states there's actually a difference between child support and college support. In other states, they're all lumped together. And to add a story about people who are bad with money that makes me sad:: My uncle made a relatively large profit off a company sale early on. He had a wife, who worked as a secretary, and a young daughter at the time and it would have been enough to make a pretty big difference in their life. Rather than save it for an early retirement or something, with the influx of money, he just started making pretty crazy purchases - he started taking flying lessons and bought a small airplane, they bought their daughter a horse (though to be honest, she loved that horse and it just passed away a few years ago but it was a huge point of stress and tension at times since the daughter is all grown up and moved away), he made some poor investments and loans to friends, and the rest was blown on things that almost ruined his marriage - drugs, alcohol, etc. Eventually, he managed to spend all the money and they started going into debt. He eventually turned it around and became really religious and really became devoted to making up for that period in time to his family and daughter. My aunt passed away really unexpectedly last year - the year she was finally going to be able to quit her job and retire (she was 68) and I'm sad that if he'd saved some of that money, they probably could have shared a few years of retirement together. They were able to go on a dream vacation to Egypt that year, but that was soley because my mom gave them all her airline miles to use because her sister hadn't really been anywhere or seen the world at all. HooKars fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Aug 18, 2013 |
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Aug 18, 2013 06:46
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froglet posted:How on earth do you spend all that money? Video game addiction? Personal training sessions several times a week? Private chef to cook all your meals for you? Buying rounds of drinks for your friends every weekend? Are you secretly a superhero and keep needing to replace your expensive tailored superhero costumes? It's really really easy to spend to your income, no matter what your income is. Rent alone is eating up 30k. And if he says he's saving for retirement and actually means he's maxing out his 401k and IRA then he actually is saving quite a bit. I dont save much of my monthly net income at all (I make less than him but I think I saved a similar amount when I made double what I make now), but technically I save at least 20% of my income because that's what gets taken out of my paycheck for my 401k. It'd still be fun to see a Mint breakdown. I bet an absurd amount goes just to restaurants and bars and boring stuff. But a nice car and some memories from amazing vacations is something to show for your money.
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Aug 29, 2013 18:24
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melon cat posted:Where the gently caress is their money going. In the US, $34,000 worth of debt that includes student loans wouldn't be considered that outlandish. Honestly, this girl doesn't sound like she's doing anything that crazy - she made a mistake in buying an expensive car (a used $17000 car so really not that expensive either) and now it doesn't make much sense to break that agreement and she needs a car of some sort. The finance person basically found $300/month that she could save from frivolous purchases and aside from that told her to quit making retirement contributions, which she probably thought was a responsible thing to be contributing to, taught her to put more money towards the debt with the highest interest rate and told her to increase her income. It doesn't sound like she was spending money on crazy and outlandish things. HooKars fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Oct 17, 2013 |
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Oct 17, 2013 16:10
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Anecdotal, but I've noticed my medical/dental/law school friends tend to take on HUGE amounts of debt while in school. Pre-rewarding themselves for all their future hard work and even more future high income? Probably because once you have over $100,000 in student loans, an extra thousand for some trips to Europe or something doesn't seem like much of anything.
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Dec 16, 2013 19:03
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Folly posted:If you're cooking for yourself with the goal of saving money, you really shouldn't be spending more than $2 per person per meal. If you want to call yourself frugal, it probably shouldn't be more than $1 per person per meal most of the time, with a once weekly splurge. This is also pretty dependent on where you live.
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Dec 16, 2013 21:34
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Folly posted:And it shouldn't depend much on where you live. Flour, rice, and dried beans are cheap almost everywhere. Milk is cheap everywhere in the continental US and I'm pretty sure most of Canada. Chicken is cheap in the US, and I hear that's rare. But as far as I know, it's cheap everywhere in the continental US. Not everybody wants to eat these things, or eat them that often. Vegetables and fruit can be pricey in certain areas. Personally, I'm happy to pay for convenience. The closest supermarket to me is a little marketplace where pasta costs like $3 per box. Luckily Trader Joe's is only 15 minutes away and is more affordable. It's pricier than eating just bulk chicken or soaking my own 1 lb bag of beans and whatever but a lot of their stuff is different, fun, easy to make, perfectly healthy, and I'll pay a little to not have to own a car or bike to get to some of the normal grocery stores or to have to walk all the way across town to get to Chinatown or the Italian Market for cheaper produce. Folly posted:Instead, set your goal to be as fast, nutritious, and inexpensive as you can manage. Why? Maybe I'm missing something but this is a bad with money thread, not a "How Frugal Can you Live Your Life" thread. I mean, I agree that some people take eating out to the extreme or spend way too much on groceries, but not everyone has to eat chicken and rice and spend $1-$2 a day per meal to be good with money.
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Dec 16, 2013 23:25
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Haifisch posted:Check out Budget Bytes if you're not convinced how inexpensive cooking can be - they have many cheap, relatively simple recipes, and they actually break down the cost per serving. This site kind of annoys me/frustrates me because it'll say something like (for example the first recipe on there) -- Peppermint bark. Ingredients: Peppermint oil -- $0.14 for a few drops. What, no. I have to buy the whole bottle and fit the whole bottle into my grocery budget, not just the 14 cents I use (and then in this case, probably never use again).
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Dec 16, 2013 23:50
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Why is that a problem in anyway? What job requires you to show your actual degree? It's a line on your résumé. You usually list any prior names for a background check anyway. Does he think every girl who goes to college, gets married and changes their name is just hosed?
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Dec 21, 2013 17:47
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mr_cardholder posted:Content: My college roommate, P, who now has probably about 150k in law school debt, is currently unemployed and just signed a lease for a new car. Apparently you gotta look the part to make it in the law world. I really feel bad for him because he's a genuinely nice person who I still hang out with whenever I get the chance. It just crushes me sometimes to see the decisions he's making. No you don't. That's just what he's telling himself as an excuse for why he hasn't made it yet.
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Dec 27, 2013 20:37
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corkskroo posted:I'm sure we've all done a less extreme version of this but someone just told me that they kept a movie from Netflix 6 months without watching it and it ended up costing something like $100. Isn't the return envelope included? (never used the service) As far as I'm aware, there are no late fees with Netflix? I kept the same movie for years, and then finally canceled the service and never sent the movie back. It ended up costing me around $15, for the cost of the DVD I never sent back. Slightly overinflated but nothing crazy. If I'd just sent the movie back, there would have been no penalty.
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Dec 28, 2013 23:53
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