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Weatherman posted:Knyteguy's Awesome Financial Thread - I'm Not Zaurg, but I'm starting to resemble him more and more Seriously. I think MMM's debt is an emergency post goes too far (immediately moving back in with your parents without knowing the situation?), but it does help to give the proper mindset. I know it's a huge adjustment, but you're going to have to make some big changes temporarily (and some smaller, but still big changes going forward). You realize that buying the PS4 was a bad idea, but you throw out a $23/mo (~$300 a year) gamefly subscription like it's nothing AFTER saying that you're going to need to buy some games for your PS4?? This list?? quote:Playstation 4 Satellite radio?? I mean, look, there are TONS of people in your shoes in America. You're not going to die, or probably even go bankrupt if you just keep on keeping on, and throw a little more money at this than you have been, and spend a little less. Maybe you'll even eventually be debt free. But if you were happy with that life, you wouldn't have posted this thread. On the other end of the spectrum, you probably don't need to move back in with your parents, survive on dumpster dove rice and beans, and pay this off fast enough to get your grandma's house money. But there's a spectrum of options between those two outcomes and, you're still WAY closer to the first scenario than the second. Video games, satellite TV and electric toothbrushes are luxuries. If you're serious about getting out of debt in a reasonable amount of time, they're the sort of things you can pick a couple of, save up for, and buy them after you have the money, while still quickly paying off debt. I'm paying off debt, and buying a new cell phone. Is that $200 that could go towards my debt, of course! But I saved for it, know exactly what I want, have shaved down or eliminated my other luxury spending, and am at peace about it. Take cash out of the bank for your grocery and spending money, and stick with it. $300-$400 a month for groceries (not restaurants, but groceries and maybe paper products/toiletries ONLY), broken up into however many paychecks you get this month, $50-$100 each for spending (be sure to subtract off any subscriptions like gamefly and radio and such from whichever person wants them), and religiously track and report back EVERY penny you spend that isn't from those two pools (I don't track individual grocery purchases, but if you find yourself going over your pool, maybe you should). This month I spent $50 on entertainment, which included seeing two movies (second run theaters are awesome!), going to 2 parties and bringing my own beer, and eating out once. I spent $200 on groceries to feed 2 people this month (this was cheating though, we bought some meat, but we had some from previous months too. My normal budget is $300). You don't have to eat on $200 a month and spend nothing on entertainment, but I'd seriously consider the ~$350 grocery ~$75 each entertainment CASH budgets. The best part about living on not a lot is, once you're out of debt, you can raise those budgets, or even double them, and feel great about it, and you'd STILL be spending less than you are right now. EDIT: To sum up: 1) Seriously reconsider your subscription/extras spending 2) Make a CASH budget for entertainment/groceries, taking #1 in to account 3) (and most importantly) TRACK EVERYTHING YOU SPEND DOWN TO THE PENNY FOR AT LEAST A MONTH OR TWO. I'd recommend tracking as a general rule, but you need to be militant about it for a few months so that us, and more importantly, YOU GUYS, know what you're spending money on. Obviously, that $14k at 18% interest is crazy, and I'm glad you're looking into solving that problem ASAP (and keep looking for a way to deal with it), but if you were paying $2000 a month on your debt (realistic with your income, although maybe not with your fixed expenses), interest rates don't matter nearly as much. I think those 3 steps are the best way to understand your spending in such a way that you'll be able to maximize your debt payoffs. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Nov 23, 2013 |
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Nov 23, 2013 16:03
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Knyteguy posted:A good bench set with 300 lbs of Olympic weights is 600$. Craigslist is your friend here too. Especially since you don't need it now, watching CL for the next few months, you'll run across something nice. I bought a very decent combination bench/squat/pulldown rack with an olympic bar and a decent amount of weight for $150 after trolling CL for a few months.
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Nov 26, 2013 13:57
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Knyteguy posted:Also thanks for the food ideas, we're always looking for good recipes, and now we're looking for fiscally responsible recipes so we'll have to give these a try. http://www.budgetbytes.com/ is amazing.
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Dec 10, 2013 00:15
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wintermuteCF posted:OK, priority 1 is to build a buffer in the form of a savings account or sub-account to your checking that holds rainy day funds. Build this before you pay down your car at an accelerated rate. You say you have a $4000 surplus per month - or will, once you move to the cheaper place - so you should be able to build this pretty fast. I can agree with getting an emergency fund before paying off the car, but I'd argue for a smallish one ($2k-$5k or so?). The car loan is 10.99%, that's still a lot. After the loan is paid down/off, then swing back around to finish the efund. A few things Knyghtguy: 1) Congrats to your wife on her new job, and her soon to be very short commute, those are both great things. 2) While the decision to buy a new car wasn't the best (ideally you would have fixed and sold your current cars and bought a decent cheap used car), sometimes the perfect is the enemy of the good, so good job turning a terrible situation into a fine situation. That said... 3) Negotiating by interest rate rather than lowest overall price for the car might not be the mathematically correct way to do it, if you're really planning on paying the loan off in 8 months. Again, water under the bridge, but something to think about for the future. 4) Congrats on dodging a bullet. If you had came back to the thread as a proud owner of a PT Cruiser (aka one of the worst cars of the last 15 years), I would have been very sad. All things considered, good work. You're definitely moving in the right direction. Keep it up, keep learning from your mistakes, and remember it's a marathon, not a sprint. 1 small piece of advice going forward: With bigger purchases (such as a possible house w/ Grandma's matching funds), it seems like sometimes you get blinders on, and focus more on 1 thing, like meeting the date, or lowering your interest rate, and not the big picture. When you were buying a car, you wanted a car with a lower interest rate. You could have ended up with a PT Cruiser. Take things slow, research the hell out of the thing you're doing, and buy it when YOU'RE feeling prepared and ready, not when other people want you to.
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May 29, 2014 13:46
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So, Slow Motion's report is in, and he had a great month. How about you?
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Sep 1, 2014 20:33
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^^^ I think you're doing mostly fine (if non-optimal), but I have to mention that even if it "took a while for the baby to take," you'd still have an expensive high maintenance dog for 10+ years with the kid instead of 11+ years.Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:You don't need a great lawn though, just a tolerable one. I know nothing about lawn care so maybe I'm off base, but aerators and edgers sound like some hank hill poo poo to me. A manual mower is going to be a huge pain in the rear end in my opinion and I'd probably have skipped the edger and bought a mower with an engine if I really cared to mow. I mostly agree with what you're saying (I do not care 1 single bit what my lawn looks like, I just mow it when it needs it), but manual mowers are great. They aren't much if any harder to push, and they make way less noise, so it's easier to listen to music and stuff. It is more important that the blade is sharp, but that's easy enough to do, or cheap to have someone else do.
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Nov 24, 2014 19:49
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Knyteguy posted:Anywhere here's actual numbers for my pay at least: Our situations aren't that similar (the biggest of which is you're married and I'm not), so huge grain of salt here, but I make a similar amount of money and will have just over $7k federal tax withheld by the end of the year.
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Dec 22, 2014 19:53
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Knyteguy posted:Contract yes, so no benefits, probably higher taxes? State taxes too. Pretty sure Florida is another no state income tax state. /\/\Efb
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Jan 16, 2015 21:29
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Knyteguy posted:The assumptions. My caffeine intake is about the same thanks. I explained why I'm not sleeping. Amazon isn't going to make you send the bag back. They almost certainly would have just sent you the bag of cat food without charging you for it. If casper can do that with a $900 mattress, Amazon will eat the $25 for customer goodwill. Also, suggesting that caffeine may be part of the reason you're not sleeping well, even if it didn't affect you before, isn't a terrible assumption. People's reaction to caffeine changes as they age, or even if it's not that, it is just another thing working against a good night's sleep. I'm not saying you should quit coffee when you have a baby coming. That seems like too much on your plate. I'm just saying don't dismiss it out of hand. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Jan 16, 2015 |
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Jan 16, 2015 22:58
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It is definitely the right thing to do right now to make the medical debt the lowest priority. As people have said, this is an emergency, and triaging the medical debt makes sense. Looks like the appendix happened roughly 3 1/2 years ago. Posted Sep 3, 2014: Knyteguy posted:I also have more multiple medical bills in collections one being $22,000 when my appendix went out suddenly and I didn't have insurance. That was just 3 years ago. A quick google shows the statute for medical debt in Nevada is 6 years. April, you're right that he could probably pay a very small fraction of that. I worked as a debt collector for 4 years. Obviously I worked for one company in a different state, and I did credit cards not medical debt, so pile of salt, but here's what I'd do. We definitely would not sue someone for $20k. $50k (or really blatant poo poo like holding enough money to pay off the bill in our bank) was when we'd start considering it. Getting a judgement is really easy. Collecting on a judgement is what is hard. That said, smaller collection agencies are much more likely to sue for lower balances. I'd stay the course of what you're doing right now. Pay down your car, keep working on your emergency fund, etc. Don't contact anyone holding your debt (and definitely don't make or talk about payments to reage the account). Don't worry about the medical debt, but don't completely write it off in your head either. Just because a collector cannot sue you after the statute of limitations, doesn't mean they can't collect on it. They just can't sue (or threaten/imply in any way that they can/will) or demand payment. Granted, you have no legal obligation to pay at that point, but that doesn't mean they can't call and annoy you about it. Once you've solved the immediate emergencies (refinanced your car to a non-usurious rate, no longer underwater on it, stable emergency fund, no other debt), if the statute hasn't expired at that time, consider making a settlement fund to deal with the medical debt. Definitely consult with us at the time, because depending on when it happens, it might not be worth it (your credit score will temporarily go down when you settle very old debt, weirdly). It might be worth the peace of mind if you can settle it for a small amount. I'm using a lot of words to say very little. TLDR, keep doing what you're doing, but instead of 100% writing off your medical debt in your head, 75% write it off, and resolve to revisit the situation once you're more stable to make a final determination of what you're going to do.
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Jan 25, 2015 16:30
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Zanthia posted:I think trying to settle with them when they aren't doing anything is a terrible idea. If I were in your shoes, I'd aggressively build up an "oh poo poo" fund, watch the mail and credit reports like a hawk, and hope they forgot. With the understanding that at any point in the next few years, a collection agency might suddenly take an interest in you. I think this is a good plan on merits, and also because it makes sense even if they never contact you. I'd get refinanced and not underwater on the car before I did anything else (and it goes without saying a healthy birth for your wife and son even before that), but after that the next logical step is to build up your emergency fund. That fund could easily double as an "oh poo poo, the collectors finally called" fund. If they call, get their mailing address and hang up. Then (come talk to us, but if for whatever reason you don't do that) send a certified letter stating you have no knowledge of this account and need them to send you all paperwork, balances, applications, etc. If they're able to do that, you'll probably want to pay them, because that's enough information to sue. If they can't do that, we'll come up with an alternate plan. The agency I worked at was closely associated with the original lender, so we had motivations to be very not-shady. I'd take Zanthia's experiences as closer to your situation than my experiences, but it seems like Zanth and I agree on most things. I have no trouble believe judgments are occurring more often now than they did when I was a collector (2007-2011). Veskit posted:I'm confused why you hate the idea of paying them what you owe. Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Jan 25, 2015 |
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Jan 25, 2015 23:23
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n8r posted:What do you think about a total out of pocket spent amount per month? Or setting max amounts spent for a few categories. Or set a savings amount per months and only working with the money left over after savings. This is exactly what YNAB says to do, and in fact what he is doing. He takes his income, subtracts off his set savings amount per month. The remaining is his total out of pocket amount to spend. Categorizing it helps some people (including me) stick to guidelines. Yes, he's reallocating some of that money after the fact. That happens. The idea is it will happen less as he sets into new habits and has more data.
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Feb 3, 2015 13:24
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ufsteph posted:You've been spending around $300-$400 each month on groceries. Do you really think $150 is reasonable? Knyteguy posted:And April is an incomplete budget I'm still torn on a couple things. Like groceries won't be $150, so ignore that at least. SiGmA_X posted:So you're already negative a few hundred bucks for restaurants, so you're spending more on restaurants this month? I don't think this rollover method is working out well for you... He's rolling over a negative balance. In order to pay off that negative balance, he has to budget money towards it. This is the correct (maybe it would be more accurate to say "YNAB-y") way to handle negative balances. Veskit posted:Your spending shows you still have horrific impulse control, can't stress this enough that you need to seek professional help from a cognitive behavioral therapist in order to help you fix the way you think about things. This thread won't help and nor will life it seems. And when I say won't help I mean it won't fix the underlying problems that cause you to overspend but will instead be the bandage to stop the hemorrhage. Can we tone down the hyperbole here a bit? I'm sure he understands he can't spend $300/$100 on restaurants every month and be ok. They did just get home with a baby. I understand we all told him this would be a problem, but behavior change is hard. Maybe talking with someone would be helpful, but lets not act like his impulse control is any worse than huge swaths of the public, including many many reasonably successful parents. He realizes there is a problem and is trying to make changes. Obviously he hasn't been super successful yet, but acting like he has a treatable mental illness seems a bit overboard.
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Apr 6, 2015 13:28
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Knyteguy posted:T&C on the back doesn't specifically mention being underwater. Of course there is a general "If you no longer meet our selection criteria". I agree. I'd try for it, but you very well might not qualify (or at least not at that rate). Maybe talk to someone there and explain your situation and ask them if it is worth applying. They're salespeople obviously, but if you're totally against their criteria, they'd tell you I hope.
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Apr 7, 2015 02:56
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ufsteph posted:A good recruiter shouldn't be throwing you at a million different interviews. They should spend a lot of time talking to you to figure out what the best fit for you is, and then give you a summary of different positions available. OTOH, 2 weeks isn't that long. If they only offer crappy jobs he can just use them for interview practice and decline any offers.
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Apr 21, 2015 20:06
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ladyweapon posted:I might have missed it, but what did your wife think of the final decision (that may not be final anymore) to break another lease and move to Dallas with your newborn? How much would you be budgeting for travel throughout the year? I don't see how someone as family oriented as you would be able to withstand visiting family at least quarterly. RC and Moon Pie posted:So, is Mrs. Knyte totally cool with the idea of relocation? The Texas job he's "decided to take" (at Bar) is remote. They talked, she/they was/were most comfortable staying near family. If I'm reading correctly, there is another Dallas job (the one he applied first for that got this all rolling). That one is ~$130k/yr and not remote. IllegallySober posted:
This is a very standard lease in many parts of the country. It is in the standard lease where I live, which is pretty tenant friendly. "Duty to mitigate damages" is a very real thing, and very enforceable. It will require KG to do some work if they don't follow it, but the burden of proof is very much on the landlord. Knyteguy posted:I have an interview for a six figure job on Thursday and two 90k jobs tomorrow. I think it's a bit much to say I hosed my chances. I've made it abundantly clear the salary range I'm looking for. They have on record that I applied for a $150,000/yr job and a $115000-130000/yr job they're not assuming I want a $5000 raise. I've spent an entire post defending you here, so one last thing for you: Like horking said, you made a mistake telling them your salary. It's recoverable, but it is a mistake. People are jumping all over you, and it's making you defensive. Take a breath, step away from your defensiveness for a second and understand that this probably wasn't the best thing to do. Even if you can't admit it to the thread, at least admit it to yourself and fix it next time. As for the job situation, I think a better way to think about it (and a way that would have engendered a less... energetic response from the thread) would have been to say "My wife and I talked it over, and we'd strongly prefer to remain local. I'm going to do the interviews, and use that as confidence when attempting to transfer to Bar. If an offer comes around that blows me away, or if Bar isn't as open to a transfer as I was hoping, we'll reconsider." My feeling is that is actually how you guys are feeling, and you just stated it differently, but I might just be reading too sympathetically. Also, as many people have said, if you haven't, it is important to ask your wife specifically something like: "Hypothetically, if I could transfer to bar for $85k or move to Dallas for $120k, what would you do?" Not just "we might move, what do you think about that?" It is easy to mentally jump over that to "we probably won't move." Make sure you talk extensively about your lives if you were to move. Would she stay home? How would you meet new people (ESPECIALLY if she's staying at home with a newborn. That can be very isolating)? How often would you travel back and how would you budget for that? Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Apr 22, 2015 |
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Apr 22, 2015 12:43
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Why in the world would you sign a lease like this?
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Antifreeze Head posted:If it is anything like when I had to bring my dog in for a hot spot last month, there is a bunch of money to be spent on several different pills and ointments that came to $450. Add in the stitches and anesthetic plus time, I can see $780 happening really quick. A few years ago a broken toe cost me just under a grand. Yeah, and if it was an emergency vet on the weekend, things get inflated fast.
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Jul 20, 2015 17:59
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Ultimate Mango posted:My fear of black widow spiders is significant, and has even been shown on a TV show. There were a lot of spiders and we were tearing down the structure that housed them. I screamed like a girl. On TV. It was not left on the cutting room floor. Link?
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Jul 24, 2015 12:48
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Series DD Funding posted:My dental and vision options are fully unsubsidized so there's no money to keep. Also vision insurance is a scam for anyone who's capable of saving money Do the math on this before deciding KG. It depends on the situation. I have combined dental and vision (you opt in or out of them as a pair). Even if I didn't need glasses, and even if I don't need any services besides cleanings, it would still be cheaper to pay the insurance than to pay the dentist for twice yearly cleanings out of pocket. Obviously this is because my employer subsidizes some of the cost of the insurance, but even if I opted out, they wouldn't give me that subsidy, so it makes no sense to opt out.
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Aug 4, 2015 17:09
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So is dental unless you have lovely teeth
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slap me silly posted:That's about what my plan looks like, too. Insurance with a $180/yr cost and $2000/yr maximum payout is rather limited and quite expensive! I would certainly not call it amazing. I only spend about $180/yr just paying out of pocket, and $2000 of coverage give or take will not be a deciding factor when I eventually need major work done. If your appointments out of pocket cost $180, but with insurance, they are free, and your insurance is $180 a year, why wouldn't you pay for the insurance?
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Aug 4, 2015 20:20
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RheaConfused posted:Moved to e/n. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3722319
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Aug 22, 2015 20:22
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That's zaurg
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Dec 15, 2015 16:13
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I was SO sure, drat!
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Dec 15, 2015 16:20
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n8r posted:In places that aren't tech hubs, asking for a month of time off seems very high to me. It's fine because I think the job was a bad fit, but I feel like a lot of the posters here are giving KG some unrealistic expectations with regard to pay and benefits. True, but 6 days is obscenely low, even in Reno
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Jan 20, 2016 17:57
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Kusaru posted:The Reno library system has all of the books you mentioned in that last post, including ebooks of the non-comics (albeit with a waitlist). Why not get the books you want sent to the closest branch to you and make a weekly/biweekly trip to the library with your son? I'm a frequent patron of my local library, but if he's buying these books for like $5 a pop, I feel like there are other things he could deal with first.
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Mar 18, 2016 00:23
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Yeah, I don't think you're being irresponsible for having dogs or anything like that, but it's statistically way more likely for your kid to be hurt by a dog than by a malicious stranger.
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Apr 5, 2016 19:32
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Also, it seems like you're in this for the chance to work with cool hardware in a colo, but most of this stuff is being moved to AWS anyway. (Have we had this conversation before? I really feel like we have).
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Apr 15, 2016 20:49
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the talent deficit posted:I don't want to get you down Knyteguy but web hosting is a dead industry. If a small to medium business wants a web presence now they just use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Map's business pages or, if they really, really want their own website they use Squarespace or Wix or something. For ecommerce there's Amazon, Etsy, Ebay and Shopify. Also, a t2.nano on AWS can handle 1k+ qps and is literally free. Google App Engine is free for low traffic sites too I think. Spending real money for hardware in a colo is absurd in 2016 if all you are going to do is host some extremely low traffic sites. You said what I was trying to say earlier, but much better. Thanks.
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Apr 16, 2016 04:17
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