|
Ugggh, your vehicle loans are brutal. Have you brainstormed ways of changing that situation? Selling one of them and getting something cheaper; begging an old car off your family; refinancing a loan; it's worth exploring anything you can think of. Although maybe you already have. High rate car loans are harder to get rid of than they are to acquire in the first place. Other than that, you do have a spending problem if you lost track of $1500 last month. Crazyfish has the answer, track everything really carefully for say Dec and January, and see what's going on. I will say, the $300 extra you did put toward the loans is huge and I hope you can keep it up. Run a calculation if you haven't, to see how much sooner you can be done with the loans by putting in extra money: https://origin.bankrate.com/calculators/auto/auto-loan-calculator.aspx Congrats on dropping the ciggies by the way! Oh, and don't make decisions based on how it affects your credit score, for fucks sake - your actual financial situation is infinitely more important. The credit score will take care of itself once you get your poo poo together.
|
#
¿
Nov 20, 2013 05:37
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 07:47 |
|
|
Knyteguy posted:$30,000 in debt Knyteguy posted:Playstation 4 These are not compatible sets of things. I hope you are realizing it. Did you buy the Wii U and 3DS today?
|
|
#
¿
Nov 23, 2013 02:18
|
|
|
Your thinking is still really unrealistic. Look how as soon as you saved $300 over the next two years by dropping satellite radio you thought of something else you "need" to spend $600 on right now. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Meanwhile, real advice with numbers. Is the house thing y'all's highest priority? To accomplish it, you need to accumulate $50k in the next two years to pay off the debt and get the match from your grandma. Then you will have $30k for downpayment/closing costs plus $10k for cash savings post-purchase, so you'll be able to afford a $120k house (rough estimate). To get there - that's going to be what, $1300/month above and beyond the loan payments? Where is this in your budget? You should be taking this off the top as soon as you get your checks so you don't spend it on other stuff. That's 25% of every single paycheck, assuming your income doesn't change. Make a separate account for this and don't take money back out for electric toothbrushes. Since you are worried about job stability right now, you can just let this money build for six months instead of prepaying on the car loans right away. Or can you??
|
|
#
¿
Nov 26, 2013 15:23
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:Regarding the house and the $1,300 extra: I think the numbers are close how we are now. Maybe. If you've really gotten the hang of it, that account balance ($485 now) will be $1700+ after the new year and $3000 by February. I have thrown down the glove!! Good luck. Post here every time you are thinking about buying something so people can yell at you until you stop.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 27, 2013 02:39
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:Well I might use my budgeted spending cash to hit up Gamestop on Black Friday. They have a "must have" subscription service card for $30.00 (regularly $50 for a year). This will be the only Black Friday shopping we do. Since it's normally about $4 a month for the service and constantly gives away free games I think it's worth it. I don't know how this works but $30-50/yr for free games sounds like a great way to get a lot of fun for cheap, to me. If the free ones are good. I agree it should come out of the Blow category for the month. Of course, their business model is to get you in with the cheap price and then make it really easy to buy a kickass new $30 game every month or two. It is a highly effective method which could multiply your cost by 10 easily - gotta gird your loins against that. Good job bringing the mental Christmas budget from $1000 to $100. That is the difference between "completely stupid" and "completely reasonable". Stick to it.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2013 01:45
|
|
|
Mister moneystache is a horse's rear end. The median salary for real estate agents is $40,000, and most make less than $50k in your area. Is she actually interested in the work? I'm pretty sure you need a good people face, some good hustle - is that her? If she has hustle, why hasn't she hustled her way further up the retail management ladder after 8 years? As you two are considering it, realize: the actual cost is not $500. The actual cost is $500, plus whatever she gives up of her current hours so she has time to work on real estate, plus possibly years of making less than now while training on the job, plus the risk that she'll realize she hates real estate after she quits her current position.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2013 03:02
|
|
|
Woohoo! I'm glad to hear what you're up to in the employment direction. Real estate, dentistry, that's kind of pie in the sky type of stuff. I sure understand where that comes from (when I got frustrated with grad school I was going to switch to motorcycle repair, haha) but I'm guessing you'll have more immediate and useful success doing what you're doing now. Good luck.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2014 05:12
|
|
|
spwrozek posted:This is just what people tell them selves. There is a short window each month and you can easily avoid it. I know people who use the temp method and no protection and have been baby free for years and years. And I know people who get pregnant if somebody jacks off in the next room. Now what? Good luck, knyteguy, keep truckin along and don't raise that kid in a squalid hellhole because you can't stay in control of your money.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2014 00:00
|
|
|
Dude, you are not wealthy enough to spend $900/mo on optional expenses. Not sure how the battle is going to go, neither of you seems to be able to tally up what your discretionary spending actually is in any given month
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2014 01:54
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:I don't even have much from that egregious spending. We bought some cool gear for hiking, walking, and running, but I wish we would've bought some stuff at our used sports store or something instead. Yeah this is a killer. It's so easy to hop onto amazon or whatever and spend just a little money on whatever thing, and then realize 6 weeks later than you could've gotten one just as good for a quarter the price and you didn't really need it anyway and bye-bye one hundred dollars... FIGHT IT MAN
|
|
#
¿
Jul 19, 2014 04:04
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:crockpot burritos moana posted:Sheryl Sandberg slap me silly fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Aug 14, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2014 03:00
|
|
|
Yep. Go ahead and cut this poo poo out please.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2014 21:26
|
|
|
I don't know that we have a rule about it in here per se but it makes me nervous and anyway it's kind of an unhelpful derail 
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2014 00:01
|
|
|
KG, didn't you just cut your rent literally in half? Most of this other poo poo is small potatoes in comparison. Just keep being honest about your spending here so you get some perspective on when you might be crossing the line.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2014 23:58
|
|
|
Oh, very well played. You're seeing it in action how all those little things you don't expect or don't realize add up to $FATBILLZ after a while. And you're paying attention. Keep at it.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2014 20:50
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfNajFYPljQ
|
|
#
¿
Aug 28, 2014 02:47
|
|
|
My opinion, everybody in here is overanalyzing everything and the main thing is to keep an eye on the bottom line - budget targets - and let people's comments remind you to slow down when you start to get over-enthusiastic about using your money. Just-next-month like people have been saying is a good timeframe to focus on.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 4, 2014 02:48
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:I'm worried that if I just put more in discretionary then I'll spend it thoughtlessly This is how my mind works a lot of the time. Spending can be an emotional thing - you have to find the right balance between cajoling yourself into better behavior vs making yourself feel guilty all the time. While being constrained by your income. Feeling too guilty makes you blow stuff off and get even more off track. On the other hand setting unrealistic goals to avoid guilt results in spending too much too.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 5, 2014 05:01
|
|
|
I like the way you're thinking about behaviors instead of goals. Yes, toxx the weekly spending reports or something if you feel you have to toxx something. That original toxx was kind of vague and dumb and probably another example of you getting all full of enthusiasm un-damped by reality. My opinion, do what's realistic because that is what is sustainable. If that means a ban, take the  out of your blow budget and re-reg right away so we can continue to verbally abuse you. I give you permission to put that on your new credit card So knowing what you know now, what do you think is a realistic target for September? For October? $100 is NOT enough, try again. Everything has changed in your life just recently, it's fine to go month to month on some of these goals while you figure it out and get calibrated. If anybody even thinks you are trying to weasel out of good financial behavior this thread will call you on the carpet double-quick. Looks to me like everything is in budget except restaurant, right? If you're 40% over the month's restaurant budget in the first week - is this something you need to re-evaluate, either the budget or the behavior? By the way that percentage column looks utterly useless. What's going on there? Knyteguy posted:What I think happens is like last month and July - we spent everything up front, and then we saved and saved and saved with little spending. Then we hit the beginning of the next month and it's like the faucet opens. We get a little bit of spending cash available and we've been austere on spending for two+ weeks so we go a little crazy. This makes perfect sense. On the one hand it's great that you are starting to keep this behavior within your budget. On the other hand it's a habit that easily leads you back to where you were before, spending money as soon as you get it with no long-term thinking. So something to think about - how to set yourself up so the last 2 weeks of the month aren't so austere? But... staying within the budget of course. slap me silly fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Sep 8, 2014 |
|
#
¿
Sep 8, 2014 17:52
|
|
|
Yeah, eating out is loving expensive even when you're doing it on the cheap.Knyteguy posted:I'm trying to think of a way to do this with an additional savings account so we can perhaps "pay ourselves first", but our checking account interest is so appealing at 2.5%.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 8, 2014 22:08
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:Amazon emails, Newegg emails, etc. Good lord man, turn these off. Easy way to reduce your splurge instinct right there.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 9, 2014 17:08
|
|
|
The interest rate on a few thousand dollars of your money is the least of your worries. Forget interest rates and put the money where it will be safe and easy to keep track of. Reward checking accounts are a stupid game for fatwallet readers who are bored with basic stuff like not outspending their means.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 15, 2014 22:57
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:Bah talk about frustrating. Your posts are really pretty incoherent and that is part of what's leading to your frustration. How about if you give us a legitimate picture of the last nine months, by computing your debt and cash balances as of the last day of every month and make a nice little plot. That info may or may not be in the thread somewhere but I sure can't be arsed to try to dig it out. Yet, those two numbers are the bottom line of how well you're doing over time.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 21, 2014 20:40
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:If anyone finds my posts incoherent then please speak up if you want clarification. I feel like my posts are long, but I usually address details to the t every single time someone asks about them. Put another way, I have no interest in the details. Your money, your hobbies, your life, your details. If you are accumulating money over time and spending reasonably relative to your resources, my opinion about what you buy isn't useful. But is that the case? If I take the shape of that graph at face value, it says you had a real problem for the last half year and haven't been actually accumulating money for more than about a month. I.e., very good chance you still need some help being honest with yourself about your spending. When people sniff that, that's when they start riding you about your spending and pointing out when you prioritize the short term, like buying a PS4 instead of paying off the car faster like you said you wanted to back in May. Your priorities and choices are yours but don't kid yourself about the effect they have on your finances.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2014 01:23
|
|
|
It isn't easy to balance short term and long term goals, and it isn't easy to have clear communication with your own wife about finances, never mind with the internet. Keep plugging away at it. I agree with you that purchases are personal decisions. However, you have a history of undermining your long-term priorities (debt, house, kid) by overspending on your short-term priorities (vacation, PS4, car). Four months of decent success is awesome but it doesn't make that history irrelevant. So it might not be a bad idea to keep getting people's opinions about how to balance these things. By this point you know that the most drastic advice from here is often going to be overkill and you're not going to follow it. But you can still think about where it's coming from and apply that to what you're doing.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2014 17:23
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:Can I throw something out there? Suppose we switch financial shoes for a month, completely. You have my rent, my expenses, my debt. What would your budget look like? What would your savings look like for October? If I'm reading right, you have: pre:Income 4800 Combined checks Fixed expenses 1900 Rent etc 700 Loan minimums Assets: 2700 Available cash (Would be more but $1000 now committed to vacation) 500 HSA (has to be spent on baby/medical, right?) 300 CC security (you can't access it) Liabilities: 25000 Car loan at 11% 10000 Other loans at ~7% Are you asking how to make that happen? Your situation is a little complicated because of how the income is sprinkled around through the month. Sit down with a list of every check and every bill that will come in October, and the dates. Figure out what to do with every penny of the checks when they arrive. Some goes to bills, some goes to the checking account for groceries, some goes in an envelope for eating out, etc. When there's any left over, it goes into the savings account. Once the savings account has gone up by (say) $1800, do whatever you please with the rest. I use a separate account for the "rest" so I can carry it over month to month. But this is nothing people haven't been telling you already - I think you're not there because you keep spending money ahead of when you actually have it. The vacation is an example. You are not using your October income for that. You are using the money out of your savings account and telling yourself you'll replenish it in October. Well, there's a good chance you might if nothing else comes up. But the way you're thinking about it is wrong. You need to see that as coming out of your savings, because it is. (Oh hay, beaten by Veskit!)
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2014 18:24
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:wasting too much energy trying to micro-refine everything instead of just focusing more on the big picture, and it's causing us to spin our wheels. - Whatever the gently caress I might want to buy (~$100) - Think about it a while first (~$1000) - Don't touch it ever unless poo poo is hitting the fan (~$10000) This keeps me from getting confused between my emergency fund and my vacation fund 
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2014 20:35
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:1) A house with a garage, an office/private place, a dog door, and a nursery. All of this would be great so my wife's extended family could come visit down here, making her more happy in the process. Here's a thing about this list - #5 is getting in the way of all the others to the tune of a very large $510 per month for the next five years ($30000!), yet you've put it last.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 22, 2014 22:44
|
|
|
Yup, college money for the kid(s) is completely irrelevant right now. That's a luxury for people who have their financial poo poo together, which means it's going to be some years before Knyteguy needs to even think about it.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 23, 2014 00:49
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:I won't concede on this. I absolutely needed clothes for work. It would have been bad with money to do anything else. "Hey boss I know I look like a total slob. How's it going?" We probably won't spend a single dime next month on clothes because we never do. The sole purpose of an emergency fund is to fund such things. New clothes are a foreseeable, budget-able expense that can usually be delayed for at least a month if you are paying attention. You said yourself you've been putting it off and putting it off, which means you knew it was coming. The emergency fund is really for when you lose your job, or your car's transmission explodes even though it's only 3 years old, or your baby gets RSV and you suddenly have a shitload of hospital bills - stuff you can't reasonably predict. It's not for replacing things that wear out every single year. The only reason clothes costs are an emergency now is because you've been neglecting the coming expense. The reality is that you're not used to forecasting expenses over a long period of time. That is common and normal and makes a lot of sense. But in fact there are plenty of things that cost money every year, but not every month: clothes, car repairs, Christmas presents, travel, house repairs if you ever buy a house. None of those are really "emergency" expenses. Personally - well, take a look at my savings account post. If those kind of expenses exceed my free money for the month, I take the rest out of the discretionary savings accounts without ever touching the emergency account. I don't really care about taking you to task or micromanaging your budget concepts. It's your (lack of) money after all. But maybe the perspective will help.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 23, 2014 06:26
|
|
|
Dude, dogpiling in BFC is a feature, not a bug  Your job is to decide how much credence you want to give it.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 23, 2014 06:44
|
|
|
Knyteguy posted:Clothes were $150 included 2 pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of jeans, 2 shirts. Knyteguy posted:What's the point in focusing on what I had to buy, instead of focusing on how to prepare for the same situation next time?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 23, 2014 18:57
|
|
|
Don't push the sewing thing too hard, lest you stoke the fires of temptation
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2014 00:57
|
|
|
"Get rid of your family pets so you can have more money". I love me some BFC
|
|
#
¿
Sep 25, 2014 05:34
|
|
|
That's not true either though. The single best thing they can do right now for the kid's long-term benefit is to really get a handle on their spending+saving behavior. Getting rid of the pets wouldn't help with that, it would just give them more money to gently caress up with - just look at their struggle with the huge extra $$ they already got by moving to a cheaper place. Knyteguy doesn't have a patent on not seeing the forest for the trees
|
|
#
¿
Sep 25, 2014 06:37
|
|
|
How does that add up? Like, costs + savings + discretionary should equal income but it doesn't. HSA is coming out before "Income" maybe?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 26, 2014 06:17
|
|
|
Veskit posted:Clothes aren't really savings. I'd call them discretionary. Someone may argue for or against, but I'd call it discretionary along with pets. Getting into details here, but me, I would argue against. (1) Clothes wear out and (2) their cost is strongly affected by your employment. Therefore you need to budget/save for them accordingly. And pets are essentially a fixed cost here because it's really low on the list of things he is personally willing to re-budget. loving hell, no more pet talk, sorry I mentioned it. NO MORE PET TALK, PEOPLE Oh! Regarding the ins and outs, yes HSA is coming out before the "Income" number and I get it now.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 26, 2014 06:23
|
|
|
You have a huge TV that you're not using? Jesus. You know what to do! On the other hand, keep the bikes unless you can't stand it. There are a lot of possible things going on with the AC before you start looking for mold in the ducts. You maybe just need to replace the filter. See if the condensate drain is blocked, too. Maybe the coils need to be cleaned.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 26, 2014 21:09
|
|
|
I have a statement closing date and a due date, and the credit card company had some little box that I checked at some point for "pay my bill in full from my bank account on the due date". The closing date is about a month before the due date. Read your statement more closely maybe
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2014 02:09
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 07:47 |
|
|
It matters not one whit what kind of secured credit card he has as long as it is from a real bank and the fees are somewhere in the range of zero to reasonable. Which he apparently researched exhaustively. Give the guy a break
|
|
#
¿
Oct 2, 2014 14:46
|
|