Knyteguy's Finances: More harebrained schemes than a sitcom dad

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Knyteguy's Finances: More harebrained schemes than a sitcom dad

«‹›7 »

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

April posted:

Here's a really really good vegetarian one. I always just throw everything in the crockpot without measuring, but I think you'll get the idea:

Lentils - as much as you want
2-3 of the big (28 oz?) cans of petite diced tomatoes, with juice
1 bigass onion all chopped up
A couple of tablespoons of chopped garlic (I use the stuff in the jar - sue me, it's convenient)
About a pound or so of carrots, peeled & sliced (if you can find the "carrot chips" on sale, I use them sometimes too)
A bag of fresh spinach, rinsed
Toss it all in, cover it with enough water to almost reach the top (leave an inch or two, the veggies will sweat as they cook), and squirt it with sriracha till you like it. I always start with just a little bit, let it cook a couple of hours, taste, add more, etc. It's done when the lentils & carrots are soft, you might need to add a little more water. This stuff freezes awesomely, and has a lot of good-for-you stuff in it.

drat, now I want to make some.

Sounds delicious. I sent it to my gf, we'll pick up things at the next shopping trip!

# ¿ Jul 29, 2014 20:06

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 12, 2024 19:15

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

I would roll those items over month to month myself, being you're paying yourself back for them in August.

Bugamol posted:

Also I don't use YNAB, but why is the repayment to your personal debt negative for the month? Does this mean you borrowed more money?

I think it's a write off of debt being the end balance is 0. If you look at Misc, that means he made money (return of hand truck maybe?) in the category. I do this for "eBay sales" as I book my selling fees and shipping costs there, and then offset it with the PayPal transfer. If I made 100, and had 20 in fees/shipping, I will book 80 Available for <current month> and 20 eBay Sales. Sometimes I don't transfer money out of PayPal before the end of the month and so I'll carry over a negative balance, and then offset it the next month with a negative budget amount.

SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 20:44 on Jul 30, 2014

# ¿ Jul 30, 2014 20:39

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

You can export your budget from YNAB. It's a good starting point for sure. I did a text-to-columns to have multiple levels so I could make a nice pivot table summarizing our expenses. It has a long way to go IMO but I'm getting it to a better point constantly. And still reconciling YNAB, too.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2014 01:26

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Bugamol posted:

If you answer some various questions for me I can set you up an excel template that you can import your bank statements into. You'd need to give me a sample of your bank statement download so I can align the columns (you can change the numbers or whatever).

I'd need to know:
How often you get paid and what amounts (bi weekly, weekly, monthly, etc) for all incomes.
Your current reoccuring (ie bills) spend budget by category
Your current non-reoccuring (ie groceries, entertainment) spend budget by category
Your current reoccuring savings budget by category
How many accounts you have and their balances (ie savings, checking) (so the spreadsheet will update your balances accordingly)
Your current debts, balances, and interest rates (so the spreadsheet will calculate a rolling balance based on your payments)
What version of excel you use (so I don't use formulas you don't have access to)

EDIT: Clarified a few requirements

EDIT 2: Alternatively if you give me a download of your last 3-6 months bank statement (assuming you only have one bank) I can make my best guesses on what you should be doing.

I would love a copy of this. It can all be blank, I can setup the macros and formatting, I just would like to see what you're thinking of.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2014 20:28

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Aagar posted:

I don't know about anyone else, but that is a hell of a lot easier for me to read. Well done, Bugamol.

Knyte - please take Bugamol up on his generous offer.

I like that a lot too.

Bugamol posted:

Below is an image of the budget with some generic/template items. I have another tab for debt balances which has the interest rate / fees (if applicable) which is why the debt balances are negative (I didn't set it up to have a payment go against it). The same items in debt balances would be under bills and they would cross update. There's a final tab which stores all of the transactional data which I either hand input if I'm trying to get to ending/current account balances, or updated via a download .csv

Fantastic work! I would love a copy when you get home

# ¿ Jul 31, 2014 23:28

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Knyteguy posted:

Our internet company charges $5.00/mo to rent a wireless router, and there was also a $40.00 service fee just to set that up. I actually just exchanged the one we purchased for a better one (old was really terrible) so yea it will take about 10 months but then it's done and we're net positive.

Rip! Much like leasing anything except housing (kinda sorta, depending on your financial picture and all for the housing one) its never the better option. My modem has been paying me for the last 5 months! I hope it doesn't die anytime soon, but the warranty covers it for another 10 months, and I broke even at 9mo, so if it does die, meh! Its also faster than the Comcast-supplied modems, from what I've seen... And its MINE! And cheaper!

# ¿ Aug 3, 2014 07:41

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Is the % column right in the above sheets? If so, what does it represent? Maybe I'm being dense, it's been a long day..!

Knyteguy posted:

Also:

+32 points in July

Do you pay for that?

SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 01:21 on Aug 5, 2014

# ¿ Aug 5, 2014 01:16

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Dave Ramsey would say pay mins on debt and pile as much cash as possible. Make the decision to throw a huge chunk at the car and sell it 3-6mo after the baby is born and healthy.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2014 16:04

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Hawkgirl posted:

For me personally your system is too vague, it would cause me to forget things that I have mentally assigned to that very large category and overspend a lot. That said, I think having "blow," "entertainment," AND "restaurants" is a lot of categories. In my budget it's just "blow" and "restaurants" and any activity I do with my husband just goes half to my blow, half to his blow. Restaurants being separate helps me not eat out all the loving time, because that category is only for dining out with my husband, all other non-home food goes to my blow. So I really only have to remember one category when someone asks me to hang out.

This is kind of how we budget my gf's and my spending. Say we each get $100 a month budgeted, I track it on multiple categories but sum it and the sum line is what we look at. I don't care if I spend $65 in blow and $35 in food, as long as it stays under the <My spending> total of $100, for example.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2014 20:45

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

slap me silly posted:

Good lord man, turn these off. Easy way to reduce your splurge instinct right there.

This saved me SO much money.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2014 22:23

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Knyteguy posted:

Yes we do have a cooldown period. Have about 5 things written on our fridge (well on a notepad) that we've been adding to when we want something. A bigger food processor is on there for example. That's been on there about 3 weeks. Might pick one up this month, might not.

edit:

vv Will do thanks!

I didn't ask GWS/BFC but I bought a Ninja blender/processor at Costco in late June. $120 and has a life time Costco warranty and 1yr mfg+1yr Amex warranty. It is pretty nice and has a decently strong motor. We use the processor a couple times a week (gf is a vegetarian and lactose intolerant so lots of non cheese things get blended up) and blender daily/couple times a day. So far, so good! I think the processor is 1qt also, +/-. Blender is 2.25qt iirc.

Also, HD visa FTMFW LOL. I love the derail about that. Way to pay attention, BFC...

# ¿ Oct 2, 2014 22:59

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

I swear you said it was just the car, student loans, grandma loan, and <$1k in collections...

BioEnchanted posted:

$20,000 for a simple appendectomy? gently caress, you guys need to get on the UHC bandwagon soon cause that's just unnecessary.

Our healthcare blows. My dad goes to Canada for diagnostic procedures that are more accurate and non invasive, and a fraction of the cost. AMERIKA!!!1!

# ¿ Oct 8, 2014 15:26

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

I'd count medical debt... A underwriter will.

antiga posted:

How does this work if you're not a Canadian citizen? Just walk in and pay cash? I have a hard time believing that's cheaper than insured care in the US but I've been very wrong before.

Walk in and pay cash. He's only ever seen specialists, but the in patient over night surgery procedure in the USA is $6-8k, the out patient scan in the rest of the modern world (since 2010? 2008? Coming soon in 2016-18 in USA!!) is $600 in Canada, without insurance. And the scan gets 20+ data points vs 2. 20% of 6k is $1200, so he paid half the lowest price possible in the USA, if you haven't hit your OPM for the year. Canadaland ftw.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2014 23:12

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

imabanana posted:

This was me, this is for paid medical debt - they can't keep delinquent paid medical debt on your credit report because it is a HIPAA violation. I had a few things removed well before 7 years had elapsed with this argument once I paid the debts.

I would consider trying to get that $20k reduced and make payments, but I also agree with you that it isn't a priority for you right now.

Once again, if I were you I'd check out creditboards.com and soak in some of the info there. It's a great resource while you're cleaning up credit and paying back loans. They'd probably give you good advice on your car loan as well.

Great info. My gf has a few medical bills that were PIF after they were in collections. I need to read up on getting them deleted.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2014 23:35

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

I'm on my phone and don't want to type a lot.

Pets: If you have a shrink, an Emotional Support Animal waives both deposits and quantity requirements. Super simple. I can provide a letter template via email if you need it, and I have the code sections which support this on my computer. Google does too.

HSA: You must make sure you have a health plan that supports HSA's throughout 2015, otherwise you may face penalty for fully funding in 2014 but not being eligible for the HSA for all of 2014. The IRS has info on this, but basically make sure to pick a high deductible plan if your wife leaves JCP.

Lease break fee: Jealous. I pay 1.5mo plus deposit to break my lease...

# ¿ Oct 15, 2014 01:31

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Bugamol posted:

I think you previously mentioned you can break your lease at any time without notice. Any particular reason you're keeping it for an extra 15 days of double rent?

Literally one post above the one you quoted:

Knyteguy posted:

Unfortunately the office manager lied to me (or just completely forgot in a little over a day?) when she said we didn't need to give notice. We do need to give 30 days notice. Probably will work out to be about the same cost - maybe a little cheaper with a rent credit if we get one.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2014 21:42

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Looks like an Aussie to me, too. And those dogs are straight nuts and need a LOT of exercise, and even more training.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2014 02:35

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Horking Delight posted:

How much do you estimate you're going to spend on eating out this month?

At the end of the month, compare the real number to your estimate.

Budgeting in Slow Motion!

# ¿ Nov 19, 2014 03:13

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

The forum is just pissy because you moved. The thread needs to chill out.

On the other hand, you need to track expenses all the time, too. And not make excuses about moving as to why you're eating out.

I'm looking forward to your expense reconciliation for November and budget for December.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2014 00:45

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

spwrozek posted:

Forest through the trees is the saying. Can't see the forest through the trees.

I'm not an English expert AT ALL, you've seen my posts lol, but I'm guessing 'for' is an older saying. Through is what I've heard and use.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2014 19:09

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Office admin/administrative assistant? Starts around 30k probably, and would have normal work hours and benefits, and possible advancement potential.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 06:59

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Bugamol posted:

Are you sure? Do you talk about salary among your peers? I know computer science is definitely one of those "pave your way to success" type fields, but I think not having any sort of degree can/will hurt you in the long run. It's like MBA, CPA, CMA, or any other "letters after your name". Then again I'm in accounting and not computer science so it may not translate at all.

Also did you get around to doing a october/november ytd reconciliation yet?

He's pretty right. And in actg, only CPA and competency matters.

Come on KG, it's +3, where is the recon?! All transactions from last period should be final by now. (I love quicken and excel, between quicken and my macros, my recons are automated, and budget is super easy too...)

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 20:25

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Old Fart posted:

Sometimes I don't update YNAB for weeks. Just sit down with YNAB and your online transaction report and type that poo poo in. There, now you know how it worked with your budget.

This. It's not hard. I do YNAB monthly and Quicken twice a week. I split all transactions that can be split (grocery store mostly) and need to do that often else it takes forever. Most folks don't do that tho.

KG, simply import all transactions from your bank... You can't drop some transactions. That makes your data garbage... I wish I could do this for you, it's frigging simple. I reconcile way, way bigger accounts with thousands of transactions for my day job, which probably gives me different perspective on it.

Git'r'done son! Do it tonight or tomorrow. And then post screens of the budget page for period 11&12.

That's a good storage spot for the CC, if that's where it is. My gf and I both keep our CU CC's in that spot, basically, and have recurring bills on them and nothing else.

SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Dec 5, 2014

# ¿ Dec 5, 2014 21:19

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Knyteguy posted:

Congrats! Should be a fun time come early 2015. Got his crib setup yesterday. Are you having a boy or a girl?

It's not so much that I'm trying to handwave it away, it's just I've already emotionally and logically analyzed it without putting down the hard numbers. However the overwhelming majority here seems to be letting me know to go ahead and reconcile against actual spending, so I'll do that, but it might not be in the next couple of days. I'll make it a point to get to it next weekend at the latest while still taking care of December of course. I guess having the graphs accurate and updated in YNAB will be cool to see too.

You can't logically analyze it without putting down hard numbers.

What's the current issue w the data in YNAB? Do you hand enter everything? My god that would be unbearable. I download my data from my banks and go from there. Takes about an hour to reconcile 150-300 transactions.

# ¿ Dec 6, 2014 01:37

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Veskit posted:

My brain finally put together why your new budget is bugging me

Here's the old one for reference

In YNAB now appraising your car to a very specific number, why it's so specific I dont know but it's in there and it's making it look like you're barely in debt. It's a pretty dumb mind game to play on yourself making it seem like you're not in that bad of a situation. You didn't do it before and I'd like to know why you feel the need to do it now.

I have always thought it was silly to count the asset value of a vehicle in your net worth. I know technically it IS part of your net worth, but if you aren't planning on liquidating it NOW, why account for it period. I would remove it from the assets list, if it were me.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2014 20:19

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Knyteguy posted:

Like I kind of said guys everything has been a blur since the move. It's not a great excuse I know, but it's true. It's been hard to focus on keeping this thread as updated as I've committed to doing, but I'll work on that.

I personally don't care if you keep the thread updated daily/weekly, but I think history shows you do better when you do keep it updated. I do care, however, that you keep on top of your finances at all times. You ultimately have to do that for YOU, not for us.

You said your wife was the one who has been updating YNAB. How does she do under stress of moving/changing jobs/etc? Maybe she could be the one to update YNAB.

Knyteguy posted:

January will have a pretty big budget update since my wife's paycheck should be going up quite a bit, since the HSA contribution will be far less per month (same total/year though).

Save the difference. poo poo is going to happen. You will need the money.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2014 20:30

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Knyteguy posted:

And yes all of my old clothes that got replaced were Kirkland brand and they were the ones that I had to replace after like 3 months of use.

The clothes that wore out so quick were Kirkland? Take em back. Even if its been a year, take em back.

Easychair Bootson posted:

Why not set a budget for dining out rather than having a large discretionary budget that you draw from? I realize there's a limit to how many categories you want to manage but if you have one for bicycle costs it seems like you'd have one for dining out.

Also, what's with a +$50 number in the outflows of your emergency fund? I'm not familiar enough with YNAB to know if that's a bad thing, I just don't understand how it happens.

My gf and I do both. We set aside money for dining out once a month, roughly, and then we have our own discretionary money too. If we go out more than once, we allocate it from our individual blow money.

The +$50 for the emergency fund means they transferred money to the efund, because its an off budget account. (Correct me if I'm wrong, anyone, I think I'm right.)

Also, it does appear that we haven't seen a reconciliation for October, either. September was the last full month recon'd.

Knyteguy posted:

10/5/2014

Already did Veskit:

I think our HSA balance is off (showing too much). Haven't reconciled it against the account yet. Not too concerned with it anyway.

Knyteguy posted:

10/24/14

OK short on time so I can't explain a bunch.
pre:
October:

Savings:
Emergency Fund:          846/500
Moving Fund:             500/400
House Down Payment:      100/100
Prego Bills:             100/100
Holiday/Giving:          45/50
Babe Fund:               19/50 (bought a nursery thing)
Vet Bills:               50/50
Car Repairs:             45/45
Car Registration:        30/30
Clothing:                50/50
Vanguard Initial Buy-in: 20/20

Spent/Budgeted
Variable Expenses:
Groceries:         381/500 (put $100 into savings though, so really like $19 left)
Fuel:              113/130 (full tank last night)
Pets:              150/150
His Discretionary: 189/200 ($50 rollover)
Her Discretionary: 179/200 ($50 into emergency fund)

Fixed Bills/Debt: Fixed so everything is the same

Note: Plus all of November's expenses and savings already accounted for
pre:
November:

Budget Adjustments:
Groceries:     400 (-100)
Discretionary: 125/person (-75/person) likely temporary

I don't have time to break down the numbers but here's where the money went:

Savings:
Emergency Fund:     603/500
Moving Fund:        1460/400
House Down Payment: 0/100
Pregnancy Bills:    100/100
Holiday:            50/50
...

etc everything else accounted for as expected
.

Totally. I almost dropped the idea of moving because of the price, but my wife really wants to move (and I do too). We haven't gotten around to selling the TV, and we have a violin that was bought a few years ago, so the deal we made with ourselves was we only move if we sell those (going to put them on Craigslist this weekend). That should help cover some of the costs.

Haifisch:
Yes it only happened once, but I was really annoyed because we left the place absolutely spotless - they probably pocketed the money. I think it is illegal here, but I'll double check.

Rental house deposit: I asked and it's all fully refundable unless there's damage.

SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Dec 9, 2014

# ¿ Dec 9, 2014 00:57

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Baja Mofufu posted:

1. Term life insurance (20 years): Increased husband's to 10x income, mine is through work and about 3x now but will increase it to 10x once I'm no longer pregnant and back at work.

I have never looked, but can you get more term now, while preggo? It would be very difficult if you died during labor and had inadequate insurance. Sorry to be morbid, but it happens...

Baja Mofufu posted:

3. No missed payments: I usually handle the credit card/bill payments but I've put alerts on both of our calendars to remind us when things are due. I like to audit the charges myself to make sure there are no errors, but I might just put everything on auto-pay in March.

Set em on autopay and review during the month when you have time. No utility/bank will hassle you anymore about an adjustment before or after its paid.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2014 03:27

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Shats Basoon posted:

Hey KG, first time caller long time listener.

I'm curiuos what the target amount for your emergency savings is?
I see in the OP that it is a 3 month buffer so the $4,700 you have banked now is what? 1-2 month buffer?
Since you are approaching this goal, I wonder if it may be beneficial to start throwing some extra cash at your debt.

For example, you allocated an extra $240 towards your emergency fund in October. Why not throw that at one of your loans?

Might give you a little boost to see the loan going down more than just the minimum payments

Just something to chew on

Keep fighting the good fight.

You're getting ahead of things. KG has a baby due in 2mo. He needs to continue amassing monies at a crazed hoarders rate until ~8wks after birth. Then he and Kwife must decide (I would do the deciding now, or sometime before birth at least?) what they feel comfortable with keeping around for emergencies and then throw the difference at debt.

Based on the recent budgets, I would set the monthly burn rate to 3k, and say at least 6k (2mo) is needed, and 9k would probably be best. I feel like the Dave Ramsey 1k and GO HARD ON DEBT is a little foolhardy when you have so many life dependancies (dogs, new born, unstable jobs (not saying they're unstable, but all jobs are unstable to a point), etc).

Right now they have about $2600 in total cash savings plus $2200 in the HSA, I believe.

SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Dec 9, 2014

# ¿ Dec 9, 2014 19:43

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Just a comment about your health plan. You must stay on an HSA plan next year, otherwise you're going to have to unwind your contributions for 2014. I'm at work and phone posting so I don't feel like looking up at the details, but that's the gist of it.

We can chat health plans and cost comparisons sometime soon, but the good news is you don't have to do anything until your wife quits, besides change to Family once your child comes.

To sound like the other posters, but this was the first thought I had when I read your post: why is your wife thinking she'll pick up a new skill now but she hasn't wanted to for the last X years? She is going to have no time to learn a new skill right after the child arrives. Neither are you.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2014 20:58

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Knyteguy - How much are you guys contributing this year to the HSA? And when did your insurance plan start?

spwrozek posted:

Can you explain (when not at work) because I am not following this?

Its called the Last Month Rule and is rather confusing. Basically, you can only contribute a prorated amount based on how many months you're covered by an HSA plan. If you are covered on 12/1/20X1, you can be considered covered for all of 20X1 and fully contribute ($3250). However you must remain covered until 12/31/20X2, otherwise you'll have to pay tax+penalty on the amount 'over contributed'.

quote:

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p969/ar02.html#en_US_2013_publink1000204045
Last-month rule. Under the last-month rule, if you are an eligible individual on the first day of the last month of your tax year (December 1 for most taxpayers), you are considered an eligible individual for the entire year. You are treated as having the same HDHP coverage for the entire year as you had on the first day of the last month.
Testing period. If contributions were made to your HSA based on you being an eligible individual for the entire year under the last-month rule, you must remain an eligible individual during the testing period. For the last-month rule, the testing period begins with the last month of your tax year and ends on the last day of the 12th month following that month. For example, December 1, 2013, through December 31, 2014.

If you fail to remain an eligible individual during the testing period, other than because of death or becoming disabled, you will have to include in income the total contributions made to your HSA that would not have been made except for the last-month rule. You include this amount in your income in the year in which you fail to be an eligible individual. This amount is also subject to a 10% additional tax. The income and additional tax are shown on Form 8889, Part III.

Easychair Bootson posted:

Not to hijack (actually that's exactly what I'm doing) but I'm changing jobs in January and had the bright idea to throw a bunch of money in my HSA this year (was previously contributing very litte) before I switch to a job without an HSA (a non-HDHP). Am I somehow screwing myself? I asked about this in another thread recently and nobody called me out on it, so I just wanted to make sure. Because it seems like a no-brainer.

OT is at least 62% of what happens in all threads in BFC, no worries! How long have you been covered by the HSA/HDHP plan? Sounds like it may be a few years, so I think you should be OK. I wouldn't contribute over $279 in January unless you remain covered.

This link helped me understand it a bit more: https://www.tangohealth.com/posts/consumer-directed-health-plans/irs-contribution-limits-last-month-rule-for-hsas-part-three/

# ¿ Dec 11, 2014 05:32

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Is CL in your area good? That could be a source for a table, I have seen a few on the PDX CL.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2014 22:13

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Knyteguy posted:

Nah, not really. Everyone wants too much for their stuff it seems like, to the point it's not worth it. Like "oh yea your item is 5 years old but you want $50 off full retail and full retail is $500? Awesome." I do check when looking for something, but I bet the bigger cities have much better offerings. Anyone with swap meet experience think I could find one there?

Of course it might be a wash really - my wife's old work (grocery store) is selling a large card table with 4 chairs for $40. That's a pretty good deal right? That's all we really need, and maybe some thrift store tv trays.

Sounds good to me! Toss a table cloth on it and its all the same. My gf and I use a folding table that can seat 6 comfortable (stored in my closet most of the year), that we use when family is in town. Works perfect, and was cheap (free even!)

Horking Delight posted:

Table with four chairs for $40 sounds like a pretty good deal to me, if it's all functional. Is there a college near you? Isn't now when winter semester ends and college kids start moving out?

I think storage units for winter break are the thing these days; back in my day, we left stuff in the dorm over break... My sister and all her friends do the storage unit thing at least.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2014 03:03

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Zander Insurance is super easy to get a quote from. I imagine its all pretty equal big-company-wise, but I have no basis for saying that outside of my past with auto insurance (they all suck equally, State Farm, Allstate, Farmers, eSurance, Progressive, etc, ALL).

# ¿ Dec 16, 2014 05:57

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Can you give more details on the insurance? That is more than I was quoted and I'm 28/M/non-smoker too. I haven't looked since July though.

I also think it's extremely needed. His wife would be hosed if he died, and he if she. I'd say you probably should get 750k on you and 400-500k on her. Rule of thumb is 10x income. Nannies are frigging expensive.

E: I wasn't thinking about differences state to state. I just pulled a quote for myself, Banner as the company, 20yr/750k, $28.88/mo=$330/yr. I put in NV and got the exact same rates too. Why are you so much more expensive?!

SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Dec 17, 2014

# ¿ Dec 17, 2014 02:24

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Droo posted:

While I do think you need life insurance, these posts made me curious about social security benefits death benefits so I looked up mine online and this is what I found.

Using my numbers (you should check yours by registering online at ssa.gov because everyone is different), If I had a kid and I died when the child was under 18:

1. My spouse would be paid $255 one-time.
2. My spouse would be paid $2079 per month until the child turned 16.
3. My child would be paid $2079 per month until the child turned 18.
4. My total family benefit cannot exceed $4854 per month, so a second child would only generate another $696 per month and a third child would generate nothing.
5. The child benefits are generally non-taxable because of the way taxes work.

So maybe you need less life insurance than you think.

Humm, that's rather interesting, and would reduce the needed AMOUNT of life insurance for KG, but possibly not so much for KGWife. Full time nannies are spendy. They will need to run the numbers for both of them. I think some life insurance is needed anyway - burial costs, paying off debt, and setting up a safety net of some size. IMO.

My grandfather died when my mother was 8, and my grandmother setup a UTMA (maybe it wasn't a UTMA back then), into which she put all the money for my mom. It fully paid for my moms 5yrs of college and 2 degrees, living expenses, etc. Granted this was the late 60's/early 70's and my mom was savvy with money (read: cheap, she lived with her older sister while she went to college for the first 2yrs before meeting my dad).

# ¿ Dec 17, 2014 20:48

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Droo posted:

I asked him his specific salary and then looked up his specific situation using his specific numbers. Why would you add a comment to "guess" that I'm wrong when you didn't even look?

Knyteguy said he makes $63000 and his wife makes like $26000 for a combined income of $89000. They immediately and automatically receive two personal exemptions ($7900) and a standard deduction ($12400) for a new taxable income of $68700.

In 2014, married filing jointly filers pay 15% federal income tax on all taxable income between $18150 and $73800. The wife's income clearly falls completely into this range. In addition to that she presumably pays 1/2 of payroll taxes like I stated above, for another 7.65%, or a total maximum tax burden of 22.65% on KGwife's entire income.

I say that it is a total maximum burden because we also know that KGwife contributes to a health savings account and pays for/receives insurance through her job. If she makes the HSA contributions via payroll deduction, she actually saves the entire 22.65% because payroll HSA contributions receive an "above the line" tax deduction for federal tax, and they also are not subject to FICA tax. So if she hypothetically contributes $5000 to their HSA, she will save an additional $1132.50 in taxes paid making her actual effective tax burden go from 22.65% down to just 18.3%.

I agree with everything you say here. Her Fed tax is 3900, or 15% plus 7.65%, reduced by HSA contributions. The HSA is a reduction to total tax in my mind because they'll continue to do it via a marketplace plan once she stops working. She makes a non-HSA adjusted post tax income of $9.67/hr.

I also love that people in BFC say things like "I'm guessing that's wrong", how the hell could you be at 30% tax with 89k income, MFJ?? They're at ~18.6% before HSA, which I don't feel like looking for the numbers of contribution via my phone! I think they're shooting for about 5-5.5k this year.

E: I just looked at healthcare.gov - living in NV FTL! $529/mo for a Bronze PPO HSA family plan, 12k deductible! $435/mo for a HMO HSA family plan with a 12.6k deductible. gently caress that, HMO FTL.

You need to job hop KG! My buddy just graduated and got his first job as a dev in PDX, he makes a good bit more than you with benefits calculated in. He pays ~$500/yr for medical/dental and his company pays in $1250 to his HSA, and gives a 6% instant vest 401k match to low fee funds...

SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Dec 19, 2014

# ¿ Dec 19, 2014 18:07

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Wow you claim 3... That seems way the gently caress off. We (the thread) must have been sperging about something distracting because I don't remember mention of this, but I bet you mentioned it. Like the medical debt that I forgot about.

Go calc your tax burden today. You don't want to owe. Jebus.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2014 20:36

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

Rurutia posted:

Seattle is probably the most dog friendly place on the planet.

Yes but apartments suck with pets. Speaking from current experience, I hate it. Then again, my dog doesn't exercise himself if he has a yard anyway, he needs to be ran and I'm physically unable to do so due to a spine injury, so my gf gets to run him. Win-win!

# ¿ Dec 19, 2014 22:16

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 12, 2024 19:15

SiGmA_X: May 3, 2004; SiGmA_X

I don't blame you for taking a weekend break from the beatings in here. I think the 'tough love' thing BFC often does isn't exactly healthy. OTOH, sometimes people don't listen....

I am calculating about ~$9150 due with you grossing 67k, wife grossing 26k, and putting 5,600 into the HSA.

My friend did the same thing as you but in 2012. Got a job that paid 80k and wife made ~30k (so he claimed, I think it would be more like 15-20k with how often she was off work due to 'being sick' [loving around? she has a history!], but whatever) and didn't change elections. No big deal in 2012 because he didn't have the job long. 2013, he got screwed. Enough so he paid a CPA to do his taxes vs do it via TurboTax. And guess what, the CPA just charged him and didn't save him a penny, because he had a super super simple tax situation! MFJ, 3 jobs, no special deductions.

I am really shocked you didn't adjust your W4 a while ago. Damnit KG! Literally all of your savings is going to go to the IRS now.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2014 06:30

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Knyteguy's Finances: More harebrained schemes than a sitcom dad

«‹›7 »