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Haifisch posted:Every extra dollar you spend on vegetables/fruit/lean meat now is saving you a gazillion dollars in healthcare costs later. Fruit's really not that healthy. I mean it's more healthy than candy but it's basically candy with flintstones vitamins and fiber mixed in.
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Mar 19, 2014 13:53
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(At least it is if you live in the US)
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It still takes a backseat to vegetables and nuts, though, is what I'm saying. Obviously it's better than candy and useful in moderation, but people who eat mountains of fruit(not necessarily the poster above) and talk about how healthy they're eating make me 
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Mar 19, 2014 14:12
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Quick question about phone plans, hopefully on-topic: I see that T-Mobile has unlimited talk, text, and "web" with 2GB data for $60(what the hell is the difference between web and data?). However, when I go to look at their phones, it seems they only have monthly costs. I don't see anything like with Verizon where a phone is $100/$200/whatever with a 2 year plan (my company allows $100 for a smartphone every two years so I like to get the best phone I can get for a hundred bucks). Are these monthly options the only way to buy a phone with T-Mobile? If there's a way to get a nice phone with that plan without paying a monthly cost for it, that could save me $30 a month or 360 a year, which would be nice.
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Mar 19, 2014 15:02
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Well it's been going up for awhile so naturally it's going to go down at some point, but who knows when that will be exactly. Everyone was so sure it was going to go down last year because of the fiscal cliff and it was a banner year. I'm actually rooting for it to take a big hit so the money I invest will be worth more in 2055 dollars.
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Mar 19, 2014 15:11
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Grumpwagon posted:stuff Well an unsubsidized $400 phone would actually more than pay for itself in a year versus my current plan, since my employer covers $100 and it'd be saving me $30 a month...then the second year would be just gravy. Thanks! My contract is up in September and I'll probably go with a Nexus 5 unsubsidized with T-Mobile then. It'll be nice to not have to worry about how many texts I have left and data overages. Of course the truly frugal thing would be to stick with my RAZR M for another couple years, but 8 gigs of memory is really cramping my style, even with an SD card.
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Mar 19, 2014 15:35
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That's over 25 pounds of basil.
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Mar 19, 2014 15:41
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More like you paid the government back for the interest-free loan they were giving you today!
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Mar 20, 2014 18:44
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Didn't eat out yesterday. Today was payday, and the most exciting purchase on each payday? Roth IRA contribution.
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Mar 21, 2014 16:48
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I would imagine(hope) some of that is water weight, as counting calories often comes with reduced alcohol intake.
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Mar 24, 2014 14:00
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Didn't eat out yesterday, won't eat out today. Will eat out Friday but not on Saturday or Sunday!
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Mar 27, 2014 13:55
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Found out today that I'm getting 5k from my parents for their share of my deceased grandmother's house that they just sold. That will put my net worth into positive, and deals with a final couple things I had to take care of...so every month after this(when I'm putting an extra 1600 on my payment), I'm going to be able to put at least 1k extra on my underwater mortgage. gently caress yes, going to get out of this place one day.
Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Mar 30, 2014 |
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Mar 30, 2014 00:20
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:Why put the money toward your mortgage if you plan to sell? Wouldn't it be better to sell at a loss and invest that money instead? Not if I'm not keeping around enough cash to cover the loss. It's 30k in the hole right now and worth 53k less than when I bought it. I bought at just about the worst time I could. Right now I have 7k on hand, a 3 month emergency fund. I'm still investing a lot - 825 401k, 150 match, and 460 IRA per month. I'm actually considering renting the place out once I have it paid down a bit more, but we'll see. Either way I want to finally knock the PMI off first, which should happen this year. Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 21:06 on Mar 30, 2014 |
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Mar 30, 2014 20:57
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tuyop posted:But seriously. Bah, purely cosmetic(as long as the doors open fine), just drive it like that. I've got one like that I've had for almost 3 years now.
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Mar 31, 2014 13:55
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Bubbacub posted:I'm about to turn 29, and I'm kicking myself for not maxing my contribution earlier. I know I'm stating the obvious, but nothing that can be done about it now; I started when I was 29 as well. Still plenty of time if we use it as lessons for the future. It's pretty alarming how many people don't figure it out and are putting 5% in even in their late 30s, 40s, 50s...
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Mar 31, 2014 14:47
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Eat at desk. Increased productivity and no peer pressure to eat out. I guess you don't get to eat with your wife then but that's what the drive to/from work and all the time away from work is for!
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Apr 2, 2014 13:52
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Net worth turned positive in Mint today. A year ago it was -20k (gently caress you condo). Right now it's growing at about 2400 a month and I expect that to continue and possibly even get a little better. Wish I'd started on this four years earlier but better late than never.
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Apr 10, 2014 13:04
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shrike82 posted:I'm headed back to grad school this fall after 5 years of working and decided to quit early so I'd have the next half a year to backpack and travel. God drat son that's a lot of money to be spending.
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Apr 14, 2014 14:14
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Barcades are still fun...but besides the cost to buy the arcade machines and service them, the electricity cost must be astronomical, especially since the machines are basically always on.
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Apr 17, 2014 13:57
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No get a year old one at least what are you doing 
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Apr 24, 2014 14:17
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Cicero posted:I'm thinking about starting a blog for family/finance/programming stuff. I'm a programmer (albeit mostly for Android) and could see myself wanting to customize it via code at some point, but not right now. Any recommendations for a good site? That's an interesting subject list  I use blogspot.com / blogger.com , if you want to move it elsewhere someday they have a tool to dump all the content to XML.
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Apr 25, 2014 20:37
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spinst posted:Why did I buy a car? Whyyyyyyyy? Seriously. Took mine in for 90,000 mile recommended maintenance today and found out the front strut mounts are torn...480 to fix. Sigh. At least the guy didn't seem to think it was something I can't put off for a couple months, but gently caress. This car runs great but that's probably because I burn 1-1.5k a year on maintenance. Earlier this year it was a window regulator  At least it's paid off. I'm going to drive it until something breaks that'll cost more than 3k to fix. gently caress having a car payment.
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May 3, 2014 18:01
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A lease is pretty much a loan with all of the downsides and none of the benefits.
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May 5, 2014 19:17
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EugeneJ posted:I do go to other people's places for dinner a few times a month, guys. Don't worry about my diet. Yeah that doesn't make it okay Seriously, add like 70 dollars to your food budget. You need to be eating some veggies and preferably some meat every day. God drat son.The only water part is fine, hell it's great.
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May 6, 2014 04:04
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Just tightened up my monthly fun budget a little bit to free up $50 that's going to increase my 401k by a percentage point, and put the contribution increase into the 401k site. This morning I made myself over 2k post-tax post-inflation income a year in retirement 
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May 6, 2014 16:15
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I feel like budgeting wouldn't work at all if there's not at least something like a mint account with both spouses' accounts in it.
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May 16, 2014 16:33
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Sephiroth_IRA posted:How do people retire early when there are penalties for withdrawing from 401ks/IRAs before a certain age? You can withdraw from a 401k or an IRA early as long as you take a substantially-equivalent periodic payment until you're 59 1/2 (or five years if you start less than 5 years before 59 1/2). So long as you stick to your calculated distribution, you're fine. If you deviate you get nailed for 10% of all you've taken, even if you've been doing it for 25 years. Of course taxable accounts offer you more flexibility if you have them. http://retireplan.about.com/lw/Business-Finance/Personal-finance/Taking-Advantage-of-Substantially-Equal-Periodic-Payments-SEPPs-.htm
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May 20, 2014 15:14
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Sundae posted:I'm more curious how they do it without going bankrupt from medical bills, honestly. The ACA makes it easier since you can't be turned down for a pre-existing condition, at least, but it's still ungodly expensive to have any kind of medical emergency in the USA, insurance or not. Well if all your income is from retirement accounts it's not like going bankrupt would be that painful
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May 20, 2014 16:59
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Folly posted:Only mostly protected from bankruptcy, if I remember correctly. It's 1.2 million per person though, so if you have 1.5 million in your IRA and your spouse has 1.5 million in their IRA, you'll come out with 2.4 million if I'm reading the laws correctly.
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May 20, 2014 21:57
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Folly posted:Try as I might, I haven't been able to confirm that. The BAPCPA is loving dense, and I gave up. So take this with a grain of salt. Yeah but you might be in trouble if you rolled your 401k into an IRA after you retired(as I think most people would). That's interesting to know.
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May 21, 2014 13:13
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Bumped my 401k up another 2% - about 1200 total going in per month now with employer match. It's definitely starting to be something I feel in the size of the paycheck but still totally manageable. It'd be nice to be able to buy a bunch of stupid poo poo like my coworkers do(and like I used to), but it'll be nice to actually be able to retire and live comfortably in my mid-to-late 50s as opposed to anyone from my family or probably anybody I work with. Everyone I talk to except one friend is doing the minimum 401k contribution to get the match. And most don't have an IRA except for old 401k rollovers. Everybody I know has just accepted "yeah gonna work til I die." 
Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 14:27 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 13:59
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Eh edited it out for fun but no one I work with uses these forums so I'm not sure what the harm is.
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May 22, 2014 14:26
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Folly posted:Ya, I've always heard that the US is odd about keeping our income secret. And that doing so is not usually in our best interest. It's in the interest of the 1% that write paychecks. I'm just surprised they've somehow gotten the drones to buy into the concept.
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May 22, 2014 14:49
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EugeneJ posted:Yeah I stopped reading here. Dear god. This is dumb as hell. I guess that site belongs in bad with money. quote:Holy poo poo! How does anyone afford a car above ~$20k? We make just about $100k a year between us and the cars we were looking at, in the $30k-$35k range, had 5 year payments in the $600-$700 range. It IS insane, but then again so is spending $100 a month on Starbucks and a very large number of Americans do just that. People want a status car. Going to drive my 2008 Hyundai Sonata for another ten years if I can, and my fiancee and I will never have two cars unless she somehow starts making the same kind of money I am. Even then I'd rather let her have one car and I'd walk/take public transportation. There's just so much you can do with $300 a month. Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 16:43 on May 22, 2014 |
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May 22, 2014 16:41
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Also pseudoscience is always fair game for ridicule. Suggesting it as a sound investment makes it even more so. Suggesting it as a sound investment ON A FRUGALITY WEBSITE is the worst.
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May 22, 2014 19:27
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Take your long-term market return assumptions (typically 7-8%) and subtract your loan rate. If it's 6.6%, you're talking 0.4%-1.4% of non-guaranteed benefit. If it's 2%, you're talking 5-6% of non-guaranteed benefit. To me the first instance sounds like "pay the loans" and the second like "up 401k until your retirement funds are maxed out then pay loans probably."
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May 23, 2014 16:09
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It probably drastically reduces the administrative cost of administering the plan, but from an employee perspective I would hate it. I've changed my contribution percentages upwards about 4 times this year as I adjusted my budget, and I anticipate at least 3 more such adjustments this year as various goals are met.
Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 16:47 on May 23, 2014 |
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May 23, 2014 16:40
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Fuuuuck. Think the AC in my HVAC unit is finally giving up for good. These are 100% electric units(heating and cooling), and according to the maintenance guy at our condo the replacements people are having to get nowadays when they give out are running like 7k. That's going to blow away my entire emergency fund. The plus side...is I had that emergency fund. And I'm going to be rebuilding it $700 a month while still putting 1660 a month into retirement accounts and 250 extra on the mortgage every month. Still...loving sucks man.
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Jun 1, 2014 19:50
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spwrozek posted:You could just go without AC. Save money on your electric bill too. Besides the fact it gets too hot to be comfortable, not an option. I'm not staying here longterm and there's no way I could sell without functional AC. So I may as well enjoy the benefit of a brand new unit if I have to buy it in the next 18 months either way and my old one is now completely dead. I'm all about frugality nowadays but AC is where I draw the line man. I don't run it nearly as much as a lot of people though. (Also when the AC isn't run when it gets over 90 it damages the moldings and frames in the condo so another reason not to just man up). Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Jun 1, 2014 |
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Jun 1, 2014 21:56
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EugeneJ posted:Can't you just get a couple window units for $100/pop, or are those not allowed in your complex? Floor to ceiling glass windows/sliding doors. No windows. Those things won't work. It's a lovely situation, and believe me, I regret buying this place but I can't go back in the past and fix that.
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Jun 1, 2014 22:43
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Nail Rat posted:Fuuuuck. Think the AC in my HVAC unit is finally giving up for good. Happy ending(for now)...the thermostat was just on the fritz. The repair dude didn't even charge me. Still though, definitely making beefing up the emergency fund a bigger priority this year than I had been. I can put $250 a month to extra mortgage principal instead of $450.
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Jun 2, 2014 18:44
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