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Of course he's from Southern California. He called it THE 5 and THE 405. Also dork I-5 goes from border to border. Wet food is considered better by goons because it has far less carbohydrates, and carbs are not good for cats. Like I said hard to argue with cat owners but buying the most expensive cat food just because is..... overboard.
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Apr 9, 2014 05:40
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When an interstate (I-5,70,94,etc) goes through a major metro a loop highway off of it is usually labeled with a 4, so 405, 470, 494, etc. You also see 2 and 6 before the main highway. And yeah man, I-5 runs up the entire coast. Odd numbers go north and south with the smaller numbers starting on the west coast and increasing as you go east. Even numbers run east and west with smaller numbers starting in the south and increasing as you go north.
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Apr 9, 2014 05:42
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spwrozek posted:When an interstate (I-5,70,94,etc) goes through a major metro a loop highway off of it is usually labeled with a 4, so 405, 470, 494, etc. You also see 2 and 6 before the main highway. For 3 digit numbers -- Bypasses (as in return back to the main road) are even numbers, and < 5 = West/North and > 5 = East/South. Odd numbers are spurs (do not reconnect). Lots of crazy on this here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System#Auxiliary_.28three-digit.29_Interstates_.28contiguous_U.S..29 Also for real chat. I thought we were going to have a nice open/shut case here, but we got some non-negotiable terms thrown in, which will go very well on both sides of this. The chit chat has kind of died down about this, but I really need to think you need to get your wife on board and excited. Claiming she wants to do it, and doing it are two different things. Plus people get defensive when plans are just shown/told to them, instead of them being involved in all of the options and working it out together.
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Apr 9, 2014 05:49
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Find a mexican grocery store. Your food budget is high for SoCal - produce is a lot cheaper there than in other parts of the country.
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Apr 9, 2014 06:57
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Why wait until May to dump the money on the Amex? You can make payments towards your cards whenever you want. I'd dump the money there asap (right after a conversation with your wife) while you're still gungho and have no big wants on the horizon. You guys are 29 - I definitely wouldn't touch your retirement funds. I know you said you have tons of tons in your 401k but most people suggest you have .5x your salary in retirement savings at 30 and 1x your salary at 35. I could be wrong but I imagine you guys aren't too far ahead of those numbers at this point since you mentioned you contributed only up to your employer's match. Also since you guys are approaching 30, are kids anywhere on the nearby horizon? I would definitely aim to get out of the AMEX debt before one year from now. April 2015 would be about $1,179 a month. Your budgeted expenses, even without making cuts anywhere and including the minimum on debt repayments for the other two cards, is $,4530 -- that should leave you with $1870 left to put towards the AMEX each month. You should attempt to stick to your budget as closely as possible each month and hit that $1,870 in AMEX repayments each month. Assuming you dump your checking account into the card and bring it down to $13,000, that would mean that your AMEX debt would be paid off in 8 months.
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Apr 9, 2014 12:52
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You're getting some good advice, just popped in to add one more vote for "do not touch the retirement account". The Slow Motion thread isn't interesting because of the actual numbers if you ask me, because if he pulled his head out of his rear end for three months he could pretty much pay off everything. It's the rationalizations for his spending habits and his insistence that his views on money are totally normal that make it so you can't turn away.
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Apr 9, 2014 14:44
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I checked out my 401k and my wife's. We're both at about $30k right now, so $60k total. Our company matches up to 4% and puts in another 5% for retirement contributions. However, I'm only 60% vested in the retirement contributions while, my wife is 80% vested. I learned something new about freeways from this thread.  The $7,000 payment for Chase has been scheduled and will be posted this week. After that, the balance transfer of $8,500 from AmEx to Chase will be done. Yay, baby steps.
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Apr 9, 2014 17:01
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Hand of the King posted:I checked out my 401k and my wife's. We're both at about $30k right now, so $60k total. Our company matches up to 4% and puts in another 5% for retirement contributions. However, I'm only 60% vested in the retirement contributions while, my wife is 80% vested. That is a grown up rear end step not a baby one. Way to go! Please make your budget in excel or YNAB so we can tweak it some pleaseee.
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Apr 9, 2014 17:41
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Engineer Lenk posted:Find a mexican grocery store. Your food budget is high for SoCal - produce is a lot cheaper there than in other parts of the country. Agreed, $500 is pretty high for 2 people. Do you guys cook for yourselves or are you buying prepared meals from grocery stores or shopping at somewhere like Whole Foods? My wife and I can make $400 cover a months worth of food, toiletries and miscellaneous household supplies by cooking for ourselves and buying stuff on sale. We also live in a pretty expensive area (Vancouver, BC) so this is one of the better ways that we found to cut our expenses. It was pretty shocking for my wife when I showed her that a pre-made salad from a grocery store that costs $7 can be made from about $2 worth of ingredients. Get into a habit of looking at grocery store flyers, make a menu for the week and a grocery list based on that menu. When I go into a grocery store without a list, I inevitably end up buying a bunch of poo poo that I don't use. You're not at a point where you need to be living off of rice and beans and instant noodles, but if you're picky, have expensive tastes, or don't think that you have the time or desire to learn to cook, then now's the time to get over it. There are tons of threads in GWS for learning how to cook and cooking on the cheap.
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Apr 9, 2014 17:57
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Hand of the King posted:
What's up Laguna/Aliso buddy  . I can't justify the cost so I'm stuck driving to/from LA without the 73 and you can probably imagine what the 405/5 split looks like at 5:30 
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Apr 9, 2014 21:49
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We have a 5/405 here in PDX too. I know a fair amount of people who call freeways "the #", likely due to how many Californians moved north in the 90's. I should have known better though - I think it's the 90 not 405 that is a toll road in Seattle.
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Apr 9, 2014 21:58
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SiGmA_X posted:We have a 5/405 here in PDX too. I know a fair amount of people who call freeways "the #", likely due to how many Californians moved north in the 90's. I should have known better though - I think it's the 90 not 405 that is a toll road in Seattle.
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Apr 9, 2014 22:05
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Well, your budget isn't unreasonable, I guess you are just getting killed by the monthly CC payments and transportation-related costs (I assume you live in an area with pretty high rent). Some small changes you could try making though - Do you own your phones? Might be worth checking out a carrier like Aio or T-Mobile, as you'd likely reduce your mobile phone bill by $50-70 doing that. - Like others I think you could probably cut your food/entertainment budget a bit. It's not unreasonable, but you could certainly go a bit lower. What's your eating expenses like right now? Do you or your wife eat out for lunch? If so, that's an easy place to reduce your eating out costs. $300/mo suggests to me you don't do that, but in any case.. - Do you have Amazon Prime? If so, you might be able to save some money on the cat stuff without changing what you buy, by buying it from Amazon.
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Apr 9, 2014 22:15
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Veskit posted:That is a grown up rear end step not a baby one. Way to go! Please make your budget in excel or YNAB so we can tweak it some pleaseee. I'll take a look at my spreadsheet when I get home. I keep forgetting to upload it cloud so I can access it anywhere. Rockzilla posted:Agreed, $500 is pretty high for 2 people. Do you guys cook for yourselves or are you buying prepared meals from grocery stores or shopping at somewhere like Whole Foods? Nah, we just shop at Vons/Ralphs and occasionally at Costco and Gelson's. THE RED MENACE posted:What's up Laguna/Aliso buddy  Don't do that to yourself! Enjoy the empty toll roads! Traffic completely diminishes my quality of life too much.SiGmA_X posted:We have a 5/405 here in PDX too. I know a fair amount of people who call freeways "the #", likely due to how many Californians moved north in the 90's. I should have known better though - I think it's the 90 not 405 that is a toll road in Seattle. Do people actually say "I-5" or something?  waffle posted:Well, your budget isn't unreasonable, I guess you are just getting killed by the monthly CC payments and transportation-related costs (I assume you live in an area with pretty high rent). Some small changes you could try making though We both own our own phones. I've had mine for 3 years and wife's had hers for 1. She spilled water on her phone like 3 months after getting it and now it's going batshit crazy, but she refuses to buy a new one. The eating expenses for the last 3-4 months have been off the charts due to us being so busy with wedding planning. We just haven't had time to cook so we ate out a lot. But now that the wedding is over, we should be able to go back to our normal schedule of cooking our own meals. Someone asked if we buy processed foods, and the answer is no. It's always fresh produce and meats. I do have Amazon Prime and I buy a lot of my things from there. I already take advantage of the websites with the cheapest cat food/toys/etc. I've done my homework in that department.
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Apr 9, 2014 23:08
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Hand of the King posted:
It's because people from Southern California have poo poo for grammar. I-5 is a proper noun, so you don't put a THE in front of it. Hand of the King posted:Nah, we just shop at Vons/Ralphs and occasionally at Costco and Gelson's. You didn't put a the in front of any of those stores. You drive up I-5, but you drive up the freeway.
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Apr 9, 2014 23:21
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I hate toll roads, but there are times I'd gladly pay  to get where I'm going without traffic. Hand of the King posted:Do people actually say "I-5" or something? Yes. More than one digit and the I gets dropped, tho. I5 26 405 205 [/Freeway naming chat]
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Apr 9, 2014 23:42
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Plus interstates like 75 and 70 sound way better as I-75/70. The 70 or 75 sounds dumb as hell. To actually contribute I wish you luck and think you can get out of this pretty easily. I would have a goal to pay off all the CC debt by January 1. It really is doable. When do you both get bonuses? Have you agreed to earmark it to debt no matter what? If I was you I would figure out how to become a one bank account family. No need for his money and her money. I think it is a better way to be married and makes for a terrific relationship. But it isn't for everyone. When you do something off budget it really hits home though since you are hurting the family and not just your bank account.
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Apr 10, 2014 00:07
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Hand of the King posted:Nah, we just shop at Vons/Ralphs and occasionally at Costco and Gelson's. Trader Joe's and Mexican grocery stores will save you money. Vons/Pavilions is Safeway and Ralph's is Kroger. Both tend to mark poo poo up a lot except for club card sales.
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Apr 10, 2014 00:29
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Engineer Lenk posted:Trader Joe's and Mexican grocery stores will save you money. Trader Joes also tends to have better scenery too if you know what I mean
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Apr 10, 2014 01:26
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Engineer Lenk posted:Trader Joe's and Mexican grocery stores will save you money. Latin grocery stores really only have deals on fruits, veges and specialty items. Everything else is overpriced because they're the only store fully staffed with Spanish speaking associates so they end up with a monopoly on a rather large chunk of the Latin community. Since many of those people only speak Spanish they don't shop anywhere else so the store can get away with raising prices on everyday items. I suggest Aldi in every thread, if there's one in your area I really recommend checking it out. They have equivalent generic brands for everything and very well priced fruits and vegetables. EX: An avocado at Target is around $1.80 while an avocado at Aldi is $0.89. I think I saw a Pineapple at Target or Harris Teeter once for $3.50 or something and couldn't help but laugh because I can get those for a $1.00 at Aldi. It's all the same stuff. What I said about the Mexican grocery stores applies to places like Target and other grocery stores as well. A good chunk of the people that shop at Target are shopping there because of the "scenery" I've been told: "Less black/hispanic people", "Less fatties", "More attractive associates", "More attractive customers", and "There's a Starbucks inside!" so of course people are willing to pay a premium for that. Once one of my co-workers told me that their grocery bill was outrageous and when I suggested Aldi he turned up his nose in utter disgust and muttered "I don't shop at Aldi." like I had insulted him or something. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Apr 10, 2014 |
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Apr 10, 2014 02:03
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Don't think Aldi's in Socal yet. My inlaws live in Orange and frequent TJ's, Super Irvine and a Mexican grocery store that took over their local Albertson's after the strike for staples, along with Mother's market and sometimes Ranch 99 for specialty items.
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Apr 10, 2014 02:25
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If you don't carry change you can't get a cart at Aldi's though...
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Apr 10, 2014 02:59
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poo poo, you guys saying $500 is too much for a grocery budget make me feel like I need to revisit my own spending.
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Apr 10, 2014 02:59
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spwrozek posted:If you don't carry change you can't get a cart at Aldi's though... Yeah you have to have a quarter on hand (don't worry you get it back) to use a grocery cart at Aldi. 50% of the time I don't get a cart and just use my Aldi bag or grab one of their cardboard boxes, load up, pay and head out. I once met a homeless guy that was carrying peoples carts back to the store for the quarter  ....  Anyway, I actually do like the atmosphere at Aldi. Sometimes I feel like I'm shopping with my fellow peasants and other times I feel like I'm shopping with a bunch of strong-independent or healthy living types. "Sorry twig boy but I bag my own groceries" Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 03:30 on Apr 10, 2014 |
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Apr 10, 2014 03:26
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CountOfNowhere posted:I hate toll roads, but there are times I'd gladly pay Don't forget 217 and I-84! In Portland we don't put "The" in front of anything. It's either "Eye Five" or "Two Seventeen"
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Apr 10, 2014 03:51
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OneWhoKnows posted:poo poo, you guys saying $500 is too much for a grocery budget make me feel like I need to revisit my own spending. Grocery budget is pretty regional. I've lived in Socal and grocery money went considerably further than it did when I moved up to Seattle, because fresh produce was far more expensive. Still called it the 5 and the 405 for the first 5 years I was up here. Old habits die hard.
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Apr 10, 2014 04:23
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You guys are weird. If I gave directions I would definitely say "take the 5 north to the 105 west and then take exit 12." e: I'm not from California either. Do you guys also like to use names too? I mean like some highways are named and I hate it when people tell me to take the Pony Express Highway instead of "take the 44." Also I have an issue when people say "exit left on Washingon." Well drat it which exit number is that? They're all numbered so if I see exit 10 and my exit is 16 then I know I've got 16 exits left to go. Boris Galerkin fucked around with this message at 11:33 on Apr 10, 2014 |
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Apr 10, 2014 11:28
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spwrozek posted:If I was you I would figure out how to become a one bank account family. No need for his money and her money. I think it is a better way to be married and makes for a terrific relationship. But it isn't for everyone. When you do something off budget it really hits home though since you are hurting the family and not just your bank account. This shouldn't get lost in dumb freeway chat. You're married, not roommates. You're seeing your debt as consolidated between both of you, this should happen with your assets too. Separate bank accounts are common with couples that get married later in life, but gently caress, you're 29. Pool your assets.
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Apr 10, 2014 12:27
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Bloody Queef posted:This shouldn't get lost in dumb freeway chat. I do agree in this case, though, especially if you're considering the debts as consolidated, you should make the assets consolidated too.
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Apr 10, 2014 17:56
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I am super into asset pooling, but not necessarily for financial reasons. I am into asset pooling for marital communication issues. Not only does it force you to discuss finances, but it is also an accountability tool. For example, if we split finances I could easily spend 10 bucks a day on crappy fast food, but if I know my wife and I have to discuss discretionary spending, I prolly won't get the really tasty, but horrible for me Chinese place down the street three days a week. Saves me money, and lbs and creates transparency. I love it for my marriage, but I could see some couples that get married later in life liking their privacy and not wanting to defend the $60 video game or $80 shoes when that could be spent on azaleas for the back porch or a sawzall so you can finally fix that wonky floorboard in the study. I think the real benefit is in your communication, transparency, goal setting and marriage, not in necessarily in an increased net worth or reduction in spending. SpclKen fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Apr 10, 2014 |
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Apr 10, 2014 19:59
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:Don't forget 217 and I-84! Boris Galerkin posted:e: I'm not from California either. Do you guys also like to use names too? I mean like some highways are named and I hate it when people tell me to take the Pony Express Highway instead of "take the 44." Also I have an issue when people say "exit left on Washingon." Well drat it which exit number is that? They're all numbered so if I see exit 10 and my exit is 16 then I know I've got 16 exits left to go. waffle posted:I am actually a bit surprised to hear this as advice. I mean, I don't disagree--my wife and I pooled our bank accounts a few years ago (I'm 27, she's 28), and it's worked really well for us. When she was going through school, I made money and supported us, and there wasn't a "my" and "her" money aspect to it. Now that she makes much bigger bucks than me it's working the other way. It works really well for us, but usually when I hear it brought up in BFC, people are pretty negative or neutral towards asset-pooling. Having differences in your blow budget vs your partners could be acceptable depending on who brought the debt in (Tuyop did this) but married couples are joint venture and should operate that way, IMO. It makes you more accountable and jointly involved in the budget and expense processes.
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Apr 11, 2014 02:19
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Did this devolve into west coast freeway chat since the op seems to be on the right course?SiGmA_X posted:some people (like CountOfNowhere) call it hwy 10. The name keeps fuckin' changing, but at least the number doesn't... Banfield Expressway? Oh, right, I-84... No no wait, it's a PART of I-84. Man, it was hard to learn how to get around Portland after living my entire driving life in the midwest...
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Apr 11, 2014 16:50
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Bloody Queef posted:This shouldn't get lost in dumb freeway chat. I wholeheartedly disagree. I've been in a relationship with my wife for 8 years, married for three and a half of them, and I'll be 30 next week, and we really prefer keeping our finances separate. In the beginning it was very much "if poo poo falls apart I want my money separate," and when we became a family we just stuck with it. We split up the utilities and we each pay half the mortgage, and whenever there's a big purchase we work out something so no one feels like they get hosed over. For example, when we got a new fence, we each paid for half, and this January my wife put $10,000 into home improvements (removing popcorn ceiling, recessed lighting throughout the house), and I threw an extra $10k onto the mortgage. It's worked out really well. We split everything mostly equally, but we keep our own accounts, which means when she goes out and spends gods knows what on shoes, she not touching "my money," and similarly when I go out and buy a bunch of stupid Warmachine pieces or a 3d printer I used for two months and forgot about, she doesn't sweat me either. Full disclosure: We're both tech workers in the Bay Area, and money has never been an issue for either of us. I totally understand that some families work better with pooled assets. Find what works for you, but don't combine your assets just because you think you're supposed to. Inverse Icarus fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Apr 11, 2014 |
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Apr 11, 2014 17:20
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Inverse Icarus posted:I wholeheartedly disagree. Did you pool pre marital debt when you got married? Because that's the reason the OP should be pooling his assets with his wife. Since this is BFC I'll say the following: your wife should be judging you for buying a 3d printer that you never used. It's just kind of weird that you would want what is a seriously major part of your life to not be shared with your wife. Are you both fully funding your own separate retirement accounts? Are you both saving enough beyond those limits since you live in a high cost area? If your wife blows all her non bill money and you diligently save your whole life are you going to tell her to get hosed and eat cat food when you both retire?
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Apr 11, 2014 17:38
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Bloody Queef posted:Did you pool pre marital debt when you got married? Because that's the reason the OP should be pooling his assets with his wife. This is the key. If you are sharing debt how can you not share income? This has worked well for my wife and I (I had no debt when we got married). sometimes she says she feels terrible since a lot of our money goes to 'her' debt but I can tell her it is our money so it is all good. If we split everything on the bills and I made her pay her debt with her money she would be in debt forever.
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Apr 11, 2014 17:50
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I'd argue that there is no such thing as truly "separate finances" in a marriage. Separate bank accounts with exclusive access, sure, but cohabitating, vacationing, owning a home, saving, paying bills, and  having children are places that finances intermingle. It's an arbitrary distinction, and everyone falls somewhere on a spectrum between "split every expense equally" and "everything held entirely in common".My home operates closer to the "held in common" side, because that works for us. There's not one answer for everyone. It's not only about what's the ideal result on your spreadsheet, it's about what's right for your relationship. Also if you live in Laguna Hills you should be spending half your grocery budget on biltong from African Hut in Laguna Niguel 
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Apr 11, 2014 18:12
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My $7,000 payment to Chase CC is being processed. Hooray
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Apr 11, 2014 18:27
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Where's that updated budget with expected in/actual out in a super pretty excel format so we can all look at it and congratulate/chastise you for hitting/missing your targets!
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Apr 11, 2014 18:31
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Bloody Queef posted:Are you both fully funding your own separate retirement accounts? I fund mine fully, she gives hers about 8% with no employer matching. I also have an ESPP plan I max out, and roll over into (mostly) dividend-focused index funds when it pays out every six months. Bloody Queef posted:Are you both saving enough beyond those limits since you live in a high cost area? Yes. We both make over $110k, and we have individual six-month emergency funds, which fully cover our half of the mortgage, utilities, and average expenses. We've also managed to do various home improvement projects and pay down sizable chunks of the mortgage every year since we bought the house in 2010, and owe less than half the value of the house. Bloody Queef posted:If your wife blows all her non bill money and you diligently save your whole life are you going to tell her to get hosed and eat cat food when you both retire? I have said this sentence to her, with dog food in place of cat food. Obviously that's hyperbole, and I won't let my wife (or future children) starve, but I also don't want to be retired at 45 and paying for her shoe hobby with the money I expect to last me for the rest of my life. We had some frank discussions about money, retirement, and what we want out of life and our careers. We're very different people, with very different views on money. She's a workaholic who starts twitching if she's on vacation can't check her work email. She's a big fish in her small company, and she enjoys managing people and getting things done. She continually gets promotions, and they're talking about opening a new office and having her run it. She's currently planning to work through the normal retirement age like her parents, her father still working as a lawyer at 82. I only work because I need to eat, and I'm very interested in FI/RE. I'm looking to get the house paid off and to break free of the rat race by establishing a stable passive income (through investments and a business I've started) within the next decade, before I get into my 40s. I'm getting way off topic here, but half the people are talking about highway nomenclature so whatever. I still believe you don't have to combine your income, even if you do combine your debt.
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Apr 11, 2014 18:50
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Some highlights from over the weekend. - Wife happily agreed to pooling our assets. She concurs we'd have a better sense of our finances/budget. We will have one account to where both of our paychecks will deposited, but we'll also have our own separate where we'll have our "fun" money. - Wife wanted $200/mo of fun money instead of $150, however. Ok. - $8,400 balance transfer from AmEx to Chase was requested and it's currently pending. Chase wouldn't let me do any higher. This brings the AmEx total to under $12,000. - Rent may be going up a $100 soon. - My search for a new job continues. Edit: I also found out my auto insurance is actually double what I thought it was. I was only looking at the 6 month payment total. Heh Hand of the King fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Apr 13, 2014 |
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Apr 13, 2014 21:14
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