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Hey all, So for some really dumb, bone headed idiot reason I've decided to re-open this dang 'ol thing again. It's been about 3 years since the last thread. We're pretty close and simultaneously what feels like pretty far from getting a house, and I'm hoping to end the 10 years of BFC fun-time with the purchase of a house. I'm in way over my head in particular with that, but I don't want to put the horse before the cart too much here. What's been happening since the previous thread? Well to put it lightly I'm about to turn 33, my wife is 31, and our son is four. We're living in a trailer on my mom's property. Seriously, someone help us! Nah that's true but not as bad as it sounds. I work remotely, and we've been traveling and seeing the country RVing for the past year and a half with our kid, hence the RV and truck. During that time we hit up 25 states, got some hella good Nashville hot chicken, had some Santa Fe chile dishes, watched a Detroit Lion's game in Detroit, got some Texas barbecue, camped on gulf beaches, camped on lawns, went to Monterey Bay Aquarium, l saw an rear end-ton of national and state parks, saw a manatee take a poop in the gulf, and went deep sea fishing next to some dolphins in Florida. Pretty cool! We're currently actually living on my mom's property in our RV rent-free (well we pay cable and internet for the house and ourselves as our contribution + our share of utilities). We could get an apartment, but I don't want to spend $1,500/mo. A/C and the heater work well in the trailer so we have our creature comforts. The bad of that has been the RV and truck debt (seen below), which undoubtedly has been, and will continue to be, expensive. We've decided to end our excursion to take care of our finances and get some location stability for our son as he starts Kindergarten, so it's time to pay the piper. June 1st will be the first month that we are in our current financial situation (my wife working, etc). Thread goals: Get out of debt Save a down-payment Buy a house* * Probably. After the thread: Invest/save for retirement. Let's get down to the nitty gritty. La numeros de los "debt": Truck - $45,341.66 @ 5.62% RV - $19,394.64 @ 17.75% (ouch) Student Loan 1 - $1,836.01 @ 6.55% Student Loan 2 - $1,338.46 @ 3.15% Credit Cards - ~$2,600 @ var% So yeah there's a problem there, especially the RV loan. Gross Income: Wife @ $33,280 Me @ $68,640 Net monthly: $6835* * My wife hasn't gotten her first paycheck yet, but I used a paycheck estimator that has been reliable previously. This includes health insurance. I don't know about 401k stuff yet or anything. Now, you might say what's your budget Knyteguy!? What are your gosh darn expenses you blockhead idiot? Well lucky for -you guys- I have that information. Expenses:    February's (the third one) is important here, as we were static for a few months until that point, so that's how we lived when we weren't on the road constantly. That should be a better indicator of what we need moving forward. Concept* Budget  * I am in the process of moving this concept budget over to our actual budget (I don't want to lose historical data), so I'll update this later. This is probably more reflective of next month's budget due to my wife just starting her job so her monthly income will be off, and some remaining cell services from being on the road that I need to cancel. The debt paydown includes the monthly minimum payments, I'll break that up too. Debt Paydown Plan:  I'm expecting a month or two longer here because I'm imperfect. Maybe, and hopefully not but that's what I'm expecting. Since the numbers on the concept and debt pay down can't be completely relied upon yet: the basic gist is take all of my wife's new pay (100% of it since she's been stay at home moming it for awhile), direct deposit it into a separate unused checking account (Ally, which we already have), and use 100% of that for debt. Cancel some cell services we no longer need, I quit smoking, save a bit for an oh-poo poo/truck maintenance fund probably out of my wife's second paycheck (first is going towards credit cards), put the remainder towards debt. Stretch our discretionary. Moving restaurants into fun money and heavily cutting it will be the most difficult for us, more than likely. Any bad stupid mental-gymnastics thus far? I feel it's pretty cut and dried, but let's see. I know I'm having a little fun with you guys in the OP, but I'm expecting the thread to go pretty smoothly. I'm not here to gently caress around (well with the money stuff at least). I think that's a good place to call it. My bitcoin portfolio:   --- Updates June 2019 Paid off Credit Cards: ($2600). New balance: $0 August 2019 - Moved into an apartment (at the behest of the thread and for my son) - Sold $3,360 worth of stuff, $1,760 I got paid in August, $1,500 will pay in September. - Funded the emergency fund ($4,,000) - Starting principal pay downs. - Paid $1,508 towards RV Principal. Previous: $19,234 New: $17,511 May 2020 The RV is nearly sold. We should have the paperwork signed on Friday, but if not definitely in the next few weeks. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 23:55 on May 26, 2020 |
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Jun 14, 2019 00:20
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Dik Hz posted:The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Knyteguy's BFC Thread Redux - So yeah there's a problem there, especially the RV loan. Eh yeah but we get 12-14 months ahead of us rent free @ $1,500/mo minimum because of the RV. It's our house. Just gotta take care of the loans. I've pre-qualified twice on home loans so I want to get our DTI in a good place (0:100) and our credit score in the best place possible for the best rate and go from there.
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Jun 14, 2019 05:57
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:I think one question most people would ask off the bat is, do either of your employers offer a 401(k) plan with matching? 3% full 5% half, on her 401k, mine is variable from 0-3% or something depending on if it was a good year or not. My benefits are terrible; her benefits are very good. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Out of curiosity how much Truck Equity do you have If we weren't underwater I'd sell it in a heartbeat if that's what you're getting at. I've been considering doing that actually, when we're there on the loan. That was something I was hoping for some input on when the time comes. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Jun 14, 2019 |
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Jun 14, 2019 06:27
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Used a week of wages from my wife working a temp job (~$417), used $163 in savings, and used some from the debt pay down budget category to pay off one credit card for $689. I was off on my initial credit card estimate. $1,000 left to pay to get that off our backs. I'm holding $500 in savings for an oh-poo poo situation. I'll get that to a $1,000 oh-poo poo savings after the credit cards are paid off which should be on or around the 22nd when we both get paid.  Our fun money is in cash, so the majority of that isn't spent yet. The budget is a bit out of whack still. I may just make a fresh start for July since our historical data will be so drastically different from being on the road anyway. Restaurants and fun money will be combined next month. The old budget made room for both which reflects the current month. The new budget will be $200 in fun money and restaurants combined total, but I'm not going to go too austere since it would be off plan. Any thoughts on that one? Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Jun 14, 2019 |
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Jun 14, 2019 15:27
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:Oh man. KG is one of the few BFC threads I really wanted an update to, and it's only gotten worse. *sigh* cell/internet/cable So that's something I'm looking to change, but we got home 6 weeks ago and I've been wary to cancel because: long story short we stayed with my mom for about 3 weeks last year to come visit and take a break from travel. She was having very bad drug problems (Xanax and alcohol), lost her job because of said drugs, and was going through a divorce and called the cops to get us to leave (the cops said poo poo sorry your mom is in bad shape you don't have to leave you have tenant rights; we left anyway) because she didn't like being called out on her poo poo. So coming home again I somewhat expected there to be issues and didn't want to cancel our cell plans. However things have been great; she's in court-ordered drug counseling, she's not getting hosed up because she's over the divorce, and shits just better. I'm now comfortable to cancel as I don't expect problems with our living situation, at least while she's in counseling which is mandatory to the end of the year. Our plans are unlimited hotspot barring Verizon, and we have AT&T, T-Mobile (my phone) , and Verizon (my wife's phone and a hot spot). This was great on the road, but unnecessary now. I ~may~ be able to sell the plans, as you can't get AT&T or T-Mobile unlimited hotspot usage anymore and I'm apart of an RV internet group. I'm not counting on it, but I'll throw up a post later to see if anyone bites. T-Mobile - $93/mo (prepaid plan no contract) Verizon - $127/mo, this is a contract until August or September AT&T - $93/mo Spectrum - ~$120 for television and cable (which is for the household and is basically our 'rent'). This will stay. I have it at $200 because we just started it and during planning I was unsure exactly what it was. I've been eyeing Republic Wireless or something super cheap. I have a fully paid S7 that is a slow piece of poo poo but I don't care I only use it for work phone calls a couple times a month now that the hotspot is unused. Wife is great with a Pixel 2 shouldn't need phones for awhile. The plans have already been paid for this month so I've got about 2 weeks to figure out how to cut this. I'll update when I get a chance to look over it better which is probably sometime next week. debt underwater About $12k on the truck underwater. RV - no clue. I'm guessing $10k but I haven't seen a comparable yet. I'm comfortable holding onto this debt and keeping it; when we move into a house we can rent it to Burning-Man people for like $3k-5k a season lots of people are making money off Burners doing that every year. Plus we could air bnb it or whatever potentially. I'm not 100% deadset on it but I like having it. childcare My sister manages a daycare so $0. We were going to settle down in the Dallas area, but free rent and free childcare meant we could turbocharge our debt paydown with my wife working fulltime. I can't count on this forever because she may move jobs eventually, but every month we don't pay helps.
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Jun 14, 2019 16:04
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:We have to rack up all this debt so we can arrange a living situation where we can paydown all this debt! I'm here primarily for motivation and some advice yeah, especially with what to do 6-12 mos down the line, but I guess I'm wondering what there is to do beyond execute the plan right now, like today and this month and next month? The RV is a situation that could be talked about when I know it's no longer underwater, but it is so we've got to grind a bit to get it there. In 2-3 months when we're no longer underwater let's have that discussion. As I said I'm not deadset on keeping it. Like getting into a -normal- living situation is our goal, that's mostly what I want help with. And frankly I'm afraid that when we buy we'll buy the wrong house that's too expensive, or that is too cheap, or that it's a bad decision to buy, and it's all incredibly daunting. Actually thank you for asking this it helped me figure it out. Today I'm simply trying to be pragmatic and stay focused on the immediate things in front of me. nikosoft posted:Welcome back! I have so many questions! What happened to your dogs?? (4 of them I think..? There was a cat or two?) Are you guys sure you want to get your kid going to school in Reno or Incline or whatever it was, because yikes?? Physical fitness goals still good? What do you think about Matt Patricia? Dogs are still trucking. 2 dogs and 2 cats in the ol RV along with a kid and 2 adults. It's absolutely insane, but we're both literally and figuratively closer as a family, and yeah I'm actually very happy despite some challenges. Now with that said I cannot wait to get into something a little bigger than 120sq/ft (guesstimate). Reno isn't bad for schools, at least in the burbs where we're at. 10/10 elementary school down the road, and https://www.coralacademy.org/ is a very respected charter school in the area. One of the reasons we liked Dallas was the school districts are so good, but we've decided Reno is our home for better or for worse, at least until my son is an adult. It took a lot of soul-searching to figure that out. Incline is kind of baller though (https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sa...201_rect/11_zm/ ) I'd expect them to have good schools (have never checked). MP: I'm a total I trust you until I don't fan so I currently have a lot of faith in him and the current front office, but I think this season and/or next season will speak volumes about where the team is going. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 16:58 on Jun 14, 2019 |
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Jun 14, 2019 16:48
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:The major problem that I see is that you are going to pour basically 70 grand into debt payments on depreciating things (truck and RV). Well, I guess what are your thoughts? I understand the situation we're in, and if I could magically sell the truck and the RV right this minute and live in the spare bedroom for a few months to save up the downpayment I would, but what can I do right now? We could technically go get approved on a house right this minute with my wife's IRA as a downpayment, but I know that's the wrong thing to do. My plan with the truck is basically: get it out from underwater, save up $5k-$10k, sell the truck, buy a car in cash. I was going to discuss that with the thread because I don't know if that's the best route to take, but I'm trying to ease into details a bit just to make sure it doesn't get lost in a wall of text.
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Jun 14, 2019 17:12
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:How much do you have in cash, savings accounts, etc this very moment? Other than IRAs and 401ks - things you would get penalized for using right now. That is going to highly influence my answer. Just what the YNAB screen says, plus I have (right this minute) $623 in a Vanguard account from about 2 years ago. 
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Jun 14, 2019 17:19
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:It's killing me to say this, but I think you need to talk to a bankruptcy lawyer (and professional financial adviser if you can find a good one, I have never had to look so I have no idea) Well, explain it to me why renting would be better than $20,000 in debt plus interest (looking at this from a where the heck do we live perspective only). $1560 * 12 + (($1500 * .03 + 1560) *12) = $37,980 (let's call it roughly I'm at work) with a 3% rent increase after one year $60 for the pet rent $1,500 for rent. $3,500 for the deposit = $39,950. At least $1,000 to file bankruptcy fees. $40,450. I've run through the apartment process those would be our terms. $20,000 + let's say $15,000 to get out from underneath the truck loan which would be like trade-in value not private party = $35,000. And we own the RV. Our monthly debt to income is 13% right now, would that even be accepted? I thought bankruptcy was for hardship. On top of that there is house appreciation which I don't give a poo poo from an investment perspective, but from a cost perspective, and we're putting off $40,000 from my grandma as down-payment assistance which requires us to get out of debt and to save $20,000. I just don't see it. And that's assuming we put off the house for 2 years after bankruptcy which realistically is probably 3 years with closing times and all of that other garbage. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Jun 14, 2019 |
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Jun 14, 2019 17:45
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n8r posted:What happened to the sick rear end v8 camaro? What about that VW sandrail? n8r posted:https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3827922&pagenumber=346&perpage=40#post491741540 All of that is true. Gazpacho posted:Really it's up to you whether to keep $1000 or 1 month essentials in reserve. It's not written in stone and people suggest either one. Although you need to get on top of the RV debt ASAP, I believe that $500 can't cover the range of events that a starter emergency fund needs to cover (eg truck repairs, accidents, unpaid work absence). I think we'll go with $1,000 for now. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:seriously your RV housing situation is a ticking time bomb, get your rear end in an apartment and away from your mom ASAP - even if that involves taking a hit on the RV! (you will always take a hit on the RV anyway because they're valueless turds) We have options if my mom's place doesn't work out; we're completely setup for off the grid living if needed (within commuting distance and legally) and there's also RV parks and whatnot, and we have a free bedroom at my grandma's if needed as well. I did quit smoking. I will sell when we can get out from underneath the loans; the truck at least, and as mentioned the RV isn't something I'm 100% dead-set on keeping. That could be as soon as August but more probably September or October.
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Jun 17, 2019 15:06
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SlyFrog posted:This is very simple. You make $100,000 a year and don't pay rent. Literally all of your debt could disappear in roughly one or two years without that much deprivation. Thank you, I agree. Living off of one income changed our spending habits. Lifestyle creep is the biggest thing we need to watch out for, so we just need to follow the budget. Do you think we should focus on the truck first over the RV? The RV used market here is very good, so I don't think the thing will depreciate beyond $10,000, especially because we keep it extremely maintained, and have even done a few small upgrades. There's also things like this (as mentioned): https://reno.craigslist.org/rvs/d/fernley-burning-man-rental/6908158335.html This is a different brand and model than ours, but I'd consider it comparable e.g.: aluminum body bunkhouse (and ours is a year newer, but also more well-used): https://reno.craigslist.org/rvs/d/reno-2016-jayco-jayflight-slx-267-bhsw/6913672515.html Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 15:31 on Jun 17, 2019 |
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Jun 17, 2019 15:28
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n8r posted:Yeah do this ASAP, reading back through this thread it sounds like you really want to keep it. A little over $7,000. I don't -really- want to keep the RV, especially once we buy a house. I have a small emotional attachment to it, but if there's anything I've learned the past 18 months it's how to aggressively downsize unneeded/underutilized stuff. I'm here for help on these decisions (and open to listening to them). SlyFrog posted:It's simplistic, but this is one of those "high interest rate first" scenarios in my opinion. The RV is only $20,000. With no rent, you should be able to live off of $2,000-3,000 a month, and have $3-4,000 in free cash left at the end of every month (I'm doing a rough tax rate of 20%, leaving you with $80,000 a year after taxes - the numbers might be a tiny bit off, but they're close enough for this purpose). That means you should be able to pay off the RV easily in around six months. Hell, even if you spent a little more each month, you should be able to pay it off super easily inside of a year. I mean, you have the free cash flow to easily, without any stress, throw at least a couple thousand dollars extra at the loan each month for that thing. As you noted, you live in the thing, so paying that off is also keeping you rent free for a while. So we're basically on the same page here. Your numbers are pretty comparable to what I'm getting as well. We are done towing around the country, and frankly worst case scenario we can rent a truck for a day or ask a family member if we absolutely had to move the RV. I do not give a flying gently caress about what vehicle we have anymore as long as it's a reliable small money pit instead of a reliable big money pit. Re: retirement savings - I'm not going to pretend I can be Mr. Money Mustache anymore like my previous thread and ride a bicycle every single day while living completely austere, but I would like to be secure enough to not work at Wal-Mart at 80 years old and maybe be able to golf or some poo poo I don't know. I'm pretty happy with my lifestyle right now so as long as we don't have to cut too far from what we're currently doing them I'm comfortable. I'm comfortable affirming my wife feels the same. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:it costs him nothing to actually get an answer to this question I'll call the bank that financed the loan and see if they'll drop the interest a bit (I've heard of it working before). We've never been late paying them and have had been making payments for 2 years now. So, credit cards -> RV -> truck. Cut the excessive cell bills, update the budget to reflect the new income, call to see if we can get a lower interest rate on the RV from our current lender. Sell the trailer when we're ready to purchase a home, sell the truck as soon as possible. (NSFW language) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=av5xgkmF-pw&t=4s
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Jun 17, 2019 17:17
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Gazpacho posted:Quick aside: Don't forget about the cards. You haven't shown their current rates but they are also high-rate debt that would normally have priority over moderate-rate debt. Definitely. And I apologize to the thread for being a bit of a dumbass, but there's currently $1800 in credit card debt after paying that last card. I should have double checked before posting. I forgot we used one of them for gas and misc expenses when driving from Nashville back to Reno (that was our final trip). As far as I can tell we'll be able to knock out all of that on the 22nd and possibly put our first payment towards the RV. 
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Jun 17, 2019 17:56
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BloodBag posted:I'm curious where you got the mentality of throwing away money on rent at $1500 a month, because by my math you're throwing it away on rent to a bank thusly: Our truck and trailer expenses don't go away if we rent an apartment, the apartment just adds to our expenses. Correct on the living 'illegally'. If we can't live in a backyard then yes we'll need to add RV park rent to it or live in a bedroom (still for free). If we stick to the plan then it may not be a problem; if it is I'll work out something. I'm not trying to save money on a house at all. I don't consider a home you live in an investment; on the contrary probably. That's why I put a probably asterisk on the OP re: buying a home. Property taxes here are probably some of the lowest in the country and are capped to a maximum 3% growth every year, but conversely the homes are expensive.
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Jun 17, 2019 18:13
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Thumbtacks posted:this is a vacation for people with money. even ignoring all the events you went to, how much do you think you spent on gas RVing around the country for a year and a half let alone food I don't need to tell you how much I think I spent. We tracked it. January 2018 -> April 2018 (15 months) $4,400 plus another $500 or so for the last leg on the credit card on fuel. $3,705 on RV parks $5,000 on groceries $3,500 on restaurants
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Jun 17, 2019 18:56
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IllegallySober posted:So what’s considered a good rate on an RV loan as opposed to “credit a bit too low?” And what led you to decide taking on a 17% loan was the correct move for you over other options you had? I’m not sure. Dave Ramsey sometimes suggest taking a personal loan out to cover the difference on a upside down car loan and selling the thing. Any thoughts on that avenue?
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Jun 17, 2019 23:19
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Nam Taf posted:I never thought I’d see the type of person who chooses to swap their grey nomad period of life with their dynamic late 20s-30s but here we are. Yep, gotta pay for the past 2 years now. I don't really care from like a pride perspective about living with my family at 30. It's not uncommon in Asia even while married, and I'm a millennial most people already think I'm a bum anyway. It's a really difficult choice to continue staying in the RV, don't get me wrong. But we have a strong safety net; we'll be ok. My family talked me out of an apartment at the last minute - we were very close to getting a 2BR (with free gigabit internet dammit) but they said save your money while being aware of the situation. My grandma would put some BFC posters to shame with how she handles money, and she has our best financial and other interests in mind. Maybe I'll reconsider when we take care of everything but the truck or something though (3-4 months). Alright so I got around to combining the concept budget with our actual budget:  "Category Name ($x)" is the format, $x is our regular budgeted amount. This should be good month over month. This month, as shown, we'll be putting $3,812 towards debt total. That's about $1,200 shy of our goal, but we're also a paycheck short so we're roughly on track. Dynamic and fun money is high this month, but we weren't using our new budget yet. The values in green are what I'll hold the family (including myself obviously) to from this point forward. The debt pay down fund for the remainder of the month will be allocated as $1,800 to the credit cards, and $700 to the RV (on top of the $357 payment). Give or take if my wife's paycheck numbers are off (it will be really nice to know exactly what numbers we're working with). I thought my wife was paid semi-monthly like I am, but it's a bi-weekly pay period. I may need to adjust the budget slightly to account for that, but there was like $90 in wiggle room so I'll see what ends up happening. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 05:51 on Jun 18, 2019 |
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Jun 18, 2019 05:42
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:What’s up with that debt pay down line? It seems to say that 2595 - 751 = 2509 We had some money in there rollover from previous months, so that's why it looks weird. It should look better next month.
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Jun 18, 2019 06:06
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CornHolio posted:I work in the RV Capital of the World and I wouldn't buy an RV for a thousand dollars. I've seen the engineering on them and holy poo poo, I don't know how people drop the kind of money that they do on those things. People literally do as much redbull and meth as they can before going to work so they can get their piece rates up and make a bigger bonus. Oh yeah I've heard the horror stories. We got very lucky and got a rig that has normal problems (screws coming lose from road vibration, etc) but has actually held up incredibly well. Since I can't do anything with our finances until Friday this is now a picture sharing thread since BloodBag decided to share anyway. *SNIP* Well that's it for now I don't want to kill any 56k connections. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jul 11, 2019 |
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Jun 18, 2019 18:51
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April posted:For real. KG wants people to help him/hold him accountable, but when real questions are asked (what was the thought process that led to purchasing the RV at such a bad rate? Why is the loan on the truck so high and what was the actual price?) he just posts a bunch of vacation pictures. Oh come on April isn't this what's called Concern Trolling? If people wanted to help they'd at least read the thread. There have been questions that would be answered just by reading the relatively short OP. Or is posting a lame cousin Eddie joke really helping now?
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Jun 18, 2019 19:09
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Droo posted:You seem to only want help that doesn't involve making any changes, evaluating any of your past decisions, or being accountable in any way. Well yeah I've got to get out of debt. For real this time. Pondering isn't going to make anything happen; do you know how long I tried to do that? The entire last thread. You guys said 'therapy therapy', I did so (twice, for many months!), my therapist said you're loving fine man, chill out. I just got burned for having a relatively stagnant income, which is false our income has jumped $10,000 from the end of the last thread and $80,000 in the past 10 years; well the last thread convinced me to turn down a $75,000 job with bonuses ($15,000 more than I was making at the time). $33,000 in the past 2 weeks. I need to take care of the drat debt. I want practical advice, I don't need some armchair analyzing goober telling me I'm bipolar for years and the internet making decisions for me. April posted:But... you haven't answered those questions that have been asked repeatedly? I also had like a 430 credit score because emergency medical debt ruined me during the worst recession we've seen in generations. I've had to claw my way out of that, and you guys didn't see that process. Someone criticized me for not knowing the value of a dollar and having it easy - we were below poverty line for years thanks to the recession which hit this city harder than nearly every other in the country. Do you want to know my thought process? Why the 17% was worth it? Well gently caress I hate my city, my non-immediate family life is loving miserable (my mom passed out in her car at the Thanksgiving dinner my wife and I hosted, got a DUI for hitting a fire hydrant at a high school and got arrested in front of me, got another DUI), my cousin (our family on that side has 5 people left including him) nearly died of a heroin overdose, I'm struggling with alcohol and spending to cope with all of it, my wife's family is struggling with drugs and alcohol and pressuring me to do the same, and I need out. I need to get my family away from it. Away from the toxicity in our lives. And hey at least we aren't paying rent and childcare during it. The truck? I like cars. A lot. I've always liked cars. If it wasn't for cars my finances would be in a much better place. I used to run a car forum that was pretty decently sized, even. What's changed? Basically all of it. My family is doing good for the first time in 20 years which has helped my outlook. Why are we here? Because I don't want to make the mistake with a house like we did with the truck, which was spending above our means. I've stopped caring about cars. I've stopped caring about 'stuff' for the most part. Yes negative equity is what bit us in the rear end. Asleep Style posted:That looks like a nice vacation. Was it nice enough to be worth 70k + interest? I'd probably do something else with that money but that's just me Yes, it was.
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Jun 18, 2019 19:44
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My Rhythmic Crotch posted:Blaming the internet for the dumb choices you have made, well if I didn't want to help before I certainly do now! Oh I knew this was coming! I do take full responsibility, but the difference this time around is I'm not trying to win over BFC and have fun with the thread. And I'm very much grain of salting what I hear here, because I learned that from last time. I'm here to get out of debt, and I'm here to get a house or at least find out if we shouldn't, and I'm here to get our finances to a place where I don't need to worry about them in the future. Nothing more, nothing less.
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Jun 18, 2019 19:53
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Bobbie Wickham posted:Well, we've established that you need therapy. I'm not going to diagnose you with anything except trauma and poor coping skills (yet), but that is reason enough to go to therapy. Spending stupidly to feel better is as helpful as cutting yourself or getting drunk. Face the feelings you're trying to drown out with movement, novelty, and stuff. Sure, and that's something I learned on our 'vacation', and frankly in therapy. Also that stuff I wrote was past-tense. As mentioned things are... better than I ever remember them being. April posted:Oh when bad stuff happens you go on a years-long spending bender but that has nothing to do with planning for the future and 50k because "i like cars" is totes reasonable what were we all thinking. I'm sorry but struggling to find a packet of ramen to eat for dinner is not remotely the same as some debt that we could ultimately walk away from. Is it a lot? Yes. Is it the same as going hungry? No. You wanted to know my motivation, I told you. tater_salad posted:wow those pictures were nice.. now.. are they like 3k in interest a year nice? You are and have been spending a nice vacations worth of interest on your truck and trailer every year you do this. One of the posters in page 1 mentioned that loan origination fees and all the other crap needed to refinance makes it very unlikely to be worth it as opposed to just paying it off, and I think that's true. Also it's the beginning of the work week I can't juggle everything at once.
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Jun 18, 2019 20:10
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Inept posted:Then maybe staying in your mom's yard instead of moving into that two bedroom and selling the trailer was a bad idea. If you really want to get away from that stuff, don't let your extended family talk you out of decisions that get your wife and child away from bad things. Maybe it is a bad idea, I don't know. I am taking advantage of it until a point when that's no longer viable. My sister has lived with my mom for 5 years and there's been a fuckload of tension, but she's never been truly kicked out. If it wasn't for my sister saying my mom was good then I wouldn't have come back from Texas. We were apartment shopping in Dallas 6 months ago. April posted:"It's in the past, going to be different this time" was a major theme in your last thread. I'm currently over a year in, and you never followed a single budget, were called out repeatedly for knee-jerk decision making, and refused to acknowledge that your impulsive overspending was in fact a problem, because it was always a one-time thing and it was in the past anyway. Honestly I don't know if it's different yet. But I am trying again. tater_salad posted:How quickly do you think you'll be paying this off, are you goign to make the sacrifices necessary to pay it down quickly. 4-5 months. Earlier if we sell ASAP. Possibly as soon as August in that case. That means we're stuck in a bedroom, but I can deal with that for a little bit. My sacrifice is living in this drat RV. It's 93 degrees out and I'm sweating my balls off right now so we don't have to pay $1,500 a month plus a deposit. April posted:Did you do any research on this, crunch and compare any numbers, or just decide that since that one guy on the internet said it might not be worth it that it probably isn't? I haven't. However my credit score will shoot up after getting the credit cards paid off on Friday, so really Friday is the day I'm waiting on. I will call the loan originator? whatever the term is. The bank who financed us and just shoot for a homerun of hey will you drop the interest rate.
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Jun 18, 2019 20:49
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April posted:This was also a running theme last time - you would go on about all the sacrifices you were already making, to justify the new expensive thing you wanted, when 99% of the time, the "sacrifices" were just the expected results of prior bad decisions (ie - a tiny apartment with two people and five pets and no clothes dryer smelling bad). This is catch-22. He asked what I'm doing to make sure we can pay this drat thing off and that's what I'm doing. What else could I possibly do? Following that budget isn't a sacrifice it's a necessity in my mind. sheri: alright well I'll call my credit union and start there to see fees if any, etc. I thought it would take a credit check to get info.
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Jun 18, 2019 21:00
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April posted:But... you haven't answered those questions that have been asked repeatedly? No, it’s like n8r said, we tried to spend money to save money again. I guess there is a pattern there. We financed a new truck because the old truck was 12% apr it wasn’t paying down very quickly. $38,000 plus $7k in negative equity is our truck. 2018 Silverado half ton. Definitely pretty generic. Did I really buy the ps4 while we still had payday loans? My wife is following along, so having her point out poo poo from the feedback helps. What other patterns are you guys observing? Every single time I go to a car dealership I walk away in a worse financial position. I need to, and will stay away from those places. That’s one of my own observations. With both the Corolla and the Silverado I intended on trying to lessen our debt walking in but didn’t. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Jun 19, 2019 |
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Jun 19, 2019 01:09
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Ok so how about this plan, based on feedback. 1) pay off the credit cards this Friday as planned. 2) save up $5,000. This will allow us to get into an apartment ASAP in case of emergency and pick up some furniture. Keep this money in savings. 3) continue back to debt pay down (RV -> student loans -> truck) This should only set us back a month. I’m fine with a mini-van when we can get the truck sold, but we’re a ways out from that. Moving jobs is hard for me; I am underpaid but I am also very comfortable. I do have a new job since last September however it’s with the same coworkers. My boss’s company failed so we went to one of the clients we contracted with.
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Jun 19, 2019 01:34
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Gazpacho posted:Sleazy car salesmen are a trope for a reason. One of the classic cons is focusing a buyer's attention on the finance plan (small numbers) while burying the price (big number). Well like posters have said I do need to own my problems. As an alcoholic should stay away from the bar, I need to stay away from car dealerships. I quit paying attention to car ads for this reason, but I keep thinking I can shortcut things. And I need to stop financing things for sure. It’s never worth it. I’m going to post our budget every single day for scrutiny. I won’t hide anything even if it means a bunch of goon wrath will come down upon me, but how about I just do what needs to be done instead. We have a campground membership that we can sell for $1,500 to $2,000 I think. Sell it right? It was useful on the road, but I don’t foresee us using it again.
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Jun 19, 2019 02:25
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IllegallySober posted:Since you edited your OP from the first thread it’s a little hard to tell, but it wasn’t far after that if it was. From page 1 of your old thread: Wow, yeah... what the gently caress. With a few years of separation from that post I look really dumb, don’t I. I’ll be more open to you guys calling me out on poo poo. My motivations are genuine.
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Jun 19, 2019 02:28
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:One effort post from me. If you guys honestly, no bullshit, have $5000/mo to put towards your debt, this is what I would do: Unless my numbers are somehow drastically off I think that is the case. At this point I feel pretty dumb, so let me just wait for some further feedback on this. I’m fine with it. Bobbie Wickham posted:I vote we cut to the chase and send this thread to E/N, but I'm a power-hungry tyrant who thirsts for fresh blood, and I also have your best interests at heart. I am very uninterested in this. I don’t think I’ll participate further in that case. I’m not very comfortable sharing personal stuff; one of the reasons I fight so hard in here sometimes. I’m willing to try a shrink one more time, but I want to wait for health insurance. Edit: or at least, can you explain what is e/n? I don’t even know what goes on in there. I might agree as long as it ends up back here I don’t know what to think right now. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Jun 19, 2019 |
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Jun 19, 2019 02:58
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ExtrudeAlongCurve posted:I will say it's good that your wife is reading this thread, getting on board, and seeing the consequences of some of the decisions that were made. It's a little refreshing after zurg and careful drums. No spoilers on careful drums. I just started reading. Yeah I agree, many of my bad spending habits came from my parents. I think they already had two bankruptcies at my age. I definitely don’t want to transfer that to my kid. Bobbie Wickham posted:E/N is for broken-brain problems, and to just bitch about life in general. This is where you go for advice when you're sick of ruining your own life, like if you live with toxic family members; are coping with substance abuse; have avoidance issues; make poor decisions; have little impulse control; self-soothe with harmful substances or behavior (shopping, gambling, etc.); sabotage yourself constantly; let your emotions and/or others undermine the quality of your life, and so on. Well I guess I won’t take my ball and go home. Whatever you guys think it looks like it’s nearly the same crowd anyway, at least in careful drum’s thread. I’d definitely focus heavily on the financial aspect though. I’m just not very good at communicating feelings.
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Jun 19, 2019 04:49
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the talent deficit posted:you're already living in an rv and you're some sort of programmer so what you should probably do is drive to silicon valley, austin or seattle and start job hunting. learn react and you can easily double your current salary and pay off your debt in less than a year I got my employer to pay me to learn react. My first project is already about to be deployed to our sales team probably next week. Kind of why I put redux in the title. I’m not moving out of state though, it’s too hard on my son and my wife just started her very good job.
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Jun 19, 2019 05:44
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Ritznit posted:IMO you should stop caring about being "comfortable" at your job and look more at developing your career and improving your income. You yourself admit you are underpaid. Nobody is telling you to quit your job on the spot or something crazy but I seriously think you should shop around and see what kind of pay should be expected at your experience/skill level. Having a familiar workplace with familiar faces is nice but in your situation it's madness not to see if you can find a decent place to work at that pays better. There’s places here in town I want to check out, I’m not saying I’ll stay at my current job forever, but there’s a lot of change going on in our lives right now to the point of being overwhelming. I’ve turned down two offers for $75,000 and that was 2 or 3 years ago, so I know I’m worth at least that. I have a senior in my title and a more well rounded skill set now too. I’ll give interviewing another go after we get a bit settled in. We just got back a few weeks ago. We can make good progress in the meantime.
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Jun 19, 2019 06:05
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I caught that, but didn’t it off topic  I have 7 months react experience right now, and we’re deploying a full sales app PWA. SQL, SSRS, backend, front end (css html JavaScript etc), I do all of that since I’m sole the sole dev (I focus on maintainable code and best practices as much as possible). If that’s valuable to the point of a significant pay increase, then yeah I’ll start looking next month or so. I’ve seen dev jobs paying $100k here but just never bother applying after getting burnt the gently caress out a few years ago from interviewing 5x a day. But that was Axapta stuff to be fair. I have 6 or 7 years of C# experience. My wife’s benefits are great. College reimbursement, excellent health insurance, constant raises, remote options. It’s in the medical industry with a lot of opportunity.to move up and around to different fields. I guess I should say that to move it would have to be really loving worth it. I don’t want to move to SV and be stuck in a worse position because of CoL and state tax and 4 hours of commuting. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 06:36 on Jun 19, 2019 |
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Jun 19, 2019 06:30
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n8r posted:Why are they paying you only $65k? Is this some small operation on the brink of bankruptcy? Do you ask for raises? There was a hiring freeze for a bit but that’s before they took me on. They’re just cheap I guess and in a rural area where I’m making more than double the median income. 60 some odd employees most are salespeople. I don’t know man the recession hosed me up. I’m anxious about job security because I couldn’t find a job for 2 years. I’m nervous to walk away from something that has been feeding my family for 6 years. I do ask for raises, and I’ve gotten 3. They’re just not amazing raises.
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Jun 19, 2019 06:39
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Motronic posted:You could spend a year or so in the bay area and then end up keeping your $250k computer touching job and taking it remote. This is common. Where are you guys seeing these? I see jobs for $120k in San Francisco; that's why I've never bothered. My salary = 117k in SF according to https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator/compare/reno-sparks-nv-vs-san-francisco-ca No state tax here, etc.
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Jun 19, 2019 14:26
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n8r posted:You're anxious about job security because you're worse than broke and have lived like that for years. You mention being burned out from interviews a few years ago. I remember that vaguely - how long were you actively job hunting? It didn't seem that long. You've now got experience in a more in demand language you need to do it again. I can't say for sure how long (3 months maybe), but it ended in me going to San Diego to interview for that consultant job, and them realizing they didn't have the budget to take me on as a dev. Nam Taf posted:If you were risk-averse you'd consider not taking on a risky high-interest loan. It comes across that you're actually just comfortable in this job and afraid of being pushed out of a comfort zone. I'd stipulate that it's why you so often try to spend your way out of debt - you're really spending because it comforts you that you're making an action that, in your mind, will solve the problem without actually doing the hard work. Yeah this is pretty spot on, and I didn't have much luck finding a much better job a few years ago besides two that paid the same ($75k). Mind you I didn't interview in Washington, SF, or Dallas/Austin. The recruiters kept finding me jobs in the south for some reason. One offer I got in Virginia for ex. e: it's probably also important to reiterate that I'm self taught. A lack of degree has hindered me slightly. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Jun 19, 2019 |
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Jun 19, 2019 14:32
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Bobbie Wickham posted:OP's never coming back. My wife's dad passed away so we've been pretty busy with that. We have one truck, not two. I'm not sure where that came from. I've paid off all of the credit cards.
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Jun 24, 2019 05:41
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zaurg posted:Sorry to hear about your loss, Knyteguy. Thank you. So based on the feedback in here we looked at some options. We have the opportunity to move into an apartment (we were approved pre-thread and double checked that our approval is still good until [finding out when but they said it's close]) and fix the illegal living situation at the end of the month. We have not made a decision yet, as I wanted to consult BFC. Details: $1,560/mo plus $899 deposit. 2BR/2BA. The pets are allowed. We called roughly 30 apartment complexes (pre-thread) and this was the only one that would work with us in our situation without requiring a huge up front deposit with no upsides over this complex. Rent is average for the area for a 2BR in a safe neighborhood. Cliffs notes pro/cons list: Mom's backyard: - Get out of debt more quickly/get into a house we own more quickly. - More discretionary money every month for fun activities. - Illegal/against city code. - Free rent. - Close to family (both a pro and con). - Shared bathroom/dishes/laundry. - Cheap utilities. - Little privacy. Apartment: - It sets us back roughly a year. - More room for our hobbies (video games, my wife is a painter). - Son gets a whole bedroom/we all get way more space. - We don't have to share a bathroom, laundry, and kitchen space with a bunch of people. - No more storage unit (could use RV for storage). (-$95) - Much better internet for work (free). - Free gym/pool. - 5 minutes from wife's work. - Centrally located. - Don't have to go inside to do dishes/use the bathroom. - Have to buy furniture (thrift store). - Need a well-funded emergency fund more urgently. - Lots of privacy. My wife and I are leaning yes, but we're now skeptical of our decision making. We're finding out today when we need to make a decision by before the approval expires. It's likely the end of this week. Emergency fund plan for Apartment: - Get a month's worth of expenses ASAP. This should take 2 months according to the budget if we forego extra debt payoff. Emergency fund plan for RV: - Save $2,000/mo for 2 months to have $4,000. 'Extra' towards debt. Assuming: Wife is pulling in $2,000/mo post deductions (health/dental (vision free)/401k match). Total towards debt apartment (roughly): $3,000 Total towards debt mom's backyard: $4,800 Aside: I've also started applying for jobs again as I agree I need to focus on my career. I'm starting locally and will go from there. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Jul 2, 2019 |
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Jul 2, 2019 15:31
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 21:36 |
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tater_salad posted:next step would be to pay down that RV so you can sell it asap, remove that albatross from around your neck. Sure it's freewheeling camping lifestyle is great but you cannot afford it. I agree. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:You need to stop thinking about buying a house and you need to start focusing on getting out from under the absolutely stupid amount of consumer debt you took on because you tried to run from your problems. I agree. Droo posted:Are you under the impression that your RV was cheaper than an apartment would have been over the last few years? Here I made a list of expenses for each side you could use to evaluate that theory. My wife and I have been discussing similar points the past couple of weeks. My Rhythmic Crotch posted:To me, instead of saying "we're going to be paying X towards debt in some hypothetical future scenario" I would like to see more concrete planning. Like, how much is it going to cost total to get into the apartment including stuff like furniture, utility deposits (some cities require these if you haven't had utilities in a while), supplies, etc and so on. And then a concrete plan of where that money is going to come from without just slamming it all on credit cards. I'll run more useful numbers when I get my work done for the day. Dwight Eisenhower posted:You need to have a better understanding of the risks you have embraced thoughtlessly so that you can correctly price your options. I want to start approaching decisions like this. What are the pros and cons of making X decision compared to not making X decision, how does it affect our goals and everything else, what is the worst case scenario if we do, or do not do such a thing, sanity check trusted sources until we can trust ourselves. We spent about 4 hours writing that stuff out/discussing that last night which is why we were leaning yes to the apartment, so I'm glad that maybe that's a good approach. It seems to help make a big choice less complex.
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Jul 2, 2019 17:33
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