NT: Official Personal Finances Thread

[water runs dry]

what's a good company i should get life insurance from?

This.

 

[superantigen]

Finished setting up by budget/spending-plan spreadsheet for 2016 and thought of this thread.

Anyone care to share any personal finance success/failure stories from 2015?

I'll go first:

Success -- shrank my student loan debt obligation from 23K+ to 5.7K. Barring any unforeseen financial calamities, I should be debt free by March. Can't wait...

Failure -- my vice is eating out, and Iooking back, I wish I had better control over this habit. I grocery shop and cook meals that I take to work for lunch, but there were far too many instances--for my liking--where I bought fast food. My goal is significantly cut down on my fast food spending by incorporating new and tasty fast food recipes into my meal rotation. For example, instead of going out and spending $15 on chaufa, I'm going to instead buy the ingredients and make it myself.

Also, anyone here give themselves an allowance for the purpose of guilt-free spending? If so, how much? I'm thinking about increasing mine and am curious to see how much y'all allocate for yourselves.







...

 

[antidope]

Mine is 100$ a month on paper but it never works out being that low.

I created a budget in excel too and will be tracking it down to the cent this year.

Congrats on the student loan pay-down thats my foremost concern finance wise. Its the bane of my existence.

 

[slighted]

2015 goals

- Break six figures in savings -- done

- Minimize all entertainment expenses by 20% -- done

- Save at least 60% of all paychecks -- done

2016 goals

- Create multiple revenue streams to eliminate dependence on one sole job

- Deploy capital to execute the above goal^

- Close out any unnecessary CCs

 

[al audi]

2016 goals
- Create multiple revenue streams to eliminate dependence on one sole job
- Deploy capital to execute the above goal^
- Close out any unnecessary CCs

im interested in cash flow streams to make my money grow

ive been unemployed since June and i prob wont be employed again until who knows when

 

[antidope]

 
2015 goals

- Break six figures in savings -- done

- Minimize all entertainment expenses by 20% -- done

- Save at least 60% of all paychecks -- done

Sheesh 

. You crushed it. Any of that invested or is that purely in a savings?

 

[slighted]

 

 
2015 goals

- Break six figures in savings -- done

- Minimize all entertainment expenses by 20% -- done

- Save at least 60% of all paychecks -- done

Sheesh 

. You crushed it. Any of that invested or is that purely in a savings?

All sitting in my savings account earning abysmally low interest.

 

[sneaksoy]

All sitting in my savings account earning abysmally low interest.

Well if you look at what Wall St did this year... You probably would've had a similar return even if you were invested. Sounds like you've got some awesome liquidity, that's one of my main goals for 2k16. Build back up my liquid savings after having bought a house and utilized my Roth IRA in 2015.

 

[sneaksoy]

My 2016 personal finance goals:

- Limit CC expenses to ~$900 a month (I put all groceries, gas, restaurants, clothing/shoe purchases on my card generally among other random expenses)
- Save ~$15k in liquid cash on top of what I contribute to my 401k and IRA
- Make an extra $8k outside of my work paychecks (through rent, side hustles, etc)

 

[al audi]

only a $100 a month for guilt free spending??

wth

 

[based mod]

Another January, another max into the Roth

 

[antidope]

only a $100 a month for guilt free spending??

wth

I don't deserve to spend money on things. I have debt. 

 

[al audi]

I don't deserve to spend money on things. I have debt. 

Ok I get it, true.

I mean a lot of people have debt that's life, but we need to enjoy right?

 

[antidope]

 

I don't deserve to spend money on things. I have debt. 

Ok I get it, true.

I mean a lot of people have debt that's life, but we need to enjoy right?

Not until I'm debt free. I put myself in this position and now I should be doing everything to get out of it.

 

[superantigen]

only a $100 a month for guilt free spending??

wth

Mine was less than $50 for '15. I'm thinking about increasing it to $50 for 2016...

It's really mind over matter. Personally, aside from fast food, there's not much else that I buy.

Additionally, these days, I derive more pleasure from being financially conservative/frugal than from spending aimlessly. Furthermore, as I see it, every dollar allocated toward "guilt free spending" is a dollar less allocated toward savings, investments, debt-management, etc.




...

 

[DCAllAfrican]

Just graduated but I ran some quick numbers for when I start working in a month:

$65k salary
Roughly $4k a month after taxes
Plan on saving $2.4k in investments
Save whatever I don't spend from my food/spending budget

#HumbleBrag

#ImHereToShowTheWorld

 

[al audi]

Mine was less than $50 for '15. I'm thinking about increasing it to $50 for 2016...

It's really mind over matter. Personally, aside from fast food, there's not much else that I buy.

Additionally, these days, I derive more pleasure from being financially conservative/frugal than from spending aimlessly. Furthermore, as I see it, every dollar allocated toward "guilt free spending" is a dollar less allocated toward savings, investments, debt, etc.




...

thats cool

i wont lie i dont believe in living like that but i respect it

 

[superantigen]

Mine was less than $50 for '15. I'm thinking about increasing it to $50 for 2016...

It's really mind over matter. Personally, aside from fast food, there's not much else that I buy.

Additionally, these days, I derive more pleasure from being financially conservative/frugal than from spending aimlessly. Furthermore, as I see it, every dollar allocated toward "guilt free spending" is a dollar less allocated toward savings, investments, debt, etc.




...

thats cool

i wont lie i dont believe in living like that but i respect it

It's all good. We only get one life, so you definitely gotta live it how you want.

I've seen from some of your posts that you're coming into a good amount of money. If I had that windfall coming my way, I'd be investing in some multi-families in NH, Bpt, Wtrbry, etc. Let that money work for you...





...

 

[capital sb]

sneaksoy Can't think of the market in short term increments. Even though the market is down this year , historically the market has 8% returns.

All sitting in my savings account earning abysmally low interest.

Atleast put that in a high interest savings account. Definitely invest that money in something.

Not until I'm debt free. I put myself in this position and now I should be doing everything to get out of it.

I am the same way, only about $200-$250 of free spending everything else goes to debt. Debt paydown is my #1 priority.

Spending a bunch of money does not equal happiness and spending less money does not equal unhappiness.

2016 Financial Goals
----
-Eliminate all consumer debt by October 2016.
-Maintain a 30% savings rates
-Generate $500/mo of side hustle income
-Generate $1500/mo of rental income

 

[sneaksoy]

sneaksoy Can't think of the market in short term increments. Even though the market is down this year , historically the market has 8% returns.
Atleast put that in a high interest savings account. Definitely invest that money in something.

I'm well aware of what the market has done historically. I'm also well aware of what it did this past year. Averaging 8% a year is not the same as returning 8% every single year. Based on the current market, I think right now liquidity is actually a better strategy than dumping reserves into the tail end of this bull market. $100k in cash sounds like he's got some short-term options in mind.

Liquidity is a concept too many people overlook imo. Yes you should be putting small bits of money away into the market each month and count on dollar-cost averaging to make your returns strong in the long-term, but if you have $100k and potentially want to start a business in the next two years, or spend that money on something significant in the short-term, if you invest it all you risk losing a portion of those funds by the time you go to use them due to short-term market fluctuations. I do recommend a high-yield savings or even a money market account though for more short term goals, but even those returns are marginal these days. Those are highly liquid investments though.

 

[capital sb]

I know that 8% average return does not mean 8% yearly returns, obviously the market is down this year. I didn't disregard liquidity I know he has short term plans.

I would still recommend a high yield savings account for the money, haven't seen a money market that is beating 1.05% apy even with 100K which is very sad.

 

[oidreez]

Just graduated but I ran some quick numbers for when I start working in a month:


$65k salary

Roughly $4k a month after taxes

Plan on saving $2.4k in investments

Save whatever I don't spend from my food/spending budget

#HumbleBrag

#ImHereToShowTheWorld

How is that a humblebrag? If he said $165k then I would understand...

 

[oidreez]

Also how can we all get in on this multiple streams of income concept?

 

[blackdynamite]

So I out about 1000 a month in my credit unions saving account, pretty much picking up next to no interest. What are some accounts I can put that money into? Also Can someone explain some good retirement accounts to me?

I'm 22 by the way.

 

[capital sb]

How is that a humblebrag? If he said $165k then I would understand...

I've noticed everything on here is considered a humble brag, especially dealing with money 

So I out about 1000 a month in my credit unions saving account, pretty much picking up next to no interest. What are some accounts I can put that money into? Also Can someone explain some good retirement accounts to me?

I'm 22 by the way.

I would recommend opening up a high yield saving account. I prefer Barclays they have very good security and good returns, especially if you go with the dream account. https://www.banking.barclaysus.com/dream-account.html

Here is a site showing the best for 2016 . http://www.thesimpledollar.com/best-high-interest-savings-accounts/