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I originally made posts in the "How to Create a Budget" thread, and was advised to make my own thread about this. I got some good responses and will quote them below. So, I'm tired of being constantly broke and living paycheck to paycheck. I bought YNAB 4 and have created a budget and have stuck to it for the past two weeks, so I'm feeling good about my prospects. However, I feel my budget is a bit...lacking. I don't feel that I'm allocating all of my money as well as I should, because I'm new to the YNAB method of "Only budgeting the money you have RIGHT NOW instead of planning for the whole month". Here is my info: Timeline: Two weeks at a time, to coincide with my twice-a-month paychecks. Here's my budget for July:  My stats: Monthly income: $2749.12, or $1374.56 per check. 24 years old, employed in IT with a full time job paying $45,000/year I have several debts I'm trying to pay down, as you can see in the photo USAA Credit Card: $890.17 @ 18.9% interest Walmart Credit Card: $615.06 @ ~28% interest Car Loan: $18,779.49 @ 4.5% interest Money I owe my girlfriend for emergency cat meds: $121 Student loans: ~$45,000 or so, that I won't have to pay on until next year so I haven't included them yet. I feel that my current financial situation is tenuous enough that I should worry about getting on a more stable footing by clearing the above debts first and socking away some savings before worrying about the student loan payments. Additional notes about my budget: - Rent isn't displayed for July because I paid it on the last day of June, with June's income. August's rent will be included for August when I get paid on July 31 and make a budget for that two week period. - I have no clothing budget because I very, very rarely buy clothes but when I need to, I can allocate money to it then - Netflix is $7.99/month - We don't know what the water bill is yet (we moved in May and the water bill is held for two months before we get it) - Internet is an anomaly; Comcast lost our account information in the move and we technically have no account, but we still have Internet service at the new place - Assume that for things like groceries, everything will be doubled since it's all budgeted on a two week scale instead of a monthly scale - If you see random numbers like $52.10 budgeted for groceries, that's because I've had to switch money from categories to keep everything straight and not go overbudget for certain items My goals: - Build up a month's worth of money in savings as a buffer so I can pay next month's bills with this month's pay - Build up $5,000 in an emergency fund - Pay off both credit cards and make a good dent in my car loan (I swear to God I'm cutting that Walmart card into bits and pieces as soon as I get it paid off, when I applied for it I was an incredibly broke college student and had no money for things like food and furniture, and I had to return to using it when I moved by myself to Atlanta to an apartment with no food and little furniture) - I'm contributing to a 401(k) @ 3% which my employer will match, but that will begin in August after my three month probationary period is over. Can I get some advice, please? ------------------------------------ Veskit posted:I'm really unsure why you don't just cut the wallyworld card and pay it off now. That interest rate is absurd. Of course pay that off first before anything. I mean maybe save a month's buffer first, but immediately deal with that card. Then immediately pay off the USAA card. Those interest rates suck and will get you back a lot of money. 2. Rent is $677/month for my half, there's nothing I can do about that. The rent itself is pretty reasonable for where we live (Midtown Atlanta) 3. About car value: I was advised in the YNAB thread to add that on there in order to get my net value, it's off budget so it doesn't really factor into the budgeting process 4. My cell phone bill will be going down soon - I'm paying for two lines and the early cancellation fee for the 1st line is literally the same amount of money as it would be to continue paying the bill until the normal cancellation period 5. Cutting up the Walmart card is a great idea and I'm planning on doing it. I'm paying about $70 more than the minimum to pay them both down. I can't really afford to pay more than $100 each on those cards. Veskit posted:1. YOU ARE GETTING WRECKED on that car loan. However I have no experience in these sorts of things so I'll leave it as a call out for someone else to talk about. A 6 year loan on a car you're 8k under on is a very bad situation. 4. It'll go down to about $100, and I don't know if I can get it much lower than that. I know for sure I don't need unlimited minutes so I can cut back on that. Unlimited texting is useful to me since I text a lot more than I talk. I also have 2GB of data with a 27% corporate discount on the data price (loving rip off) Edit: My current bill is $160 and the 2nd line is costing me $54. So getting rid of that automatically drops me to $106. I went from 3GB data to 1GB data (saved $20), and my total bill is now $110. When the 2nd line gets dropped, it will go down to $56. 5. I'll cut it up as soon as I get home. I'm also going to take Engineer Lenk's advice and pay only the minimum ($13 since I have never had a late payment) on the USAA card and just hammer that Walmart card into submission before paying off the USAA. I don't want to cut the USAA card up even though it has a $35 annual fee because if something happens before I get my savings up, I literally have no other way to deal with emergencies. I'm going to talk to USAA about whether that card will become a "normal" card with a lower interest rate and no annual fee after a set time (I've heard that a super lovely card is the norm for first-time credit card applicants and the person usually gets a better card from the bank after a year or so once they build their credit - is this true?). If not, I'll have to cancel it. Nocheez posted:Wait, so instead of paying the full amount with interest over the life of the loan, you decided to roll it over to another place and add even more interest on top of it? I know my situation sucks, and I'm trying to get out of it. This is the best paying job I can get with my experience level, and it's still $12,000 more than the job I had previously. I went from $33,000 to $45,000 with this job change. What matters now is how I can get myself out of this hole - I know I hosed up bad, and I'm chalking that up to my inexperience and just a bad decision. It's my own fault and no one else's, and I'm committed to making it better.
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Jul 22, 2014 19:31
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1) YNAB is great, continue to use YNAB. But for right now, open up Excel (or your favorite spreadsheet application) and re-create that list -- what things do you spend money on every month, and how much do they cost? That will give a better picture of your finances as a whole. 2) Stop loving using Snus. 3) "- Internet is an anomaly; Comcast lost our account information in the move and we technically have no account, but we still have Internet service at the new place" - Do not let this go. They will throw you into collections, cut off your service, or both. 4) The Walmart card needs to go, and it sounds like you've already got that covered. 5) Your proposed YNAB budget looks fine. You can't be doing too horrible if that's accurate to your spending, which I'm guessing it isn't. You need to analyze your past spending -- Mint, Quicken, something where you can look at what transactions you've made and the percentage of them that are needs vs wants. That will give us much more information than your proposed ideal spending. lament.cfg fucked around with this message at 19:52 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 19:50
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a worthy uhh posted:1) YNAB is great, continue to use YNAB. But for right now, open up Excel (or your favorite spreadsheet application) and re-create that list -- what things do you spend money on every month, and how much do they cost? That will give a better picture of your finances as a whole. Snus is my only vice  I don't even really drink. It's cheaper than cigarettes, too, though I know it's not as cheap as not doing it at all. It's something I enjoy doing, as well.I am going to call Comcast as well, to set up a new account. My spending was out of control for June. I spent way, way too much on things (mostly restaurants, eating out at fast food, and video games) and my July budget reflects my attempt to reign in spending. My June spending was requested, so here is a breakdown from Mint, which is still recording all of my spending to date, even though I barely touch it since getting YNAB.  Breakdown: Financial: This was USAA Credit Card and my car loan Food & Dining: Exclusively eating out and fast food Bills & Utilities: Self explanatory Uncategorized: This is "discretionary money", ie corresponding to my snus, energy drinks, sodas, granola bars, etc Entertainment:  and video gamesAuto & Transport: Gas, mostly Shopping: I don't know, honestly. Personal Care: I also don't know As you can see, my budgeting efforts prior to June were gently caress-all. This also isn't including my rent payment for June, which was $677, and probably a couple of other things as well.
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Jul 22, 2014 20:23
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Snus, videogames, energy drinks, soda, and fastfood/restaurants are your only vice(s). Try to cut back on all these as much as you can tolerate so you have more resources to murder that Walmart CC debt of yours (then your other CC debt, then packing into a rainy day fund). What's the interest rate on your student debt going to be?
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Jul 22, 2014 20:37
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Clockwerk posted:Snus, videogames, energy drinks, soda, and fastfood/restaurants are your only vice(s). Try to cut back on all these as much as you can tolerate so you have more resources to murder that Walmart CC debt of yours (then your other CC debt, then packing into a rainy day fund). My student loan interest rate will be 3.86%. I applied for and was accepted into the Income Based Repayment plan, but have not had to pay anything yet. All of my loans are from the Federal Government, none are private. And you're right. I didn't take those extras like sodas into account on the "want vs need" scale. Every one of those is a "want", and I've cut back heavily on those. For example, I haven't had an energy drink or soda in the past two weeks. The one time I had fast food, I took the money out of my snus budget to cover for it. I have also not bought any video games this month except to pay for my WoW subscription, which is also definitely a "want", but is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment I can think of for time spent vs money spent. I'm still working on destroying those credit card debts - I'll be making extra payments on the Walmart card I think, when I get paid. Since the USAA minimum is so small, I will make a $50 payment on the Walmart card on the 31st on top of the $100 I would be paying anyway in August. HonorableTB fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 20:47
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One of the easiest ways to dig yourself out of a hole is to increase your income. Is there anything you could do to put an extra 75 or 100 dollars in your pocket every week? Consulting, lawn mowing, fixing things on the side, flipping electronics, being a male cam whore, whatever. 75 bucks doesn't sound like a lot of money, but 4 weeks x 75 bucks is another 300 a month. Sometimes it's easier to find an extra source of income instead of cutting back.
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Jul 22, 2014 20:52
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skipdogg posted:One of the easiest ways to dig yourself out of a hole is to increase your income. Is there anything you could do to put an extra 75 or 100 dollars in your pocket every week? Consulting, lawn mowing, fixing things on the side, flipping electronics, being a male cam whore, whatever. 75 bucks doesn't sound like a lot of money, but 4 weeks x 75 bucks is another 300 a month. Sometimes it's easier to find an extra source of income instead of cutting back. I can donate plasma four times a month at $30 per donation. I can also start up my home-based computer repair business on the weekends and at night, if need be. I have no idea how much income that will bring in, though. Someone in the other thread mentioned me selling my car. Does anyone have an opinion or advice about that? I owe a ludicrous amount on it due to my own stupidity. I got taken advantage of by my own need for transportation (try to get around Atlanta without a car and see how far you get), the fact that I'd been at the dealership for 7 hours, and my own impatience.
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Jul 22, 2014 20:55
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Good job on making a thread! You actually can start making progress if you are disciplined. First things first: figure out how much you need for personal spending money per month, and then take it out in cash. Do not put anything on a credit card that is a want. If you have $50/month designated for it, and you spend $48 on snus, then you have $2 left for a single can of Monster or whatever your vice is. Start finding ways to save money. Figure out what you owe for internet (hint: it's not going to be zero!) and get that sorted out. You need to kill that Walmart card as quickly as possible, then start working on the USAA card. Once you are free of those burdens, start thinking about your car situation. It sucks that you let yourself get screwed by the dealership, and then by yourself when you rolled it over with full interest to a new loan. But you need to take the emotion out of it and figure out what the best course of action is. Cross that road when you get to it. edit: and take your car's value off YNAB. It's going to decrease every single month you own it, so it's not a good indicator of your overall wealth. Cars are better thought of as costs, not assets.
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Jul 22, 2014 21:11
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Nocheez posted:Good job on making a thread! You actually can start making progress if you are disciplined. I really like the cash idea. I'll do that when I get paid on the 31st. It's easier for me to not spend cash since I can see it leaving my wallet. I'm already looking at ways to save more money; we are cooking at home every night (pasta and $10 worth of ground beef can go a long way!), sandwiches, bringing lunch from home to eat at work, things like that. I'm sorting out the Internet situation right now. What happened was, when I moved two months ago service was disconnected at my old apartment and the account was canceled, and the server was transferred to the new address but the account was never re-opened there. I have to create a new account. Edit: Internet will be $25/month per person for a year, then $35/month per person after that. That's the service I had before I moved. I agree that the Walmart and USAA cards are #1 and #2 priority. I still have no idea what to do about the car. I'm afraid to talk to my mother about it because I know all she'll do is spend an hour scolding me for being so irresponsible, so I need to figure it out without getting my family involved. I'm supposed to be the "responsible" one of the children (first through college, first with a real job, highest earner in the family, but apparently that doesn't make you immune from mistakes!) HonorableTB fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 21:32
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Forget about the car, not worth stressing about. It's 300/mo and you won't be able to replace it for less than 300/mo and you're 8000+ upside down. You got hosed on that deal, live and learn, move on. The good news is if you take care of the car it will last the 6 years you need to pay it off, and probably another 6 after that.
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Jul 22, 2014 21:56
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skipdogg posted:Forget about the car, not worth stressing about. It's 300/mo and you won't be able to replace it for less than 300/mo and you're 8000+ upside down. You got hosed on that deal, live and learn, move on. The good news is if you take care of the car it will last the 6 years you need to pay it off, and probably another 6 after that. $300/mo without having to dish out an additional $200+/month for credit card payments doesn't sound too bad. It was a great lesson learned, and the car itself is in fantastic shape. Only had one previous owner and had 30,000 miles on it, and it gets 30 mpg on the highway which is very beneficial to my commute.
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Jul 22, 2014 22:01
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As an fyi on your internet. Once the year is over and your promotion ends, shop around with other providers to see what they're offering. With any luck, you'll find something comparable for less, or at least about the same price. Once you've done so, call up Comcast and try to cancel since you've found a better deal. They'll either offer you a new promotion (saving $200-$300 annually), or cut you loose. If they do drop you, you can either go with the other ISP, or call Comcast again in a few days and sign up once more, with whatever promotion they're offering at the time.
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Jul 22, 2014 22:02
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Clockwerk posted:As an fyi on your internet. Once the year is over and your promotion ends, shop around with other providers to see what they're offering. With any luck, you'll find something comparable for less, or at least about the same price. Once you've done so, call up Comcast and try to cancel since you've found a better deal. They'll either offer you a new promotion (saving $200-$300 annually), or cut you loose. If they do drop you, you can either go with the other ISP, or call Comcast again in a few days and sign up once more, with whatever promotion they're offering at the time. That may or may not work. Comcast has a stranglehold on the Atlanta market and they know the alternatives are lovely AT&T DSL or them. There's really no competition until Google gets around to installing fiber here (which they're doing, the bureaucracy just takes forever). As soon as I can get Google Fiber, I'm dropping Comcast like a wet rag.
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Jul 22, 2014 22:19
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If you just say "I'd like to cancel because I can't afford it," they should put you on a 6 to 12-month promo price. No need to say you're going elsewhere.
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Jul 22, 2014 23:09
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HonorableTB posted:I'm still working on destroying those credit card debts - I'll be making extra payments on the Walmart card I think, when I get paid. Since the USAA minimum is so small, I will make a $50 payment on the Walmart card on the 31st on top of the $100 I would be paying anyway in August. You said earlier that you could afford $100 per card. If USAA is a $13 minimum that means you should pay $187 on the Walmart card in August.
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Jul 23, 2014 01:27
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Engineer Lenk posted:You said earlier that you could afford $100 per card. If USAA is a $13 minimum that means you should pay $187 on the Walmart card in August. Gotcha. I'm feeling a bit better about all of this now that I have some kind of direction, even if it's indirect from here. Sometimes it's very overwhelming and it's easy to get crushed down by everything, so it's nice to be able to have people who go "No, you should do THIS next."
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Jul 23, 2014 03:16
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You mentioned you pay half the rent but $180 for electricity seems like an entire month's bill, do you not split that? Is $180/mo in electricity normal for Atlanta in the summer?
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Jul 23, 2014 04:42
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Knightmare posted:You mentioned you pay half the rent but $180 for electricity seems like an entire month's bill, do you not split that? Is $180/mo in electricity normal for Atlanta in the summer? We normally split it, but this month I did my girlfriend a favor and just paid her half because 1) she was low on money and 2) had just started her first real salaried job and needed her money for gas to commute. That's a normal-ish bill for power in Atlanta. Summers are crazy hot and humid, we keep the air conditioner set to 74, the appliances are all electric (I wish some were gas like my old apartment), we have to both take showers, do laundry, etc so I'm not sure how much we further we could get that down. Power is just expensive in the South during summertime and cheap in the winter since normally (recent Polar Vortex withstanding) our winters are very mild. Edit: Checked my last month's power bill and I paid $110 for my half due to one-time fees for service connection and things like that. Georgia Power is a rip off, but it's that or nothing  So yes, my normal power bill payment should be between $85-$90, to allow for fluctuations in kilowatt hours
HonorableTB fucked around with this message at 13:58 on Jul 23, 2014 |
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Jul 23, 2014 12:46
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Rating for Google is a flexible and decent part-time job that you can do from home for some extra cash as long as you can commit to spending 10 hours/week on it and it's probably a better use of your time than selling plasma.
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Jul 23, 2014 14:33
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Powerlurker posted:Rating for Google is a flexible and decent part-time job that you can do from home for some extra cash as long as you can commit to spending 10 hours/week on it and it's probably a better use of your time than selling plasma. What is this? I've never heard of it before.
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Jul 23, 2014 14:56
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HonorableTB posted:That's a normal-ish bill for power in Atlanta. Summers are crazy hot and humid, we keep the air conditioner set to 74, the appliances are all electric (I wish some were gas like my old apartment), we have to both take showers, do laundry, etc so I'm not sure how much we further we could get that down. Power is just expensive in the South during summertime and cheap in the winter since normally (recent Polar Vortex withstanding) our winters are very mild. Bump the thermostat up a few degrees, provided it wouldn't be some enormous point of contention with the gf. I imagine maintaining a temp of 74 in Atlanta basically makes that AC run all the time.
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Jul 23, 2014 15:16
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HonorableTB posted:What is this? I've never heard of it before. Google contracts with a number of different companies like ZeroChaos or Lionbridge to evaluate things like tweaks to their search algorithm, ads placed, or keyword mapping. The job is part-time and you work from home at least 10 hours per week (but no more than 30). I don't know what English-only raters get paid, but my wife did some Chinese-language rating for $15/hr. It's a W-2 position and can last for up to a year. On the Google website, the job title is "Ads Quality Rater" but their other contractors may use slightly different titles. The one catch is if you want an English position, you may be on a waiting list for a while.
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Jul 23, 2014 15:47
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HonorableTB posted:I really like the cash idea. I'll do that when I get paid on the 31st. It's easier for me to not spend cash since I can see it leaving my wallet. Have your partner open the Internet account and get in on the cheapest promo. We went from $65 to $35 for the same 50mbps line. If you rent a modem, buy one. PBP is 9 months with Comcast, and my new modem has a 2yr warranty. And my folks Comcast provided last one lasted 5-6yrs... Henrik Zetterberg posted:If you just say "I'd like to cancel because I can't afford it," they should put you on a 6 to 12-month promo price. No need to say you're going elsewhere. Comcast did that for me 6mo ago but refused last month. So I did as listed above. Ftw.
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Jul 23, 2014 15:51
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Barry posted:Bump the thermostat up a few degrees, provided it wouldn't be some enormous point of contention with the gf. I imagine maintaining a temp of 74 in Atlanta basically makes that AC run all the time. I've tried this before. She's originally from Seattle and then went to college in upstate NY so anything warmer than 74 is an absolute no-go. She stays hot all the time and can't adjust easily to the weather and humidity, so I'd rather just not get into that particular arena again because I'll lose every time. I figure a few bucks more a month is worth the household peace. We also installed a low noise, low energy usage ceiling fan to circulate the air so the AC doesn't need to run quite as much as it would normally, and we have some bedside table fans that blow on us at night to keep us cool. We also put up some curtains and keep the blinds closed to keep the sunlight out, and it has been working really well. Powerlurker posted:Google contracts with a number of different companies like ZeroChaos or Lionbridge to evaluate things like tweaks to their search algorithm, ads placed, or keyword mapping. The job is part-time and you work from home at least 10 hours per week (but no more than 30). I don't know what English-only raters get paid, but my wife did some Chinese-language rating for $15/hr. It's a W-2 position and can last for up to a year. On the Google website, the job title is "Ads Quality Rater" but their other contractors may use slightly different titles. The one catch is if you want an English position, you may be on a waiting list for a while. I'll definitely be checking this out when I get home tonight. I've also been considering starting up my computer repair side business again to bring in some extra cash on the weekends, but I don't know how the logistics will play out now. I used to run it out of my dorm room at university but now that I'd be opening up to an entire city's market, I'd likely be traveling a lot and burning gas. I can bet the girlfriend won't like random strangers coming by the apartment to drop off their computers. SiGmA_X posted:Have your partner open the Internet account and get in on the cheapest promo. We went from $65 to $35 for the same 50mbps line. If you rent a modem, buy one. PBP is 9 months with Comcast, and my new modem has a 2yr warranty. And my folks Comcast provided last one lasted 5-6yrs... I got into a pretty cheap promo, but at the last second when they were trying to put the sale through, I was told I needed to provide proof of ID at the local Comcast office. So I have to go over there on a weekend (if they're even open on Saturdays) to finish the sale. We got 105 mbps connection for $50/month because Comcast is scared shitless of Google Fiber and doubled the speed of the "Blast" Internet they offered and lowered the cost on it. The lady on the phone even told me that when my year is up to call them back and ask for a better deal because they'd be competing with Google in full force by then and wanted to retain all of the customers they could. I'll still go to Google though, so the joke's on them. I loving hate Comcast.
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Jul 23, 2014 16:11
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HonorableTB posted:So I did a dumb thing and traded it in, got $3000, put a $1500 lien on the new(er) car (2013 Corolla) and the Toyota dealership slapped me with a $13,000 loan at 24% INTEREST. I called USAA, they took over the loan for me, and negotiated a 4.5% interest loan but Toyota wouldn't let go of it unless they paid the entire amount + expected interest at once so that's how I ended up with a $19,000 car loan. I was stupid and got bent over on account of it. Can you explain the logic / thought process behind this? Why did you refinance your loan to a lower interest rate if you had to pay the total interest up front? Why would anyone advise you to do this? You turned a $13,000 loan into a $19,000 loan. I just can't even grasp why someone would think this was a good idea. Was this to lower the monthly payment or something? How big is your apartment? Is it a 1 bedroom 1 bath? If you have a 2 bedroom 1 bath or 2 bedroom 2 bath have you thought about getting a roommate? If you could split rent (plus utilties and other household expenses) with another person that could free up $300-$500 a month for you to throw at debt repayment.
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Jul 23, 2014 18:11
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Bugamol posted:Can you explain the logic / thought process behind this? Why did you refinance your loan to a lower interest rate if you had to pay the total interest up front? Why would anyone advise you to do this? You turned a $13,000 loan into a $19,000 loan. I just can't even grasp why someone would think this was a good idea. My thought process was: this loan is almost at 20% interest, I won't be able to ever pay it off with what I make unless I get to a lower interest rate. I traded $6000 for a 4.5% interest rate, which will allow me to actually make payments on principle as well as the interest. It wasn't the best idea, but it was the only way I could think of to make it work. My apartment is a 1br/1ba that's 1,020 sqft that I'm sharing with my girlfriend. We already split rent and all utilities, as well as groceries and other household items.
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Jul 23, 2014 19:10
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The way you described it, you turned what would have been $19,000 in payments over a few years into $22,000 or so in payments over a few years. Effectively, you converted a 24% interest rate into a 28.5% rate.
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Jul 23, 2014 19:14
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So what are the next steps for the car I'm kind of curious. Is it so underwater that it's pointless to consider selling it and just pay it off asap? I'm guessing the next step is to talk about the loan to whoever has it and figure out if you can make bigger payments quickly right? This is all assuming that OP knocks out the credit card debt fast.
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Jul 23, 2014 19:18
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HonorableTB posted:My thought process was: this loan is almost at 20% interest, I won't be able to ever pay it off with what I make unless I get to a lower interest rate. I traded $6000 for a 4.5% interest rate, which will allow me to actually make payments on principle as well as the interest. It wasn't the best idea, but it was the only way I could think of to make it work. This doesn't make any sense. Unless you somehow lowered your payment as part of the process all you did is effectively raise you interest. What was your payment before? How long was the loan for? What is your payment now? How long is the loan for? All I can think is that you lowered the monthly payment so you could afford to make it. Otherwise you have a very poor understanding of how loans work.
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Jul 23, 2014 19:23
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Droo posted:The way you described it, you turned what would have been $19,000 in payments over a few years into $22,000 or so in payments over a few years.
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Jul 23, 2014 19:34
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Droo posted:The way you described it, you turned what would have been $19,000 in payments over a few years into $22,000 or so in payments over a few years. Droo - I plugged in the numbers and got $22,000 over 6 years at his current interest rate, but for the original (24% on $13,000) I got $29,000 over 8 years (assuming he maintains a $308 payment). Not arguing that the original loan was crazy. How do you "get slapped with a 24% loan"? Isn't that something they tell you before you sign the papers?
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Jul 23, 2014 19:43
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Veskit posted:So what are the next steps for the car I'm kind of curious. Is it so underwater that it's pointless to consider selling it and just pay it off asap? I'm guessing the next step is to talk about the loan to whoever has it and figure out if you can make bigger payments quickly right? There's no point in trying to sell the car now. I'm $8,000 in the hole over what it's worth. It's a lesson learned, and I absolutely cannot get by without a car. SiGmA_X posted:This. Wtf?!? Why would you do this, OP? Why would you sign a 24% loan in the first place if you could get a 4% loan from your bank? Wtf?! I didn't realize this was an option when I was at the dealership. Again, inexperience. Bugamol posted:This doesn't make any sense. Unless you somehow lowered your payment as part of the process all you did is effectively raise you interest. My payment before was going to be over $400, now it's down to $308. Both over 6 years. Aagar posted:Droo - I plugged in the numbers and got $22,000 over 6 years at his current interest rate, but for the original (24% on $13,000) I got $29,000 over 8 years (assuming he maintains a $308 payment). They did tell me, but they made a bunch of very heavy implications that this was the *only* deal a bank was willing to offer me. I didn't even think to ask my own bank about a personal auto loan from them directly.
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Jul 23, 2014 19:58
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It sounds like you didn't have to pay the entirety of the interest up front, just a substantial prepayment penalty.
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Jul 23, 2014 20:30
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HonorableTB posted:My payment before was going to be over $400, now it's down to $308. Both over 6 years. This literally doesn't add up: $13,000 24% interest 72 months Expected payment $342.24 $19,000 4.5% interest 72 months Expected payment $301.60 http://www.cars.com/go/advice/financing/calc/loanCalc.jsp?mode=full It sounds like you literally have no idea what has happened to you. How much was the original loan for? How much had you paid off? Alternatively how many payments did you make? How much was the new loan for (original value)? How much have you paid off? Alternative how many payments have you made? I'm trying to understand what in the actual gently caress happened to you and this loan. You make it sound like you got "rushed into a decision" wherein you immediately went home and got yourself out of it. It didn't occur to you when you were signing the paperwork that you were getting screwed, but it did when you got home? Isn't there a 3 day clause built into these contracts where you can get out of them?
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Jul 23, 2014 22:25
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Bugamol posted:This literally doesn't add up: The original loan was for $13,000 and some change. I don't have the exact numbers on hand. I hadn't paid anything on it before USAA took over the loan. I had a 90 day no-payments thing with the car. I got the car in March and I made the first payment on it in June, under the terms of the new loan from USAA. The new loan was for $19,000 and some change, to account for the interest from Toyota. I have made two payments on it at $308.02 so far.
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Jul 23, 2014 22:50
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HonorableTB posted:The original loan was for $13,000 and some change. I don't have the exact numbers on hand. I hadn't paid anything on it before USAA took over the loan. I had a 90 day no-payments thing with the car. I got the car in March and I made the first payment on it in June, under the terms of the new loan from USAA. The new loan was for $19,000 and some change, to account for the interest from Toyota. I have made two payments on it at $308.02 so far. It just doesn't add up that a $13,000 loan at 24% interest have a payment over $400 unless they built in some other fees or something. Even if you eliminate 3 payments (no payments 90 days) the payment only equals $349 over the life of the loan.
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Jul 23, 2014 23:01
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Bugamol posted:It just doesn't add up that a $13,000 loan at 24% interest have a payment over $400 unless they built in some other fees or something. Then my original payment number was wrong. I don't know what the payments would have been on the original loan because I never made any of them. The only payments I've made were on the new loan from USAA.
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Jul 24, 2014 00:12
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HonorableTB posted:Then my original payment number was wrong. I don't know what the payments would have been on the original loan because I never made any of them. The only payments I've made were on the new loan from USAA. It looks like you're saving money. However as someone else already mentioned it must not have been 100% of the interest that would have been earned, but instead a very steep early payoff fee. As someone previously mentioned you should put together a quick excel sheet of your budget by category to see how much money you have left over. You don't seem to be in terrible shape. The car loan is unfortunate, but as has been previously mentioned there's nothing you can really do about it. I don't see that you have car insurance listed anywhere. How much are you paying for that? Also your June spending can't even be remotely correct because you claim to make $2750 and only list $1253 worth of expenses. Even if you toss in $700 of rent which you claim was excluded that only bumps you up to $1953 leaving an excess of $800. That's also assuming you didn't spend any money on your CCs.
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Jul 24, 2014 00:23
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Yeah, my June spending according to Mint is all out of whack. I can put together a spreadsheet of everything I spent in June this weekend because I'll have to go back through last month's bank statement and put it together. My car insurance is $108 per month for full coverage, which I'm considering lowering but at the same time gives me really good peace of mind considering the current state of Atlanta's drivers (protip: they all loving suck and it's a wonder anyone manages to survive on the roads here). Not a day goes by during my commute from Midtown to Kennesaw where I don't pass at least one or two wrecks. If I get hit, I'd much rather know I'm covered completely. That expense isn't on July's budget because I paid it a month in advance in June, with June's money.
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Jul 24, 2014 05:35
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You can't drop below full coverage on a car that you don't own. Until you pay off the loan, it's still the bank's property and you signed a contract which states you will carry full coverage with a certain deductible (usually no more than $500).
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Jul 24, 2014 13:28
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