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I need someone to tell me whether I'm about to be bad with money. I am 28, and earn $87,000 a year. I earn about $30,000 a year from my small business, and that amount is growing. My employer puts 9.5% of my pay into superannuation, (401k), and I contribute an extra 6% from my before-tax pay. I have $41,000 in my super, and my wife has $11,000, although she won't add to that until she goes back to work in a few years. I have six months' expenses, savings in every category including for Christmas, car repair, bills, etc. I save 20% of my pay and my stay-at-home wife and I are saving up for a house. No debt. Own both cars. My cash position right now in total is about $40,000. The reason it's so low is because: 1. I have had medical and dental bills I've had to pay over the past couple of years, that were not covered by insurance. ($2,700). 2. I had to buy a CPAP machine for my sleep apnea. ($1,400). 3. My wife's family lives in the States, (we are in Australia), and so we have visited them, and there was also an emergency visit due to a death. (~$5,000) 4. Car repair, speeding ticket, (yes, stupid). Around $1,400. 5. I am continually saving for travel overseas because my stupid inlaws won't come here. 6. My wife had a baby and stopped working two years ago. Baby expenses, etc. Truthfully not all that much as babies are cheap. But, still. We've been able to cashflow all of these things. I have $8,000 in savings for the deposit now, and over $40,000 by the end of the year. (Based on work that has been contracted). That's not including any work I get between now and then, which based on the past few years could be as high as $30,000. I need $80,000 for a deposit. I want to buy a new bass guitar. I play in a cover band, (that does make money), but I don't need this bass, it's a toy. The bass is $3,200 retail, but a guy is selling a great quality one for $1,400 and it's only five years old. I have $8,600 in small business funds coming in the next two weeks. Would it be bad to take $1,400 of that and buy the bass? Yes, I am putting money away for taxes. I think everything is okay. But is that a stupid thing to do? What am I missing? EDIT: Anticipating the, "where does your money go", question, a lot of it goes to travel. Having a family that doesn't want to travel here loving sucks. Just to get to the states costs more than $3,000 in flights alone. CelestialScribe fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Mar 11, 2016 |
# ? Mar 11, 2016 02:24 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 06:04 |
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How many $3k flights per year do you make? I assume that's round trip? e:trim leper khan fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Mar 11, 2016 |
# ? Mar 11, 2016 02:39 |
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Usually one. We plan for one. Next year it'll be none. I say 3,000 but it can be as high as 4,500 and that doesn't include food, etc. The entire trip usually costs around 6,000. EDIT: And yes, that's round trip. CelestialScribe fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Mar 11, 2016 |
# ? Mar 11, 2016 02:41 |
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I would probably just adjust some of my discretionary budgets (entertainment, eating out, etc) down and buy it, but I'm generally irresponsible and not great with money myself.
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# ? Mar 11, 2016 03:09 |
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I think you should buy the bass. If you've agonized so much over this one purchase, you are probably responsible enough to handle the cost.
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# ? Mar 11, 2016 04:00 |
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Buy the bass dude. Enjoy your life
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# ? Mar 11, 2016 06:49 |
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redweird posted:Buy the bass dude. Enjoy your life
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# ? Mar 11, 2016 14:09 |
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redweird posted:Buy the bass dude. Enjoy your life
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# ? Mar 11, 2016 17:31 |
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Buy that poo poo. Money is a vehicle to get what you want out of life.
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# ? Mar 11, 2016 17:52 |
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Thanks people. I don't know what I was expecting. BFC likes to yell at people, haha.
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# ? Mar 11, 2016 22:48 |
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CelestialScribe posted:Thanks people. I don't know what I was expecting. BFC likes to yell at people, haha. If you were like hey I have 20k of consumer debt on high interest credit cards and no savings and no functional planning or impulse control, you would get yelled at.
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# ? Mar 11, 2016 23:46 |
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:If you were like hey I have 20k of consumer debt on high interest credit cards and no savings and no functional planning or impulse control, you would get yelled at. Seriously, this. CelestialScribe, congrats, you're responsible. You're allowed to have nice things.
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# ? Mar 11, 2016 23:50 |
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Suze Orman's 'Can I Afford It?' segment is pure gold for these kind of things. Half the callers are "I am in debt to my ears and my wages are being garnished, BUT I WAAAANT IT!" and the other half are "I work 2 jobs so I can max my retirement and pay off my house in 5 years. Is it ok if I get pizza with 2 toppings?'
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# ? Mar 12, 2016 02:48 |
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Imagine all the rice and beans you could buy with $1,400
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# ? Mar 12, 2016 07:07 |
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I was really hoping you were spending $3000+ on a first instrument cause you felt like learning while being up to your eyeballs in debt and just had your car repoed. Maye with dreams of being a rockstar and paying it off when your famous. Thats bad with money. Congrats on not being that or owning any horses.
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# ? Mar 12, 2016 11:15 |
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:I was really hoping you were spending $3000+ on a first instrument cause you felt like learning while being up to your eyeballs in debt and just had your car repoed. Maye with dreams of being a rockstar and paying it off when your famous. Thats bad with money. Congrats on not being that or owning any horses. Haha, no. I've played for 14 years, and the last instrument I bought was my Ibanez in 2008. The cover band I play in just started at the beginning of last year, and we do weddings, parties etc. We managed to make $3,000 a piece in the first year, and we've already exceeded bookings for the next 12 months - and we scored a residency at a local bistro/club that pays us pretty well to do a few sets every second Saturday. So, I hate to call this an "investment", because it's not, but it's not as if I'm jamming to tunes alone in my garage.
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# ? Mar 12, 2016 12:32 |
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If you need CPAP because you're a fatty, lose 10lb and use a new guitar as the reward.
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# ? Mar 12, 2016 14:43 |
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:I was really hoping you were spending $3000+ on a first instrument cause you felt like learning while being up to your eyeballs in debt and just had your car repoed. Maye with dreams of being a rockstar and paying it off when your famous. Thats bad with money. Congrats on not being that or owning any horses. This may be the best strategy such a person may have that has even a slim chance of success. No point in declaring bankruptcy if you can still borrow 3k at 24% interest from guitar world.
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# ? Mar 12, 2016 15:34 |
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n8r posted:If you need CPAP because you're a fatty, lose 10lb and use a new guitar as the reward. That isn't how sleep apnea works. But my weight is fine.
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# ? Mar 12, 2016 21:06 |
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Buy the bass. Save a percentage of your earnings from the cover band so that you won't have to worry about your next instrument.
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# ? Mar 12, 2016 21:39 |
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moana posted:Buy the bass. Save a percentage of your earnings from the cover band so that you won't have to worry about your next instrument. Good point.
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# ? Mar 14, 2016 04:46 |
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i was hoping that buying a bass guitar was like your idea of a wise financial investment because you'd become super famous or you'd at least get some groupies who might buy you dinner from time to time, which would save money, so really you can't afford not to buy a bass guitar
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# ? Mar 14, 2016 05:20 |
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Won't the lead singer sleep with your boyfriend or girlfriend if you are the bass player? Has this been considered?
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# ? Mar 15, 2016 20:42 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 06:04 |
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CelestialScribe posted:I think everything is okay. But is that a stupid thing to do? What am I missing? Do you have permission from your wife to buy a new toy?
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# ? Mar 17, 2016 14:01 |