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My question is a hypothetical. If your job gave you up to $500/month as a transportation stipend, with the condition that your vehicle must be no older than 4 model year old, what would you do? Your current vehicle is 5 model years old, and valued at $8000, with $8000 left on the loan at 2% and 36 payments left on the note. Monthly insurance cost is $125. You have $4000 saved towards a down payment. Do you put any of your own money down or finance 100% (less trade-in)? The stipend also covers insurance and maintenance, and you can pocket anything that you don't spend.
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Mar 25, 2015 15:08
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The Mandingo posted:My question is a hypothetical. If your job gave you up to $500/month as a transportation stipend, with the condition that your vehicle must be no older than 4 model year old, what would you do? Your current vehicle is 5 model years old, and valued at $8000, with $8000 left on the loan at 2% and 36 payments left on the note. Monthly insurance cost is $125. You have $4000 saved towards a down payment. Depends on interest rate. I'd be very concerned about not being underwater within 5 years of car life on the next car, but with the liquidity swap I'd be fine with a zero percent / any time loan obviously. You basically have no trade in equity, so it's 0-4k down on the next car.
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Mar 25, 2015 15:20
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The Mandingo posted:My question is a hypothetical. If your job gave you up to $500/month as a transportation stipend, with the condition that your vehicle must be no older than 4 model year old, what would you do? Your current vehicle is 5 model years old, and valued at $8000, with $8000 left on the loan at 2% and 36 payments left on the note. Monthly insurance cost is $125. You have $4000 saved towards a down payment.
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Mar 25, 2015 15:58
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The Mandingo posted:My question is a hypothetical. If your job gave you up to $500/month as a transportation stipend, with the condition that your vehicle must be no older than 4 model year old, what would you do? Your current vehicle is 5 model years old, and valued at $8000, with $8000 left on the loan at 2% and 36 payments left on the note. Monthly insurance cost is $125. You have $4000 saved towards a down payment. How long do you think you'll be in this job, and what sort of annual mileage do you have? You might be in a situation where a car lease makes more sense than buying outright.
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Mar 25, 2015 16:51
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Lets say five years in the job and 25,000 miles per year.
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Mar 25, 2015 16:59
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Ideally how much of my monthly income should be going towards paying rent on an apartment? I am looking to move into my own place and recently got a new job and I have no idea how much I should be spending on rent.
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Mar 25, 2015 23:07
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I've always heard that you shouldn't go over 30% of your take home pay, but that depends on the city and your income.
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Mar 25, 2015 23:12
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Rurea posted:Ideally how much of my monthly income should be going towards paying rent on an apartment? I am looking to move into my own place and recently got a new job and I have no idea how much I should be spending on rent. Take whatever your take home pay is per month and subtract 1) all your current/anticipated fixed expenses like car, loan, and insurance payments, then 2) subtract the 20-30% or so that you should be using to save, then 3) subtract what you need to budget for everything else, like food, gas/transit, entertainment. Whatever you have left is a reasonable budget for housing plus utilities. e: ^^^ I generally do not lease to prospective tenants who do not take home 3x the rent per month and if they cant produce first, last, and security deposit that is my indication that they have no savings and are and one bad situation away from missing a rent check BEHOLD: MY CAPE fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Mar 25, 2015 |
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Mar 25, 2015 23:38
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Rurea posted:Ideally how much of my monthly income should be going towards paying rent on an apartment? I am looking to move into my own place and recently got a new job and I have no idea how much I should be spending on rent.
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Mar 26, 2015 00:25
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I have 26 pay periods in a year. The two additional cheques float from month to month depending on the year. I've wrangled out a budget based on two pay periods a month, and intend to treat the extra two as an unexpected windfall that I can put directly into savings. Does that approach make sense, or would it be better to finagle a year into 26 segments?
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Mar 26, 2015 00:48
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Pfox posted:I have 26 pay periods in a year. The two additional cheques float from month to month depending on the year. I've wrangled out a budget based on two pay periods a month, and intend to treat the extra two as an unexpected windfall that I can put directly into savings. Pretty much everyone recommends you do it the way you're doing it. It's what I'd do if I wasn't paid bimonthly.
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Mar 26, 2015 01:07
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Pfox posted:I have 26 pay periods in a year. The two additional cheques float from month to month depending on the year. I've wrangled out a budget based on two pay periods a month, and intend to treat the extra two as an unexpected windfall that I can put directly into savings. That's a very common approach, and I personally use it because it means at a minimum it a forced 1/13th of yearly take home saved.
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Mar 26, 2015 01:08
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overdesigned posted:Pretty much everyone recommends you do it the way you're doing it. It's what I'd do if I wasn't paid bimonthly. balancedbias posted:That's a very common approach, and I personally use it because it means at a minimum it a forced 1/13th of yearly take home saved. Great to hear validation. Thanks folks!
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Mar 26, 2015 01:53
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ladyweapon posted:Someone in BFC said rent AND transportation should ideally be 40% or less. That helped me more since my transportation costs are extremely low. My rent is 35% my net income, but my transportation costs are roughly 3-5% (public transit, occasional car rental) so it evens out.
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Mar 26, 2015 03:43
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When you talk about calculating percentages of your take home income, are you factoring in automatic deductions for 401k, etc.? I'm technically not seeing it in my bank account every two weeks, but it also naturally counts towards the "savings" allotment of my budget. I'm assuming that I should not count my mandatory federal pension contributions as take home (4.4% of my income) because I can't as easily predict the state of the pension system when I retire and the ratio of my contributions versus what I'll be receiving. Thesaurus fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Mar 26, 2015 |
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Mar 26, 2015 14:27
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Thesaurus posted:When you talk about calculating percentages of your take home income, are you factoring in automatic deductions for 401k, etc.? I'm technically not seeing it in my bank account every two weeks, but it also naturally counts towards the "savings" allotment of my budget. I just spent an hour or two the other day working this out. Here's what my calculation looks like
You do have to remember to add the pre tax savings (401k, Stock, 401k match, pension) to your post tax income to get your gross income.
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Mar 26, 2015 15:03
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Thesaurus posted:When you talk about calculating percentages of your take home income, are you factoring in automatic deductions for 401k, etc.? I'm technically not seeing it in my bank account every two weeks, but it also naturally counts towards the "savings" allotment of my budget.
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Mar 26, 2015 15:06
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It also depends on where you live and how much you earn. In an expensive metro area making middle of the road income, even a modest living situation might be 45% of your take home. 30% or less has always been my comfortable zone, I say as a grown rear end woman with a roommate.
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Mar 26, 2015 16:12
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I'm at 21% paying $860 in rent for my portion of an old two bedroom house. If you can get below 30%, do it.
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Mar 26, 2015 22:18
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Chase is offering a $300 bonus for new checking accounts, the only requirement being 6 months of direct deposits (or alternative methods)
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Mar 26, 2015 23:53
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Cacafuego posted:Chase is offering a $300 bonus for new checking accounts, the only requirement being 6 months of direct deposits (or alternative methods) drat, that's pretty good. Does it come with free checks? If I can just write myself checks each month, I'm in.
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Mar 27, 2015 00:09
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If I'm in the UK, what is the best place for me to keep a small amount of shares? I'm guessing it's a stocks and shares ISA but my bank don't do them and the moneysavingexpert guide for them is confusing me.
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Mar 27, 2015 00:33
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Dustoph posted:drat, that's pretty good. Does it come with free checks? If I can just write myself checks each month, I'm in. Depends on your checking level, but I believe any one that features DD will come with free checks. I do the savings account bonus every year. I believe you also need a total minimum dollar holdings threshold with Chase to avoid the fee, OR you can set up two monthly deposits into the savings acct of $25 or more each every month to avoid any fees.
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Mar 27, 2015 00:36
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As I understand it, the higher your current debt, the lower your credit score. Therefore, paying only the minimum amount on your monthly credit card bill will result in a lower credit score. So does your credit score return to "normal" after you have paid the full balance back, or does only paying the minimum for a few months permanently reduce your credit score?
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Mar 29, 2015 23:14
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Pertplus posted:As I understand it, the higher your current debt, the lower your credit score. Therefore, paying only the minimum amount on your monthly credit card bill will result in a lower credit score. Utilization has no memory. As soon as you pay your debt off your score will bounce back (at the end of the statement cycle when your balance is reported).
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Mar 29, 2015 23:30
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What you're talking about is called "utilization": how much of your available credit (across ALL credit accounts) you're using. It's measured in a percentage. For example: $2000 credit debt with $10000 total available = 20% utilization. Utilization had a large impact on your score, but it is not permanent. You could have 90% utilization the month before a credit pull but pay off all of the debt the week before and you'd look a-ok to creditors. How fast you pay off your card is meaningless to creditors. It is only meaningful to you: paying off slower means you pay more in the long run.
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Mar 29, 2015 23:31
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Is credit utilization per card or overall? My total available card credit is $70k. I pay all my cards every month, with 0 balance on all. I have a personal loan of about $7k at 9.99% and I want to apply for a 0% 18 month APR balance transfer card (will pay it off in this timeframe), or put it on one of my existing ones with a 0% APR BT. If the card credit limit is $9k and my $7k BT goes on there, how will it affect my utilization?
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Mar 29, 2015 23:36
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Cacafuego posted:Is credit utilization per card or overall? My total available card credit is $70k. I pay all my cards every month, with 0 balance on all. I have a personal loan of about $7k at 9.99% and I want to apply for a 0% 18 month APR balance transfer card (will pay it off in this timeframe), or put it on one of my existing ones with a 0% APR BT. If the card credit limit is $9k and my $7k BT goes on there, how will it affect my utilization? It's overall. So I guess if you transfer the 7K to a card with a 9K limit with 70K in total limits, you will have 10%? utilization, not counting any balance that existed on your cycle date that you intend to pay off. But 70K in total limits? Good God
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Mar 30, 2015 04:33
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Zeta Taskforce posted:But 70K in total limits? Good God This isn't a bad number if you're in the habit of paying off your balance every month, and the number isn't out of the ordinary, at least for people who are into churning.
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Mar 30, 2015 04:59
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Zeta Taskforce posted:But 70K in total limits? Good God I'm not a churner and my total CC limit is just shy of $70k. It's not hard when you have 4-5 cards each with $10k+ limits. My Chase Freedom alone has a $21k limit, and I've never gone out of my way to request a limit increase. Just because I have that crazy limit doesn't mean I'm maxing it out: 
Guinness fucked around with this message at 18:11 on Mar 30, 2015 |
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Mar 30, 2015 06:13
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Zeta Taskforce posted:It's overall. So I guess if you transfer the 7K to a card with a 9K limit with 70K in total limits, you will have 10%? utilization, not counting any balance that existed on your cycle date that you intend to pay off. Great, thank you. $70k, I collect bonuses, haha. But they're all paid 100% every month and I'm not buying a house or anything. I already bought a car last December.
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Mar 30, 2015 13:45
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Cacafuego posted:Great, thank you. $70k, I collect bonuses, haha. But they're all paid 100% every month and I'm not buying a house or anything. I already bought a car last December. Then you don't need your credit score for anything at all, note the thread title.
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Mar 30, 2015 15:06
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silvergoose posted:Then you don't need your credit score for anything at all, note the thread title. I need my credit score to continue churning and getting bonuses, hence my question. E: I don't care about the ups and downs from churning, I was concerned with taking a big hit from increased an utilization %. But since it's overall and not per card, it's fine. Back to business as usual. Cacafuego fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Mar 30, 2015 |
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Mar 30, 2015 15:42
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I have a balance of $1200 on my AMEX with 23% APR Do I transfer it to my Discover card for a 5% fee / 0 APR or 8.9% APR? I don't understand the maths on these APRs.
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Apr 1, 2015 01:24
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Dr Tran posted:I have a balance of $1200 on my AMEX with 23% APR How quickly are you going to be able to pay it off?
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Apr 1, 2015 01:55
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Dr Tran posted:I have a balance of $1200 on my AMEX with 23% APR Get a Chase Slate card with no balance transfer fee and 0% APR for 15 months.
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Apr 1, 2015 02:16
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I would really appreciate an outside perspective. I keep making dumb decisions on my own. Hopefully this is okay here instead of the long-term investing thread, because I still don't understand more than half of the things that get talked about there. I just learned what an HSA is.  Three years ago, our total income was $90,000, and we were really proud of ourselves for having $3,000 in a savings account. Now, we make $220,000 a year, and we have $129,000 put aside in various accounts. That's proven to be too much change too fast, and I don't know how to handle it. We're talking about buying a house in about a year, but I don't even know if we're in a good position to do so, and worse, I don't know how to tell when we would be in a good position. How do I know I'm balancing goals like that without sacrificing our retirement? And how do I most effectively save for retirement at this income level? Is it worth contributing to a 401k even if my employer doesn't offer a match? Or should I just open a brokerage account at Vanguard instead? How do I know if we're doing okay? Here are the details, if any of this helps: Married, no kids, retiring in 30 years or so. We want to buy a house, but the houses we like (in Seattle) cost around $600,000. Sticker shock level:  Annual income: $220,000 Cash: $40,000 Savings: $30,000 - in a brokerage through a financial advisor who's a nice friend, but now that I'm learning more about fees, I think we would've been better off with Vanguard Roth: $24,000 Traditional IRA: $35,000 Debt: $75,000 - student loans, about $15,000 is at 6.55% interest. I haven't prioritized paying these off. Spending (per month): Housing: $2,640 - includes rent, electricity, water, trash, renter's insurance Groceries: $560 Car: $340 - includes parking at the apartment, insurance, gas, annual tab renewal. No car payment. Debt: $1,100 - all student loans Internet & Phone: $150 Pets: $300 - this is an average, so most months are well below this limit, but emergency trips balance it out Discretionary: $1,600 - also an average, covering incidentals like car repairs, plus non-essentials: charities, hobbies, gifts, shopping, entertainment, vacations, etc.
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Apr 1, 2015 06:41
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Definitely pay down the 6.55% interest student loan. I would do that straight out of cash given what you've posted here. What are the interest rates on the rest of your student loans? Do you make $220,000 pre- or post-tax? You'd want ~$120,000 down on a $600,000 house, ideally. You could probably be maxing a 401(k) at your income level even without a match; the max for this year is $18,000, but since your income (if you're married filing jointly, and $220,000 is pre-tax) is taxed at 28%, maxing it would only cost you $13,000 of post-tax money to max it out (in fairness, this taxation is deferred until withdrawal, given that you can max Roth IRAs and mix from your deferred-taxation and Roth accounts post-retirement, and you get interest on the $18,000 that only costs you $13,000, there are serious advantages to doing it). On the flip side, maxing a 401(k) means it'll take you a little longer to save up that down payment for your house. Housing prices have leveled off a bit recently in Seattle (just read it in the Times), there may or may not be a bubble (who the gently caress knows), and we don't know how secure your jobs are, so buying a house in the immediate future may or may not be for you; check out the home buying thread. You're going to have to evaluate your current life situation and what you think of the housing market to figure out whether you want to prioritize the retirement savings or the home-buying. Given your income, your spending seems pretty reasonable. If you don't have them yet, you may want to look into term life insurance policies for you and your spouse, especially if you're thinking about buying a home. Ham Equity fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Apr 1, 2015 |
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Apr 1, 2015 07:10
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Thanatosian posted:Definitely pay down the 6.55% interest student loan. I would do that straight out of cash given what you've posted here. What are the interest rates on the rest of your student loans? Do you make $220,000 pre- or post-tax? Thanks for the 401k analysis. It makes more sense put that way.  I'm not eligible for Roths anymore, though, right? And I already have a traditional IRA, so I seem to have hurt my ability to use the backdoor Roth process, which I don't even understand to begin with.I'm not sure whether to prioritize retirement or house savings. In a perfect world, I'd have our retirement at least on track before we made any major house commitments. Right now, I don't know how much I should be saving for retirement vs how much I can save for goals like that. We're both programmers, which is pretty secure for now. The only reason our income has changed so much in so little time is because companies around here are willing to throw stupid amounts of money at coding problems. We both get life insurance through work to cover salary for a year in the event of a death. Should we have more than that?
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Apr 1, 2015 08:25
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Zanthia posted:I would really appreciate an outside perspective. I keep making dumb decisions on my own. Hopefully this is okay here instead of the long-term investing thread, because I still don't understand more than half of the things that get talked about there. I just learned what an HSA is. All I have to say is the problems you have are good problems to have. And to your credit, you have seemed both a high income and you have a really good budget. You're like what would happen if slomo followed good advice. I would agree, I would just literally pay the student loans from your $40K cash. The norm for emergency savings is 6 months income, but quick math pegs that at $90K, so I think that's a bit crazy. Personally, I think what you have now is fine, just pay off loans, put a bit in savings to make up for it, and then go towards your retirement and house goals. I'd put it out there that buying a house isn't the end all be all. I'm not saying don't do it, don't plan, etc. I'm just saying you're doing s lot of things right, so I think for both that and savings you have earned the right not to panic over it. Zanthia posted:The $220,000 is pre-tax. There are lots of individual loans. The interest rates on $41,000 range from 1.62% to 3.1%, with less than $7,000 at the lowest rate. The interest rates on the rest ($34,000) are between 4% and 6.55%, with $15,000 of that at the highest rate. I haven't paid them down any faster because it seemed like investing the money could beat most of that interest, but obviously I have no idea wtf I'm doing. Do you think 6.55% is high enough to justify not investing the money instead? Im a big advocate of recommending paying off debt when possible. There's no right answer, and yes you could potentially be not maximizing every dollar, but it's a nice load of your shoulder and just allows you to focus more. That's just my two cents. In your case specifically, you have $40K in cash not earning anything, so I think paying off your only $17K in debt would be a good thing. You would make it up in a month or two and never have to think of that bill again. Duckman2008 fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Apr 1, 2015 |
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Apr 1, 2015 08:29
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