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Omgbees posted:Just paid off my last car loan, felt so good calling them up for the payout figure and making the deposit to close the account. CC paid off, now just mortgage to go.
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May 10, 2013 04:04
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Just received approval of my request to remove PMI from my mortgage. It was only $17.10 since we refinanced last summer, but hey - free money!
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May 10, 2013 23:50
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I get my first paycheck after 3 weeks with my new job tonight at midnight. Since I'm going from ~$20/mo in income (and only made $10k/yr before that) to $4,400/mo (net) in income, we're finally paying off a loving payday loan from January. We've been paying $100 every 2 weeks since then, for a total of $1,000 in interest on a $750 principal because our truck broke down at the wrong time. A new battery and alternator---which happened to both go out at the same loving time, just when I lost my $10k job with no unemployment, because I was a contractor---cost us >= $1,750.00. gently caress me that's 1/10th of our old yearly income. Anyway I'm really glad we're finally paying it off, it's a huge financial burden to be getting rid of. From $0.61 in our bank account to $2,900 in our bank account overnight! (Wife's getting paid tomorrow, too). We can finally catch up on bills while still having a little left over for groceries, and gas, for once. e: grammar Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Jun 7, 2013 |
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Jun 7, 2013 04:41
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Knyteguy posted:I get my first paycheck after 3 weeks with my new job tonight at midnight. Since I'm going from ~$20/mo in income (and only made $10k/yr before that) to $4,400/mo (net) in income, we're finally paying off a loving payday loan from January. We've been paying $100 every 2 weeks since then, for a total of $1,000 in interest on a $750 principal because our truck broke down at the wrong time. A new battery and alternator---which happened to both go out at the same loving time, just when I lost my $10k job with no unemployment, because I was a contractor---cost us >= $1,750.00. gently caress me that's 1/10th of our old yearly income. Just out of curiosity what did you go from to employment wise? Sounds like an interesting story in its own right.
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Jun 7, 2013 05:40
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Knyteguy posted:I get my first paycheck after 3 weeks with my new job tonight at midnight. Since I'm going from ~$20/mo in income (and only made $10k/yr before that) to $4,400/mo (net) in income, we're finally paying off a loving payday loan from January. We've been paying $100 every 2 weeks since then, for a total of $1,000 in interest on a $750 principal because our truck broke down at the wrong time. A new battery and alternator---which happened to both go out at the same loving time, just when I lost my $10k job with no unemployment, because I was a contractor---cost us >= $1,750.00. gently caress me that's 1/10th of our old yearly income. Wanted to give you an e-high-five. I've been excited about a lot of things but that sounds like on of the more exciting turn of events a human could reasonably face. Drink a beer and enjoy for a minute 
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Jun 7, 2013 06:45
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Knyteguy posted:A new battery and alternator---which happened to both go out at the same loving time, This is common. A bad battery will make your alternator work harder and eventually crap out. A bad alternator will strain your battery, making it work harder and eventually crap out. I recommend changing both at the same time if they're both a few years old.
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Jun 7, 2013 15:50
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Not all that exciting but we canceled our dish subscription. Saving $69/mo (after counting netflix) isn't too shabby!
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Jun 10, 2013 21:01
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dreesemonkey posted:Not all that exciting but we canceled our dish subscription. Saving $69/mo (after counting netflix) isn't too shabby! Congratulations! Since you mentioned it, I just bought a house and it has a satellite dish left behind. Are those worth a non-zero resale amount on Craigslist or eBay?
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Jun 11, 2013 00:17
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canyoneer posted:Congratulations! Pretty sure they're worth nothing. We had a DirectTV one on our house and the only remotely valuable part in the LNBs. The only reason I know that is Dish had me send them back with the receiver and remote.
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Jun 11, 2013 20:32
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Lyon posted:Just out of curiosity what did you go from to employment wise? Sounds like an interesting story in its own right. I also would like to hear this story!
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Jun 13, 2013 02:37
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canyoneer posted:Congratulations! They're worth 20-30 bucks maybe. People use those things along with can radios to make Wifi antennas so they can steal/provide Internet long range. At the moment I have the Can but no ladder to get my old satellite off the roof. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR2.TRC1.A0&_nkw=satellite+dish&_sacat=0&_from=R40 My DirectTV sat is still strapped to the roof but I just don't have a ladder long enough to get it down. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Jun 13, 2013 |
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Jun 13, 2013 14:29
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Another incremental improvement to report. Today we had out health insurance meeting. Changing our insurance plan to one that is a smaller network. We've been very fortunate thus far with our health so we're taking a gamble I guess but they claim 90% of the people don't need the larger network, and when they use it it's mostly for pre-existing conditions. So hopefully we won't regret that. In the end it looks like we're going to be saving ~$90/mo net. Quick tally of the last couple of months: + Saved $17/mo on PMI removed from our mortgage + Saved $76/mo from eliminating Dish Network + Save ~$90/mo from health insurance change - Spending $8 on netflix About a $175/mo decrease in monthly expenses  On the other hand we're fixing up our house so money is seemingly flying out the window, but at least we're doing it ourselves and probably saving 90% of the cost of paying someone to do it.
dreesemonkey fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Jun 13, 2013 |
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Jun 13, 2013 19:03
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Hey guys! I have a question and I guess this may be the best place to ask. I don't know if it deserves its own thread. I left my former job in December because they announced they were shuttering the plant and moving it to Mexico. In my two years there, I was listed as 'inventor' on some patents. I had signed paperwork as I was hired in there stating that anything I worked on while there was the company's property. I understand that this is standard practice in a lot of places. I got a letter last week full of legalese basically stating their intention to "aquire the entire right, title and interest in and to said patent." The document is officially titled a "Combined assignment and declaration of patent application." It looks like they will give me ten dollars and they request that I sign, notarize and send this back to them. I can post the full text if necessary. I don't really care, since I designed it for them and I was under the assumption that while my name was on it, it (the patent) belonged to the company. Thoughts? Should I sign it, get it notarized, send it in and forget about it? Or am I being swindled out of billions?
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Jun 19, 2013 23:53
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It kind of sounds like you should ask the law thread about that.
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Jun 20, 2013 00:20
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Cicero posted:It kind of sounds like you should ask the law thread about that. The law school megathread? Or is there another one somewhere?
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Jun 20, 2013 01:11
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Paid off my second of seven student loans yesterday. After ending my college career in 2008 with $37,000 in student debt plus a $12,000 car and a $2,000 CC bill, I am down to just $13,400 on my student loan and everything else is paid off. I am fighting so hard to find a way to pay my entire college bill before the end of the year.
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Jun 20, 2013 04:21
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CornHolio posted:I got a letter last week full of legalese basically stating their intention to "aquire the entire right, title and interest in and to said patent." The document is officially titled a "Combined assignment and declaration of patent application." It looks like they will give me ten dollars and they request that I sign, notarize and send this back to them. I can post the full text if necessary. That's a document that inventors usually sign when the patent application is filed. They're probably offering you the $10 because they hope that you'll sign it and they won't have to jump through some extra hoops in order to finalize the patent application if you refuse to sign it. This isn't legal advice...from your brief summary, it sounds like the IP belongs to the company and you aren't being swindled, and they're offering you $10 so that they can save some money, time, and effort, but things might be a bit different depending on the entire document and facts. mongeese fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Jun 20, 2013 |
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Jun 20, 2013 05:21
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mongeese posted:That's a document that inventors usually sign when the patent application is filed. They're probably offering you the $10 because they hope that you'll sign it and they won't have to jump through some extra hoops in order to finalize the patent application if you refuse to sign it. I'm guessing the assignment just has language that says, "ten dollars and other valuable consideration", which is pretty common/standard language in any type of contract (especially conveyances), since contracts require some sort of consideration between the parties. I would guess they're just clearing up their title to the patent and removing any doubt as to the ownership, but that doesn't necessarily mean you should sign it. It's probably worth talking to an attorney about.
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Jun 20, 2013 06:17
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Technowrite posted:Paid off my second of seven student loans yesterday. After ending my college career in 2008 with $37,000 in student debt plus a $12,000 car and a $2,000 CC bill, I am down to just $13,400 on my student loan and everything else is paid off. Great job. I kinda missing having debt only because every time I killed a credit card or a loan it felt like I was getting ahead. Now I just toss money into retirement accounts for when I'm 60, if I even make it that far since I see people in their 50's and early 60's in the obituary page every day. I probably should try to come up with some short term saving goals to get that feeling back. Anyway the good news is that it looks like I'll have an opportunity to rent a home for $700 a month pretty soon which is about $300 bucks cheaper than my mortgage and since it's much smaller I assume the utilities will be a bit cheaper. I'm also taking steps to try and maximize my retirement accounts/reduce my taxes. Theoretically I could pull off something like an effective tax rate (state/federal income combined) of 3.49%
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Jun 20, 2013 18:09
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Edit: This wasn't that great of an improvement on second thought, but to summarize, car was jacked up, but because I planned for emergencies, I was able to pay for repairs with cash without depleting my savings and am still in an ok position to cover any other emergencies that may arise. Even just a year ago, if the same kind of major expense came up, I would have had to rack up for credit card debt. I guess throwing my tax returns into emergency funds/savings was a better idea than buying a 15 inch macbook pro with retina display. Fake edit: I also quit smoking a month and a half ago. I figure I've saved ~$125 so far. GAYS FOR DAYS fucked around with this message at 17:15 on Jun 23, 2013 |
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Jun 21, 2013 12:30
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I recently got an offer from my mortgage lender to refinance at a fixed 2.75% for a 15-year loan with no closing costs. This will save me $360/month, which I plan on putting right back into the principal payments. My wife and I are planning on paying the house off in another 4 years (or less), saving us roughly $20k in interest payments compared to my previous loan. 
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Jun 26, 2013 19:09
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I just paid off my student loans! I have other debt, and from a standpoint of optimization, I perhaps should have put the money I used to pay off the remaining student debt towards higher-interest credit card debt. But it was so close to being paid off that I was proud to put that last $1,000 in there to finish, and now I can take the money that was going to those loans monthly and more quickly pay off those other debts.
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Jun 26, 2013 22:18
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I just had to post this here. My wife and I just bought a townhouse, thus increasing our payment from $600 rent to a $1423 mortgage (with property tax, condo fee, insurance) Naturally, being a worrier I freaked out at first when we were looking but then I fixed it. I cut our cable bill by $100 (Basic cable and internet + netflix instead of everything on comcast) We got rid of the guinea pig ($50) Paid off my wife's personal loan ($200) and credit card ($150) Moving from a ghetto to a nice town lowered our car insurance payments by $100 a month. I'm proud of myself that I was able to cut $600 of expenses a month to make our mortgage payment hurt less.
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Jun 28, 2013 02:43
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Pillowpants posted:We got rid of the guinea pig ($50) Can you elaborate on this?
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Jun 28, 2013 04:00
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kansas posted:Can you elaborate on this? My wife's coworker took the guinea pig for her kid. We didn't put it to sleep haha. Bedding was $30 a month, food was $16-20. It was a waste of money for us.
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Jun 28, 2013 04:03
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On Terra Firma posted:So, a while back I posted something about getting fired from T-mobile for having a Verizon phone and starting my own marketing business as a vendor for custom home builders throughout the northern virginia area. I had been delivering fliers to apartments usually in low volumes, say 2k or 5k per job paying 75 cents a unit. So, fast forward from this six months out. I hit my financial goal for what I wanted to earn with my business by August, in April, and have put a considerable amount on top of that. I may have picked up large projects with two different builders, and I did 14k units in June so in one month I made ::pulls out calculator:: 10.5k - 1k for subcontracting out to a family friend and my younger brother to lighten my load a bit. There were some expenses too like gas in my car, but that's about it if you don't count a trip to subway while I'm out here and there. The coming month, which I projected to be dead, could be a month where I move anywhere from 20k-40k units and gross anywhere between 15-30k in sales. I would give more of an exact number but homebuilders are literally the most fickle group of professionals I've ever been involved with and what they will do tomorrow is anyone's guess. I'm amazed so many are still in business to be honest. Still though, to be this far ahead in my first six months of owning my own business is pretty loving cool and I am beyond psyched that things are gaining even more momentum. I also lost 15 pounds from running up and down stairs. To give you an idea of how many I do regularly, a few weeks ago I did 920 units in under 3 hours. 16 units a building with 4 floors to each building. I went up and down roughly 250 stories in 3 hours. Luckily, I've done enough of this that despite the insane work, I hardly get sore anymore. Just tired from not being able to keep up on the calories I need to actually do it all myself.
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Jun 28, 2013 05:08
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Sorry maybe I am just dense but what is it you are actually doing? Either way congrats on the success!
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Jun 28, 2013 05:38
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kansas posted:Sorry maybe I am just dense but what is it you are actually doing? Either way congrats on the success! I do direct marketing for home builders in the DC metro area. Doorhangers basically. I do a lot of research about what targets make the best targets for different communities for various reasons, but it boils down to putting fliers on doors at the end of the day.
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Jun 28, 2013 17:05
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On Terra Firma posted:I do direct marketing for home builders in the DC metro area. Doorhangers basically. I do a lot of research about what targets make the best targets for different communities for various reasons, but it boils down to putting fliers on doors at the end of the day. Every time I get one of these in NoVa I'm assuming it's you handing me that trash so I'm boo'ing you. Booooooo. No but seriously I get so many of these in a rental townhouse community and it makes no sense.
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Jun 29, 2013 00:06
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MJBuddy posted:Every time I get one of these in NoVa I'm assuming it's you handing me that trash so I'm boo'ing you. Where are you located? You might get them and throw them in the trash, but I know for a fact it's brought in a lot of buyers in the last year. A LOT. For one sales rep, they've gotten 11-12 sales off of them in the last year alone. That's a shitload of business in the home building world.
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Jun 29, 2013 04:43
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For the last two years, my fiance and I been barely scrapping by in a small 2 bedroom apartment costing $315 a week/$1369 per month (almost half my income). It was easy to get to the city (15 min by train/tram) and seemed worth it because he was studying (now finished) and working part-time in the city, and it was close to some friends. We were paying to squeeze in because it was convenient. That was before the people upstairs started getting abusive. We could have taken a shoebox-terrace house up the road offered by our agent for $420 a week/$1825 per month. It was actually a few square feet smaller, and we'd have to pay on top of that to store some of our stuff that wouldn't fit. Our other option was to wait it out for another place with the same price and battle 20+ other people at inspections, all the while wondering if I was going to come home to my car windows smashed. Then yesterday, my dad offered us one of his massive, 3-bedroom rental homes for $200 a week. Since he'd paid the mortgage off already, he was happy to let us have it cheap. He rents the others out for $500+. Even with increased transport costs with it being 40 mins out of the city, we're saving almost $1000 a month to move in to a house 3x the size of our apartment. Due to budgeting like a mother fucker, we have no other debts apart from my fiance's HECS fees (about $16K), and $500 on my credit card Hello serious savings, how I've missed you.
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Jul 1, 2013 03:05
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That's awesome, but be careful: having more room tends to result in buying more (unneeded) stuff.
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Jul 1, 2013 17:36
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On Terra Firma posted:Where are you located? Around GMU. I completely get that it's a combination of numbers game and targeting home owners, of which there are thousands upon thousands around here, but out neighborhood is 100% rentals, so it's always weird/funny/annoying that we get as much as we do.
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Jul 2, 2013 03:14
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MJBuddy posted:Around GMU. I completely get that it's a combination of numbers game and targeting home owners, of which there are thousands upon thousands around here, but out neighborhood is 100% rentals, so it's always weird/funny/annoying that we get as much as we do. Maybe I'm confused but doesn't targeting people who are currently renting make sense for home builders? As in if I already own a home why would I be buying a second one (unless I'm rich) but if I'm renting I might be interested in buying a home?
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Jul 2, 2013 04:13
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Cicero posted:That's awesome, but be careful: having more room tends to result in buying more (unneeded) stuff. And higher utility bills, so watch out for those as well! My parents have what I would consider an average sized home for someone in the US (so, way more space than 2 people could possibly need, 4br 2 bath, 2 living rooms etc) and their heating bills are regularly in the $300 range during the really cold months. Same for air conditioning in the summer, that will eat into your paycheck more than you'd think.
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Jul 3, 2013 00:11
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Cicero posted:That's awesome, but be careful: having more room tends to result in buying more (unneeded) stuff. razz posted:And higher utility bills, Both excellent points that are both already partially remedied. My Fiancé inherited a butt-load of furniture, including an 8-seater red gum dining table and a loving church pew. I also have my 7 foot easel, painting gear, computer gear, 2 desks, 2 huge bookshelves, 6 dvd shelves, 2 cats, cat tree, coffee tables... when I wrote 'we squeezed in' to a two bedroom apartment, i meant it  We're going to be at 'holy poo poo! I can walk around things!' capacity, and wont be buying more 'stuff'. We live in Melbourne, Australia and have been surviving with no heat or cooling in this apartment and larger, horrible share-housing for the past few years with temperatures fluctuating between 1 degree Celsius this winter to over 40 degrees for a week in a row (summer just gone). It's hot? Open the windows and sliding doors. It's cold? Put on a drat jumper, it's what they're there for. We've gotten used to being frugal with electricity when it comes to that. Our dryer is in the kitchen and we use it for storing the blender. I'd rather wait a day for something to dry then pay to run that sucker in winter. Our energy provider also has an online, hour-by-hour, day-to-day monitoring system to track usage and costs. So I'll be keeping a close eye on that to see when our usage goes up and what's affecting it. Though this new place does have down lights, and if they aren't the energy saver kind, I'm replacing them all 
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Jul 4, 2013 05:49
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Credit card #1 from 5800 to 900 balance with the remainder getting knocked out on Friday. (Normally paid off monthly; but engagement + vacation put a bigger dent in this) Credit card #2 still carrying a 0 balance. Line of credit balance 2900 to 1300 balance with a limit increase to 5000 (only bumped for credit score purposes) $25k home equity loan 100% paid off. Fiancee and myself fully moved to a joint checking account; over 10k in joint savings + $1800/mo going to savings via direct deposit. (Wiped out a chunk of savings to nix the above debts, oh well) Fiancee was awarded a 20k bonus that is to be paid in September; will be going mostly to savings. Credit score from 690 to 750 as of last check in. Pretty pleased with where things stand. Walked fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Jul 8, 2013 |
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Jul 8, 2013 17:18
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Well, overall we are doing pretty good. At least, better than we were before! We now have money earmarked and going to savings/IRA/etc, have a budget we are sticking to pretty close most of the time, and are able to feel a bit more secure. Its still a bit hard to stay in budget, but seeing the positive effects makes it a bit easier. The best thing though was this weekend. Bad thing: Fridge died. As in keeled over, grabbed its chest, kicked a few times and left a DNR order as it went towards the light. Pre-OH poo poo fund it would be me trying to figure out a way to get a fridge without robbing Peter to pay Paul. Not to mention the arguments with my husband about prices, how we would pay for it, and $, and all the etc etc etc. Good thing: We have had a separate discretionary emergency acct set up (as well as the emergency 6 month fund we are working on) for OH poo poo stuff like car repair/large appliances/emergency flights etc. We were able to buy a new fridge yesterday on our card (for the points) and we are able to pay it off completely. No arguing over the prices with my husband, and this was a pain-free experience. All because we HAD the money saved and set aside in case of something like this happening. It's amazing how good we feel knowing that we had the ability to do this and to get the one I wanted (not the cheapest one like we normally would have had to go for but a decent one that I actually was happy about), and NOT feel guilty. It's a pretty good feeling! Just wanted to say a quick thank you to all of you out there, you all have been an incredible help getting us back on track, and the information has been invaluable.
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Jul 8, 2013 17:42
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Just got a 31% raise! Really this just brings me up to where I should have been for the last two years but still pretty jazzed. Still waiting to hear on bonus amounts, this raise also will be back paid to April 1st I believe so it will be like a double bonus sort of.
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Jul 10, 2013 23:49
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Lyon posted:Just got a 31% raise! Really this just brings me up to where I should have been for the last two years but still pretty jazzed. Still waiting to hear on bonus amounts, this raise also will be back paid to April 1st I believe so it will be like a double bonus sort of. That kicks rear end, good for you! Not really for this thread, but in line with your fortunes, my boss gave me an extra something today on top of the max $75 bonus award (i.e. reimbursable dinner) I got a few months ago. Outside of work, he gave me a box of ammo that has been very hard to find in stores for months that works with the new revolver I bought but haven't been able to try for lack of ammo. And it didn't set him back much because it was spare he bought off of his dad. Time to play! 
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Jul 11, 2013 07:29
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