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Spokes posted:I've thought about the different things i might want to buy for fun but waiting has gotten me to talk myself out of them. You probably don't need to take it to the extreme like Steve Jobs but considering how your purchases will fit in with the life you want to live is a good practice to get into. You have a lot less buyer's regret that way! Spokes posted:Days without buying fast food: One!
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Jun 14, 2018 07:43
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Hey, didn’t abandon the topic, just on the vacation I posted about in the OP. It’s been a blast but I’ve also already blown through my budgeted food/gaming/etc  so I’m heading back tonight (traffic out of Vegas on Saturday night is probably fine, right?) , I’ll put together a financial update/status report tomorrow after I get some sleep.
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Jun 17, 2018 02:36
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Just LOL at leaving vegas on a juicy Saturday night when you could be making $$$ at the tables Sometimes it's best to work outside the budget for the overall greater good.
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Jun 17, 2018 02:44
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zaurg posted:Just LOL at leaving vegas on a juicy Saturday night when you could be making $$$ at the tables Hey friend, sorry about your thread and also bitcoin
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Jun 17, 2018 02:46
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Leng posted:This is pretty much key to building good financial habits. There's been loads of research done on how the ability to delay gratification is correlated with success - so good job and keep working on this! The other big thing is realizing quite often that the "I want it" reaction normally isn't well matched with what you truly want/need. Forcing yourself to have a full nights sleep before making a purchase is a great way to avoid buying stupid poo poo. But those studies aren't as a good as you've heard. Newer research indicates the old marshmallow experiments are way too correlated to make such a broad conclusion. The old cold war research said that the ability to delayed gratification caused higher test scores, better jobs, and better relationships. But the new research indicates that being born into a rich and stable family gives children the ability to delayed gratification, and that the greater success in life correlated with the ability to delay gratification can be mostly accounted for using socio-economic factors.
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Jun 17, 2018 06:04
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zaurg posted:Just LOL at leaving vegas on a juicy Saturday night when you could be making $$$ at the tables So is he just bitter and hence acting out or what?
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Jun 17, 2018 07:29
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John Smith posted:What is wrong with Zaurg anyway? I haven't been following his thread, but heard that he spiraled out yet again. making sound financial choices is hard, and selling shitcoins is even harder, so zaurg decided to just give up and accept that he's going to die penniless he's going to tell other people in BFC to gamble more instead so they can be more like him
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Jun 17, 2018 10:16
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btw op congrats on your windfall, i know you already know that zaurg is a precautionary tale whose advice should never be followed so i'm sure you're putting those winnings to good use start cooking more, like a lot more, and stop eating fast food
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Jun 17, 2018 10:24
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QuarkJets posted:making sound financial choices is hard, and selling shitcoins is even harder, so zaurg decided to just give up and accept that he's going to die penniless But I kinda enjoy Zaurg. People like him is what allows us to feel all good and warm inside, knowing that we are superior to them. I take great comfort in this. Kinda mean, but human I suppose.
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Jun 17, 2018 10:28
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it's kind of like being able to appreciate mississippi whenever you're feeling down about your current state if you're american.
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Jun 18, 2018 01:52
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STONE COLD 64 posted:it's kind of like being able to appreciate mississippi whenever you're feeling down about your current state if you're american. I mean, some people are on the down and out because of some external factors. If you accidentally laugh at them when they are innocent, you might feel a tad guilty. Whereas Zaurg is really the good stuff, guilt-free pleasure all the way. There is someone who deserves to burn in Hell.
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Jun 18, 2018 15:06
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Spokes posted:My current accounts as of June 1: Account projections for July 1: Checking: $1200.xx Credit card: $0 Ally Emergency Fund: $1002.xx Ally Annual Purchases Savings: $176.xx Ally Fun Savings Goals: $350.xx BofA Savings: $466.xx four digit checking and emergency fund  Total net worth went up ~$900 this month but $350 of it I have plans to spend, so not as much real savings as I would have liked. I knew June would be a down month for savings with my trip and I've budgeted July to be much tighter, but I'll see what I can squeeze out of the last 10 days and maybe hit July 1 with 1300-1400 in checking. Car Insurance is due next month but I should be able to pay it with the annual purchase money I have saved no problem. Game Show money should be here in the next couple weeks, but it's all going to emergency fund so my budgeting isn't really affected ALSO: edit for long-time readers, I did go to Vegas and I played magic -- the tournament crashed after round 2 and they offered free entry ($70) to a future tournament to everyone who was entered. I wasn't going to win anyway, so... GWM! I also spent about $250 total on food/entertainment. Uber and Gas cost more than anticipated but I kept costs low everywhere else. The numbers above are all post-Vegas spending. Spokes fucked around with this message at 17:49 on Jun 19, 2018 |
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Jun 19, 2018 17:28
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immediately)
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Spokes posted:Game Show money should be here in the next couple weeks, but it's all going to emergency fund so my budgeting isn't really affected You’re a better man than I am, good on you
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Jun 19, 2018 17:29
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Spokes posted:Game Show money should be here in the next couple weeks, but it's all going to emergency fund so my budgeting isn't really affected Spokes posted:ALSO: edit for long-time readers, I did go to Vegas and I played magic -- the tournament crashed after round 2 and they offered free entry ($70) to a future tournament to everyone who was entered. I wasn't going to win anyway, so... GWM! I also spent about $250 total on food/entertainment. Uber and Gas cost more than anticipated but I kept costs low everywhere else. The numbers above are all post-Vegas spending.
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Jun 19, 2018 18:48
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SiGmA_X posted:You may consider dropping $5,500 into your Roth IRA immediately if you're not planning to max it out anyway. You can always pull contributions out if you need to, but otherwise you've got a bit more into retirement. That said, efund expansion ftw! Yeah, Roth IRAs are really nice for this. Contributions can always be pulled out tax free; and you can even pull out investment gains on contributions made within the same tax year. You also can contribute to the previous year until tax filing is due; so you get an extra 4 months to catch up if you had a bad year prior. I personally really like Fidelity's Roth IRA set up. Free to set up and they have some really good ETFs and mutual funds to invest in. The huge bonus is that the dividends and capital gains grow tax free as well and if you draw down in retirement there are no taxes paid on any of it (except the taxes paid on the money you contributed initially ofc). All in all Roths are really awesome.
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Jun 19, 2018 19:05
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Thanks for the tip on Roth IRA. I opened one up with Vanguard today and put in $1000, I’ll top it off for the year once I get the Milli check. Need to sit down and figure out what a likely timeline for retirement is and then I’ll choose an appropriate target date fund.
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Jun 21, 2018 05:32
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Spokes posted:Thanks for the tip on Roth IRA. I opened one up with Vanguard today and put in $1000, I’ll top it off for the year once I get the Milli check. Need to sit down and figure out what a likely timeline for retirement is and then I’ll choose an appropriate target date fund. Throw it in whatever the TD fund for when you're 65 would be, or round up (eg 65 in 2052, put it in 2055). It won't start to adjust until 25yrs till retirement anyway. I personally think you should have more equities in retirement anyway, but that is another discussion. https://institutional.vanguard.com/VGApp/iip/site/institutional/investments/TargetDate 
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Jun 21, 2018 06:36
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Spokes posted:ALSO: edit for long-time readers, I did go to Vegas and I played magic -- the tournament crashed after round 2 and they offered free entry ($70) to a future tournament to everyone who was entered. I wasn't going to win anyway, so... GWM! I also spent about $250 total on food/entertainment. Uber and Gas cost more than anticipated but I kept costs low everywhere else. The numbers above are all post-Vegas spending. Cool and good things that you can do when you have your financial house in order. Have money to enjoy, not using debt to do so. Keep up all of the good momentum Spokes. You’re on an excellent trajectory that barring a disaster (or failing) you are just going to continue to build strength. After some period of time, you’ll be able to weather the disaster no problem. Great work!
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Jun 21, 2018 13:40
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Spokes posted:Thanks for the tip on Roth IRA. I opened one up with Vanguard today and put in $1000, I’ll top it off for the year once I get the Milli check. Need to sit down and figure out what a likely timeline for retirement is and then I’ll choose an appropriate target date fund. Someone else could confirm this, but you have enough going in between this year and next year where you could consider some of their higher funds. The 500 Index is a 0.04 cost , it just requires $10k to buy. Not sure if it’s good advice to do a fund like that over the retirement one, or whether it’s me posting because I’ve always wanted to be in the scenario to get a fund like that.
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Jun 21, 2018 13:43
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Duckman2008 posted:Someone else could confirm this, but you have enough going in between this year and next year where you could consider some of their higher funds. The 500 Index is a 0.04 cost , it just requires $10k to buy. I assume you mean VTSAX, their total market admiral shares mutual fund. From my research there's no real good reason to go with that over their ETF offering (VTI). Same expense ratio and same overall portfolio, and the minimum buy in is just 1 share (currently around $143/share). I could be missing something tho.
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Jun 21, 2018 17:31
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Can't buy fractional shares in VTI
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Jun 21, 2018 20:14
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potatoducks posted:Can't buy fractional shares in VTI
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Jun 22, 2018 20:20
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Hey, friends, just wanted to put a bow on this topic. Emergency fund is is up to $12k and I've started a CD ladder for it. 2018 Roth IRA is maxed. I've bumped my traditional 401k contributions to 12% of my salary. I'm keeping enough on hand to max my 2019 Roth and pay taxes on what was a very fortunate year for extra income. No debt. (and most importantly) I can stick to a budget while saving and working toward future goals! I know all this progress is temporary if I spend more than I earn, and I'm coming up on six months of not doing that. Wish I had figured it out at 20 instead of 30, but it's better than 40 or never. Thanks for coming on this journey with me.
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Jul 12, 2018 06:27
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Congratulations on the progress and particularly on developing sound financial habits. Consider dropping by one of the more general threads with periodic updates to keep yourself honest so that you don't start slipping on e.g. fast food.
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Jul 14, 2018 03:30
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Surprise, it's me again. Fell off the financial wagon a little bit since I started focusing specifically on weight loss -- it's a lot easier to buy a salad than make one, i suppose. and it's so helpful when the calories are right there on the menu and you don't have to use a food scale. Between that laziness, bumping up my 401k contributions, and $2k in car repairs this month, I'm starting to get nervous about having the money on hand early next year to pay taxes and max the Roth for 2019--Going to need about $14k on hand for that without dipping into my Emergency Fund ($8000 for taxes, $6000 for Roth, one obviously more important than the other.) Hopefully by then my job situation will be a little less shaky so I don't have to tie up so much money in a liquid emergency fund (I'm constructing a CD ladder right now but I'd obviously rather have the excess in ETFs or something). Regardless, I just put together my very-simplified budget for the remainder of the month and wanted to share it here so I had some obligation to honestly review it and see if i went over when I finish my October budget. I'd wait until October 1 to make this post but I don't want to waste another ten days. All my monthly stuff was handled earlier in the month so it's pretty straightforward here: September 20th - September 30th Budget Groceries: $100.00 Transportation: $70.00 Other Food: $100.00 Entertainment: $30.00 Savings Goals: 2019 Tax fund: $2000/$8000 2019 Roth fund: $0/$6000 (all plus whatever interest Ally has paid on them) Without having to pay off the CC or put money in the E-fund I should be able to build up savings pretty quickly but I've been having trouble knowing where it went lately. so I'm putting myself back into manually-track-every-transaction-in-YNAB mode. I've increased my 401k and withholding at work so I'm down to $2500 or so actually coming in per month (which is good, I think. can't spend money I don't see). Still doing a decent amount of overtime, freelancing, and trivia winnings -- that money will all go 100% to the Tax fund and in 2019 I'll start calculating what I owe as I earn it and save it through the year. 2018 was weird because I didn't know when my show would air or that Trivia Apps would be a thing for more than a month (bad excuses). This post seems like a lot of white noise but i know if my October budget has some stupid bullshit in it (or if it doesn't and I spend it anyway), no one will hesitate to call me out on it. here we go!
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Sep 21, 2018 07:45
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isnt making a salad like, the easiest food chore
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Sep 21, 2018 12:19
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Spokes posted:so I'm putting myself back into manually-track-every-transaction-in-YNAB mode. Doing this is the only way to avoid consumption creep. We make an unjustifiable amount of money every year, and the only way it ends up working for us is by knowing where every dollar goes.
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Sep 21, 2018 12:42
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Spokes posted:September 20th - September 30th Budget 10 day challenge - make salads at home for 10 days and save $100
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Sep 21, 2018 15:57
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Spokes posted:Surprise, it's me again.
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Nov 5, 2018 05:56
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