I think the best thing my parents did for me was not give me everything I wanted as a kid. I got a set amount of money every season and had to plan my own back to school purchases. When the money was gone I couldn't buy anything else. I learned at an early age how to stretch a dollar.
When I got out of school my grandmother matched what I contributed to my Roth the first year I graduated from college. I think the limit was $2000 at the time - so she gave me $1000, but that really encouraged me to save.
You clearly are disciplined in other aspects of your life. People don't run a 23 min 5K without being able to focus on a goal and stick with it.
You have to start paying more than the minimum on the Chase card. Just pay off the Discover card ASAP.
up until this month we were paying more my student loan & another credit card, which had interest - this is the reason we only paid the min on the chase.
We sold DH's boat which paid off those two things, so now we can pay more on the chase.
I don't know how much we spend on those things.. i don't keep track..which is clearly a problem.
Post by mrs.spunky on Aug 27, 2012 15:06:24 GMT -5
If all of your purchases show up on mint, then yeah, you do know how much you spend on them. If not, save your receipts and enter them manually. GT is right, you obviously have discipline in other areas of your life, you can do this! And we're here to help and encourage
If all of your purchases show up on mint, then yeah, you do know how much you spend on them. If not, save your receipts and enter them manually. GT is right, you obviously have discipline in other areas of your life, you can do this! And we're here to help and encourage
I don't know specifically how much i spent on workout clothes, or shoes. - I know I spent X at target, but I don't know what I bought while I was at target - I don't save receipts, but maybe I should.
I'm working on categorizing everything on mint for the month of July..
I learned how to be cheap and not spend beyond your means from my parents.
I learned the dirty details of how to budget, save, etc. from this board, from reading Smart Couples Finish Rich, and watching random money shows like Suze Orman.
I highly recommend Smart Couples Finish Rich. I think it's great to read with your spouse. It would help you guys get on the same page.
Post by mrs.spunky on Aug 27, 2012 15:15:01 GMT -5
Things like Target I lump under "shopping" and if I am feeling ambitious I break it down further. Household products like toilet paper end up with groceries, usually. It doesn't have to be perfect, but you should have an idea where your money is going and how better to make it work for you, not the other way around.
Yes. I've always been cheap, lol. Seriously, I grew up in a household where my parents could never pay bills. We had to dodge creditors, they nearly declared bankruptcy, went through credit counseling, and now will never really be able to retire. Growing up, I decided early on that that was NOT how I wanted to live. So I've pretty much just always done the opposite of whatever they did.
My parents are carefree wild children. They are loving and kind and good. However, they were and are financially irresponsible. They took on lots of debt in order to give us a wonderful childhood. From a very, very young age, I was determined to create security for myself that I did not get from them.
So I have always worked hard and done wise things with my money. I am, at the core, a spender though (vs a saver) and I like "nice things" and a certain lifestyle. That leads to mistakes here and there and a tendency to overextend myself. I have taken lots of finance classes and read more financial books than I could ever count. I am very interested in personal finance and have built a career in investments.
MM has helped me stay on track with topics such as retirement, budgeting, etc, although of course it is a constant process.
I absolutely think personal finance should be taught in high school and college much more than it is, and DH & I feel very strongly about educating any future children from a young age about these topics.
I'm still not great with money but my dad did teach the basics (he was a bank executive). My mom taught me s bit about investments. Mostly though it's my DHs influence that has had the biggest impact--he's more disciplined than me. Our budget is insane though--I make it & by the next month expenses I thought were fixed have gone up. Basically our expenses are insane--I'm working in it but having 3+ kids & living in the city is expensive.
Going on the boat? I know gas costs a pretty penny.
We rarely go to the bar. We haven't been to the movies since like 2006. No, really, we haven't. Our movie watching comes from netflix or Redbox rentals.. redbox MAYBE once - twice a month. .. Okay, I Did go to see magic mike with a friend, and that was honestly the first time ive been in a movie theater since The Break-up came out w/ jennifer aniston & vince vaughn...
we hadn't been out on the boat since april, which is part of why we sold it, and it was a jon boat, it cost about $10 to fill up...
i'm not being vague on purpose. I'm working on my wellsfargo account to try & give you a better picture... I truly do not keep track of anything other than what I posted above.
Post by hbomdiggity on Aug 27, 2012 15:37:06 GMT -5
I think my parents taught me, but in a weird way. I didn't get an allowance, but in hs, I would get money for lunch. I learned to save the change to use for stuff they wouldn't pay for.
In college, it was easiest for my dad to send a check monthly for my expenses. This forced me to budget to make sure the money would cover everything. While my parents gave me enough to have fun with, it also wasn't an unlimited source. And somehow I stayed away from all the credit card offers and knew I could only spend what I had in the bank.
Post by fuddyduddy on Aug 27, 2012 16:02:00 GMT -5
Yes. I have always had an interest in saving money and accumulating wealth. I started reading books about money at a very young age (elementary school). My parents' influence was certainly a factor, but I really took it upon myself to become educated about fiscal matters and put that knowledge into practice.
I feel I missed some major things in school.. Neither of us went to college, so maybe this is where you learn these things?
How to invest, where to invest. 401ks, IRA's .. all that good stuff..
Nope - A lot of people would probably be better off if colleges (or high schools) DID teach this stuff (plus student loan mangement!) but they don't.
Most of what I know I learned from growing up with fiscally conservative parents and here.
If you know you make enough money and just can't stop yourself from spending it, the problem isn't knowledge, it's self-discipline. You can't learn that, you have to figure out a way to make yourself live it. Mint was enough for me, to see where we were doing well (and less well). An envelope system might work for cutting back on spending, depending on when and how you tend to spend.
:Y: :Y: to the bolded part. My H should've taken that class...haha. Just kidding...sort of..
Most of it I learned on my own. I wish I had listen to my parents more when they gave me advice, but I thought I knew it all.
As far as 401(k)/IRA's, I didnt really think about that stuff until this year H's company will match his contributions starting September I think... and I will probably start a roth IRA while I am in school.
Nope - A lot of people would probably be better off if colleges (or high schools) DID teach this stuff (plus student loan mangement!) but they don't.
Most of what I know I learned from growing up with fiscally conservative parents and here.
If you know you make enough money and just can't stop yourself from spending it, the problem isn't knowledge, it's self-discipline. You can't learn that, you have to figure out a way to make yourself live it.
Oh, it's definitely self-discipline. But I guess I'm wondering how people learn about investing, and IRA's & those kind of things.
DH has been at his job 8yrs, and still doesn't have a 401k.. and I don't hound him about bc I don't want them to take more money out of his check.. i know - this is absolutely ridiculous, and incredibly embarrassing - but maybe I need to be embarrassed so I can get my ass in gear and find a solution to this.
I always knew what IRAs were in a broad sense, but I found out more about it when I started to watch Suzie Orman (sp?) and do some of my own research. My dad has offered to let H and I use his financial advisor, but we havent, mostly because I am afraid he will laugh in my face and make me cry. :-( Lol
My parents and older siblings are all horrific with money.
I was always a tightwad due to that. But now, thanks to MMs and a lot of reading I feel smarter. I still make mistakes but I feel in control of my money.
I have simply had the good fortune of growing up in a fairly well-to-do, fiscally conservative family and then making a decent living afterward myself.
It is far more difficult to be money-smart if you didn't start with this financial advantage, and I have great respect for those who really worked hard themselves, climbed up above their parents' status, and manage their own money wisely.
I grew up poor and we only bought necessities. (learned to differenciate needs and wants very young) Started to work at 13 and paid for my own clothes from then on -- with cash only -- you learn how to preplan spending to the dollar when you have mighty few of them as well as save for future large purchases.
I had a harder time learning about investing, stock market etc . Budgeting came naturally
Post by stingsharkruns on Aug 27, 2012 17:04:49 GMT -5
Thank you for all your responses. DH doesn't know it yet, but we are talking about our finances tonight at dinner.. The spending is not more him or more me - together we spend, spend, spend. We both WANT to save, but have trouble executing a plan.
When we built our house we saved enough for our closing costs (DP was not req'd) .. i think it was about 8k we saved in about 10mths.. so i know we can do it.. (at that time we only paid $350/mth in rent .. so we were able to save easily) ...
We are 27 & 31..to damn old to be this irresponsible with our money, IMO.
...and thanks for not yelling at me.. my heart was seriously racing when I was posting our budget.
I don't post terribly often, so sorry for butting in. The whole concept of a monthly budget was overwhelming for us. We would come up with something "reasonable". $600 for groceries. $200 for clothes. $x for auto. At the end of the month we were always over on some categories because X came up or whatever. Eventually we gave up because it seemed pointless to just rationalize overspending categories. Lots of people around here hate Dave Ramsey, but his description of how to budget is what really set us straight.
It's basically like this: -Every month come up with a new budget. This works much better for us than trying to fit things into "averages". We can sit down at the beginning of the month and say groceries will probably be $750 because there are 5 Sundays, and gifts should be $200 because there are 3 birthdays, for example. -Every $ of expected income should be allocated to a category. -If you are going to overspend a category, you need to rebalance the budget. So, if you decide to go to the movies and that wasn't budgeted for, you and DH have to decide together that it's ok to spend the money and then you need to take that money out of some other category (debt repayment, groceries, savings, whatever) -If something comes up that can't be taken care of by rebalancing your budget, it comes out of the emergency fund (if it's truly an emergency) -Keep your emergency fund at some base level. If you take $ out, focus on putting that $ back and back off on debt repayment until that $ is replaced. -Towards the end of the month we re-examine the budget. There are usually categories that we allocate money to conservatively and then we underspend. I take that extra money and throw it at our debt.
I know many will disagree, but I highly recommend Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover
Going on the boat? I know gas costs a pretty penny.
We rarely go to the bar. We haven't been to the movies since like 2006. No, really, we haven't. Our movie watching comes from netflix or Redbox rentals.. redbox MAYBE once - twice a month. .. Okay, I Did go to see magic mike with a friend, and that was honestly the first time ive been in a movie theater since The Break-up came out w/ jennifer aniston & vince vaughn...
we hadn't been out on the boat since april, which is part of why we sold it, and it was a jon boat, it cost about $10 to fill up...
i'm not being vague on purpose. I'm working on my wellsfargo account to try & give you a better picture... I truly do not keep track of anything other than what I posted above.
I think this is the big thing, just finding out WHERE your money is going. I wouldn't worry as much about breaking down exactly WHAT you got at Target - its more an understanding if your over-spending on dining out, groceries, random crap in general, etc.
Its a LOT easier to fix a leak once you define where its at so I think you are on the right track by going through your account. Good luck!
Oh, and it sounds like you might be in a similar situation to what we were in. We would talk about $ and knew we needed to change, we just didn't know how. We decided it was time to just follow someone else's plan and we picked Ramsey. We are finally getting ahead because there are clear steps to follow.
I don't post terribly often, so sorry for butting in. The whole concept of a monthly budget was overwhelming for us. We would come up with something "reasonable". $600 for groceries. $200 for clothes. $x for auto. At the end of the month we were always over on some categories because X came up or whatever. Eventually we gave up because it seemed pointless to just rationalize overspending categories. Lots of people around here hate Dave Ramsey, but his description of how to budget is what really set us straight.
It's basically like this: -Every month come up with a new budget. This works much better for us than trying to fit things into "averages". We can sit down at the beginning of the month and say groceries will probably be $750 because there are 5 Sundays, and gifts should be $200 because there are 3 birthdays, for example. -Every $ of expected income should be allocated to a category. -If you are going to overspend a category, you need to rebalance the budget. So, if you decide to go to the movies and that wasn't budgeted for, you and DH have to decide together that it's ok to spend the money and then you need to take that money out of some other category (debt repayment, groceries, savings, whatever) -If something comes up that can't be taken care of by rebalancing your budget, it comes out of the emergency fund (if it's truly an emergency) -Keep your emergency fund at some base level. If you take $ out, focus on putting that $ back and back off on debt repayment until that $ is replaced. -Towards the end of the month we re-examine the budget. There are usually categories that we allocate money to conservatively and then we underspend. I take that extra money and throw it at our debt.
I know many will disagree, but I highly recommend Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover
I actually have this book...sitting on my nightstand. :-|
From what I know about Dave Ramsey, I like his methods. DH used to listen to his show on satellite radio which where he learned about the debt snowball or whatever it's called.
The snowball thing was how we decided what needed to be paid off first. This year we've paid off about 10k in debt.. but we haven't saved a single penny.