S/O Cutting Cable - MM Failures

[raangoli]

As a board (or what's left of us), we seem to have our MM-ness straight. Except I am sure there are ways we are MM failures.

The cutting cable thread reminded me of that. Not only do we have cable (the basic package, nothing added on) but we also have: Netflix, Hulu, and Prime.

That is a crap load of tv/movies/etc available to us. Not to mention costly. (Minus the prime, because that serves a dual purpose.)

There are other things I do that are not MM-approved, like lease a car. We both do. GASP THE HORROR! But, we're pretty "meh" about it.

In what ways are you a MM "failure"?

[juliej]

Lots of Instacart and Postmates. If I have to drive somewhere to get something, I'd rather have it delivered. Instacart is great for Whole Foods, because sometimes it's cheaper online than in the store. But usually there's an insane upcharge, and then delivery fees, and Postmates has surge pricing similar to Uber... it adds up fast.

[Deleted]

LOL. I actually frequently get free 2 week trials from Hulu. They are attempting to get my subscription back. WELL, I forgot to cancel it this month. 11.99! ugh. I fell into their trap. I have a reminder on my phone for two days before it renews so I can cancel.

In Jan, I will spend 56% of my HHI on housing. The horrors of HCOL.

[dr.girlfriend]

We are also in the paying-a-ton-for-cable doghouse. :-) I also way overwithhold for taxes (usually get a 5-figure refund), invest in the market all at once instead of dollar cost averaging, play "hunches" with my Roth IRA money with individual stocks, forget to check over my credit card statements most months, pay extra on my mortgage even though it's 2.75% (that last one is kind of a bragfession)...I'm sure there's more!

[raangoli]

dr.girlfriend, a "bragfession" - I love it!

I thought of another one: I often let the money I move to investment accounts sit. Like for a really long time. It's not working for me just sitting there. It's partly out of analysis paralysis and partly out of fear that I will lose it even though I have no need for it at this moment.

[hamster]

We have two brand new cars. Payments total $900 a month.

We will plan on paying off my car around when the baby will come, but we have to stop Ira contributions to do it.

And we won't do a 529. (Though we have an alternative plan)

[insominac]

At this point, it's probably easier to say how I'm a MM success.

[mbcdefg]

We've never even considered cutting cable.

We had some sort of whole house fan thing (MH took care of it, I wasn't involved) installed in lieu of central air, and it really doesn't do anything. So that was about $1k down the drain. 

I'm carrying a credit card balance. It's not a lot, but I can never seem to wipe it out completely. (Although that's the only card on which I have a balance ... my other CC and my two store CCs are almost always at $0). 

I've used up our cell phone data several times, resulting in small fees. 

I got a new E-Z Pass in the mail but just stuck the envelope in my purse for a few weeks. I hardly ever use it and I kept forgetting to change it out. I finally got around to it a couple days ago ... the letter in the envelope said that I only had 12 days to send back the old E-Z Pass, otherwise I'll be charged a fee. I think it was something like $7 or $10. Stupid lazy mistake. 

[raangoli]

Aug 23, 2016 12:41:44 GMT -5 hamster said:

We have two brand new cars. Payments total $900 a month.

We will plan on paying off my car around when the baby will come, but we have to stop Ira contributions to do it.

And we won't do a 529. (Though we have an alternative plan)

We haven't opened one either. MH is all "But what if she doesn't go to college?" which is totally not an option to us, but he still asks. I responded and said that then she needs to pay us back. He didn't think I was serious but I am.

I think we may open one, but it's not going to be a priority. She will have money, but we intend to fund retirement first.

[raangoli]

Aug 23, 2016 12:46:42 GMT -5 insominac said:

At this point, it's probably easier to say how I'm a MM success.

[ellipses84]

We have high car payments. MM has actually made me better about being car smart. We had enough equity in my old car to put down a decent amount of money with our insurance settlement. In the past, I never put any money down, had long loans and never paid it off early.

Flame Free DH Confession - DH doesn't have any money in his retirement accounts and he's almost 40. He was dumb and didn't do it when he was in the military and up until the past year none of his jobs has offered a 401k. We've focused on my retirement accounts and it should be enough to support us in retirement since I've been the primary breadwinner for a lot of our time together. However, I know better and should have made him be proactive about it and save money in an IRA.

[Deleted]

Oh, I currently only contribute 12% of my income to my 401K. No employer match. No other retirement right now except pension which is 22/month.

[hamster]

Aug 23, 2016 12:47:53 GMT -5 raangoli said:

Aug 23, 2016 12:41:44 GMT -5 hamster said:

We have two brand new cars. Payments total $900 a month.

We will plan on paying off my car around when the baby will come, but we have to stop Ira contributions to do it.

And we won't do a 529. (Though we have an alternative plan)

We haven't opened one either. MH is all "But what if she doesn't go to college?" which is totally not an option to us, but he still asks. I responded and said that then she needs to pay us back. He didn't think I was serious but I am.

I think we may open one, but it's not going to be a priority. She will have money, but we intend to fund retirement first.

Neither of us really care if our kids go to college, so long as they still have goals and a path to support themselves. Plus who knows what college tuition will look like in 20 years. It may be free! It may be so unaffordable nobody will go. We find a 529 too limiting. We will do a target date fund instead.

[ijack]

When H went to cut cable last year (after buying 2 apple tvs to make it possible) he decided he couldn't do it. So we have cable, apple tv, hulu, netflix, and amazon prime :/
Instacart
pre-made dinner delivery (local company)
online shopping that I always forget to return
pretty much my entire life is not MM approved.

[nomad100]

We have basic cable, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. It was cheaper to keep the 14 channel basic cable bundled with the high speed internet DH needs for work than it was to have HS internet alone. So while it is access to a shitton of content, it is cheaper than having our old cable package plus Amazon Prime and Netflix. Oh, and we have xBox Gold so DH can stream football.

We are in debt repayment mode so our 401K contributions are less than 10% even with employer match.

And I am so doing Instacart once it is available here. I hate grocery shopping.

[AmyRI]

We save a little ($50/mo + birthday/xmas money) to the kids' 529 accounts, but we are not doing a lot and are not going to be bankrolling college, either. DH and I both feel that the kids need to put their own money into their education at that level as well. We're more likely to help them pay off their loans faster after the fact than to give them a blank check for 4 years.

We don't max retirement. We each put 13% of our incomes into our respective accounts, and have 5% matched on top that is all vested at this point, but we don't come close to maxing.

We had a 3rd kid and cut way back on savings because $600/week in childcare is no joke.

[lolalolalola]

We stopped investing in non-match retirement earlier this year (due to layoff concerns that are resolved for the time being). We are putting extra on our 2.2% mortgage instead.  I know it's dumb.

[Deleted]

Our cell phone bill is pretty high but I'm too lazy to do anything about it. It took like two freakin' hours to sign our last contract and I am NOT going to do that again with the kids in tow so I don't know when/if we will get around to shopping cell plans.

I'm in the boat with dr.girlfriend regarding the 5-figure tax refund. I do it on purpose because I know I wouldn't save that much each year so I offer a tax-free loan to the government every single year.

We don't have college savings accounts for any of our kids. We have plans in place that will give each of them money but it involves home equity and way more work than it should.

I make impulse purchases that we don't need all the time. In theory, we have over $600 a month after all of the budget items are covered. We usually end up with nothing extra because I have to use the money to pay off the credit card each month to cover the random crap I buy.

[samanthamkm]

We leased my van then DH decided he needed a new car so we are paying $600 in car payments. We had new floors installed on a 0% credit card along with new appliances on another 0% card. I feel like we are a mm fail. We are trying to get out of it but DH is having a hard time not spending money on stuff we really don't need.

[nicechicken]

We have satellite and usually watch Netflix/Hulu/prime. Right now it's the only way to watch our family who coaches so we can't get rid of it. Just the way it is. Can't wait til there is some solid sports subscription online. My team is always on Roots and so far their online watching ability isn't that awesome.

My truck payment is $600. It's a business write off though, that's why we did it.

I rarely look at my bank account. :/

I HAVE lost my debit card, so that put me on a no buy indefinitely because I'm too lazy to go get a new card. Lol.

[Roc A Bee]

I have DirectTV including Sunday ticket, a firestick, prime, and Netflix. I just can't cut DirectTV. I'm considering upping my internet bc the Firestick isn't smooth.

I count my pension towards my retirement planning which was only 12% total up until a month ago.

I never follow a budget. I'm a mint failure. I usually carry a cc balance.

Idk how I was ever accepted here

[Deleted]

Aug 23, 2016 12:46:42 GMT -5 insominac said:

At this point, it's probably easier to say how I'm a MM success.

Pretty much this.

Credit card debt
300k student loans
About $300 saved for retirement

The good news is I haven't used credit cards in over 2 years and I still have lots of fun and travel, so that's my success!

[raangoli]

Aug 23, 2016 14:14:08 GMT -5 @wandering said:

Aug 23, 2016 12:46:42 GMT -5 insominac said:

At this point, it's probably easier to say how I'm a MM success.

Pretty much this.

Credit card debt
300k student loans
About $300 saved for retirement

The good news is I haven't used credit cards in over 2 years and I still have lots of fun and travel, so that's my success!

This is very impressive. And I give your loans a pass. You're an MD! It's not like you took the scenic route in college or something! 

[ally]

I double pay on our mortgage each month.
I buy a lot of wine.
I have retirement accounts, but they are not maxed out.
I need to address the -exorbitant- cost of our cable and internet, but haven't made the call in months.
We use our AC and heat (depending on season) to keep ourselves comfortable - with no consideration to the cost.  July was a doozy!
I let DH make our investing decisions.  I am perfectly happy with my money market account.

[Deleted]

@wandering, I am averaging $300+ a year in cash back rewards for using credit cards. In fact I try to only use CC so I get the rewards. I don't consider them bad at all!

[Mushe]

I forgot to mark on my calendar when my year of satellite radio expired, and was charged like $250. I'm crazy busy and haven't called in yet to complain. Do you think they'd give me a pro-rated refund if I called in? I'm willing to go without entirely for the time being. Wah!

[raangoli]

ally, how is double paying your mortgage a MM fail? That's impressive to me.

Mushe, I'd call. Ain't no shame in my game to save some money.

@vicmo, that's an investment in your sanity!

[sadlebred]

I buy a new car when I buy cars & maintain them properly. I drive it til it dies, though. I got 10+ years out of my last car.
I will not cancel Dish/Cable. I'm too busy to find shows on every other service. I like being able to get them all of the DVR. I have a Firestick & Prime b/c Prime is dual purpose. I use it about twice/month.

[chimera]

I have 3 missing years of retirement, we had the money to put in an IRA, DH just didn't think it was a priority.
Trying to rollover/transfer my TIAA to my TSP is too much of a headache for me, the fees are so much lower on my TSP account.
We travel vs paying more than the min on our student loans.
We don't have an actual set budget, we really do need to set up one- if DH's job changes and we will be living in two places.
Amazon has ruined a lot of my comparison shopping - oh it can be at my door in under 48 hours OK.

[Deleted]

Two car payments here (and one full-time job between the two of us, but he's looking!). I'm not saying how much the payments are or I'd pretty much be flamed off the board.

DH has maybe $4k in retirement and he's 33. He just won't follow through with signing up for employers' plans, transfer his IRA out of the low interest credit union, oh yeah, and keep a career longer than a few years.

I have no immediate plans to save money long term as long as I'm in school and he's not working. However, I make enough to keep us coasting so we're not going in the hole either. I am contributing a good amount to my company's retirement; we're just not adding anything to our general savings.

My e-fund is doubling as my tuition savings, so in case of any real emergency I'll be taking our student loans.

Ugh. That was ugly.