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This is called price anchoring, not price fixing.
Price anchoring is about establishing value in the potential consumer's mind by giving you a higher price to compare to. https://www.mint.com/blog/how-to/price-anchoring/
Price fixing is about colluding with competitors.
You need a written budget
Dietary: Calories Expended VS Calories Consumed
Lifestyle: Daily Sleep Schedule; Weekly Exercise Routine
Financial: Savings; Housing; Medical; Food; Transportation; High-Interest Debt; Retirement; Entertainment
further reading:
/r/personalfinance
/r/fitness
/r/loseit
/r/eatcheapandhealthy
/r/frugal
http://www.youneedabudget.com/
Write down your goals. Track what you actually did vs what you planned/budgeted/intended to do. Make adjustments. Review your written goals, quarterly, and write yourself a progress report. Update your goals annually.
If you don't know what you are spending, you don't have any control over the future. This is true in finances, and in calorie intake. Your life is the sum of all of its parts - plan for all of them.
It's also a good idea to cross-check your receipt with the amount you're actually charged. That way, you can protect yourself from waitstaff taking liberties with their tips.
In terms of budgeting, though, you might want to check out Mint.
Assuming you're in the US, or someplace with the same "credit score" racket, I would offer this: You're pretty much in the same situation I was at your age. I did end up opening a credit card that year, and that account is still open to this day. That gives me a long credit history with good payment records, and has been great for my credit score as well as ability to get other financial services. I'd say go for it.
My word of warning: I'm assuming since you said you have no expenses that you're living with your folks or similar. Not long after I turned 18, I started working fewer hours (to make time for college classes) but expenses started to rise because I wasn't living with the folks anymore. Watch out for that shift. The first time I couldn't make the payment in full, I felt just sick. I thought I'd never be "stupid enough" to end up in credit card debt, but it did happen even if it wasn't a deep hole. This didn't happen because of the credit card, but with a credit card, I accidentally mentally separated the "money I have" and the "money I was spending" at a time when my income-to-expense balance totally shifted and I was distracted with school. When you put a charge on a debit card, it draws from your account as soon as it clears; treat your credit card the same way. You can do it in your head, or you can use a tool: YNAB (/r/ynab) has been great for financial planning and is what I use, Mint is automatic at the expense of being less robust. So it's not about the credit card (you could be writing hot checks, too), but about watching for the financial changes that happen around that age when you use a method of payment that doesn't cut you off if you run out of cash (similarly, watch out for overdraft "protection").
Yes. Absolutely. 100%!
I have used Mint for a little over 2 years and I have never had a single problem with it. My thinking behind it is that since Mint handles all those bank accounts, it should be a prime target for hackers. Since it has been rock solid for 2 years without a single problem then they must be pros at security. You can also check what they have to say about security here : https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/security/
No...
The counter argument here is always take the guaranteed return on your money. By paying down your mortgage quicker, you're getting a guaranteed 4.5%.
The stock market has no guarantees. Sure, the markets have been absolutely great for the last few years. I completely understand your thinking. However, sometimes you might only make 2-3%. If that happens, you were better off taking the guaranteed 4.5% from paying down your mortgage faster.
Check out an article on the subject here: https://www.mint.com/blog/goals/paying-down-debt-vs-saving-more-which-one-comes-first-0114/
Let's start with the slam dunk decision - buy the house cash. That opens up houses you otherwise couldn't make an offer on (such as foreclosures) and will get you a significant discount on a property. Once you own the house, you can get a mortgage on it without issue.
Once you are sitting in your house, fully paid off, you'll begin to question the wisdom of taking out a very large loan in order to buy stocks. First, you can read the simple explanation or the complicated explanation of the issue at hand. Using a mortgage to invest adds the component of leverage which magnifies the ups and downs of your portfolio. It also carries interest which acts as a drag on the overall performance.
Your CFP and most people in this thread have completely glossed over the issue of risk and are focusing only on return. An intelligent investor attempts to have a portfolio that achieves the desired amount of return with a minimum of risk. If your stock/bond portfolio is fairly conservative, it makes no sense to leverage it to increase your returns. It would almost always be better to move your portfolio into higher return asset classes like small cap or value stock indexes. In fact, unless you are 90%+ invested in stocks, leveraging your portfolio is probably a bad idea. It's simpler, safer and easier to just rebalance into higher return investments.
I use mint to keep track of budgets and stuff. Works pretty well. Not really a site to go for advice, but a good way to keep track of your money and have a good sense of what is going on. It alerts you if your over budget and stuff like that. Plus its free!
It's not your FICO score. From mint's info page:
>The credit score provided to you is an Equifax® credit score, based on a proprietary credit model developed by Equifax, which may use information in your Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit files.
Source: https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/security/mint-credit-score-terms-of-use/
> Some parts of the Services are supported by sponsored links from advertisers and display Intuit Offers that may be custom matched to you based on information stored in the Services, queries made through the Services or other information.
They do.
> We hack our own site. Intuit runs thousands of tests on its own software to ensure security. We scan our ports, test for SQL injection, and protect against cross-site scripting. We also employ Hackersafe to test our site daily.
https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/security/security-technology/
Here's some details on how they manage security. https://www.mint.com/how-mint-works/security They use a lot of the same tactics that your actual bank uses to protect information. That being said, there's no such thing as unhackable, so your caution isn't without merit, but Mint isn't necessarily less secure than your bank itself.
Yeah that guy obviously has never read anything about Mint. It's pretty clear in their FAQ that they do store passwords.
> Your login user name and passwords are stored securely in a separate database using multi-layered hardware and software encryption. We only store the information needed to save you the trouble of updating, syncing or uploading financial information manually.
Hey man good effort post. Adding to the budgeting section:
- An alternative to excel is mint. You just set it up to hook onto your bank, allocate some budgets, and revise / reiterate your budget if needed. No need to manually punch in your transactions day after day. I started using mint during college and I still use it to this day in my professional life.
- You want to open up a credit card ASAP once you hit 18. Pay off your balance every month. If you're scared, use it to buy a coffee every month and pay it off at the end of the month. You want it to start your credit history, your mid 20 year old self will thank you when your 800+ credit score qualifies for the lowest interest rate for your car/mortgage loan. Highly recommend capital one or a chase freedom if you qualify for your first card.
He's talking about the $20 purchase every 6 months to keep the cardholder from canceling your card. If you never use the card, you're costing them money, so eventually they'll just cancel your card for you. If you want to keep the card open and active spend $20 every 6 months to keep your oldest credit card open as a form of long term creditworthiness.
https://www.mint.com/blog/credit/how-credit-card-inactivity-impacts-your-credit-scores-042012/
It's possible that she is listed as an authorized user of her father's credit card. Assuming that is the reason that card is there and as long as the card has a good history, leaving it on her credit report is almost certainly improving her credit given how old that card is.
15% of the FICO score is length of credit history.
Here's a little more information on how being an authorized user affects your score.
budgeting software can take care of this for you:
http://www.youneedabudget.com/
I see from other comments that you took a look at your spending, and you see that it is too high. The next step is to reduce that spending.
You have to be consciously aware of where your money is going, when and why you are spending.
I recommend, for the remainder of the month of April, carry a small notepad and pen around with you in your pocket. Any time you make a purchase, write it down in the notepad. Include the final price (with tax!), and what the item or service is. This goes for any time money leaves your hands or your accounts, whether it is on a computer screen, at a bank, from a plastic card, or hard currency. A coin into a gumball machine counts, too!
At the end of April, go through this notebook. Put all of the purchases into a spreadsheet and add up the totals. Assign categories, decide which items are priorities, which are actual necessities (such as groceries), and which are unnecessary or "just because" (such as bar tabs, for example).
> Banks do not transmit your credentials over the inter webs
Yes they do. How do you think they get from your computer to the bank website when you log in? On the internet. Where they bounce through over a dozen routers, switches and computers on the path between you and your bank's web server. Luckily the data's encrypted with the exact same SSL/TLS technology Mint and every other secure website uses, so nobody along the path can understand what was sent except the intended recipient.
> No company does anything truly free. Why is mint free?
Referral commissions. They recommend bank accounts, credit cards with better rates, retirement accounts, car insurance quotes that beat what you're paying, etc. If you sign up for one of those accounts/services, they pay Intuit a commission for the referral.
https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/save/
You sound like a loon implying that Mint is free because it's a conspiracy by Intuit to get your bank information and steal it to make a profit. As if the $17 billion dollar company that's made the accounting software most businesses have used for the past 24 years is suddenly scheming to trick people into using a personal finance manager to scam them.
You need help. See a doctor. Get medication. This kind of paranoia is not healthy.
https://www.mint.com/blog/planning/the-cost-of-raising-a-special-needs-child-0713/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/08/18/raising-child-cost-2013/14236535/
Summary: typical cost of raising a child: $245,340 typical cost of raising a child with austism/downs: $1.4mil to $2.3mil
I realize that money isn't everything, but knowingly having a child with downs syndrome is setting yourself up for a rough life financially.
If not being able to afford to provide for your child's need isn't on the list valid reasons to have an abortion, then what exactly is?
Using Mint for this would likely be easier and more effective. Link up your bank accounts, see your average expenses, adjust your budget accordingly within the app. Been using it for years and can't recommend it enough.
Signing up for something like Mint.com should help with this. You input all of your bills and bank accounts that you use. Then you get nice reminders and summaries about where your money is going and how it is being spent(dining out, clothes, etc.). You can also pay bills directly through mint.
Do you actively track your expenses? I'm willing to bet that you're spending a lot more than you think you are on frivolities each month. Get a notepad, or phone app or anything and record each expense as it happens. Then, at the end of the day, week or month, add it all up. Split things into big categories like "food", " fun" and "bills". Then subdivide those categories into " restaurants", "movies" etc... The idea being to determine what expenses are necessary, and those that are not.
Or use Mint if you never use cash, just be aware that the categories aren't always correct.
Don't wait until next week to start. Start with your next purchase. While you're at it, ask yourself if having "stuff" from shopping is making you happy, or stressed at the end of the month.
Lastly, try poking around /r/personalfinance, /r/financialindependence and /r/frugal if you really want to make a change. Frugality doesn't mean no fun, you just need to go about it differently. Also, take a look at /r/YNAB or watch the videos at You Need A Budget. Their four rules really help if you're struggling with budgeting.
- Give every dollar a job
- Save for a rainy day (large sudden expenses, or infrequent ones, like vehicle registration
- Roll with the punches
- Live on last month's income
Here is the video that plays when you first open their software, that gives a nice overview.
Edit: added things I forgot.
Change is cash.
You can sort and roll them yourself using wrappers available at most stores. Banks will typically accept rolled coins for deposit or exchange without imposing a fee, and some stores will accept coin rolls for purchases.
You can check with your bank, or other banks in your area, to see if they have a coin-sorter machine and what their policy is. For example, they may allow customers to deposit unwrapped coins for free, but charge a small fee for non-customers. They may also only allow you to bring in unwrapped coins on a certain day. You'd just have to check with them and ask.
There are commercial coin-wrapping machines, most notably Coinstar, which seems to have a machine in the front of every grocery store. I've never used one but I believe they charge a fee if you want bills, or for no fee you can get a gift card for the store. Check https://www.coinstar.com/
Also, here's an article you may find useful: https://www.mint.com/blog/how-to/whats-the-best-way-to-cash-in-loose-change-0314/
Just wanted to add that, if your financial institution isn't supported on Mint, you just need to get a few other people you know to also ask Mint to support that financial institution. Once five people have officially asked for an institution to be supported, Mint will work toward supporting it ( link to contact Mint support ).
If it's an employer- or university-based credit union, maybe you can ask your friends/coworkers to ask Mint for support (even if they don't use Mint, just as a favor to you). Same thing for workplace retirement or benefits providers -- just get other people to ask Mint to support it and they will.
Well, not really I'd say.
Since we are neither reaping the benefits nor trying to be free riders. Sweden has never tried to get into NATO with some special clause saying we don't have to contribute. A free rider would be someone who would want to enjoy the benefits but not contribute like you said. Simply opting out because it's not beneficial to your ideologies/policies is not being a free rider.
On top of that, we are pretty damn good at giving back in other aspects. We are no.1 in the world at taking in refugees. We are also pretty damn generous when it comes to foreign aid.
We are the sixth most generous contry in the world when it comes to foreign aid and we have a population below 10 mil. The lowest population of the top five is France with 66 mil, that's a lot more than 6 times as high of a population yet not even double our aid (And EU is one of the top 5). Per capita we give more than any of the other top 5 by FAR.
So just because we don't want to place our country in harms way by joining a military coalition as a country with an incredibly weak and almost non-existing military doesn't mean we are free riders. Scandinavian countries are topping pretty much every positive list, why would we want to risk everything we've worked for just so that we can contribute with one plane from Toys R Us. Joining NATO is more than "you help me, I help you". There are terms and demands you have to follow. Since we are doing really really well on our own, and meanwhile helping the entire world with a population smaller than pretty much any city in the US, it's really stupid to join a military coalition without a very very good cause.
Mint has been an invaluable tool for me to keep track of expenses and shame myself about my reckless spending. I wouldn't worry about the security, they're monitored by security experts - https://www.mint.com/how-mint-works/security
If someone gets access to your Mint account, they can't do anything but look at your transactions. As for Mint's security on their server-side, they explain it very well here :
https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/security/faq/
https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/security/security-technology/
As a software developer I feel very safe using their system and have been a user for over 3 years.
From https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/security/faq/: > Your bank login credentials are stored securely in a separate database using multi-layered hardware and software encryption.
Also, from VP of Engineering David K Michaels on http://www.quora.com/How-do-mint-com-and-similar-websites-avoid-storing-passwords-in-plain-text: > For banking credentials, we generally must use reversible encryption for which we have special procedures and secure hardware kept in our secure and guarded datacenter. The decryption keys never leave the hardware device (which is built to destroy the key material if the tamper protection is attacked). This device will only decrypt after it is activated by a quorum of other keys, each of which is stored on a smartcard and also encrypted by a password known to only one person. Furthermore the device requires a time-limited cryptographically-signed permission token for each decryption. The system (which I designed and patented) also has facilities for secure remote auditing of each decryption.
So yeah, I guess you could say that they "have" your plaintext info in a sense. But this security is something on which Mint's entire business model rests... they go to great lengths to ensure that it works properly.
If they need to take money out of your savings account you are overdrawn so of course they'll send you letters. Ally will do the same. Also, being overdrawn on your checking account is something that should only happen once in a blue moon, ideally never. Look into Mint
I would like to see integration with Mint.com to see the valuation of all the coins in your wallet based on their FIAT valuation. This is currently only done by coinbase (so for BTC, ETH, and LTC). If MTL were to do this with their Vault, which includes alt coins, it would be a complete game-changer as no one currently does this.
It just requires some form of "read only" API. I don't know all the logistics but I bet if you contact Mint.com you can get integrated pretty easily.
This is such a mindbogglingly stupid move. I've been using mint.com for years. I've used Blackberry, Android, iOS, and Windows phones. The mint experience on Windows Phone was pretty good - not up to feature parity but close.
Now that Windows 10 is out and their potential user base has gone up hugely they decide to kill their app? Forget stopping support - they're going to KILL the app? This makes absolutely no sense.
edit:
Chat with their support reps and tell them how unhappy you are: https://www.mint.com/support
According to this, 78% of NFL players declare bankruptcy within 5 years of retirement.
Hey, I am really not trying to cast any judgments and hope I am not being too forward. I sincerely think this might help you in the future (because it was a total lifesaver for me) -- this app/website tracks your spending and categorizes your expenses each month - it helps you see where you tend to spend, and also notifies you of any unusual charges/deposits in your accounts.
Yes. you need to budget. Start this immediately.
You need an emergency fund. Make sure you have one.
Paying off the loan quickly is a good idea as that is essentially a 6% return.
Save for the long run. The best type of retirement savings for you depends on a number of things. Do some research, but it is imperative that you start saving even if you don't have it completely "figured out."
A good place to start these things is mint. Mint can help you budget, set goals, find a retirement plan, etc. Finances don't have to be complicated.
Only buy the things you need, once a week, with a list in hand.
Purchase gas for your car, groceries for the whole week, and pack your lunch every day. This will slow you down, a lot. Let eating out be a weekend thing. Plan your splurges, and savor them more.
Start using Mint.com or Evernote and tracking everything you buy.
My Evernote has photos of grocery receipts, pictures, and prices of any clothing/shoes I've bought, for all of last year.
You need to have at least $2,500 saved at all times. If you don't have that yet, cut back until you get it.
I use Mint to track my spending habits, and so far it's been working really well. You can create a budget for certain expenditures and they'll send you notifications if you go over it.
Two things:
1) Get rid of that credit card debt. Since you have consistent work for a few months, use your savings to pay it off. Do not carry a balance on a credit card ever again. No money, no chargy.
2) Create a budget so you can see where your money is going. Mint is a good free app to do so. You are only accounting for $1,225 a month right now, so where is the other $1,675 going? Figure it out, cut anything you don't need, and get that emergency fund back up to where it should be.
I second Mint.com as an easy and great way to track your spending.
Consider just calling Comcast and telling them if you can't lower you're bill that you're going to switch to dish. Or if your family will allow, buy a Roku box and subscribe to Hulu Plus and Netflix ($14/month total). [/r/cordcutters](/r/cordcutters)
If you want to impress them, don't stop with cable, get new quotes for car insurance and ask your current provider to match. Go over the wireless bill. Cancel a land line if you have one.
If they seem receptive, go for a full blown budget. Get everyone in a room (no TV) and come up with a list of categories that you spend money in. Add up the total household income and plan for how much you are willing to spend in each category for THIS MONTH. Be prepared for the first few months to be really rough, but by month 3 or 4, they should start getting really solid. This is how mature grownups manage their money.
EDIT: Budgeting: https://www.mint.com/budget/planning/
Yes, as they rather clearly explain. https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/free/ Banks and credit cards will gladly pay a finders fee if you sign up for their new maximum rewards freedom perks card.
Mint sees you spend a ton on travel, recomends a travel card because you can get x% on travel, mint sees 2 grand in groceries purchased, recommends a card you qualify for with high percents on groceries. Mint sees you are a bad person and regularly carry a balance, it recommends a card with a lower APR than the one you have. Pretty simple and smart way to turn a service into a salable product.
Mint is really good for this. It tracks all electronic transfers (and is pretty good at guessing the right category ~95% of the time, but gets confused when I go to the grocery store gas station), shows trends, allows you to know if/when you're over budget each month, allows rolling budgets (so that you can spend $300 at Christmas on gifts and less in January, and it doesn't have a problem). It also flags negative trends and keeps tracks of previous spending averages. It's really, really useful.
I would hold onto that car and keep driving it, and maintaining it, until something major on it dies. That is a good, reliable car. No sense in adding more debt to your life right now.
This job you're moving for - is is a commission only job? Or when you say "no-weekly paycheck" does that just mean you get paid by the month?
Many people rave about https://www.mint.com/
for money management.
Do not spend your savings to pay down your loans faster. Hold onto that as your emergency fund. Since you're earning a good starting salary you can double up on your monthly payments. Call your lenders to make sure your double payments are going toward the PRINCIPAL of the loan.
Here's a table explaining why you want to double-up payments or pay the highest interest rate loan off first. Just don't, IMO, call these people for advice. These credit management places are always trying to sell people something.
http://www.clearpointcreditcounselingsolutions.org/best-way-to-pay-off-student-loans/
stepping in to recommend www.Mint.com and their budget tools. They have sliders where you can pick the amounts you want to budget for all of the important items in your life and you connect it to all your accounts so it can monitor transactions. You might need to finagle things a bit at first to get it where you want it but it's the best tool I can find to visually SEE what my budget looks like each month and how much I'm spending on everything.
I set up an account with https://www.mint.com/. You connect your bank accounts, credit/debit cards, and investment accounts and it keeps track of everything for you, provides budgeting tools, credit reports, and all kinds of useful advice. It takes a bit of set up but has made my life a lot easier.
Sorry to hear about your depression and best of luck developing this new skill!
https://www.mint.com/how-mint-works/categorization#toc
Mint helps auto-categorize post-spending totals.
Your outlook is right, but tracking it yourself vs letting a program track it is the same. It's about how you react to the observed trends, not how you add them
Oh, sweetie, I know it must feel overwhelming right now! Big secret? I'm 32, we tried for months and months to get pregnant, and when we finally did I had all the thoughts you are having. Basically "Holy shit, what did we just do?!?" Everyone feels worried and insecure about it sometimes - what you are feeling is totally normal. As my husband likes to say "Worrying is like a rocking chair - it gives you something to do, but it's not going to get you anywhere." (Honestly I usually want to punch him when he pulls that one out, but he's not wrong). You've got 9 months to figure out a plan, and even a back-up plan. Since you're worried about finances, now is a good time to start developing really good financial habits (if you haven't yet). Get a money management tool like Mint or YNAB and really really stick with it. That will also give you an awesome base to have good, non-fights money conversations with your SO. For baby stuff, you can learn a ton online or from books or YouTube. There are lots of threads on here that have suggestions. Also, make sure you are using any extra services or resources that you're eligible for! Like, if you are in the U.S. and qualify for WIC, sign up for it and use it. But mostly, congratulations!!! :)
Right. But there are many precautions you can take. I mean think about any developers or dbas having access to accounts. Generally the way it works at companies I have worked at is developers who have access to code don't have access to production machines. Development machines have data sanitized. So most things are siloed.
https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/security/policy/#a-12
- Your data is secure
We use a combination of firewall barriers, encryption techniques and authentication procedures, among others, to maintain the security of your online session and to protect Mint.com accounts and systems from unauthorized access.
When you register for the Service, Intuit requires a password from you for your privacy and security. Intuit transmits information such as your Registration Information for Mint.com or Account Credentials securely.
Our servers are in a secure facility. Access requires multiple levels of authentication, including biometrics recognition procedures. Security personnel monitor the system 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.
Our databases are protected from general employee access both physically and logically. We encrypt your Service password so that your password cannot be recovered, even by us. All backup drives and tapes also are encrypted.
We enforce physical access controls to our buildings.
No employee may put any sensitive content on any insecure machine (i.e., nothing can be taken from the database and put on an insecure laptop).
Intuit has been verified by Verisign for its use of SSL encryption technologies and audited by TRUSTe for its privacy practices. In addition, Intuit tests the Site daily for any failure points that would allow hacking.
However, it is important to understand that these precautions apply only to our Site and systems. We exercise no control over how your information is stored, maintained or displayed by third parties or on third-party sites.
I don’t think people get into trouble with money because they lack the skills to manage their personal finances. It’s well and good to set a detailed budget and track your expenditures using something like Mint, but that level of detail isn’t necessary to maintain healthy finances.
In my view, the problem is one of culture not skills. We can teach kids what a budget is and how credit cards should be used, but it’s all for naught if they’re constantly bombarded by messages telling them that it’s their God-given right to have everything they want today. In that kind of cultural context, teaching personal finance is just pissing into the wind.
See my comment below, or their FAQ:
> How secure is my login information I store in Mint?
> Your login user name and passwords are stored securely in a separate database using multi-layered hardware and software encryption. We only store the information needed to save you the trouble of updating, syncing or uploading financial information manually.
You might check the sidebar in /r/personalfinance.
I spend less than I earn. I have a portion of my paycheck deposited directly into savings. I always wait a day or more before making a non-routine purchase to make sure I still want it after a cooling off period. I pay for just about everything by credit card, but I pay the balance off every month. Both for the points and for the next suggestion:
You might look into a free budgeting tool such as Mint or Personal Capital to help track where your money is going -- easiest if you pay by credit / debit card.
Good on you for working to get yourself into a better financial situation.
I suggest signing up for mint.com or getting "You Need a Budget" software. It's an emergency and you need to figure out down to the dollar where you are spending your money monthly. You do have a good start on knowing some of the places where you're spending (housing, cell phone, etc), but with 150K gross you had several more thousand a month that you aren't accounting for in spending.
While Oil and Gas isn't hiring, other engineering fields are hiring. It likely won't be anywhere near the same pay, but it will be a living wage.
The condo...it's too expensive. I think you will have to seriously consider selling.
$100 Cell phone plan: check out /r/NoContract to find much cheaper cell phone plans. Find the MVNO that uses the same towers as your current carrier and switch. I suggest Cricket or pre-paid T-mobile as a couple of options that are around 30-45 a month.
What are you going to do about health insurance now that you are unemployed? That will likely be a big cost that you didn't have to budget for before. Cobra insurance is very expensive. You may be able to find cheaper insurance on your state's ACA health insurance exchange.
I've a personal interest in creating a web application version of my favorite budgeting software YNAB. I use this application several times a week to keep track of budgeting and I prefer it over Mint. The only downside is that it's only a windows and android application. I would like to use it in a browser.
That's my ideal long term project. :)
Edit: For those of you who expressed interest. Please PM me your slack tags so I'll have them when we move on to larger group projects.
Even unmatched 401k savings have <strong>massive</strong> advantages over normal taxable investments.. In that example, it's worth over $13k on just aa $10k investment.
My 401k has broadly diversified index fund with no loads and expense ratios below 0.15%. Exactly what I would invest in in normal taxable accounts. Not all are that good, but usually the tax advantage is worth it unless the expense ratios are above 1.5% in the 401k. (ridiculously high)
>and tend to fluctuate with the movement of the overall markets, making them not ideal for positioning to protect against negative movement or opportunity.
Not sure what you mean by this. Normal investments (index funds) outside of 401ks do the same thing.
Mint is pretty transparent as to how they make money, so its never implied that its a "free lunch". Assuming that a paid service would be better just because you have to pay seems pretty baseless to me.
Personally, I will not use the service. Consider this: Mint.com saves your banking passwords. from the mint.com online security FAQ (https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/security/faq/) :
>Can Mint employees view my bank account numbers or credit card numbers?
>... Your information may be seen by technical personnel ...
From the term of service (https://www.mint.com/how-it-works/security/terms/#a-18):
>...INTUIT’S LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ANY CAUSE WHATEVER AND REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF THE ACTION, WILL AT ALL TIMES BE LIMITED TO $500.00
You have provided a third party access to your account. If that information is stolen and used to drain your accounts, you have no recourse. FDIC insurance will not cover you, since the breach did not originate from the bank, and Intuit will just give you $500. In this day with large data breaches, you could end up with just $500 if someone drains you account.
While the likelyhood of this happening is low, it is not out of the realm of possibilities.
Agreeing on a budget is a pretty common source of tension between couples -- it has been for my wife and I. She's ridiculously good with money, I never think about it until it becomes a problem.
What really helped me to get started was Mint: it allows you to track all of your accounts (checking, student loan, car payment, etc.) in one place. It also makes budgeting really easy by automatically tagging each purchase in your bank account history as "utilities," "entertainment" or whatever.
There's an app so that you can check to see how much you have left to spend on booze, movies, clothes, etc. right when you walk into the store (you know, the important stuff). And since it's kind of a gadget solution, that makes it fun.
For me, it's also just helpful to see every single bill in one place, so that I have a better idea of what it means for me to eat lunch out or get that extra coffee. It puts everything in context. You can put both of your accounts of any kind together, and you'll both receive email alerts when your budget is running low in a certain category, or when balances are low, etc.
If you can't get him to agree to go on Mint, or check it regularly (that takes practice), motivation is key. I'm terrible at saving but whenever my wife shows me her savings account balance I'm like fuuuu… Also, looking at things you'd like to save for together -- a weekend trip somewhere, new phones, anything that gets him excited -- is a great motivator for both of you to stick to some kind of budget.
Good luck!
Have you heard of the website/app Mint? It's a really slick website that lets you bring all of your financial accounts together into one place, create budgets, track bills and basically see where every penny of your money is going. If you're at all like me and struggle to put together (and stick with) a paper budget, you might find it really useful. The nicest part is that it pulls data from your bank account statements and automatically categorizes almost everything; just by entering your account number it does a pretty good job at approximating how much you're spending on food, utilities, entertainment, etc.
You can also set up long-term goals for yourself, including paying off credit card debt or loans. With the loan repayment calculator you can see exactly when you'll finish paying off that debt if you put $100 a month towards it instead of $50.
What I would argue, is that you're not really talking about security but control. When I hear people asking about whether a service is secure, I tend to reply with whether that service puts them at risk for password breach, identity theft, etc.
When we get into talking about the fact that they may sell certain information to marketers - btw, they say they don't give out personal information in their privacy policy - that's not really what I would call security, but control. If you don't want your information sent to marketers, you have the option to install things like Quicken on your personal computer. Millions of people though are willing to trade that - give up a bit of control - in exchange for a lower-cost bit of software and the convenience of having it web hosted. In any case, services like this, if they do give information to marketers, pledge to remove personally identifiable information, which means that your data is secure, but you don't have the control of preventing yourself from being marketed to.
EDIT: Started typing this out on my phone, and it got submitted early. Got on the computer to finish my thought.
Emergency Fund
An emergency fund should generally be between 3 and 6 months expenses. It should be used for... emergencies only—hence the name. Unexpected car maintenance, medical expense, loss of employment are all examples of what these are good for. While the latter range of amounts is a general rule, it should be enough for you to sleep soundly at night. This should be stored in a savings account you can get to easily. Many people like to use a high yield online savings account with companies such as ING or Discover Bank to generate some interest money on their fund.
Debt
Not knowledgable on the subject to answer this since I haven't been in credit card debt... :(
Budgeting
To create a budget, write down all your fixed expenses, plus your other expenditures for a few months and then create categories and average out how much you spend in each per month. You may find a service like http://www.mint.com helpful for tracking these categories. Once you have the numbers you know what you're roughly currently spending and can "trim the fat" so to speak by cutting back a bit in areas where you have excessive spending. From there, just do your best to stick to it each month.
Great help page on creating a budget: https://www.mint.com/budget/creating/
Pensions
Not knowledgable on this either... pensions are typically handled with your employer... or are you talking about general retirement investing? 401k, IRAs, etc?
Biggest Money Mistakes
Short term stock investing (less than a few years), not tracking your spending, not negotiating when buying a car or house, carrying credit card debt, financing anything that shouldn't be financed such as a television or computer, thinking you can wait until later in your life to start saving.
Tools: Sankeymatic
Source: Mint and myself
Context: I am a 28 year old single female with no dependents, living in a populous US city. It's my first time working with Sankeymatic so I hope it turned out okay. I see these on this sub from time to time and was really curious how my spending stacked up. I am a huge fan of r/personalfinance, so any recommendations or gleanings from this, lemme know :).
It's cheaper to buy everything from North or South (suburbs of Tripoli or Saida). The exact same item is sometimes double or triple the price in Beirut, so I know a lot of people that purchase all the groceries from outside Beirut even though they live in Beirut.
At the end of the day, if you want to save money, you have to learn how to budget properly. I suggest you take a look at Mint or YNAB
https://www.mint.com/ . It aggregates all your financials into one place. Investments, property, bank accounts, credit cards, student loans. It can help you set budgets, tell you when you overspend on a category, or help you remember bills. It's pretty cool, but you are giving it keys to your financial kingdom.
Make a budget! Use https://www.mint.com/
Track your spending! Have a credit card, use it for small things. set it to auto pay the entire balance every month so you don't get hit with interest.
If you dont' think you'll be able to pay off the balance every month, don't own a credit card
People need to stop living outside of their means. When people find themselves in such financially precarious situations it's almost always due to lack of planning. This is a tough pill to swallow but the truth usually is. Folks need to learn how to budget, save, and treat each dollar as if it has a specific job. Yes the economy (esp. housing in SoCal, good god) isn't great but why is that an excuse for poor financial planning? By definition most people are not at the poverty line so, subconsciously or intentionally, living paycheck to paycheck, or without a savings plan is ultimately a choice that they've made.
Edit / source: I lived paycheck to paycheck through my early and mid twenties. It took the realization that even though I'd worked for years I had nothing to show for it plus knowing that if I lost my job I'd have nothing. There are a number of steps I took to fix this but the biggest one was making a plan and following it. The sidebar at /r/personalfinance was a helpful resource and YNAB, mint or other budgeting software makes keeping track of your money easy. When I see threads like this around Reddit and read these comments that sound so hopeless I get fired up. It took years to get to where I am now but it was so worth doing, having financial security is worth more than most things I could go out and buy.
There is only one way to get better at money and budgeting and that is make a monthly budget a normal practice.
Have you looked into budgeting software such as Mint (free), YNAB ($50 a year), or everydollar ($99 a year)
Contact Mint support. They cannot fix a problem you don't tell them about.
I've had to contact Mint a couple of times over the past couple years when various financial institutions updated their website, and they've been able to fix their backend in all but one case (and that was when GE Capital blocked Mint aggregation).
Guys,
I love the idea but the implementation is infuriating. Little boxes popping up all over the place, especially the one that tells me to preview the wealth report.
The drag and drop system is ok but it doesn't give a natural progression of what should be done next.
The final report is a bit of a mess, great information but cluttered and difficult to follow (i work in finance and read a lot of financial reports, models and this is difficult).
you should rip off the layout that Mint has. Otherwise, there are a couple of other Aussie startups that have better ux. One was Prosple but it shut down and another is Pocketbook which has a really slick app.
I'm just some guy on the internet but i don't think many people would use your website over a long period of time in it's current format. I certainly wouldn't.
Cost and hassle are the main reasons to not do it. Your credit may also be checked when applying for a job, housing, insurance, utilities like phone service, etc.
Google "credit freeze downsides":
Roth IRAs still have massive advantages over taxable investing even if your retirement tax rate will be lower than current. You should absolutely take advantage of a Roth.
| . | Normal investment account | Roth IRA |
|---|---|---|
| Contributions | After-tax money (marginal income tax rate) | After-tax money (marginal income tax rate) |
| Annual tax | marginal income tax on any interest and unqualified dividends, LTCG tax rate on qualified dividends | no tax on any interest or dividends |
| Tax at withdrawal in retirement | LTCG tax rate | No tax at all |
Similarly, WHO CARES about your 401k match! The whole point of 401ks is the hundreds of thousands of dollars you save on taxes! Any matching is just icing on the cake.
https://www.mint.com/blog/investing/the-value-of-tax-deferred-savings-122011/
> One, work for 10 years in qualifying non-profits making minimum payments and the debt will be forgiven.
Check and make sure you won't owe taxes on the portion that is forgiven.
> One, moral support. This shit is stressing me out and I feel foolish for not grasping what I was signing up for.
Don't feel foolish. It was the job of the financial aid officer to explain to you what your monthly payment would look like after graduation and the ramifications of your decisions. Should you have done your own research? Maybe. Probably. But try and find an 18 year old with that much foresight...
> Two, after reading the MMM advice I'm motivated by the idea of knocking out the debt without doing those repayment plans so I can start putting the money towards other things. However...this seems bloody impossible.
/r/personalfinance and unbury.us can help guide you.
Here's what I would do if I were you:
- Start by looking at your spending by going through the past few months of your credit card statements.
- Categorize your spending
- Make a budget (decide how much you want to spend on stuff... I follow Elizabeth Warren's "All Your Worth" model. 50% on needs, 20% savings, 30% on wants)
- Start tracking your spending (Excel spreadsheet, Mint.com, Quicken, YNAB...whatever) and stick to your budget!
- Make extra payments on your debts as you can to knock it out sooner while also making payments towards retirement and personal goals
It may seem impossible but you can do this.
I'm sorry. I really am. I'm always here for ya guys I promise.
Sit down and really look at your budget. Look at how much you make a month and what your bills are. Then look at what you are spending your money on. Mint.com is going to be your best friend. It'll help you track where you spend the most money and alert you when you go over budget. Then look to see how much you can afford a month to go towards medical expenses. Schedule appts as you can afford them. Your health is the most important and a good team of doctors will get you to a place where you can be a functional member of society.
Your other option is to start the process for filing for disability. If that's what you want and believe is the best option then start now. It's a hard and long process and you'll need an attorney.
Either way you'll get to a point where you're health is either under control and you can support yourself or you can support yourself off of disability. If anything find someone you can talk to occasionally (yes it's costly - but hey you'll meet your deductible after probably 2 visits). This disease is something that you really can't understand unless you are living it and unfortunately many Zebras have unsupportive parents (it being an invisible illness and all). Do what you need to be happy and healthy, even if it feels selfish.
I only hold on to receipts for high ticket purchases. Besides that, I'd recommend an app called mint. They have a site you can check out (https://www.mint.com/). I've used it for years to check my statements only a day or two after I make a purchase.
>Oh and medical bills don't affect my credit score... might as well just not pay those too.
> Overall, just don't be a dumbass with your money. Keep a budget of where your money goes and where you can cut without hating your life, and you're set.
If OP is in US or Canada https://www.mint.com - it's not dodgy anymore!
We were in a similar situation (our budget was $18,000) and the advice I got from friends was to be rigorous with planning if I really wanted to avoid overspending. You make compromises here and there which easily ends up blowing your budget so keep to your decisions and don't let stress compromise that. We didn't use a wedding planner because we figured we could put that money towards the wedding instead. Here's my advice:
- Set your budget and don't compromise too much. There's several different breakdowns available on this subreddit to be used as an example.
- Use a budgeting software. Trust me, this will make your life so much easier. We tried Mint (tracking) and YNAB (planning), but ended up using Caply.io (planning). In my opinion, most of the work should be done upfront which is why Mint is not very useful in planning your wedding. YNAB is not free but allows you to plan a basic budget. The reason we used Caply.io (also free) was that they made budgeting and finding products so easy. Everything we budgeted (items and budget limit) was connected to a real product that fit our budget perfectly! And when we needed to make adjustments in spending more on the dresses, the software suggested adjustments in other categories and I didn't have to search more affordable products myself.
- Be open with your partner about the costs of the wedding :) Plan together.
- Finally, congratulations on getting married!
I am in a different position than most students. I live at home, work part-time/full-time and my costs are anything that isn't rent or food.
Mint (https://www.mint.com/), the app is good for checking and maintaining a monthly budget. I work part-time during the school year and full time during summer or coop terms abroad and it has always helped.
My parents instilled financial literacy in me very early on. One book I read while growing up was The Wealthy Barber. If anything to take away, learn how to budget and set hard, reasonable financial goals.
While part time and even on coop, I always did my best to put at least 10% of my post-tax income into savings. Whether it was a float in my chequing account in case of an emergency or into a TFSA to gain some interest.
Make sure to file your taxes if you make less than 38(?)k a year. You get a nice tax return which you would not have gotten.
A slow cooker is a great piece of kitchenware. When I was living abroad I used to just load up a recipe from the internet and cook it. Refrigerate it, add rice and veggies and you have lunch and dinner for a few days in advance.
I'll leave this up because it sounds like you need some help but I think you're better off posting in /r/relationships.
From the limited picture you're giving, it sounds like a shitty situation, an unpleasant baby-daddy, and could be financial abuse.
We're a family of 3 (one on the way) and spend almost $700 on food alone. I know many others spend well less than that though so maybe that's not helpful. I'm a student and my wife supports us--before I went back to school we had fully integrated finances and that has not changed: there is no allowance. We have a household budget and spend accordingly. Line items are allotted for personal needs, wants, and desires. Despite my wife making 99% of the annual income (I have a really low paying, low hour student worker job) she is 50% of the household decision making team.
In the meantime, check out /r/personalfinance to get an understanding of budgeting and personal money matters--their sidebar is comprehensive and very good. Tools like Mint, Personal Capital, or YNAB--You Need a Budget may be beneficial in helping you figure out budgeting too.
Also, places like /r/frugal, /r/eatcheapandhealthy might help too.
Not every financial provider supports site-specific credentials like oauth (or read-only credentials for that matter), though they should. For these, mint has to store passwords.
https://www.mint.com/how-mint-works/security >Your login user name and passwords are stored securely in a separate database using multi-layered hardware and software encryption.
Without using Mint, they don't have access to my bank account. There are employees at Intuit that can access your bank login information on Mint (they used to be much more forward about this, but read this: https://security.intuit.com/index.php/protect-your-information/how-intuit-protects-you tl;dr: We train our employees)....
In recent years, there have been several large data breaches, and the companies involved have not been largely affected. The terms of use for Mint, you indemnify Intuit, even if some employee takes your account information and steals all of your money. In addition, your bank will likely not replace that money, since you gave third party access to your account. (terms of service, sections 17 and 18: https://www.mint.com/terms )
I didn't imply that was his concern, just answering for their reputation and what they have to gain.
https://www.mint.com/how-mint-works/security
Honestly, the threat of a hacker going after Mint for passwords is no higher than them targeting Vanguard and Fidelity, individually. You'd trust those sites right?
I struggled with that for a long time too. It took a lot of experimentation to find a system that finally clicked for me. YNAB was what I found works for me but you might also look into one of the many Post-it methods, Mint, or any number of other methods. Just keep trying new things until you find something that works effectively and makes sense to you.
You might find it useful to use a tool like mint (even if you aren't doing anything, just observe for a few months).
Paying taxes is also a lot more intimidating-sounding than it ends up being, unless you own a business or are super rich. Just register with Turbo Tax or something, select their free 1040EZ filing option, and copy numbers from your W2 form (which your employer should give or mail directly to you when it's relevant each year). If you pay out-of-pocket for any work or school expenses, cram the receipts in a folder and dig them out for tax filing too.
Your complaints sound eerily familiar to me. If I may be so bold as to suggest a few things.
Move! You may not have the money to travel abroad or across the world, but if you find a job on the other side of the country--or even in another state you can move there and experience a new lifestyle. You can be anything you want to be, because you'll be around strangers. You can reinvent your life. It's suprising how different America is, I've lived in dozens of places and no two are alike! You'll have the opportunity of finding and meeting new friends, experiencing new state parks to walk in, new restaurants, new natural wonders to see..etc. The opportunity is endless. Try to pick a job in an area that interests you--but also look into the cost of living when you ask for wages. If it costs 2x to live there, but you only make x--it may not be a good fit for you. You can also make the company hiring you pay for moving costs! So it's a "free" move. Start looking, even the process will lift your spirits.
Money is always tight, I use this website to manage my funds so I know budgets, it's free https://www.mint.com/. Really look into where your money is going--Satellite? Gaming subscriptions? Electricity dumps? This site can automatically categorize all of your credit card purchases into the correct budget area. Sometimes people just don't have the money, but using a budgeting site like this makes them feel more in control and relieves the tension and anxiety from it.
Get out of the house at least once a week. Go for a walk or bike ride. I suggest a nature trail if you have one nearby that isn't shitty. There is a solace in exercise and nature. The Japanese call it Shinrin-yoku (森林浴), or Forest bathing.
I hope this helps you. It helped me, I'm not 'fixed'--you can't 'fix' people, but I am better. :)
>I also recall something about women having to give her wages to her husband.
IIRC women weren't entitled to ANY social security benefits at first (but that's from freshman US history so that's fuzzy), even if they worked and not even in the event her husband died
ETA: found a source, downvotey mcgee >Since the 1930's were still a trying time for America concerning some issues, minorities and women were not allowed the benefits of Social Security, no matter how long the people worked or what jobs they had. Also, if a worker was employed in the area of nursing, teaching, agriculture, library services, social work, government work, domestic service and hospital workers, social security would probably be denied as well. If a worker did not work full time or they worked intermittently, they were excluded as well. All in all, this meant that nearly half of all working Americans did not qualify for Social Security benefits.
If you're numbers are right, you only have $420/month in expenses. That's not bad, but it doesn't include food. You mentioned having to eat out a lot, but are you really eating $800+ in food a month? This is always one of the biggest controllable expenses you can adjust. What else do you spend money on per month? I would create an account through mint (https://www.mint.com/) and really see where your money is going.
I know you said that there have been "issues with dishes" so you don't cook. That has to change. Buy some paper plates, buy stuff for sandwiches. The whole "having to eat out" is a mentality you have to break, cause it's simply not true and I guarantee its costing you more money than you think.
If what you've quoted for expenses is true, and you can cut your food spending to $250/month (perfectly reasonable) you can be saving half of your take home pay ($630) per month. This would cut it close to your May time frame for your estimated $1000 goal (Which is too low).
Honestly, you need to try and make it work where you're at right now. There will be all sorts of unexpected expenses that will come up while moving. So don't plan for just the minimum (If everything goes right scenario) or else you could end up stuck with a flat tire between where you're going and where you're leaving with no where to turn.
It will be hard, but you should really stick it out as long as you can to keep your expenses low.
I contacted Mint to see if they have an approximate timeline as to when REDcard will be working on their site, they said they don't, I asked how would I know when it's working, whether they would make an announcement (since I reported this from their ticket support system) and they said no, they won't notify people, but I can keep checking.
Horrible answer to give for a product that they have lunched/listed as Beta on their website and so far it works....not at all! I guess "beta" for Mint means null. In any case, it would be great when/if it works, it will make keeping track of my 3 Redbirds easy.
P.S. I'm not sure if it would make a difference if other people keep asking Mint for this, but if you think it might help, enter your REDcard info on Mint then contact them via their support url by clicking on "Contact Mint".
If Mint delays this, I wouldn't be too surprised if their competition looks into this also to beat them to the punch.
> There's no reason Mint would store your username/password to 3rd party sites.
Actually they do.
> Your login user name and passwords are stored [...]
The FAQ goes on to explain how secure it is, as every company has including those that have been hacked.
To be clear, I'm not accusing them of poor security. I'm reasoning that their security is far more important than your home computer's because an attacker stands to gain data on so many people if they do crack it.
How could they log into your accounts without storing your password?
Just double checked. From Mint:
> How secure is my login information I store in Mint?
> Your login user name and passwords are stored securely in a separate database using multi-layered hardware and software encryption. We only store the information needed to save you the trouble of updating, syncing or uploading financial information manually.
You sound like too much of an ad for these guys. I also want to point out the hilarity of spending money on this program, in order to help save money on frivolous expenses.
When really if someone just sat down with all their expenses and all their earnings and a calculator they would probably be able to come up with some reasonable budget.
I would rather recommend a free budgeting program like mint or GnuCash, for most people if they really feel like they need some extra organization and assistance.
Hmmm, if you spend that much money on beer and you obviously both have good taste, maybe it would be worth it for y'all to put some money into home-brewing.
This article is a cost-benefit analysis. However, in your case, you're consuming much more. I think the cost-benefit might be much more in your favor. Look at craigslist to get a much better deal on equipment. Also, I find brewing to be a lot of fun with my SO.
However, this might be a going-out addiction. That's where the person starts to feel that "cabin fever" way before others. I know cause I've got it. Combine this with the endorphin's from spending money on nice food, plus endorphin's from the food, plus endorphin's from the beer. You've got quite a wammy for addiction.
To solve this, you need to think of outings that won't cost you money but that still get you out of the house. Try to think of things that will fulfill some of the endorphin's you'll be missing out of by not spending money. Think hiking with a picnic lunch and a couple of those homebrews you made together. The homebrews and food will cover those endorphin's. The hiking will give you some exercise endorphin's which will hopefully compensate for the one's he'll be missing from not spending money. And you'll both be out of the house, soaking up sunshine.
I'm kinda assuming you're in California based on your beer choice. But if you're not and it's too cold for hiking, consider winter versions of this. Make sure to combine with foods and make it feel like an outing at least to start with. Go winter hiking (snowboots or snowshoes) and plan on hot cocoa when you get back to the car. Or hot toddy's, hehe. Or plan on snow hiking and having a fire and chili when you get home.
Anyway, I just wanted to give some advice that wasn't "Just stop spending the money". Good luck with everything.
Yes. See for example https://www.mint.com/blog/investing/can-you-live-off-a-1-million-dollar-investment-0613/
If you felt like you could live off $33,000 a year pleasantly, this could work out for you.
Most people would suggest a more diversified/aggressive portfolio btw.
Children born with disabilities can cost as much as four times the amount that a normal child would incur ($240,000) to raise to age 18. > The cost can jump to more than $2.3 million for those who are impacted with intellectual disabilities (having an IQ of 70 or less).
With Down Syndrome that's a burden that is more often carried for the entirety of their life. While the average life expectancy for someone with that disorder in 1983 was 25 years, recently those numbers have surged to 60 today.
I was made aware of that last fact when two constant bit characters, played by Down Syndrome actors, disappeared from Lars von Trier's TV show The Kingdom because they had both died.
From that show, obligatory "dansk avskum!!"
Mint had an infographic about pet ownership a few years back. Granted it was based around spending patterns for Americans, but it may give you a broad idea of what to expect.
Since your Shiba Inu is over 25 pounds, I believe it qualifies as a medium dog, which Mint users are spending an average of $695/year.
- 34% recurring medical
- 32% health insurance
- 17% food
- 8% toys/treats
- 6% misc
- 2% license
There was also this article by Kiplinger. I like it since it breaks down various expenses you can expect. It also brings up grooming and travel care which is something that isn't covered by the Mint infographic. They estimate a medium dog will cost $955/year. Plus some initial upfront costs for supplies (leash, collar, bed, water bowl, etc).
There are ways to do toys and supplies frugally so it is definitely possible to get these numbers down.
With the credit card $550 payment, what's the balance and rate? I'd say that the credit card is a much bigger problem for you than the student loans. Having that much credit card debt is a sign that you don't know exactly how much you're spending on things and that you are spending or have spent too much.
edit: Saw another reply where you clarified that the $550 is the total credit card balance rather than the monthly payment. That's not too bad then, and you should be able to wipe that out in a month. After that, it looks like you have plenty of room if you actually track your expenses. end edit
Anyway, to get on track, you first need to make a budget (what you have here is a great starting point) and record all your expenses and see how you do. A lot of people here like You Need a Budget which does cost some money. Mint is a good online free option. I personally use GnuCash which is free, but it requires a little more basic accounting knowledge (not anything you can't learn easily). Some folks just use spreadsheets, and that is fine too. Until you know exactly where every dollar is going, you are unlikely to make any headway with a plan.
Now, the first thing you should do once you're tracking everything is try to find a way to save a little each month. It doesn't have to be much. You want to put that into an emergency fund. That is what you'll use when crap happens like your car breaking down. The emergency fund is the key to breaking the cycle of debt; instead of having to use credit cards to fund emergencies, you'll have cash to do it. Just a small emergency fund ($1000-$2000) is adequate for now while you work on paying down your credit cards. Just be sure to save that up before you pay any extra on anything else. If you have to use some of it, then replenish it before going back to paying down debt.
Yup you're correct
https://www.mint.com/blog/credit/fico-myths-08302010/
But I do wonder if the total time the account was open is used for the average or just how long ago that account was first opened.
It sounds like you could afford a car payment, but there is a problem. Your budget doesn't add up:
$2,910 (take home)- $2,238 (budget above, before car) = $672 unaccounted for
It sounds like you need a more detailed budget to really understand where your money is going. A free app like Mint could help.
Bottom line is, yes, you could afford a car payment (if the info above is correct), but if it was me, I would want to make sure I'm not overextending myself by accounting for everything in a budget before I bought a car.
Mint would seem to disagree with you https://www.mint.com/blog/consumer-iq/cloth-vs-disposable-diapers-a-cost-comparison-102011/. Especially when you consider the diapers can be reused if you have a 2nd or 3rd kid,
Completely understand you, dude(ette). That said, their privacy policy is good enough for me AND happens to be written in a human-readable format (as opposed to lawyer-readable format, of course).
Has anyone had any experience they'd like to share regarding a new (or at least new to me) financial account aggregator/budgeting tool called Clarity Money?...trying to see how it compares to Mint in particular.
Hmm, I use an Excel sheet my sister set up for me. An easier way might be an app like Mint:
https://www.mint.com/budgeting-apps/4-things-you-did-not-know-a-budget-app-could-do
I find I overspend by a LOT with card, so when I shop I try to use cash if at all possible. Good luck, OP!