Your right and your wrong. And like I said in the other thread I’m not getting into it. ITs the same fight I have at home, where my dad sides with me and mom is the other way. You can be straight line mom where its the only thing that matters and drive yourself batty trying to accomplish it, or you can take care of it in a decent time frame and enjoy life a little bit on the way. I could scrap up every penny I make and finish off the last of my debt within two years not including any money from tax returns or other sources, and not including any money made from raises/cost of living differences, or I could do it the way I’m doing it now and finish maybe up to a year later. Does that save me money? Yes it does - I’d save roughly a G killing myself trying to pay it off immediatly actually not even that much, more like 600-700 in savings. But I would hate life the whole time. Hell the way things are timed in about two years and some change the car and the last of my debt come off the books at the same time - and you know my carnote is ridiculous. I’m not sitting here buying things left and right - it may seem I do but I don’t. Hell the last month I ahvne’t bought a SINGLE thing at best buy - not even soda. The stuff for my car even? HEll the 4 channel amp I bought was only 52 bux…I wasn’t even paying employee price for it.
So I disagree with the hardline stance of throwing everything towards debt. For some people’s situation its the thign to do, I don’t disagree with that, but I’m not in that situation. I don’t have multiple cards, I don’t have loans outside of my car. I have nothing I’m even really trying to buy, I’ve just been entranced for a very long time with the idea of a motorcycle/second vehicle. Will I do it - prolly not. I talk more than I buy. But no…hardline stances don’t work when you single, 26, and trying to get some measure of fun out of a live you feel is devoid of it.
My money situation is so fucked up right now — I have no idea anymore. I think I’ll take off the suit/dress clothes after the day job and become a slave laborer at night … to get out of the hole.
That 600-700 bucks is your PS3; or a 32-42’ HDTV though; and you would have it a year before you thought. Now, I am not saying I put every penny towards my CC’s (These fresh Stacie Adams on my feet are ates to that) but its not like I am going “batty” trying to pay shit off either. If I wanted to, I could dead more than a G to my CC’s; but i’m not. I could fall back on my car payments, but I won’t (i’m months ahead, paying straight principle now).
I see it like this, AMEX is some high interest rate, that has ~600 bucks on it (one month); I transfer my Wachovia CC to AMEX and get ~4% interest from ~9%. Take the money I have been dumping into Wach and Amex and dead that all.
Now, I still have car, school and mortgage to worry about, but like I said, its a steady ship. Hell, the 600 bucks the dude who hit my car is going to pay me is going to credit cards. The 200 bucks fuel reimbursement that I am getting from work is going to CC’d (150 of it at least).
It wasn’t George Bush. It was Congress trying to put themselves in a position to say “well, we tried!” if the economy goes into a recession. Free cash is good, though. Any dollar not going to the gubmint is a good dollar.
Yeah… the trick is to never get in the hole in the first place. Easier said than done though for lots of people because of things like car and mortgage payments, and student loans, which is understandable and most people should be able to try to manage those. But for things that end up getting people in credit card debt, from buying jewels, rims, sound systems, and general high priced bling bling stuff… that’s what people need to avoid.
i’m currently a college student and i get by OK with my financial means. My family aint rich so I qualify for financial aid and also live at home.
I have at least $1K saved up but I really want to put it in a high yield savings account like those from ING. I was wondering if I do chose to have a high yielding savings account, would they cut me off from financial aid or at least reduce the amount significantly?
I’m 16 and a half and my parents are in a nasty divorce. Right now I’m totally stuck at my mom’s house where she doesn’t have a room for me, makes 25K a year, and her favorite phrases are “I don’t have the money” and “How much does it cost?”. My alternative, where I’ve been living the past 6 months, is my Dad’s house: he makes near 100K a year, gives me allowance (unlike her), and actually buys things when they’re needed, instead of complaining about it and pretending to be 100% broke 100% of the time, which is untrue more often than not. She gets child support for me and I don’t even live there, and yet she expects me to buy my own school supplies and help pay for my textbooks; *and *stick around and live with her after the summer, just because she’s bitter about the divorce and deems my father “evil.” Bull…
But, I did recently get a job at Target, and I’m making more than I ever have, and I’m about to open up a debit card (outside a bank account, 'cause a checking account sounds like a hassle) that has some ridiculous reward points options and ATM access, which makes it perfect for me. So am I a foolish teen with greedy ambitions, or a prudent money manager?
So far all I read is the foolish teen. A Money manager’s job is to grow money, not dream of ways to spend it all. However, stick with us here. We might teach you something.
a g… not to my knowledge. I (correct me please) thought it had to be 5,000 or more before anything is “adjusted”. But I will let someone who knows fully answer that…
Made $7000 last year. I remember a year I made four times that.:wonder:
Almost no income the past six months (living off savings), despite much job searching & some interviews. It’s been a lot of indie work for rent (& recently some groceries)- unique situation.
No car, and I have few possessions, but am content.
I just graduated with a Bus Admin degree, focus in finance.
Anyone in the consultant/advisor business that could give me a leg up or advice?
I was going start as a consultant for ameriprise last year, but I don’t know anybody in Corona and I don’t want to live there. Maybe something in nor-cal or closer to la/sd
Uhh, did you typo and mean credit card? Because a debit card is a link to a checking account. Maybe you’re talking about a secured credit card where you preload the money? Something sounds fishy though because its usually the credit cards that give reward points and if you have ATM access that might mean they’ll consider that a ‘cash advance’ where the interest rate is ridiculously high.
At your age I’d recommend getting a checking account (despite the hassle) and just using a debit card. Once you can live within your means then you could open a credit card and pay it off every month. Trust me, credit is easy to spend. But this is all my $.02
My wife is getting into consulting as her main business, I can tell you first hand that you need more than a degree to get some credit out there. Shoot for your CPA. That will get you more clout. (I know its a bitch, but its doable)
Get a bank account man, not hard. Just look for the best one that suites you an your needs. Plus you will feel safer IMO. Have your check direct deposited an that can eliminate any fees they may talk about… also it can eliminate standin in lines to cash a check etc. dont get fooled by rewards…etc.
The card that’s linked in my post *has *direct-deposit, I like the rewards because they’re almost all places I shop, and I can’t find any cards like it that even have reward options…
Wachovia has rewards. They also have student accounts. Koop is right though, never chase a card for rewards. The ONLY one IMO that is really good is American Express. I have two round trip tickets anywhere with them, cause I spent an assload during vacation.
Does Amex *have *debit cards? And I might try to find a Wachovia near me…but it seems like you guys are trying to tell me avoiding a checking is an altogether bad idea. It seems single-minded to say I’m a fool for wanting to keep things simple and stick with a debit-esque card that has some sweet rewards. Is that so wrong? I so dislike how much control the card gives to my dad, but I guess that’s what comes with being a minor.
I had a bit of an epiphany a couple of months back. It just occured to me how easy trading single stocks are.
1.) Use online brokers like sharebuilder or ameritrade. They may either charge a flat monthly fee or charge you Per Trade (buy OR sell)
2.) Google or otherwise find the “stock ticker” for whatever company your interested in.
3.) Look at that stock ticker on yahoo finance, it’s free and it gives you all the graphs n’ shit.
4.) Go to online broker and invest (e.g bet on past performance or buy at a low spike to net returns).
Beware you can lose money, I’ve taken about $250 worth of losses and $120 of trade comissions BUT… I’ve sold one stock for $1,100 more than I got it and another for $100 more than purchase. Roughly $930 in profit from a few point-and-clicks. That’s more than any CD, fund or interest will give you. Keep in mind I managed to do this even while deployed (sporadic access). If you have good, reliable, internet you can invest (bet) well. It’s very easily possible to buy $1,000 (about 20-40 shares typically) of something, wait for it’s price to go up a dollar, sell, make about $50-60after comission, wash-rinse-repeat.
I know full well this is by no means a long term investment strategy and in order to reach that point you have to be at a point where you have at least $3-5,000 which you generally don’t use and isn’t rainy day money, and you have to be able to withstand the sting of losing like $1-300. My savings are sitting at roughly $62,000 right now and I’m looking to get a 2009 Jeep Patriot (the 2.0 liter with the 23/29 C/H mileage).
I wanted to share my knowledge with SRK and hope it yields profitable returns for others.