Insane Metal
Member
Yo I didn't give you permission to post my wallet
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How hard was making Your first $100K and how did you do it?
- Thread starter German Hops
- Start date
Liljagare
Member
Yepp, most folks will get hit by max tax rates, also, in alot of nations, a hundred grand for end of life care because no socialized health care is not uncommon. Add a 24H nurse needed, swoosh, there the money goes. It makes no sense, better to pay taxes in life, instead of having it all sucked away from your family when you die/are dying imho.
"No inheritance tax", it's utter BS in alot of countries, the tax man will get his payment in the end.
We paid off our house as quick as possible. With 2 kids it granted us the freedom of not worrying when paying for college (which is for the love of God expensive). Look into CDs too. My wife tends to put money in those and she can adjust the rate once a year I think. We bought our house in 2003 and paid it off 2 years ago. We had a 30 year mortgage. The other thing is with a our house paid off, now when we sell it is all ours heh heh.
Mercenary09
Member
This thread makes me feel like such a failure for an almost 35 year old. I doubt I'll ever hit that in my life. I just recently got to five digits in my bank account but I really have no knowledge of how to invest in things to possibly help grow that.
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German Hops
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
Raven117
Member
There are plenty of tools online. Even a little bit over decades can yield some decent returns. But don’t wait! Get something in there.
Celcius
°Temp. member
I remember the day I first had $100k in the bank. I celebrated by going to see a movie, drove down some fancy neighborhoods with nice houses while listening to motivating music, and treated myself to a nice meal. I thought I had finally "made it".
Now here I am years later adding six figures per year to my savings (as a single person, no DINK action here). I recommend being disciplined and not worrying about what others think about you. I drive a 14 year old Toyota and haven't made an extravagant purchase in a while, but that's because for the past few years I've been super focused on building up as much money as I can, as fast as I can. The key is spending less than you take in… much less.
I recommend maxing your retirement account or at least contributing up to the company match. Also, take a look at where you have your emergency funds (savings) parked... if it's in a regular savings account earning 0.01% or 0.45% interest (or even worse, a checking account earning no interest) then move it into a HYSA (high yield savings account) earning over 4%. Compound interest makes a huge difference. I also don't have any subscriptions... If I want to watch something on Crunchyroll then I'll sub to get charged for a month and then immediately unsubscribe so that I won't be charged again and then I can just use it until the month is over. Same for FF14... when I want to play then I'll sub to get charged for a month and then immediately unsubscribe. I've never had a credit card in my life and I just use a debit card which is like writing a check. I also like to use Apple Pay when possible (linked to the debit card).
Also, "never put money into something you don't understand" is a great piece of advice. If something interests you then do some research on it so that you feel informed and comfortable. One last piece of advice - "The best time to do something was yesterday. The second best time is now." Meaning, if I didn't make the best financial decisions in the past then I don't beat myself up over it... I do the best I can now with the information available to me and the time I have left.
If you'd like a book to read, I highly recommend "The Next Millionaire Next Door".
But yes, the first $100k was the hardest. Not only because I was earning less at the time but also because I had never done it before.
Now here I am years later adding six figures per year to my savings (as a single person, no DINK action here). I recommend being disciplined and not worrying about what others think about you. I drive a 14 year old Toyota and haven't made an extravagant purchase in a while, but that's because for the past few years I've been super focused on building up as much money as I can, as fast as I can. The key is spending less than you take in… much less.
I recommend maxing your retirement account or at least contributing up to the company match. Also, take a look at where you have your emergency funds (savings) parked... if it's in a regular savings account earning 0.01% or 0.45% interest (or even worse, a checking account earning no interest) then move it into a HYSA (high yield savings account) earning over 4%. Compound interest makes a huge difference. I also don't have any subscriptions... If I want to watch something on Crunchyroll then I'll sub to get charged for a month and then immediately unsubscribe so that I won't be charged again and then I can just use it until the month is over. Same for FF14... when I want to play then I'll sub to get charged for a month and then immediately unsubscribe. I've never had a credit card in my life and I just use a debit card which is like writing a check. I also like to use Apple Pay when possible (linked to the debit card).
Also, "never put money into something you don't understand" is a great piece of advice. If something interests you then do some research on it so that you feel informed and comfortable. One last piece of advice - "The best time to do something was yesterday. The second best time is now." Meaning, if I didn't make the best financial decisions in the past then I don't beat myself up over it... I do the best I can now with the information available to me and the time I have left.
If you'd like a book to read, I highly recommend "The Next Millionaire Next Door".
But yes, the first $100k was the hardest. Not only because I was earning less at the time but also because I had never done it before.
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Unknown Soldier
Member
Are you assuming that you don't need somewhere to live? Because unless you want to be homeless, you need somewhere to live. Once that factors into your calculations, suddenly owning a house being maybe not as good an investment as say the stonk market or Bitcoin in terms of pure potential returns changes a lot. You can't live inside the New York Stock Exchange or a Bitcoin
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Raven117
Member
Of course you do. There are plenty of online resources out there that can help you understand renting v buying and whether you can make higher returns in the long run doing either given your present circumstance. The math is much closer than you think.
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German Hops
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
The girls that I like do.
German Hops
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
Did yo momma drop you on the head again? 3/3
German Hops
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
This is grown man business.
Go suck some more balls in the Friday thread.
poodaddy
Member
First six figure I had was a few years ago and it was purely because of how much my property in WA State was worth, so I sold it and made a tidy profit. Pretty much spent all that profit on cancer treatments for one of my cats, medical bills for my wife, a decent used car for the family, energy efficiency improvements for our Maine house, and new energy efficient appliances. All gone now.....man six figures just doesn't go as far as it used to.
Toots
Gold Member
You're bragging a lot for someone who did not even participate in the Draugoth's Make a wish thread.
You know uncle scrooge, it is what you give that makes you rich, not the percentages on your bank statements.
As for me the first 100k wasn't hard since it was gifted to me.
BadBurger
Is 'That Pure Potato'
If we're including our retirement accounts, it just happened after about five years of working in post-college jobs in my career. I luckily chose investments that happened to perform extremely well. I was also contributing 11% - 12% pre-taxed of my salary with a hefty match from my employers.
Liquid only recently - sometime in 2022, I want to say late 2022. A few days after pay day I was making my customary transfers from checking into this or that account, and looked at the total of all of accounts in the summary and realized it was over $100k. So seven or eight years.
Edit: I forgot to mention how
I lived with my GF turned fiance turned wife ever since I was fresh out of college. We both made good money, were frugal, and saved a lot.
So it’s not difficult to build some capital early on when enjoying two good incomes. Unfortunately about five years ago we began helping heavily with her mother’s extensive medical needs and housing, so the rate of saving slowed measurably.
Liquid only recently - sometime in 2022, I want to say late 2022. A few days after pay day I was making my customary transfers from checking into this or that account, and looked at the total of all of accounts in the summary and realized it was over $100k. So seven or eight years.
Edit: I forgot to mention how
I lived with my GF turned fiance turned wife ever since I was fresh out of college. We both made good money, were frugal, and saved a lot.
So it’s not difficult to build some capital early on when enjoying two good incomes. Unfortunately about five years ago we began helping heavily with her mother’s extensive medical needs and housing, so the rate of saving slowed measurably.
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Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
I don’t remember precisely how everything fell into place but it took about 5 years from me intentionally trying to build wealth. I left my low paying job at year 2 and bumped my income up 100%. That allowed me to pay off my student loans and save enough money to hit $100k. I didn’t make much progress those first 2 years, hence the job change.
Celcius
°Temp. member
It wasn't my intention to brag at all. He asked for info and advice, and then I gave the info that came to mind.
Also, just because I didn't participate in or even see that thread doesn't mean you know anything about where my money goes.
Folks will be hesitant to participate in threads like these if people will just get salty. Not sure why I was singled out when there are folks in this very thread making way more than me.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Not sure why you got singled out either. All I know is when it comes to finances, never take seriously any time someone tries to make you look bad or greedy. That’s on them.
Regarding your post about credit cards, I’m going to assume you don’t do it to control your spending. My reco for people who can control is to get one that has no annual fee, pays you back 1-2% in cash back and ensure to set your payments to automatic PAP (pre-authorized payment). I use mine for additional work expenses and my annual cash back is around $1000 on avg. most of that is through work expenses. CC also have some other basic perks like travel insurance, might add an additional one year warranty on electronics and random shit which every card is different. Aim for one with a low interest rate as possible, but the lower the rate the less perks you get, which the most basic card might even be zero perks.
One very good perk of CC is that if you get any fraud charges or some jackass store rips you off, CC company will protect you and you won’t have to pay. They’ll delete the charge. One time a shady plumber charged me $150 on my CC came by to take a look and never came back! Told my CC what happened and they reversed the charge. I don’t think debit companies work like that as money is taken immediately from your account(?)
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Toots
Gold Member
You know i don't really care that you did not want to give anything, everyone does whatever they want with their money
About your following rationalizations, i know one place you money did not go
and maybe people like you will get salty that someone points out the fact they did not participate but then again they did not participate so who cares ?Never listen to people about politics, finances, or gender, but if one feels snotty, then one blows their nose.
Pagusas
Elden Member
Sounds to me like you have a choice to make:
1. Continue thinking of yourself as a failure and let that define you
or
2. Recognise you have a gap in your knowledge and spend a little time each day learning what you need to fix it. literally an hour on Youtube a week watching beginner money management talks will get you up to speed enough to make a difference.
I highly recommend #2, you are never too old to start over or to learn new things
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
I don’t know why you keep bringing up that Dragouth gold donation thread like it makes or breaks a gaffer as if they are giving or not. Most gaffer didn’t donate so if you’re trying to claim anyone didn’t is cheap go ahead. And believe it or not, not everyone who donated even posted in the thread. And if they did they could had got a thanks back from the recipient by a PM. Going by that thread it makes it look like I donated nothing as you don’t see anyone publicly thanking me. But I gifted gold twice. One to someone in the thread and one who didn’t post in it. And I made sure to tell Evilore so he’d match the donation offline which he responded yes.You know i don't really care that you did not want to give anything, everyone does whatever they want with their money
About your following rationalizations, i know one place you money did not go
Never listen to people about politics, finances, or gender, but if one feels snotty, then one blows their nose.
So don’t assume people did this or that based on a gaf thread.
Think before posting.
Celcius
°Temp. member
Again, I had never seen or heard of that thread before now.You know i don't really care that you did not want to give anything, everyone does whatever they want with their money
About your following rationalizations, i know one place you money did not go
Never listen to people about politics, finances, or gender, but if one feels snotty, then one blows their nose.
Also again, not sure why you're trying to hold that against me.
You said that your first $100k was gifted to you... not sure why you're even in the thread when that doesn't provide any helpful info for the OP.
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The one thing I can add to this is if you're a smoker do whatever you can to get off the coffin nails and put that in some sort of investment.(Yes, I realize it's really hard to quit. Just keep trying until you do.) I say this since both my parents were 2 pack a day smokers and even in the 80s that was like 3-5 dollars a pack. Let's see, if you're spending $11 per pack and you're a 2 pack smoker that's $8030 a year on smokes. If we put that into this interest calculator and put in 0 principal, annual addition of 8030, at 7% rate of return for 9 years you'd have over $100k plus better health. (Which means you'd save money there too.) Even if you didn't invest the money the better health would make it worth it. (Gee, can anybody tell my parents really messed up by being smokers?) Oh yeah, don't play the lottery either. It's just a tax on people who are bad at statistics.(A dollar here on there isn't going to matter but don't play it as anything other than money you're throwing away for fun.)
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
My parents were never smokers (nobody in the family did) but at some point when I was a kid my parents played lotteries every month. They must had put in $50/mth I’d guess. They actually still do now but only buy a bit. They’ve never won more than $100 on a ticket. Add it up for 40 years and they must had blew $10,000s. Add in opportunity costs/interest and that’s probably a good $100,000 too. What a waste of money.
Other quick ways to save cash…. Dumb down your smartphone and tv and internet plans to as low as possible that still gets the job done. You don’t need the most fancy costly tiers.
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Yeah, I do all my buying on CC for the perks as well as the fraud protection. My bank has forgiven some debit card charges but its MUCH easier to dispute a CC charge in my experience. Even some of the annual charge cards can be worth it if you would already use a lot of the stuff they might reimburse (Clear for travel, streaming services, etc).
This requires ABSOLUTE financial discipline though, once you descend into the CC high finance charge trap it is BRUTAL to climb out of!
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
I’m not a big traveller, but from what I remember the CC that have annual fees or big perk points seem to skew to travel where you can hoard the travel pts.
I’d also reco if someone has a job they need to expense work stuff, do it on your card and expense it and get the pts or cash back. That’s how I rake in about $1000/yr. I can use a corporate card but why? I’ll use my own card. I claim the expense and payables pays me back in a week. I’ll get the money back faster than paying off the CC bill. Company is actually happy when people use their own card because they don’t have to worry about someone using a corporate card and not claiming expenses on time which pisses them off. Nothing pisses them off more than a sales guy accumulating a pile of expenses and the guy submits them all at once end of year.
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The benefit of smoking is that you A look cool and stay thin whilst younger and B. die before you really need much retirement, so why save??
/s my folks smoked and while they are in their 70's, I'm dreading the day I get the call about a lung mass or something. Then again, is that better than your 80's living with dementia (another possibility for me). Ugh, where is that robot body!?!??! I'll even take Upload at this point
Yeah, they are mostly that way (probably because travel has a lot of squeeze?). But if you are gonna frequent some higher class hotels, stores and stuff anyway, the platinum or sapphire cards have their benefits. Definitely not for someone scrimping by unless they can use it for business like you said. Alas, my company insists on my using their card so I can't rack up the miles
Very true. Admittedly most people aren't going to have my dad's level of bad luck with the smoking where he got to have a stroke when he was 40 and died of kidney cancer in his mid 60s after spending his last year in and out of the hospital. I mean that still could have happened even if he didn't smoke but you can only play the odds more or less and smoking didn't help. (But it did suck, no idea if it's worse than dementia in your 80s)The benefit of smoking is that you A look cool and stay thin whilst younger and B. die before you really need much retirement, so why save??
/s my folks smoked and while they are in their 70's, I'm dreading the day I get the call about a lung mass or something. Then again, is that better than your 80's living with dementia (another possibility for me). Ugh, where is that robot body!?!??! I'll even take Upload at this point
NecrosaroIII
Ask me about my terrible takes on Star Trek characters
Here's my pay history:
2006 - 2014: Worked a shitty job. Became a supervisor. I was making 13 / hour.
2014 - 2018: Transitioned to my career. I was making 17 / hour, which translated to I think about 35k
2018: Moved to my current company: Started making about 50k. Thought I was making "big money". Also got married. My wife makes about 100k.
2021: Became supervisor at my current company: Started making 70k
2024: Currently making 80k. My wife and I are easily clearing 200k annually combined.
In all honesty, I don't feel much of a quality of life difference from the time I was making 50k and now. The paychecks aren't THAT much more. Just like 300 / paycheck. Still can't afford a house, though we can afford to eat what we want, pay for vacations once a year and are generally pretty comfortable. It certainly doesn't feel like we're in the top 1%
2006 - 2014: Worked a shitty job. Became a supervisor. I was making 13 / hour.
2014 - 2018: Transitioned to my career. I was making 17 / hour, which translated to I think about 35k
2018: Moved to my current company: Started making about 50k. Thought I was making "big money". Also got married. My wife makes about 100k.
2021: Became supervisor at my current company: Started making 70k
2024: Currently making 80k. My wife and I are easily clearing 200k annually combined.
In all honesty, I don't feel much of a quality of life difference from the time I was making 50k and now. The paychecks aren't THAT much more. Just like 300 / paycheck. Still can't afford a house, though we can afford to eat what we want, pay for vacations once a year and are generally pretty comfortable. It certainly doesn't feel like we're in the top 1%
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Sanepar
Member
With 50-55 years I think it is a good age to buy a house. As a old person is better to have your place.
So save all u can until 50's and buy a house for no more than 20% of your investments.
Sleepwalker
Member
I had my first job at around age 14 being a server and delivery guy in a cafeteria in the building my aunt managed, I remember it being enough to buy a couple gamecube games that summer so that was amazing for me at the time.
After I graduated school I ended up working at a call centre, I hated that job, I hated what it to people there. Everyone was either depressed or over worked, people in their 30s with kids, older people in their 50s or 60s with no other opportunities. It was sad. I ended up working there for around 4 months before rage quitting while being reprimanded lol.
I went to Uni after that and graduated with honors in international business, picked up another language (french) to make it 3. Ended up working at my career's program office for a bit. Was pretty chill but still it just reinforced my loathing for the 9-5, commuting on public transport, having to eat pre cooked meals, sharing the break room, having to have casual conversation with people you don't wanna engage with, the dress code. I hate it all.
Spent some years doing pro esports while working at uni, that was fun, travelled a lot around the world for events. Pay was shit, but I stumbled into a side business of selling in game currency and I came up into a lot of money (for the time and where I lived) ended up setting up a bot farm and basically had a side thing going on while I competed (extremely against the rules but I didn't care). The money got too big eventually and I was declining in my skills so I retired in order to double down on selling in game currency. in 2019 I made my first 100k usd from it. Still run that business but I hired a couple people who take care of the day to day. I just do the books now.
Made a good amount of money in crypto, it just came naturally because a lot of the transactions from the other business are in crypto. I am gambling man so I made a few gambles on shitcoins that paid off massively (others not so much). Still love crypto but I'm not terminally on chain anymore or scanning the next big play. I still of course have my portfolio, it's a long term hold so I don't care much about prices. I didn't care when BTC was 18k a couple years ago and don't care now at 60k+.
I have 2 paid off apartments back home (one rented, one occupied by my dad) and a mortgage on a townhouse here in Canada where we live currently. My wife has a good paying job as a UI/UX designer (100k+ year).some credit card debt but not much (under 5k). No car debt (not a new luxury car, still drive a hyundai from 2011 that used to be my dad's). My wife has a standard 401k, maxed out TFSA and regular retirement plan. As she puts it she's happy being the "anchor" to all my chaos. We've been together for 14 years, 5 married.
I have some money in the stock market but most of it is in Yieldmax etfs and I reinvest the yield back in. Last month I got $3800 back on a 65k portfolio, so around 5.8%. There is some risk associated with it over directly investing in the securities but hey, I'm a guy who had no issues dumping cash on shitcoins and nfts so my appetite for risk is already warped lol. Lately I've been doing a bunch of EV and matched sports betting on my free time, it's a lot of fun and I've made a decent amount. Hoping to crack 6 figures from that eventually this or next year.
Wife works from home so no commute, I clearly work from home (I rent a space back in my home country as an "office" but it's basically a po box for my business registration. We live on around 5k CAD per month so I spend around $2500 after a 50/50 split, this includes random stuff like eating out and going to events, like sports games and concerts.
No kids, just us and our dog. Turned 32 a few months back.
So basically you can disregard my post and listen to other gaffers, I'm just a degenerate. Grey area markets, cryptocurrency, gambling, I should be dead or broke.
After I graduated school I ended up working at a call centre, I hated that job, I hated what it to people there. Everyone was either depressed or over worked, people in their 30s with kids, older people in their 50s or 60s with no other opportunities. It was sad. I ended up working there for around 4 months before rage quitting while being reprimanded lol.
I went to Uni after that and graduated with honors in international business, picked up another language (french) to make it 3. Ended up working at my career's program office for a bit. Was pretty chill but still it just reinforced my loathing for the 9-5, commuting on public transport, having to eat pre cooked meals, sharing the break room, having to have casual conversation with people you don't wanna engage with, the dress code. I hate it all.
Spent some years doing pro esports while working at uni, that was fun, travelled a lot around the world for events. Pay was shit, but I stumbled into a side business of selling in game currency and I came up into a lot of money (for the time and where I lived) ended up setting up a bot farm and basically had a side thing going on while I competed (extremely against the rules but I didn't care). The money got too big eventually and I was declining in my skills so I retired in order to double down on selling in game currency. in 2019 I made my first 100k usd from it. Still run that business but I hired a couple people who take care of the day to day. I just do the books now.
Made a good amount of money in crypto, it just came naturally because a lot of the transactions from the other business are in crypto. I am gambling man so I made a few gambles on shitcoins that paid off massively (others not so much). Still love crypto but I'm not terminally on chain anymore or scanning the next big play. I still of course have my portfolio, it's a long term hold so I don't care much about prices. I didn't care when BTC was 18k a couple years ago and don't care now at 60k+.
I have 2 paid off apartments back home (one rented, one occupied by my dad) and a mortgage on a townhouse here in Canada where we live currently. My wife has a good paying job as a UI/UX designer (100k+ year).some credit card debt but not much (under 5k). No car debt (not a new luxury car, still drive a hyundai from 2011 that used to be my dad's). My wife has a standard 401k, maxed out TFSA and regular retirement plan. As she puts it she's happy being the "anchor" to all my chaos. We've been together for 14 years, 5 married.
I have some money in the stock market but most of it is in Yieldmax etfs and I reinvest the yield back in. Last month I got $3800 back on a 65k portfolio, so around 5.8%. There is some risk associated with it over directly investing in the securities but hey, I'm a guy who had no issues dumping cash on shitcoins and nfts so my appetite for risk is already warped lol. Lately I've been doing a bunch of EV and matched sports betting on my free time, it's a lot of fun and I've made a decent amount. Hoping to crack 6 figures from that eventually this or next year.
Wife works from home so no commute, I clearly work from home (I rent a space back in my home country as an "office" but it's basically a po box for my business registration. We live on around 5k CAD per month so I spend around $2500 after a 50/50 split, this includes random stuff like eating out and going to events, like sports games and concerts.
No kids, just us and our dog. Turned 32 a few months back.
So basically you can disregard my post and listen to other gaffers, I'm just a degenerate. Grey area markets, cryptocurrency, gambling, I should be dead or broke.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
My bro used to trave to europe for business once or twice a year. The company policy was any flight 5 hours or more you can do business class. Yup. More than 5 hours!Yeah, they are mostly that way (probably because travel has a lot of squeeze?). But if you are gonna frequent some higher class hotels, stores and stuff anyway, the platinum or sapphire cards have their benefits. Definitely not for someone scrimping by unless they can use it for business like you said. Alas, my company insists on my using their card so I can't rack up the miles
So he'd rack up Air Miles or Aeroplan pts or whatever it was. He'd expense the tickets through work but attach his AM card to get the pts. I think he said each trip to Europe equated to around one shitty economy ticket for free in US/Canada. So over the course of a couple years, he'd rack up enough pts to take the family (4 people) to a US/Canada flight somewhere.
Funny thing is, he's a cheap ass like me. So it was all about getting by with as little out of pocket extra pay outs as possible, while the wife wanted to do upgrades and shit for cash. My bro was like fuck that, as cheap seats as possible please! lol
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Thaedolus
Member
Liquid or actual net worth? Because yeah, my house is worth about 250k more than when I bought it about 6 years ago, and I’ve paid off about 100k on the mortgage. So that’s a fair bit of equity. Otherwise we have some student loan still left and small car payment we’re gonna pay off within a year or so…not doing too bad, knock on wood.
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Nah, when I'm old the LAST thing I want is to be dealing with an entire house on my own. Sell that shit, roll it into a nice stable investment producing enough to live in a sweet retirement center where I have lots of amenities I don't have to maintain and horny STD ridden grannies to hook up with
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Yup.Nah, when I'm old the LAST thing I want is to be dealing with an entire house on my own. Sell that shit, roll it into a nice stable investment producing enough to live in a sweet retirement center where I have lots of amenities I don't have to maintain and horny STD ridden grannies to hook up with
My plan too. Sell my house for good coin and find a smaller place that's half price an hour or two away. Thats they way countries work. The metro areas for a lot of people prime career years. But once it's time to hang it up, you move to smaller, quieter, cheaper areas and coast till you die. That's why rural areas skew to older people and surprisingly not dirt broke areas either even though on paper it sounds like complete boredom with crap jobs compared to a high flying big city. It's cheaper there and older people want to get away from the city.
German Hops
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
You jelly?
Not at all. While my line of work (software dev) doesn't make as much as in the US (I'm UK based), we're doing fine with the contracting I do.
Just finishing up a 6 month work free period after 20 years of graft. It's been great. Spent loads of time with the kids and the other half.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
A tip anyone can save money. Check all your tv, cell phone, internet plans. Not only sub to ones that are a good price, but recheck the price.
I just updated my internet plan a week ago. All I did was check their prices online and it looks like the upped their bandwidth tiers but lowered prices for the existing tiers. So my tier actually got cheaper, but of course they dont automatically dumb down my price. I had to email them and ask them to keep my tier but give me the better price. Yup, Updated. Ok, saving $120/yr (about $130+ after tax) isnt a deal breaker. It'll make zero difference to me now or when I retire saving a couple grand over the next decade or so. But hey, maybe for some of you saving $120/yr adds some breathing room. Do it. I did.
But when it comes to helping your finances, just put in some time and be efficient. I'm not saying spend all day scrimp and saving to save $1.99. But if there's some quick and easy savings which all you got to do is a quick check and update, do it.
I just updated my internet plan a week ago. All I did was check their prices online and it looks like the upped their bandwidth tiers but lowered prices for the existing tiers. So my tier actually got cheaper, but of course they dont automatically dumb down my price. I had to email them and ask them to keep my tier but give me the better price. Yup, Updated. Ok, saving $120/yr (about $130+ after tax) isnt a deal breaker. It'll make zero difference to me now or when I retire saving a couple grand over the next decade or so. But hey, maybe for some of you saving $120/yr adds some breathing room. Do it. I did.
But when it comes to helping your finances, just put in some time and be efficient. I'm not saying spend all day scrimp and saving to save $1.99. But if there's some quick and easy savings which all you got to do is a quick check and update, do it.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
For those of you with students loans, here's a few more tips which helped me out.
When youre in college or university, just apply to random financial aid and grants. Cut to the chase and just apply to ones that involve no extra work (doing projects or essays). Be reasonable. Start with your faculty and then any general ones for anyone. If youre a science student, not much point apply for a geography student prize. Schools are often mandated to give this shit out every year. So just apply and see what happens. I applied to stuff and got $6,000 in bursaries.
Also, when it comes to pay the tuition loans after you graduate, just look into the program and read what random perks there are. If it was like mine, I applied for Loan Forgiveness. Who the hell knows what will happen. Next thing you know in one of my statements later on (this was before the net so statements were snail mail), suddenly a line was stated saying Loan Forgiveness -$2,000. So they chopped off two grand just because I applied.
Sometimes you just got to look around and see if there's any free money lying around. At worst, they decline you. Who cares. But one thing's for sure, none of this shit was automated. You had to look around and apply.
So I saved $8,000 and all I had to do was fill out some forms and wait for a response.
When youre in college or university, just apply to random financial aid and grants. Cut to the chase and just apply to ones that involve no extra work (doing projects or essays). Be reasonable. Start with your faculty and then any general ones for anyone. If youre a science student, not much point apply for a geography student prize. Schools are often mandated to give this shit out every year. So just apply and see what happens. I applied to stuff and got $6,000 in bursaries.
Also, when it comes to pay the tuition loans after you graduate, just look into the program and read what random perks there are. If it was like mine, I applied for Loan Forgiveness. Who the hell knows what will happen. Next thing you know in one of my statements later on (this was before the net so statements were snail mail), suddenly a line was stated saying Loan Forgiveness -$2,000. So they chopped off two grand just because I applied.
Sometimes you just got to look around and see if there's any free money lying around. At worst, they decline you. Who cares. But one thing's for sure, none of this shit was automated. You had to look around and apply.
So I saved $8,000 and all I had to do was fill out some forms and wait for a response.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Another tip I've said on GAF in the past. For you guys on credit card debt, or straddling the fence on debt, or you have an idea you might need an emergency fund, look into a LOC (line of credit). As discussed in this thread, avoid all CC balance debt you can as the interest rate is probably like 20%. CC are good to have to buy whatever shit you can, they can protect you with warranties, and perk points, but it should really only be used if you can float paying it off so you dont get hooked into a spiral of insane interest fees.
LOC:
- Interest rates will be probably more than half cheaper
- Should be easy to get from your bank
- The limit you get will probably be pretty big
- You take out money so it's not like you pay for stuff like scanning a card. So it should (in theory) help you budget since you buy stuff using a wad of cash the old school way
There are nuances you got to look into:
- If it's like mine, the amount you need to pay back per month is 3% of balance. A CC, usually the min amount needed to pay back is only 1% of the balance. So you got to make sure you can at least float a 3% payback
- The account (if unused) will go into a dormant status. Mine goes into dormant mode after 6 or 12 months. So if you suddenly need it, you got to reactivate it. I reactivated mine one time in case I needed investment property money and pain in the butt is I had to do it in person. My bank doesn't allow me to reactivate it online
- There should be zero fees associated with having it (active or not), and even if you never use it except reactivating it here or there, it should be a forever account. I've had mine (two of them) for over 20 years, never used them to draw money and they are still there in my online bank profile if I need them. Never paid a dime
I dont know what LOC interest rates are, but even in these high rate times, I'd take a guess it should be around 10%, since during the low rate years mine are like Prime Rate + 3%.
LOC:
- Interest rates will be probably more than half cheaper
- Should be easy to get from your bank
- The limit you get will probably be pretty big
- You take out money so it's not like you pay for stuff like scanning a card. So it should (in theory) help you budget since you buy stuff using a wad of cash the old school way
There are nuances you got to look into:
- If it's like mine, the amount you need to pay back per month is 3% of balance. A CC, usually the min amount needed to pay back is only 1% of the balance. So you got to make sure you can at least float a 3% payback
- The account (if unused) will go into a dormant status. Mine goes into dormant mode after 6 or 12 months. So if you suddenly need it, you got to reactivate it. I reactivated mine one time in case I needed investment property money and pain in the butt is I had to do it in person. My bank doesn't allow me to reactivate it online
- There should be zero fees associated with having it (active or not), and even if you never use it except reactivating it here or there, it should be a forever account. I've had mine (two of them) for over 20 years, never used them to draw money and they are still there in my online bank profile if I need them. Never paid a dime
I dont know what LOC interest rates are, but even in these high rate times, I'd take a guess it should be around 10%, since during the low rate years mine are like Prime Rate + 3%.
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