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Anybody ever met with a financial adviser before?
So a few weeks ago, I met with my the same financial adviser my parents see. DH and I have no investments, other than our home I guess, and I'm so sick of living paycheck to paycheck. With us making a combined income of $60,000 before taxes, I feel like we shouldn't have to do this.
But the finance guy told me that it's really normal; that 85% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. He also said that with me driving an hour each way to work every day, I'm spending a great deal of my paycheck in gas, which I obviously knew already. So he said I should really just deduct that from my take-home pay and then I'd have my true take-home pay.
It was reassuring to see someone who is willing to help us get our savings built up. However, I am so overwhelmed with all of this stuff! Ideally, I would love to get our savings built up so that we can at least make it 6 months on no income, if it would ever happen. Right now, we can make it about 2. Money freaks me out so badly, but the finance guy was able to calm me down a bit. I'm just worried that DH and I won't be able to adjust to a strict budget in order to save.
Ugh! Stupid money always being a stress!
Re: Anybody ever met with a financial adviser before?
DH and I make less that $30k combined. We have no savings, we live paycheck to paycheck and usually have to put off a bill or two each month for a few days because we are unable to pay it till payday.
DH has about $3k in CC debt and $5.5k left on his truck, I have a loan that has $2.6k left on it. We have mortgage, utilities and cell phone every month. DH also has little to no chance of actually getting a raise at his current job and I think I'm probably stuck where I am. So um... maybe someday we're not swimming in debt
You're doing better than us I think
DH and I technically live paycheck to paycheck I guess. We are able to go out and buy things when we want though. We're making a lot of decisions that most of our friends aren't however. So many of my friends had had HAD to be in homes rightnow. We don't feel that way. Sure we'd love to have our own house, but we're making due.
I recently got a PT job after school to help pay credit cards,student loans, and some to put into savings. It's also our fun money. We know we can't save much right now.
There are simple ways to cut spending though, especially in the food department. That's where DH and I look first when we need to cut spending.
Do the creep.
It is great that you went and talked to someone about your financial situation, that is a big step forward!! And I am sure if you make little steps, you will adjust to your new budget.
DH's friend is a financial planner, and every time I suggest we go and see him DH just insists that we can do just as well on our own.
We also live paycheck to paycheck, and right now are $250 overdrawn in our account, which has Never happened before. Just bad timing with mortgage and insurance payments all coming out one day before DH gets paid this month, it annoys me having to pay things monthly instead of weekly!
Plus we have dropped $300 a month in income from not having two flatmates, and are trying to save for our holiday.
We look forward to the day when we can just go out and buy what we want without having to scrimp and save.
We mostly live paycheck-to-paycheck as well. We met with a financial adviser a couple times, but he didn't really help us much. He didn't give us any tips we didn't already know, and he mostly wanted to sell us insurance.
Hopefully your adviser actually advises! I do think it's a good idea to meet with someone, it just didn't work out for us.
We've got enough savings to last about a month if something happened to one (but not both) of our jobs. Aside from my student loans we have about $3K in debt- that's one credit card and one personal loan. Fortunately we don't have auto loans and the only utility we pay for in our apartment is electricity. Plus internet, of course.
We have a monthly budget all written out and it shows that, if we stuck to it, we would have a decent amount of money left at the end of every month. Sadly, we really suck at sticking to it. DH is especially bad- when he has a little extra money he is almost always trying to decide what to spend it on.
It's a challenge for sure, but it's something we're working on. We're constantly discussing and evaluating the situation and we have been making progress, just not as quickly as I'd like.
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We met with my life insurance guy this summer and I guess he didn't some financial advising for us, our financial situation right now since we currently have 2 mortgages until we do a little work to the old house and start renting it out, I honestly can't wait.
When only DH had a job we were much more living paycheck to paycheck. My biggest piece of advice to people who have a problem saving is have a designated amount each month or each paycheck that automatically goes into your savings account. We set it up over a year ago that basically $250 of each of DH's paycheck gets automatically moved into our savings account (it's all set up through the bank) so I think at least that amount goes into savings each month and have the will power not to touch it! For us it really seemed to be out of sight, out of mind. If there appears to be extra money in the checking account we will spend it, but if I've hidden it away in the savings account we don't touch it unless it's for a more "major" purchase that we've discussed and thought through, doesn't get blown on impulses.
The only other advice I have for people who's money always seems to disappear is trying to use cash for stuff. It's always harder for me to part with my cash then to just swipe my debit card!
You ladies make me feel a little bit better. My financial adviser is actually my old youth group leader from church, so I know him pretty well and trust him handling my accounts. It also helps that he knows me well and I feel comfortable being honest with him.
I'm just looking forward to getting to the point where I feel comfortable with our financial situation. I know that it takes time to save and build up your money, and I'd just rather start now than wait until later.