Money Matters
lifeonthehill
member
Love: March 2010 Marriage: July 2013 Debt Free: October 2014 TTC: May 2015
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
How about a MM GTKY!
Since we do general GTKY questions on the Monday Accountability post and the board isn't very active today I thought this might be some fun.
1. Do you live on a written budget?
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
3. What is your current #1 goal?
4. How long will it take to complete?
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
8. What is your money matters mantra?
9. How long have you been on this board?
ETA: Fix formatting.
1. Do you live on a written budget?
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
3. What is your current #1 goal?
4. How long will it take to complete?
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
8. What is your money matters mantra?
9. How long have you been on this board?
ETA: Fix formatting.
Love: March 2010 Marriage: July 2013 Debt Free: October 2014 TTC: May 2015
Re: How about a MM GTKY!
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on? #2. Debt Payoff. But we have already completed our 6 month e-fund which is #3.
3. What is your current #1 goal? Pay off the next SL on our list. $2,950 to go.
4. How long will it take to complete? Two more months.
5. Do you have any sort of debts? Just two SL's totaling less than $9,000.
6. Who handles the finances in your house? Me.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws? We are better than any family member we talk to about it.
8. What is your money matters mantra? Don't give up what you want most for what you want now.
9. How long have you been on this board? Since April 2013
Love: March 2010 Marriage: July 2013 Debt Free: October 2014 TTC: May 2015
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
3. What is your current #1 goal?
Pay off more than is owed on our debt while also increasing our E-fund while we plan to TTC in the next few months.
4. How long will it take to complete?
E-fund will be looking really good by the end of the year.
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
Yes, H's SLs of 35k, car loan of 11k, and our mortgage
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
We both do. I used to do most of it but now that we moved, H is really into managing them.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
A resounding YES!
8. What is your money matters mantra?
Spend less than you make and don't spend money on things you can't afford to impress people you don't even like. I like those two.
9. How long have you been on this board?
Yes
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
Baby step 2... Paused for baby savings though.
3. What is your current #1 goal?
Pay off my car.
4. How long will it take to complete?
Idk anymore. Maybe next spring after the baby is born.
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
Too many
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
I'm the numbers girl but we both do.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
Um duhhh... You don't end up this bad otherwise.
8. What is your money matters mantra?
The borrower is slave to the lender....I really hate how true that is
9. How long have you been on this board?
Idk like a year..
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on? 5,6,7- Saving for retirement, college fund, and paying off the mortgage that we will take out in 9 more days.
3. What is your current #1 goal? paying off the mortgage!
4. How long will it take to complete? 5-10 years. Some of this depends upon DH's bonuses that he will get during this time. If he gets good bonuses it will be possible in 5 years, if he doesn't get any bonuses we should be able to make it in 10 hopefully assuming that he at least gets raises during that time.
5. Do you have any sort of debts? Soon we will have a mortgage again, but that is it.
6. Who handles the finances in your house? I handle the day to day stuff- spreadsheet, paying most of the bills, but so far as deciding what is in the budget and what our priorities are, that's joint.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws? Than my brother for sure- he makes probably as much as we do, and yet they spend every cent of it. We live beneath our means, so that we can save and give.
8. What is your money matters mantra? Is there a coupon for that?
9. How long have you been on this board? I found this board and started lurking around the time I got pregnant- so like 18 months ago, maybe a little more. Started posting sometime during my pregnancy.
1. Do you live on a written budget? No, but we track all spending on a spreadsheet so it's very visual but not pre-planned hardcore.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
6, pay down the house.
3. What is your current #1 goal?
Pay down the house.
4. How long will it take to complete?
About 6 years (been here 4).
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
Just the house.
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
Me
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
Good question. Better than my parents, about equal with the ILs.
8. What is your money matters mantra?
I always try to think twice before buying.
9. How long have you been on this board?
About a year.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on? We don't follow him.
3. What is your current #1 goal? My goal was to get 3 months of expenses in our E Fund, then we got there but now it seems we are always having to replenish it so I'm still putting money in it every month. Other than that, fund retirement. DH's #1 goal is to get funding to build his own photography studio which will help us so much financially. We are waiting for that to be up and running before we TTC #2.
4. How long will it take to complete? DH hopes to have his studio next spring, but it will probably be next early summer in 2015. I would also like to work on finishing the basement so I can throw most of DDs' toys down there to play with.
5. Do you have any sort of debts? Only debt we have is my student loan
6. Who handles the finances in your house? I handle the finances
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws? I think we are both similar to our parents. DH came from a single parent home. His mom sometimes didn't have enough money to eat but always had food for him. My parents taught me a bit about saving, but I think I pinch more pennies than my mom. Up until my dads layoff she was eating out a lot and not thinking much about what she spent. They taught me the basics but I think I save more than they probably did at my age.
8. What is your money matters mantra? If you don't have a coupon for it or if it's not on sale…don't buy it
9. How long have you been on this board? Since 2012
Fun!!
1. Do you live on a written budget?
We have a budget set up on mint.com and we usually stay on track, but not always
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
N/A
3. What is your current #1 goal?
Build house DP, and paying down mortg to meet current market values (they go hand in hand)
4. How long will it take to complete?
By the end of 2015
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
Just the mortgage and 1 car lease if that counts
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
Mainly me, but H jumps in
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
We are better with money than our siblings and in laws hands down. My parents are loaded but we are still awesome with money.
8. What is your money matters mantra?
Don't really have one just save save save
9. How long have you been on this board?
Probably since 2012
Yes. Also, use cash envelopes
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
3b
3. What is your current #1 goal?
Save as much as we can while our house is being built to add to our down payment
4. How long will it take to complete?
House should be completed around April 2015
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
100% debt free....until we have our next mortgage
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
I pay bills, balance checkbook, etc. but we have by-weekly budget meetings and DH knows where our money goes.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
Yes and no depending on the situation.
8. What is your money matters mantra?
Debt sucks
9. How long have you been on this board?
Lurked for about a year and have recently started participating.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on? We don't follow Dave Ramsey.
3. What is your current #1 goal? If I'd have to narrow it down to just one, I'd say student loans.
4. How long will it take to complete? Paying off student loans should take us about 3.5 years on our current plan, which we implemented in January of this year.
5. Do you have any sort of debts? SLs and mortgage.
6. Who handles the finances in your house? It's definitely a team effort. We come together at least once a week to add the expenses into the budget and pay off the CCs. (We put EVERYTHING on Credit. Heck, I even bought my car three years ago using a CC. They didn't charge a fee, and I paid it off the next day. Might as well get the free points!!)
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws? I won't speak to H's family, but my family, no.
8. What is your money matters mantra? Spend money on memories, not stuff.
9. How long have you been on this board? Posting a few months, lurking over a year.
We keep an excel spreadsheet of daily expenses and then one for the entire calendar year broken out by month. We stay within the limits as best as we can. Right now, day care is a huge expense ($1,700/month) so we haven't been able to save a ton. That will change when DD#1 starts kindergarten in 2015 and DD#2 in 2017.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
Not a Dave Ramsey follower- the only debt we have is our mortgage, but when we had SL and 2 car loans, we did snowball those debts and had them all paid off in about 3 years (about $70,000 total).
3. What is your current #1 goal?
To get back to saving $500/paycheck- DH is a teacher so the last few months without his paycheck have been tight.
4. How long will it take to complete?
We should be back on track in October and we'll work on the 2015 budget to make sure we're better off next summer than we were this summer.
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
Just our mortgage ($103K left) that will be paid off in 2025 at the latest. We charge everything monthly (groceries, stuff for the girls, house things, clothing, etc) but always pay the balance in full.
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
I pretty much do on the day to day stuff- DH understands the big picture and we're on the same page.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
My mom was always pretty good since she was a single mom. I don't have any siblings. We're definitely in better shape than my BIL/SIL and DH's parents are doing better but had some tough times when DH was younger.
8. What is your money matters mantra?
Save $ but don't forget to enjoy life
9. How long have you been on this board?
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on? Step #2
3. What is your current #1 goal? Get as much as possible saved up before baby comes.
4. How long will it take to complete? We will save until baby is born and all medical bills are paid. Then the remainder will go toward debt and we'll start the snowball up again.
6. Who handles the finances in your house? We handle them jointly, but I'm the one who sits down and pays them.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws? Yes. My parents are actually great with their money, but they do have debt from the farm. My brother isn't so great with money, but he makes a lot of it so he doesn't struggle, just doesn't manage it.
The IL's are horrible with money yet try to act like they're good with money and try to give us advice. After they take out a 401k loan to roof their house because they don't have the cash, but spend 3 nights/week at the bar. Thanks for the advice, but we won't be using it.
8. What is your money matters mantra? Pay cash for everything or wait until you can.
9. How long have you been on this board? 2 years
TTC since 1/13 DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system.
Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340 Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
Riley Elaine born 2/16/15
TTC 2.0 6/15
Chemical Pregnancy 9/15
Chemical Pregnancy 6/16
BFP 9/16 EDD 6/3/17
Beta #1: 145 Beta #2: 376 Beta #3: 2,225 Beta #4: 4,548
www.5yearstonever.blogspot.com
Yes, currently, we're working on getting better at sticking to the budget.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
Step #2 - Pay down debt. Working on credit cards right now.
3. What is your current #1 goal?
Pay down our debt so we can save up to buy a house before TTC
4. How long will it take to complete?
According to Mint, a little over a year. Hopefully less than that.
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
Yes. Credit cards, car loans, and student loans. Ugh!
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
I do, but I make sure DH is very involved so he knows what's happening with our money.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
Siblings, yes. Mother, probably. Father, no. In laws, I have no idea.
8. What is your money matters mantra?
Save save save!
9. How long have you been on this board?
Yes, we have an excel sheet calculator that has our budget, we plug in expenses as we go, and adjust as needed, most months we achieve our goals
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
Not a DR follower
3. What is your current #1 goal?
I've discussed this recently, H and I have adjusted a bit, we've got goals to finish the basement and pay off SLs, we discussed last night that since SLs are pretty low interest (highest loan is 5.8%) that we'd like to save the funds for the basement first (only thing that is delaying TTC) then attack the student loans
4. How long will it take to complete?
we should have the cash to complete the basement project by January at the latest. H gets a lot of overtime in November/december, so we may have the cash sooner, January is based on no overtime. we think we're overestimating cost, so whatever we have left once the project is done will got right into SLs.
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
we have $180K in our mortgage (interest rate: 3.75%) , $56K in student loans (interest rates range from 1.35% to 5.8%), and about $18K for my car (interest rate 1.9%)
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
I do
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
We are better than anyone in H's family, I think we're better than my siblings as well. I admire the way my parents handle their money.
8. What is your money matters mantra?
Be smart, but don't forget to enjoy it as well.
9. How long have you been on this board?
Yes, I do a budget annually and update it when a loan gets paid off or expenses change.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
Not a Dave Ramsey follower, but I do snowball debt payments.
3. What is your current #1 goal?
Short term- pay off the last student loan of about $1k.
Longer term- be debt free except for interest free loans and the mortgage.
4. How long will it take to complete?
Student loan will be paid by the end of the year, normally I would have just taken the money out of savings, but we ended up being almost $1500 short in escrow for our August tax payment.
Interest bearing loans will be paid off by the end of next year.
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
Yes... House, 1 car payment, home improvement cc (interest free), 1 student loan, Sears cc (interest free).
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
I handle everything... H was (is) a short-term saver and was never really taught about handling money (budgeting, saving, etc).
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
I'd like to think we're doing better than they have/are.
8. What is your money matters mantra?
Live below your means, always.
9. How long have you been on this board?
2 years... Lurker for about a year before coming more active.
1. Do you live on a written budget? I do, but DH doesn't. We currently don't combine finances, other than our mortgage and joint savings from our wedding.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on? I'm not following Dave Ramsey, but I have his book that I want to read. I did snowball my CCs to get them paid off.
3. What is your current #1 goal? Right now it's to pay back the $920 I took from savings to knock out my credit card debt. We still have 3 months of expenses saved, so I figured I'd rather not pay the interest if I didn't have to.
4. How long will it take to complete? That will be paid back in full by the end of October.
5. Do you have any sort of debts? Yes: Car loan (hopefully paid off in 12 months), Student Loan, and mortgage.
6. Who handles the finances in your house? I handle mine, and all the house bills. DH handles his own personal finances.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws? I would say I'm better than my parents, but not my in-laws.. They're loaded. My sister and her husband are probably better too, they have more in savings.
8. What is your money matters mantra? I don't really have one, but I should adopt "Stop eating out, it's bad for your wallet and your waistline." haha
9. How long have you been on this board? I've been here about a year, but I'm more of lurker..
I have one and have been following it pretty well. There are some things we have gone over, but we have saved in others so it evens out.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
I follow a modified DR plan. We are on #2 while saving for baby expenses. As soon as DD#2 is born, and I'm confident our lifestyle can be done on DH's income alone for the next 3 months, we will be sending all that extra money into our debt.
3. What is your current #1 goal?
To pay off the CC debt before moving onto the SLs.
4. How long will it take to complete?
by the end of the year. If not, by May of next year.
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
We have the 2 CC debts, 4 student loans, and 2 car loans.
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
Me
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
I'm definitely better than our siblings, I'm better at figuring out our budget than my parents but they are getting there, not sure about his parents.
8. What is your money matters mantra?
We want to be in a house in 3 years.
9. How long have you been on this board?
Since last August/September I believe.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on? No, I did steal his envelop idea for groceries, budgeted misc, and my gas money. I tend to do better with cash than with debit card.
3. What is your current #1 goal? Save up for the birth of our daughter around Christmas, pay off MW's student loans, and save for replacing our roof and painting the outside of our house.
4. How long will it take to complete? Will have to take out a loan to do the home repairs.
5. Do you have any sort of debts? Both have student loans, mine are under 2% interest so no hurry to pay off. Two car loans, both will be paid off in less than 2 years. Mortgage, signature loan for porch repairs, and credit card from getting a suit for weddings this year.
6. Who handles the finances in your house? I handle mine and some common bills, savings. MW handles her bills and some common bills. We work as a team when it comes to budgeting.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws? My sister in law is from the banking world and is better with money than my brother. My parents love their toys but keep everything within their fixed income, my dad's consulting in retirement pays for their vacations (they have the cash in savings to pay off most if not all of their toys if needed). Not sure how well off my sister is, but has done decent with selling houses in booming areas at the top of the market. We are doing better than my in laws who are probably living closer to the edge then we are.
8. What is your money matters mantra? Minimize debt as much as possible and pay cash for wants. Live within your means and buy big ticket items (cars and homes) at the bottom of your comfort zone instead of at the top of your comfort zone.
9. How long have you been on this board? Most likely off and on since 2012, got a bump/ nest account after my son was born and have bounced around a lot.
1. Do you live on a written budget? I do. It used to be weekly, then monthly and now I do that but re-evaluate every quarter.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on? Step 2, the debt snowball. But I have $2500 in my e-fund rather than the suggested $1k.
3. What is your current #1 goal? To get my car below four figures by the end of this year and then to get it completely paid off by my 30th birthday (Sept 2015)
4. How long will it take to complete? A little over a year.
5. Do you have any sort of debts? Yes. My car that is at $11k+ and Student Loans that are at $30k+ but everything else is completely paid for and CC-free
6. Who handles the finances in your house? It's just me, so yours truly.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws? Absolutely. I have jumped on this crazy personal finance train because of them and their not-so-awesome money decisions.
8. What is your money matters mantra? Wants vs. Needs
9. How long have you been on this board? Years, but I lurked for a long time.
We use mint.com and excel spreadsheet, but we aren't super strict about it.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on?
Not following him. I prefer Suze Orman.
3. What is your current #1 goal?
Save about $25,000 for baby fund, increased e-fund, and belated honeymoon.
4. How long will it take to complete?
About 18 months.
5. Do you have any sort of debts?
Just our house and my car, which will be paid off in January.
6. Who handles the finances in your house?
Both. We are both extremely conservative, but I'm a little bit more of a planner.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws?
My parents are pretty good. There is some frivolous spending, but they have the money to do it. My in laws are decent with money, but they don't make much. The main problem is they give all their money to H's younger brother but yet they barely get by themselves. THAT is a long story.
8. What is your money matters mantra?
When I want to buy something, I ask myself "Are you more likely to regret buying this or more likely to regret NOT buying it?" 85% of the time, the answer is that I'd be more likely to regret buying it than not buying it.
9. How long have you been on this board?
A few months.
2. I don't agree with everything DR says, so no. But, I do think he is good for people who don't have a clue about finances.
3. Retiring comfortably.
4. 30 years
5. One home Mortgage.
6. I do.
7. We're all pretty good with money, of course there are a few black sheep in the bunch.
8. Other than a mortgage, If I have to finance it, I can't afford it.
9. Several years, but I don't comment on every post and I will to take a hiatus from time to time.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on? N/A
3. What is your current #1 goal? Saving money for our deck project next spring.
4. How long will it take to complete? Until next spring! We may finance part of it interest free but pay it off within a year.
5. Do you have any sort of debts? Just the mortgage and 1 car.
6. Who handles the finances in your house? DH and I both do. Though he handles more of the bills and I handle more of the savings.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws? I think my parents are better because they had less to work with during the early years so they were very resourceful. Everyone else, I feel we're better with money.
8. What is your money matters mantra? If you don't love it, don't buy it.
9. How long have you been on this board? 6 months? A year? Not exactly sure.
1. Do you live on a written budget? Yes, but we look at it as more of a net budget - if we go over in one category we compensate in another.
2. If you are following the Dave Ramsey baby steps which are you on? We don't follow him. His books were pre-2008 and haven't been updated.
3. What is your current #1 goal? Save for our kitchen remodel
4. How long will it take to complete? 10 months - we plan to start demolition in the middle of next summer.
5. Do you have any sort of debts? SL debt, one car loan and now a mortgage. Neither of us has ever had CC debt or any debt that's high-interest.
6. Who handles the finances in your house? Me - though I update H at least once a week so he's always aware of where we are.
7. Are you better with money than your siblings/parents/in laws? We are much much better than anybody in H's family. Seriously, some of them are alarmingly bad with money. My parents are probably better than we are, though my dad says that he actually wishes they had spent more while I was growing up. They've done so well that they now don't really know how to spend it.
8. What is your money matters mantra? Debt financing and debt leveraging is one of the best concepts that has ever been introduced into the financial world, and it's the very reason we all live as well as we do in the US. Build wealth by using debt intelligently. Also - some things are worth spending money on. Figure out what those are and prioritize them.
9. How long have you been on this board? Since April 2013