How are you doing with managing your money?

[UneekTT]

Just recently my wife and I have been going over our bills.

First of all, let me just say that BILLS SUCK! I can not stand owing money - and my goal is to get out of debt in about 15 years, and that includes the over 1/4 million that I owe on my house too.

Ever hear that commercial on the radio .....( "Transforming debt into wealth system", Hi, my name is John Commuta, and I am here to tell you about the ......... ) anyway, he is one my Father in laws really good friends, and he gave us the tape set or book or whatever it was, and my wifey is getting us into this. I am really excited to get out of debt, and it looks as though its not even that hard to do either!

The deal is this, you dont have to kill yourself. What you have to do is make a schedule of your bills, and determine all of these factors:
How much do you owe total
How much is the biggest and smallest bills you have
How much is the minimum payment versus how long would it take to pay off any given bill (months x's amount of total bill)

What this guy did was devise a plan, and made it work for anyone!

You end up paying off one bill at a time, and with all these factors taken into consideration you put all your bills in order.

ie;

First bill is for $2000, minimum payment is $100 so it would take 20 months to pay off
Second bill is for $3000, minimum payment is $200 so it would take 15 months to pay off
Third bill is for $5000, minimum payment is also $200 so it would take 25 months to pay off

Bottom line is, you still have to make the minimum every month on all your bills!

So on and so on, but after you pay off the first bill, you can obviously put more toward the second now.
Then once you pay off the second, you can put all the money from the first and the second as well as the money for the third, all toward the third, and it really speeds up the process then.

Now, what if you had 15 bills, some major, some minor, then you would pay all 15 minimum payment every month for sure, and then take extra money (I forgot to say that every month you put away 10% for paying off the bills, this is your capital in a sense) and pay off only the first bill, anything over and above that is your spending money, or what you go out to play with, this way, you never feel broke, and it will not kill you to get this done.

I figure once I am out of debt, including my house, I have another 5 - 10 years to work until I retire. So at this point, it looks like I will be about 60-65 when I am ready for full retirement - but then I will more than likely open another business, I dont like to sit around and do nothing!

So how are you doing financially?

What is your outlook for the future?

This might be a sensitive subject for some, but I just thought I would share to hopefully help a little.

Please, discuss!

[LSixer]

Well I just took a beating today on my trades. I was up $1500 at market open, and I am now negative $1500 ... A $3k SWING for cris's sake!

My options tanked today too. Although for three contracts, I only lost net $280.

Carl, I may not be able to afford the car this Friday. 

[ginz111]

I am in the toilet right now.  Hoping to get outta the bowl in the next wek or two.

[LSixer]

But, the market may pick up, and truthfully, the cost of the cars and tow arent bad, just funnin' 

My wife and I both have 403b's which contribute to generously from our primary gigs. That would amount to more than 10% of our gross, and we also have a small savings that is more liquid than the 403's.

My part time gig, teaching is where I get my market money and car money. So, that is only budgeted for fun stuff. The upside of that is this, working for the college, I am part of the SURs which is the state teachers retirement fund. Nothing to get rcih over but is a nice pension when I retire from teaching. 

Retirement, we are set. We bought our house for pennies of what it was worth. We are planning to develop the land, into townhouses and make enough coin along with our 403's to buy our retirement villa in Peru. We were supposed to purchase the land this year, but, we may have to wait until next year, just because we cannot get down there this year. We have priced lots right on the Pacific, a REAL beachfront lot for about $10k, maybe a few more thousand depending upon the size. These are about a full acre, although I saw a few that were two to three acres on the water in the $20ks. SWEET stuff.

So, as of now, we are ok, we have our details in order, and may be retiring in just less than 10 years.

[UneekTT]

Damn good for you Adam - its really good to see someone with a plan.

Now you have me thinking about 3rd world countries with warm climates - gotta run it by the wifey first though!

[Avus e30]

I am recently married and starting our first apartment while the wife goes to grad school.  At the moment we have no debt and grad school is being paid for by the wealthy in-laws.  I am going to be working at a local Chevy dealership selling for at least the next three years while she is in school.  After she finishes we will have two substantial incomes and planning on no children for nearly 10 years.  I think with a doctor as a wife and me selling cars we should be rather stable.  If we can save enough for a reasonable DP on a house we should be able to purchase a home right after grad school is finished.  Occupational therapy is her doctoral program.

[UneekTT]

Sounds like you guys are on the right track, just stay clear of "distractions" and be sensible and you should be fine. Most of my friends have serious debt right now, and I have no idea how they think they are going to retire, ever - so I am doing everything that I need to now, so I can relax later!

Best of luck!

[Avus e30]

Sounds like you guys are on the right track, just stay clear of "distractions" and be sensible and you should be fine.

would these damned European cars be considered Distractions?

[LSixer]

Sounds like you guys are on the right track, just stay clear of "distractions" and be sensible and you should be fine.

would these damned European cars be considered Distractions?

My wife tends to think so .... 

[Avus e30]

same reason I am dragging my feet finding another e30 or something else.  I know I dont need one but I know I want one at the same time.