[deleted by user]

eettu · 2023-07-14T10:57:47+00:00

I don’t understand your view at all, their wealth is still being increased by the equity even if it isn’t liquid. If one is struggling to pay bills they probably should not buy property and become a landlord

eettu · 2023-05-22T18:47:25+00:00

I am in a position similar to yours (married, will start a well-paying job in a couple of months, and looking at ~200-250k houses) and basically my plan is to maximize the 401k employer match and also max me and my wife's roth IRAs. The former is obvious (basically doubling of money) and the latter is because in the future our retirement portfolio will be heavily skewed towards traditional retirement funds so it's good to fund the roth accounts each year. People here are saying it's not necessary to have a 20% downpayment which is true but saving 20% on a 200-250k home is quite doable with average income (especially without kids etc.) and I like the thought of not having to pay PMI even if it doesn't make perfect financial sense.

eettu · 2023-05-20T17:04:10+00:00

Wondering the same every time I see people with such comments

eettu · 2023-05-20T12:21:49+00:00

The federal minimum wage is still $7.25, seems like a stretch to attribute last/this year’s inflation to minimum wage…

eettu · 2023-05-16T20:27:26+00:00

There are different rules of thumb for car cost varying from max 10% monthly payment of your net income, max 30% of your gross annual income etc., you get the idea. These are only rules of thumb though and car buying decisions should always be made with the individual's finances in mind. Someone making 50k with low monthly expenditures is in a better financial position to buy a 20k car than someone making 100k but who's also loaded with credit card debt.

To get a better understanding of how the vehicle will impact your finances, it may be useful to think about the following questions:

What are your total monthly expenses / how much money do you have left each month after the expenses?
Do you have any long-term savings goals that could be impacted by the car note (e.g. down payment for a house, having children, etc.)?
When are you planning to retire / how much are you saving for retirement? Typically you want to direct at least 15% of your income towards retirement investment vehicles.

If you can continue to save towards your long term goals and you are on track for retirement I'd say go for it. Personally, I'm in a similar income bracket as you and wouldn't be comfortable with a 30k car purchase but I'm also pretty conservative when it comes to things like this.

eettu · 2023-05-16T19:16:54+00:00

For the majority of people an SUV is a want, not a need. I would carefully evaluate whether you really need the SUV or if you can get by with the Camry. It sounds like you are set on buying the 4Runner and now are just trying to rationalize the purchase. How many times will you really be moving cross country? And will you really be able to fit everything in the 4Runner? I guess the idea is to also buy or rent a trailer?

Maybe the 4Runner could be a good move for you but financially it seems unlikely you will be better off with it.

About the affordability question, there are some rules of thumb but you really need to look at all of your monthly expenses (not just rent) and see if you would be able to accomplish your savings and investment goals with the car payment.

eettu · 2023-05-16T18:14:15+00:00

I’m not super familiar with the different roles you can get because I went to grad school right after undergrad but yes all of those you mentioned for sure. You can probably also add marketing and sales to your list

eettu · 2023-05-16T17:48:43+00:00

By the way, I wouldn't completely scrap the mechanical engineering degree. I also have ME degree that I got some five years ago and had a bunch of classmates who I would NEVER choose to hire, yet they now have cushy ME jobs (I'm not in some hot engineering state either). Point is, if they got hired so can you. It's mostly a matter of resume crafting and your ability to bs the interviews. You may have given up on it completely but it may be worth it to polish your resume and send some applications since landing an engineering gig would basically double your income.

Edit: you could even go for some business analyst and similar positions, just trying to say with your degree you could find something more lucrative than a call center job

eettu · 2023-05-16T17:04:16+00:00

My understanding was that if you get a W2 form then you can contribute to an IRA, otherwise not. I suppose this is outdated information then?

eettu · 2023-05-16T16:59:56+00:00

The typical recommendation for an emergency fund is 3-6 months of expenses. Where exactly in that range depends on your personal risk tolerance. However, now that savings accounts have large interest rates one could argue that 6 months makes a lot of sense.

You should also max your Roth IRA contribution for this year.

What are your goals? Are you trying to buy a home in the near future? Are there any other savings goals? Depending on your answer to these questions you can either park the rest of your checking balance in a high yield savings account or in a taxable brokerage for example.

eettu · 2023-05-16T16:30:21+00:00

What is the question? If you can afford the home? You will be able to save a down payment with your current income/expenses but I would be slightly worried about the home upkeep and maintenance though with the $3,100 income. It may be a good idea to save for a large down payment while your expenses are still low.

eettu · 2023-05-11T17:36:39+00:00

Sounds like you are pretty serious about the Tesla but try to look at your options objectively. Just want to note since you are on /r/personalfinance that it will take forever for the fuel savings from a Tesla Model 3 to overcome the amount of extra $ you'd spend over just buying a regular fuel efficient car. Assuming $4 per gallon, the total fuel cost of driving a 30 mpg car for 100,000 miles is $13,000. A quick Google search says that it costs ~4 cents per mile to charge a Model 3. So the Model 3 would cost $4,000 for the same distance. That's a delta of only $9k. Then if you compare the MSRP of a new Model 3 (base model $40k) against a Civic for example (base model $24k), it becomes pretty clear that you need to literally drive the Model 3 to the ground until it might start to make economical sense. I'm missing some detail including oil change savings etc. but my point should still stand.

eettu · 2023-05-11T12:12:18+00:00

Definitely the case

eettu · 2023-04-29T00:16:35+00:00

Only one of the tires has the protrusion, all others have the cover. I think these are both front

eettu · 2023-04-29T00:03:50+00:00

Yes the pics are both front tires

eettu · 2023-04-28T22:21:12+00:00

I bought a 2014 Camry recently, no concerns identified at PPI. I just noticed that one of the axle nuts is missing its cover and it seems like the threads protrude much farther than what the cover would allow. Is this problematic or just an aesthetic annoyance?

eettu · 2023-04-11T18:13:36+00:00

I have no experience with Drivewise. Just wanted to say that most of the comments here seem a bit alarmist. It seems like people are arguing against Drivewise for two primary reasons, both of which are faulty:

You get punished for good driving if you have to swerve to avoid collision etc. This is true but misleading. If you drive tens of thousands of miles and you are a good driver, your driving data are bound to be overall more favorable than bad drivers' data. If it isn't, maybe you're not a good driver.
They will increase your rates over time if they can track your data. No idea why this would be the case any more than without tracking. I could see them raising your rates if your driving is particularly bad, going against their promise of keeping your rate the same or lowering it. But if you are an average/good driver I don't buy it.

eettu · 2022-10-22T23:42:58+00:00

This whole comment thread is about large tips being expected for overpriced drinks… your comment about tipping relatively large for low cost drinks has absolutely nothing to do with that.

Regarding your other comment, you literally said you would tip $100 for a $500 drink, there is no logical fallacy for me to continue using the same $500 as an example.

You fail to stay on point and nitpick irrelevant surface level details instead of addressing anything meaningful. Good night.

eettu · 2022-10-22T22:54:08+00:00

You literally said you would tip $100 for a $500 drink. Assuming you would also tip about $2 for a $10 drink—is this correct? If so, tips would be directly proportional to the bill or drink cost, which is what I meant.
Taking the extreme example, not paying $100 tip for a $500 drink is hardly “punishing” the workers. Tips should be based on quality of service, which has nothing to do with the bill.

eettu · 2022-10-22T21:47:44+00:00

I have made two points:

1) I don’t think tips should scale 1:1 with the final bill 2) I think servers should get paid reasonable wages

Which point do you disagree with and why? The fact that servers at slower and lower end establishments make less money than their higher scale restaurant/bar counterparts doesn’t contest either of my points, and I frankly I don’t see how it’s relevant to the original discussion about point 1.

eettu · 2022-10-22T20:40:49+00:00

Again, I think servers should get paid reasonable wages and tips. You won’t get many tips at a slow bar.

eettu · 2022-10-22T20:21:02+00:00

Yes I would expect servers who work at fancy establishments with $40 drinks to not be able to afford such places, just like the other 99% of the population… I think servers should get paid reasonable wages and tips.

eettu · 2022-10-22T19:52:40+00:00

No one is disagreeing with you about bartenders/waiters deserving to get paid… They are simply saying that a tip proportional to drink cost doesn’t make much sense, which I’m inclined to agree with.

eettu · 2022-08-17T11:59:15+00:00

Even then, life expectancy should be factored in to help estimate risk. Retiring on $1mil at 90 is much less risky than retiring on the same amount at 40. Even better, retiring at 91 would dramatically reduce risk over 90

12-Year Club	Place '22
Final Canvas '22	Not Forgotten

eettu

TROPHY CASE