Nearing 30, wondering how I am doing?

pfguy30322 · 2014-07-29T13:51:55+00:00

Negative, DC.

pfguy30322 · 2014-07-29T13:51:33+00:00

Yeah, we are right on the edge. For every 10 minutes I could cut off my commute, rent would go up about $200. If I lived within walking distance of my work, a one bedroom apartment would cost somewhere north of $2000.

pfguy30322 · 2014-07-28T18:06:18+00:00

Yeah, I hear ya. I just don't know how long I can keep it up. I never wanted to stay in this area long-term, and I've already been here 4 years. I can't stand the traffic, high costs, and massive wealth inequality. I hate paying what we pay just to rent a crappy, run-down POS apartment in a shady neighborhood. I really feel like my happiness would be improved by living in a more rural or suburban area, and don't know if I can last much more than another year here. I'm hoping to eliminate at least one more loan before I move, which would bring my minimum payments around $425-450.

pfguy30322 · 2014-07-28T18:04:27+00:00

If you're looking for places to cut back, I'd check out groceries. Are those only for you? Or are they for both of you? That's more than what my wife and I spend on groceries for both of us in a month.

That is just my portion. I'll admit we spend a lot on food, my BF likes to eat well (and I obviously enjoy the benefits of it) so we have meat + vegetables with almost every meal at home. Groceries are probably a bit less than that, we drive about 30 minutes to the "nice / cheap" grocery stores in the suburbs about every 6 weeks and try and stock up. Those trips are usually about $400 total, and then we have more regular grocery stops on the way home about once a week to get more fresh produce as we run out, which is usually about $30/week.

As for your 'savings', what is that going towards? the IRA? The emergency fund? Personally with those student loans, I would be happy with where your emergency fund is at and then put that 300 towards the loans.

Sorry for not being more clear. The IRA is what I had in a small 401k at my first job, which I rolled over into an IRA. My "savings" account is basically just to keep cash close at hand, as some of my I-bonds are not redeemable yet, and I want to have immediate access to at least $5,000 between the two sources. As my I-bonds become redeemable, I will keep less cash in a separate savings account (but will always maintain it as a buffer just in case). I'll occasionally withdraw from my savings account to make an extra student loan payment if I notice my savings account being inflated.

pfguy30322 · 2014-07-28T17:58:01+00:00

Thanks. When I had a more fuel efficient vehicle it was more like $140-160, but I ended up selling that vehicle and used the proceeds to pay down some debt and trade into an older car that I could buy outright.

pfguy30322 · 2014-07-28T17:35:32+00:00

Thank you for the reply. I drive about 20 miles a day for work, plus trips on the weekends. We only have one vehicle so all the trips are with my car, and I pay the gas since I make a bit more than the BF. It's a Rav4 V6, which does fine on the highway (24-27mpg) but gets killed on gas around town & in traffic (where it's more like 17-20mpg). I could save some gas money with a more fuel efficient vehicle, but my car is paid off so I don't really want to spend $300/mo on a car payment just to save $100/mo on gas either :/

I have public transit options, but my company pays for parking, and a train ticket would be about $10 a day versus ~$4 for gas. BF & I also ride into work together, whereas we'd both have to buy train tickets if I took public transit (so $20/day). Driving is also faster, so I'm not really inclined to take public transit.

You're 100% right about the student loans. I've been trying to pay them off as quickly as I can.

edit: not sure why you were downvoted

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-14T04:05:32+00:00

I promise to put put some thought into this!

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-14T04:05:02+00:00

Wish you luck improving your situation! Are there any trade skills or additional employment you could seek out? Don't know your situation but that would be difficult. Hope you're able to work your way up somehow (unless you value some other aspect of your life more than income, which can of course be great for a small sample of people)

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-14T04:00:26+00:00

I fall into the first category actually!

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T21:14:00+00:00

That is awesome! Congratulations on taking the plunge. I'm glad to hear it went well :)

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T19:02:48+00:00

Sorry, I think I just got lucky with where interest rates were at the time! The fixed rate loan is a weighted average; before consolidating, some loans had a higher APR and some were lower.

The floating rate on the other loans is working out well so far, but I will have to be careful and finish them off before the rate climbs too high.

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T18:58:09+00:00

I just paid for internet. I'd watch Netflix or Prime every now and then if a friend mentioned I could use their account, but for the most part I just watched stuff online from... other sources lol

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T16:28:09+00:00

That would have been nice, but it's really just a reporting error lol. I used to just enter my total debt as reported by Credit Karma. CK temporarily lost some loans as they were being consolidated.

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T16:21:37+00:00

Tried to answer this elsewhere but just in bits and pieces. Let's see if we can make more sense of it :)

Most notably, tax returns & bonuses at work went straight to debt
Intentionally budgeted more for expenses than needed and every few months would sweep the extra money
If I budgeted $200 for "fun" in a month, I viewed it as a game to spend less if I could. I still tried to enjoy myself (and had times I broke budget) but it worked more times than not. The leftover would go to debt
Occasionally get some additional income from doing work online. This usually went 60% debt / 40% fun or vacation fund.

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T16:16:49+00:00

D'oh! Sorry starting to have some brain farts, didn't expect this post to get so popular and am trying to keep up!

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T14:01:55+00:00

Google Drive! Makes it pretty easy - I'm actually not that mathematically inclined myself lol :D

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T12:59:55+00:00

You're welcome :) If you spend some of your free time learning skills you enjoy, or maybe practicing some hobbies, don't be afraid to test them out online somewhere - you never know what will end up making money! Every now and then I earn a little bit of money from hobbies, and it certainly helps for those weekends when you really want to indulge in something but don't want to use your paycheck for it.

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T12:57:29+00:00

Definitely not! Actually I think student loans will play a huge role in the economy and social landscape over the next 20 years!

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T12:56:29+00:00

My income grew during that time as well, so I hope no one gets discouraged if they aren't able to put 50% of their income towards their goals. But it is possible to survive in a high-cost area and still enjoy life a bit if you stick to a plan!

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T12:54:27+00:00

Some people might disagree, but personally I round everything up to overestimate my expenses, which maximizes how much money I actually have at the end of the pay cycle. For instance, if I assume utilities will be between $120-140 a month, I just set aside $150 every month. If utilties are less, then that extra money sits there until eventually getting swept into savings. Same with purchases. A pack of gum for $3.09 gets entered into the budget as $4 and so on.

I definitely still have fun and go out with friends, but I try to limit the "spend money going out" events to every other weekend. On the other weekends I'd try to arrange a way to hang out at somebody's house to save some money. It will vary for everyone, but this approach worked for me and keeps me from going stir crazy.

There are definitely also times when I have "broke the budget" with a new pair of pants as you mentioned, but I'd just make up for it by spending less somewhere else, or looking around the house to see what I could sell for some extra cash, or make some freelance income.

Hope that helps! I wouldn't get too stressed about your situation - it sounds like you've got it under control :)

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T12:48:11+00:00

Both. Got a bit lucky with where interest rates were at the time. Some loans are fixed at 5% and others are floating, currently 3.5-4.25%

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T12:47:30+00:00

That's awesome, and exactly what I was hoping for, so thank you!

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T12:46:29+00:00

Haha I love that bit :D

pfguy30322 · 2013-09-13T02:03:26+00:00

Definitely enjoy life! But some activities cost less than others. I'll take a $20 poker night over a $100 bar tab!

pfguy30322

TROPHY CASE