ptatc Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 1 minute ago, southsider2k5 said: the difference is you don't have access to it. Way too many people raid their savings too easily if they have it. EDIT: I will come out and admit, I am a lazy saver. I have worked in an industry where I know I get back a big annual bonus, so I use that instead of putting away money like I should. I worry more about paying down stuff than I do about saving. They wouldn't have access to the 529, this was the big one for saving. We are the same way. My wife usually gets a substantial bonus as well. However, we incorporate the other ideas to force ourselves to save money, especially the 529 idea because that is something we really wanted to save for. We had the kids savings for college paid for when they were sophomores in high school. We started it when they were in kindergarten. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 1 minute ago, ptatc said: They wouldn't have access to the 529, this was the big one for saving. We are the same way. My wife usually gets a substantial bonus as well. However, we incorporate the other ideas to force ourselves to save money, especially the 529 idea because that is something we really wanted to save for. We had the kids savings for college paid for when they were sophomores in high school. We started it when they were in kindergarten. The one thing I did do was to establish a Christmas club account that we use as a slush fund. I send all of my side gigs money to that, and it has become our defacto vacation funds account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soxbadger Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 The only thing I do well is that I make sure I put more than my employer match in my 401k. Otherwise I make sure I have no debt, and then basically spend all my money to a certain limit. Im not hitting those "saving milestones" like 3x your income saved by 40, but I also want dont want a pile of money when im too old to do certain things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 5 minutes ago, Soxbadger said: The only thing I do well is that I make sure I put more than my employer match in my 401k. Otherwise I make sure I have no debt, and then basically spend all my money to a certain limit. Im not hitting those "saving milestones" like 3x your income saved by 40, but I also want dont want a pile of money when im too old to do certain things. Yeah, I got hit a bit early in retirement savings when I had multiple shops close up that I worked for in less than a few years (either through mergers or acquisitions) not allowing me to really get going on my retirement money. I have done a good job of catching up, and the first thing I do every year is when I get a raise, I knock up my 401K savings another percentage point before I start getting that money so I never miss it. I am up to 8% now, plus the extra 2% match I get from the company. I also had enough after my last job to move the 401k I had into an IRA, so that now I always have someone to move my retirement money into if I do lose a job in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pettie4sox Posted February 11, 2019 Author Share Posted February 11, 2019 44 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said: the difference is you don't have access to it. Way too many people raid their savings too easily if they have it. EDIT: I will come out and admit, I am a lazy saver. I have worked in an industry where I know I get back a big annual bonus, so I use that instead of putting away money like I should. I worry more about paying down stuff than I do about saving. Dude you are lazy saver but you pay your bills down... Sounds pretty savvy to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmags Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 47 minutes ago, ptatc said: They wouldn't have access to the 529, this was the big one for saving. We are the same way. My wife usually gets a substantial bonus as well. However, we incorporate the other ideas to force ourselves to save money, especially the 529 idea because that is something we really wanted to save for. We had the kids savings for college paid for when they were sophomores in high school. We started it when they were in kindergarten. It's nice to see this. I've been nervous I haven't started one yet but we've had a lot of reworking of savings and incomes with the house and kids and didn't quite feel we were in a place to start it yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 10 minutes ago, pettie4sox said: Dude you are lazy saver but you pay your bills down... Sounds pretty savvy to me. Outside of student loans and mortgage, I hope to be debt free in 3 years, maybe a bit less. It has gotten better as I have gotten older. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevo880 Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 Surprisingly, my wife and I (file jointly) received our largest return to date. We purchased our first home in May of 2017 so not sure if 2018 being our first full year in the house had anything to do with it. Also had a child in 2016...Again, not sure how much that plays into your tax return, but I was pleasantly surprised when we filed a couple weeks ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Sacamano Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 7 minutes ago, southsider2k5 said: Outside of student loans and mortgage, I hope to be debt free in 3 years, maybe a bit less. It has gotten better as I have gotten older. I paid off all of my school loans (about) $20k in a year after I graduated. I think I would have paid about $4k more in interest if I hadn't. I've been done with those for a little over 2 years now. I had basically nothing saved at that point but continued and still live at home to this day. Now I have enough saved to drop 20% on a house in the next couple months. But you're smart to pay off everything ASAP. I have the same mentality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptatc Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 1 hour ago, Soxbadger said: The only thing I do well is that I make sure I put more than my employer match in my 401k. Otherwise I make sure I have no debt, and then basically spend all my money to a certain limit. Im not hitting those "saving milestones" like 3x your income saved by 40, but I also want dont want a pile of money when im too old to do certain things. Adding to the 401k seems to be the best, especially with the free money for matching. People are nuts not to take advantage of that free money. as for debt free, I wish I could claim that. Between the house and kids going to college, it isn't going to happen soon. however, I would say we mange the debt well. nothing too crazy or in any one spot. my credit score is 846 so I'm not doing too bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soxbadger Posted February 11, 2019 Share Posted February 11, 2019 23 minutes ago, ptatc said: Adding to the 401k seems to be the best, especially with the free money for matching. People are nuts not to take advantage of that free money. as for debt free, I wish I could claim that. Between the house and kids going to college, it isn't going to happen soon. however, I would say we mange the debt well. nothing too crazy or in any one spot. my credit score is 846 so I'm not doing too bad. Im not counting mortgage because that is a different type of debt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
illinilaw08 Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 2 hours ago, southsider2k5 said: Outside of student loans and mortgage, I hope to be debt free in 3 years, maybe a bit less. It has gotten better as I have gotten older. My big goal is student loan debt free in the next 2-years. With both the wife and I having large law school debt, getting rid of that makes non-401k saving way, way easier. On taxes, we both take 0 allowances on withholding, but this year is a decent sized tax bill (usually we get a really small refund). The loss of deductions hurt, and the Tax Code doesn't have much sympathy for double income, no kids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostfan Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 (edited) 10 hours ago, southsider2k5 said: That sure wasn't the way it was sold to the American People. Not that I am surprised the most successful con-man in the history of American politics lied to people, but you get the point. Paul Ryan had this story about a waitress (who knows if she was a real person or not) who'd get a tax cut of $50 for a year and how much it would help her finances. He got ratio'd pretty hard on twitter for that. Edited February 12, 2019 by lostfan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostfan Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 5 hours ago, ptatc said: Adding to the 401k seems to be the best, especially with the free money for matching. People are nuts not to take advantage of that free money. as for debt free, I wish I could claim that. Between the house and kids going to college, it isn't going to happen soon. however, I would say we mange the debt well. nothing too crazy or in any one spot. my credit score is 846 so I'm not doing too bad. It's literally free money. You just... like... pay yourself to get it. I'm only doing the 5% right now (my job also has a pension) but if my return doesn't look good this year I'm probably going to bump that up to get my taxable income down. I have no idea what it'll look like - I got a new job halfway through the year that pays a lot more, my wife's income jumped way up, I sold some stocks with capital gains to pay, and I closed on a house right at the end of the year. This could mean a lot of things. I always have to wait for my 1099 until the middle of February, which is annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigHurt3515 Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 On 2/10/2019 at 10:36 PM, BigHurt3515 said: People freaking out about their refund being lower don't seem to understand they paid less in taxes during the year. We paid 3% less as a couple in taxes for 2018 and our return is only a few hundred dollars less and I claimed 1 when previously claiming 0. Misspoke earlier, we are actually receiving $350 more in our refund this year. We also jumped up our salaries nearly $30,000 this past year so we jumped up a tax bracket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2HH Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 Did my return yesterday, was fully expecting to owe money, but ended up with a decent federal refund. The State of IL, however, I wound up owing 330$ to the damn state, despite claiming single/0 when I'm fucking married with 2 kids on a single income. And people wonder why I think the democrats in control of IL can go fuck themselves. No, I don't care that this is a politics free zone, this has to do with taxes, so it should be allowed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pettie4sox Posted February 12, 2019 Author Share Posted February 12, 2019 11 minutes ago, Y2HH said: Did my return yesterday, was fully expecting to owe money, but ended up with a decent federal refund. The State of IL, however, I wound up owing 330$ to the damn state, despite claiming single/0 when I'm fucking married with 2 kids on a single income. And people wonder why I think the democrats in control of IL can go fuck themselves. No, I don't care that this is a politics free zone, this has to do with taxes, so it should be allowed. Blame your employer for being incompetent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2HH Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 1 minute ago, pettie4sox said: Blame your employer for being incompetent Or I can just put the blame where it belongs, which is on an insane flat tax in an already heavily taxed state. My employer did the deductions just fine. It's not a big deal, I have the money, it's just annoying to owe more when I already paid upwards of 5k + my property taxes and then I get to drive over potholes. ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raBBit Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 (edited) Lots of student loan talk here. I am curious to what kind of rates you guys renegotiated to if you did renegotiate. I had some grad loans at 6%-7% and I refi-ed them down to 4.3%. That 4.3% is essentially what I am looking at for my WACC. My credit score is over 750 and the only knocks are that I haven't paid enough of my debt off and I have a lot of credit pulls (student loan refi's, cc's, bought a car, refi of car loan, etc.). When I did renegotiated my student loans initially, my credit score was lower and I was looking at about 60k left where I am now closer to 35k. I guess the question being, and I know it's specific to individuals, have any of you found it worthwhile to refinance your loans in a situation like mine? I am just not sure there are any refi options available under 4%. Also not sure sure if saving say .7% is worst the hassle and credit pull. Edited February 12, 2019 by raBBit EDIT: WACC = weighted average cost of capital Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pettie4sox Posted February 12, 2019 Author Share Posted February 12, 2019 4 minutes ago, Y2HH said: Or I can just put the blame where it belongs, which is on an insane flat tax in an already heavily taxed state. My employer did the deductions just fine. It's not a big deal, I have the money, it's just annoying to owe more when I already paid upwards of 5k + my property taxes and then I get to drive over potholes. ?? So if they did right and you claimed 0, how do you owe money? Maybe your accountant messed it up? I'm not trying to argue but it sounds like you got hosed. (My dad is a CPA) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raBBit Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 1 minute ago, pettie4sox said: So if they did right and you claimed 0, how do you owe money? Maybe your accountant messed it up? I'm not trying to argue but it sounds like you got hosed. (My dad is a CPA) I claim zero and typically owe Illinois $0-$150 dollars. And he did get hosed that's part of living in Illinois. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pettie4sox Posted February 12, 2019 Author Share Posted February 12, 2019 3 minutes ago, raBBit said: Lots of student loan talk here. I am curious to what kind of rates you guys renegotiated to if you did renegotiate. I had some grad loans at 6%-7% and I refi-ed them down to 4.3%. That 4.3% is essentially what I am looking at for my WACC. My credit score is over 750 and the only knocks are that I haven't paid enough of my debt off and I have a lot of credit pulls (student loan refi's, cc's, bought a car, refi of car loan, etc.). When I did renegotiated my student loans initially, my credit score was lower and I was looking at about 60k left where I am now closer to 35k. I guess the question being, and I know it's specific to individuals, have any of you found it worthwhile to refinance your loans in a situation like mine? I am just not sure there are any refi options available under 4%. Also not sure sure if saving say .7% is worst the hassle and credit pull. How long has passed since you initially refi'ed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2HH Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 1 minute ago, pettie4sox said: So if they did right and you claimed 0, how do you owe money? Maybe your accountant messed it up? I'm not trying to argue but it sounds like you got hosed. (My dad is a CPA) I sold some stock I own at like a 18k long term gain. That's how I owe. I didn't get hosed. I just hate giving them even more of my money and then having to drive over potholes that haven't been fixed for WEEKS. I already pay 7 fucking cents for god damn grocery bags. FIX THE FUCKING POTHOLES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pettie4sox Posted February 12, 2019 Author Share Posted February 12, 2019 1 minute ago, raBBit said: I claim zero and typically owe Illinois $0-$150 dollars. And he did get hosed that's part of living in Illinois. Sounds like you have a bad accountant too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2HH Posted February 12, 2019 Share Posted February 12, 2019 4 minutes ago, raBBit said: Lots of student loan talk here. I am curious to what kind of rates you guys renegotiated to if you did renegotiate. I had some grad loans at 6%-7% and I refi-ed them down to 4.3%. That 4.3% is essentially what I am looking at for my WACC. My credit score is over 750 and the only knocks are that I haven't paid enough of my debt off and I have a lot of credit pulls (student loan refi's, cc's, bought a car, refi of car loan, etc.). When I did renegotiated my student loans initially, my credit score was lower and I was looking at about 60k left where I am now closer to 35k. I guess the question being, and I know it's specific to individuals, have any of you found it worthwhile to refinance your loans in a situation like mine? I am just not sure there are any refi options available under 4%. Also not sure sure if saving say .7% is worst the hassle and credit pull. Any credit score over 750 is excellent -- doesn't matter if it's 750 or 850, it's the same exact "rank". Also, those student loan interest rates seem astoundingly high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts