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Old 10-28-2012, 10:09 AM
 
33,016 posts, read 27,392,179 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oneasterisk View Post
It's also not realistic to think a "general rule" should apply to the outliers.

When I apply that "formula" to my situation, it's pretty close to what I have in liquid/illiquid assets - the mortgage debt. Every month that mortgage debt gets smaller and the assets get larger.

With rent, it's the opposite - the expense gets larger and the assets get smaller.

I love all the financial formulas and ratios in common use, I confound all of them.
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Old 10-28-2012, 10:17 AM
 
837 posts, read 1,796,248 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by freemkt View Post
Where did you find that? I went to Google Images and got 10 pages of software screenshots before seeing any actual putty.
I got changed, dismantled my shower, went to home depot, bought a putty knife, came home, forgot the putty, went back, came home, hired a hooker to take the photo and then ate a bowl of Cheerios and a scotch. Or I think I googled "putty guy"
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Old 10-28-2012, 10:36 AM
 
3,398 posts, read 5,095,217 times
Reputation: 2422
Why would anyone give out this information. Nothing is ever that anonymous.
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Old 10-30-2012, 03:36 AM
 
106,244 posts, read 108,257,613 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by freemkt View Post
With rent, it's the opposite - the expense gets larger and the assets get smaller.

I love all the financial formulas and ratios in common use, I confound all of them.

i doubt you own a home if you think expenses shrink . your mortgage interest may but everything else does not.

lately many areas have seen assets drop with every mortgage payment as prices are still falling or fell so much the renter wins again.

in fact the real estate tax increases in long island have taxes exceeding many mortgage payments. loads of long islanders will have to move because even with a paid mortgage they cant affored the taxes and expenses of ownership in retirement.

rents have not kept pace at all.

just wait until all the storm damage deductables kick in from sandy last night. you got a few years rent right there going out as a homeowner..

heck i could have invested the excess i saved by renting and blew buying away the past 12 years, in fact i did..

that doesnt mean everyone had the same results, some may have done fine as homeowners but the point is never generalize as you will be wrong.

i find folks who they themselves didnt do something and are financially unsuccessful tend to try to say they failed because of one reason or another that they didnt or couldnt do whatever it was but the truth is owning a house or not has no bearing on being successful.

in fact many who tried to buy homes lost them because they were still unsuccessful financially at paying for them.

folks who own homes successfully own them because they are successful not because owning a home makes them successful.

Last edited by mathjak107; 10-30-2012 at 03:50 AM..
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Old 10-30-2012, 04:17 AM
 
33,016 posts, read 27,392,179 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mathjak107 View Post
i doubt you own a home if you think expenses shrink . your mortgage interest may but everything else does not.

lately many areas have seen assets drop with every mortgage payment as prices are still falling or fell so much the renter wins again.

in fact the real estate tax increases in long island have taxes exceeding many mortgage payments. loads of long islanders will have to move because even with a paid mortgage they cant affored the taxes and expenses of ownership in retirement.

rents have not kept pace at all.

just wait until all the storm damage deductables kick in from sandy last night. you got a few years rent right there going out as a homeowner..

heck i could have invested the excess i saved by renting and blew buying away the past 12 years, in fact i did..

that doesnt mean everyone had the same results, some may have done fine as homeowners but the point is never generalize as you will be wrong.

i find folks who they themselves didnt do something and are financially unsuccessful tend to try to say they failed because of one reason or another that they didnt or couldnt do whatever it was but the truth is owning a house or not has no bearing on being successful.

in fact many who tried to buy homes lost them because they were still unsuccessful financially at paying for them.

folks who own homes successfully own them because they are successful not because owning a home makes them successful.

Your Mileage May Vary. What I meant is that for most homeowners in most markets at most times, the (fixed rate) mortgage paytment declines (shrinks) over time as a proportion of income. Most homeowners paying a mortgage are in rising parts of their earnings curve. (People in the declining stage of their earnings curve tend to have already paid off their mortgages.)

Results also vary by location; rents in Portland have gone up about 10 percent over last year.

The people most able and likely to pay off their homes generally already own homes; the newcomers who bought homes during the bubble run-up were considerably less solid financially - as we now can see clearly. So when the economy popped, the newbies were the first to fail.
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Old 10-30-2012, 09:02 AM
 
Location: Las Flores, Orange County, CA
26,338 posts, read 93,601,376 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by freemkt View Post
Ten percent of $12K, is that realistic?
That's only $25 a week. But make it 8% and it's $20 a week.
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Old 10-30-2012, 12:09 PM
 
Location: Texas
1,922 posts, read 2,772,667 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by paiste13 View Post
I don't understand how people with less than us do it and still save.
Easy, they don't. The average American family is a mere month or two of no income away from complete financial disaster. Don't look at others around you too much, focus on your family and your future, and you'll do better.
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Old 10-30-2012, 01:24 PM
 
33,016 posts, read 27,392,179 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles View Post
That's only $25 a week. But make it 8% and it's $20 a week.

I'd be able to do a lot better than that if I didn't have a student loan payment to make.
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Old 10-30-2012, 04:00 PM
 
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan
30,707 posts, read 79,590,461 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Themanwithnoname View Post
For the umpteenth time:


Good rule of thumb from my understanding is if you save 15% of every $ you ever make... You'll be ok.
I'd recommending bettering that.


Eta:
I'd like a REALISTIC budget, including medical, unplanned expenses, recreation etc... Of someone making $1k/month.

THis cracks me up. Government takes around 40%, charity/church - 10%, you need to save 15% (does that include retirement and emergency funds, college funds for kids?). That leaves you 35% of your income. Given that most people go burned in the crash and expenses are climibing wildly while income is stagnant or falling, and most people should just declare bankruptcy from day one.
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Old 10-30-2012, 04:42 PM
 
Location: Boise, ID
8,046 posts, read 28,420,707 times
Reputation: 9470
Quote:
Originally Posted by Coldjensens View Post
THis cracks me up. Government takes around 40%, charity/church - 10%, you need to save 15% (does that include retirement and emergency funds, college funds for kids?). That leaves you 35% of your income. Given that most people go burned in the crash and expenses are climibing wildly while income is stagnant or falling, and most people should just declare bankruptcy from day one.
The government doesn't take 40% from my check, not sure why they do from you. I work a normal job, with no real writeoffs, and no children to deduct, and I claim 0, with normal withholdings, and my last few paychecks, my net has averaged about 78% of my gross. So around 22% taken from my check. My husband does the same, we always just take the standard deduction, and we get a small refund check each year. SS is withholding 2% less than usual this year, so figure a usual total withholding of 24%. So if you are having 40% held out in taxes, apparantly you are in the highest tax bracket, and your local/city/county taxes are also very high. Personally, I'd move. Plus, if you are in the highest tax bracket, you are making enough that you should have plenty of extra to save. For most of us grunts, even those without writeoffs or deductions, the g'ment takes less than 25%, which is still a lot, but not nearly 40%.

I'm guessing you are counting either a health insurance deduction, or a 401k deduction, or both. If so, you could easily reach 40% taken out of your gross. But neither of those are the government.

Anyway, that means your numbers are off, if the government takes 25%, and you give 10% to charity, and save 15%, that leaves you 50% of your income for other expenses. Totally doable if you keep your expenses in line with your income instead of overbuying. The problem is that most people don't do that.
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