New job Budget/Debt

[redguard57]

I really don't see a problem with his budget. He's quadrupling his car payment - will have it paid off by mid-late 2017 at this point. He might as well hold on to his current car. Sounds like it's pretty new and should last him a long time.

He's got health insurance at 65/mo through one job, so that's fine.

My recommendations are:
- Plan not to buy another car until 2023 at least.
- I would shop around for car insurance. I get that it's a new car and you're 25, but my wife's and mine combined is $105 a month (we're only 33/30, not that much older), and we have a LOW deductible and a HUGE amount of coverage (I believe in fully covering myself in case of accident), although our newest car is 2010. Still, I feel like you should be getting car ins. for at least 60% less.
- Phone seems at least $30 and probably more like $70 too high. Do you need whatever data, etc... you're paying for? Phone should be around $110-20 at most.
- Try as much as possible to keep that $1500 overpayment going when you pay off the car and start paying the student loans. By the time you're hitting 30, you'll probably be getting married / want to buy a house and you will want that student loan monkey off your back. You can have the car and the loans paid off by the time you're 29 at that rate, which I think is an excellent plan.
- Since your parents are cool with it, they would probably let you move back in if necessary, so you don't need a huge emergency fund (maybe $5K) I would consider at least half of this E-fund payment to be pre-payment on your future rent.

- Most importantly, you want to be looking for full-time stable work. These PT gigs may be okay now, but if they're like any PT work I'm familiar with, they can pull the rug from under you at any moment.

Plan for contingencies because you never know when you may get sick of living with your parents.

**Edit... did not see that he's paying for his parents phones. I would actually count whatever their plans cost under "rent."

[Keef14]

Originally Posted by aliwalas

You are 55k in debt. You should not be spending $500 on misc/food and fun stuff. Try $200, to be realistic, or $300...max.

Also, I would lower the emergency fund to $100 a month. You're living at home, what expense could possibly be considered an emergency at this point? Plus, it grows every month and since you've already had this budget, you probably already have some stashed up. You should be fine in this dept.

If you do this alone, you have $600 on hand, $7,200 a year.

Also, why are you paying $180 a month on phone?! Try $100, max. If you do that, in one year, that's already $1,200.

It's good that you are paying more a month on your car, but you really have to evaluate your spending more. In my opinion, it's better to save up for travelling, even $1,000 on a trip once or twice a year, than spend $500/month on miscellaneous going out.

I also don't suggest you sell your car. You already bought it and IMO, you'll lose out even more by selling your car. If you bought the car brand new, the moment it left the driveway, you already lost money on it so there is no way you'll win on this. Keep the car. If you buy an older can, you'll have more unknown costs due to repair and at least with your car, you can keep it longer so in the end, it pays out. Normally I'd suggest you buy a cheap car to begin with, but since you already have this car, I think it's better you keep it.

I know, you're at your prime of going out and spending, but I don't know how you can spend so much, knowing you owe so much.

Take advantage on living at your parents to save a lot of money. The moment you move out, then I can justify you spending $300 on food...in fact, you'll most likely spend $500, easy.

Yeah I usually give my parents some money for groceries every two weeks. Usually around $50-$75. That's included in the food misc but I guess it could really be considered rent. Same thing with phone, I pay my parents bill. So...

Rent: 400/month
Phone:90/month
Misc/food/fun:350/month

The reason I am saving so much is that I realize they are only part-time jobs so I can be laid off at anytime, so I want to have a lot of money saved just in case.

[Keef14]

Originally Posted by redguard57

I really don't see a problem with his budget. He's quadrupling his car payment - will have it paid off by mid-late 2017 at this point. He might as well hold on to his current car. Sounds like it's pretty new and should last him a long time.

He's got health insurance at 65/mo through one job, so that's fine.

My recommendations are:
- Plan not to buy another car until 2023 at least.
- I would shop around for car insurance. I get that it's a new car and you're 25, but my wife's and mine combined is $105 a month (we're only 33/30, not that much older), and we have a LOW deductible and a HUGE amount of coverage (I believe in fully covering myself in case of accident), although our newest car is 2010. Still, I feel like you should be getting car ins. for at least 60% less.
- Phone seems at least $30 and probably more like $70 too high. Do you need whatever data, etc... you're paying for? Phone should be around $110-20 at most.
- Try as much as possible to keep that $1500 overpayment going when you pay off the car and start paying the student loans. By the time you're hitting 30, you'll probably be getting married / want to buy a house and you will want that student loan monkey off your back. You can have the car and the loans paid off by the time you're 29 at that rate, which I think is an excellent plan.
- Since your parents are cool with it, they would probably let you move back in if necessary, so you don't need a huge emergency fund (maybe $5K) I would consider at least half of this E-fund payment to be pre-payment on your future rent.

- Most importantly, you want to be looking for full-time stable work. These PT gigs may be okay now, but if they're like any PT work I'm familiar with, they can pull the rug from under you at any moment.

Plan for contingencies because you never know when you may get sick of living with your parents.

**Edit... did not see that he's paying for his parents phones. I would actually count whatever their plans cost under "rent."

Yeah it's a 2014 14,000 miles on it, plan on keeping it at least another 7-10 years. Insurance will go down when I renew my policy in 3 months, I just turned 25 in January. My parents would always have me back, but I don't want to ever have to move back when I move out, house is just too small for my liking.

I'm saving so much money because I know I can be laid off at anytime from these pt jobs. I want to make a career out of my 2nd pt job, but just got my foot in the door so I'll have to work for it.