What's your monthly disposable income?

[shilo0854]

Originally Posted by mike.main

Hey all,

I have a quick question? How much do you guys have left after you pay all your monthly dues. I'm talking about everything including grocery, food, mortgage, utilities ... etc.

Please include whether you live in a single income or dual income household.

I'm just curious to see what you guys think is a good monthly buffer to have for savings and/or emergency.

Mike

$60 dollars. I've been waiting 2 1/2 yr for disability approval. The income I have is my teen daughters $1000 a month. The $60 what is left for gas, food
and I need $100 a month just for meds. (I only take 3 without halfing which I know do) pretty soon I will not have money for the meds and can't go to the specialists. Worked fulltime for 30 years and in the last 2 1/2 yrs I think I've aged another 10 mentally trying to pay bills. I hate not being able to pay. I today just asked for $2000 from my retirement acct to help which I will pay penality and tax on almost 1/2 in April. I also got a credit card since my credit is excellant. I haven't had a credit card in 2 + years.

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by sierraAZ

Not true. Never carried a balance, ever, and yet have snow-white scores, even at the time when I didn't have a mortgage or installment loans.

Like I said, that was the case in the mid to late 90s, so the evaluation might have changed but in theory it makes sense, if you pay your balance off each month you have no balance appearing on your credit report, right? So you have a zero balance and believe it or not, having no balance is actually one of the derogatory factors when the computer is analyzing your score but of course it is a very minimal dingy compared to being late on a payment or even having a 4 year old 30-day late which is the smallest, weakest derogatory incident on a report generally. I am not here to debate on this topic but if you are saying 'Not true' just based on your own credit histroy, that would be a very unfair statement on your part as I have reviewed and evaluated hundreds if not thousands of credit reports and knew quite a bit about the 95 FCRA law.

Originally Posted by frogandtoad

Totally not true!! I have paid every credit card bill I've ever had in full each month and my credit is stellar. What is transparent to the credit bureaus? That you know how to spend within your means??

Again, you guys might have great credit history hence your stellar score, etc but that doesn't mean it was because you paid your credit bills off each month. That would be a good thing and add points nevertheless but IF you were in a rush to boost your FICO score what I said is true and a fact, argue all you want but credit is build upon paying finance which to credit bureaus means the accounts are currently active. A credit card with a $5000 limit yet no balance for a certain amount of time (no balance, indicating no activity) will be a concern, hence the little ding in the score. Why, because to this credit score computer if there is no apparent activity on the account, that is not a good thing but that generally holds true if the account is not aged, meaning you had the account less than a certain time (usually at least 12 months to as much as 36 months).
Again all this info was accurate in the late 90s but I feel most still holds true, perhaps I wasn't clear in my previous post.
I have helped quite a few people 'better' their credit over the years so I assure you I do know quite a bit about credit (but not saying you don't either). I prefer evaluating a specific individual's credit standing and commenting on their problems anyhow.

~TL

[joninaz]

Originally Posted by frogandtoad

Totally not true!! I have paid every credit card bill I've ever had in full each month and my credit is stellar. What is transparent to the credit bureaus? That you know how to spend within your means??

You are both right. There's a formula. You get a better rating if you are an active user of the credit extended to you... even if it's a nominal amount. If you get a credit card and never use it, that's a negative compared with having a card and spending $50 a month, then paying it back. You can actually get dinged for having great credit and a clean record, but not using it. Why? Because they make their bonus money off people who carry balances forward.

In any case, we're divulging from the OP's post. I'd say having $500 a month in fluid money after regular bills is a decent place to be. You'll spend most of it, unless super frugal, but if you're in that zone you'll also be less likely to blow it all on a $300 bar tab in one night.

[sablebaby]

Originally Posted by joninaz

In any case, we're divulging from the OP's post. I'd say having $500 a month in fluid money after regular bills is a decent place to be. You'll spend most of it, unless super frugal, but if you're in that zone you'll also be less likely to blow it all on a $300 bar tab in one night.

I agree on all counts. Having $500 extra each month would be really great! Now, let's all get back on track with this thread.