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Dh gets paid every other week, but we budget monthly - the extra two paychecks a year go into savings. I own my own online business so I get paid when the business does well & don't when it doesn't.
For much of last year we lived paycheck to paycheck, but then we got serious about our finances. We took Financial Peace University & it made a huge difference. We're now debt free except our mortgage & don't use credit for anything. Well...now we suddenly have a tidy little surplus each month that we can sock away into savings.
I wish I'd done this years ago!
Quote:
Originally Posted by TNGal78
Trying to post a poll.
Also....how often do you get paid ?
This is not a public poll, so nobody will know your answer on the poll.
I'm paid bi-monthly and it seems like there is rarely much left in checking by the time payday rolls around.
I'm maybe just a tick above broke and it's pretty craptastic. Couple measily grand in savings, not significantly more than that in my IRA, and a late-model car I owe too much on and there you have my net worth
Single guy though...single income, and it's not that impressive for my age, to be polite about it. Did write a check for over $11,000 to pay off my student loans though about 6 months ago. (I owed about $17,000 when I graduated at 23.) It took me almost a year to save that much money, and it hurt to part with that much, but was kind of a rush at the same time and I knew it was for a good cause. Otherwise no debt besides my car loan.
I live in a house right now that's more than I need, both practically and in terms of $$$, and have a car that's too much $$$. Luckily none of these are long term problems and are well within my power to change within a year or so's time. (I also fancy trips to NYC and Vegas but im not too sorry about this.)
My Mom has Alzheimers and is in a Nursing home. She is 89. When shes gone, I want to move to NE Georgia and I remember how much I enjoyed Helen. I live on my social security which is over $820 a month. I'm worried that I can't find an apartment that I can afford, or a part time job. I hope I can find both cause I would love to live there, or in a nearby town.
Cecile from Miss.
I always found that automatic savings to be a really great way to save regularly too, you can you decide how to schedule it to save around your paydays and forget about it for a minimum amount. I tend to see what I have and budget entertainment off what's in there, if it's not there I don't usually think about it. ING works for me, but there is a ton of them around to do it and usually get a better interest rate then Citi or Wellsfargo to boot.
I always have money left over, but I'm finding it very difficult to save. It's expensive to live here on $40K and I have too much debt. Even at low interest rates I'm getting killed, $750 a year in interest charges on revolving loans. That could be health insurance for my hubby.
We have long-term savings for major home repairs (new roof, etc.) mostly in laddered CD's, plus short-term savings for vacations and minor repairs (the $300 to fix the three year old fridge, grrr....) in a regular savings account and short term CD's, and we max out our 401K and IRA's each year. We "pay ourselves" along with all the bills each month, we think of saving deposits as just another bill that needs to be paid.
No debt except the house and a car loan that's almost paid off.
The poll doesn't really account for true living expenses I don't think.....many in our society believe that if they can afford the monthly payments they can afford an item.....for us.....we can't afford an item until we have saved up the CASH to pay for it! That includes anything but mortgage for us.....cars, appliances, etc....
It also means that each month we make sure we have a savings account, pay into the car (future) fund, college fund, and general savings.
Living in Los Angeles taking home 1600/mo doesn't really cut it.
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