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Its not a question of what she'll need, its a question of what she'll want. At some point she may wonder why she is driving a piece of junk, while her husband is driving a new $30k car...
You're wife will be getting a new car soon....you can count on it.
Of course you are...even without all the other debt your mortgage itself is too leveraged. 10% down is insufficient and only exists today because of subsidies.
Actually they can, anybody with a standard mortgage can say it. Not to mention the millions without mortgages.....
Its been funny watching you distort your numbers into a more positive light when posting to me, but lying to me won't change anything. The fact that you're doing it is rather telling though...
As I said, good luck, if you continue along this path you'll need a lot of it.
my wife has no desire for a new car. hers is just under 6 years old with 83,000 miles and still looks like it is brand new. mine is 1 year old with 19,000 miles and i'll keep it the same way we kept our first car. she's not into getting a new car just because. she loves her car. she had the option of our 2nd car purchase being her car, and me taking the older car. since we both love the older car, it didn't really matter to either of us. she decided to keep driving that one, and let me buy the new car because i wanted a manual transmission for various reasons.
as i said above, i have 20% equity in my house. i posted those numbers in august and then i refinanced in october, getting lower interest rate, lower monthly payment (though still pay the same), and put more money out at closing to increase my total downpayment.
sorry that you're relying on a post that's more than 8 months old to give me budget advice.
as i said....i have plenty of cash built up. when i bought the house, things were slightly different and i chose to do 10% rather than 20%. much has changed since that purchase 13+ months ago.
so....in summary....
1. we won't be getting another car payment as we both do not want to have a car payment.
2. 20% equity on my home is not highly leveraged or a small down payment.
3. my student loan debt, aside from the 3.5% interest rate, is low cost, with the 3% interest loans being more debateable to me.
4. i'll take 0% money for any amount of time someone wants to give it to me, as long as all it requires is filling out the application and no other fees.
I'm not going to bother to catalog all the inconsistencies in your posts, but its amusing that you're even spending this much time trying to convince me of something I can't confirm or deny in the first place.
So back to the consumer debt, as I've said, doing this when you have the cash is taking a miniscule gain while exposing yourself to a high, but unlikely downside. Once you adjust for the associated risks there is no gain. You asked what risks, but I covered many of them, here are some of the things I mentioned:
1.) Your credit score gets a significant hit (this of course depends on the details).
2.) Your financial information is used nefariously.
3.) You are seduced into spending more.
I'm not going to bother to catalog all the inconsistencies in your posts, but its amusing that you're even spending this much time trying to convince me of something I can't confirm or deny in the first place.
So back to the consumer debt, as I've said, doing this when you have the cash is taking a miniscule gain while exposing yourself to a high, but unlikely downside. Once you adjust for the associated risks there is no gain. You asked what risks, but I covered many of them, here are some of the things I mentioned:
1.) Your credit score gets a significant hit (this of course depends on the details).
2.) Your financial information is used nefariously.
3.) You are seduced into spending more.
It also wastes time.
1. my credit score has never taken a "significant" hit from using my best buy credit card (which i already have) to pay for a 0% promo on a tv. my credit score has dropped no more than 10 points whenever i have applied for any new credit over there years. so to me, this is a moot point.
2. my financial information is at risk every time i use anything other than cash to pay for a transaction. the most common forms of identify theft are from physically handing your card to someone, or giving your card number over the phone to a representative. despite these truths, I've never once had an issue with my financial data. so while there is a risk, it's so minute that it really doesn't even cross my mind. i also have a free credit profile monitoring service, so if anything showed up on my credit history, i'd be aware.
3. i've already explained this and we'll just have to agree to disagree since you just don't believe me that this has never affected my following of my personal budget.
i'm not sure what you're referring to as inconsistencies in my posts. comparing my financial situation from 6-13 months ago to today is not an inconsistency, it's just simply outdated information. i put 10% down in march, 2010. i have 20% equity in april 2011. that's not all that outlandish.
1. my credit score has never taken a "significant" hit from using my best buy credit card (which i already have) to pay for a 0% promo on a tv. my credit score has dropped no more than 10 points whenever i have applied for any new credit over there years. so to me, this is a moot point.
2. my financial information is at risk every time i use anything other than cash to pay for a transaction. the most common forms of identify theft are from physically handing your card to someone, or giving your card number over the phone to a representative. despite these truths, I've never once had an issue with my financial data. so while there is a risk, it's so minute that it really doesn't even cross my mind. i also have a free credit profile monitoring service, so if anything showed up on my credit history, i'd be aware.
3. i've already explained this and we'll just have to agree to disagree since you just don't believe me that this has never affected my following of my personal budget.
1.) Speaking about the issue generally, taking out this sort of credit can potentially result in damage to your credit report/score that can effect you down the road. As I said, it depends on the details.
2.) You're obviously avoiding the real issue, I'm not talking about someone stealing your credit card number which is relatively easy to deal with. I'm talking about someone getting your important financial information, namely your name, address, income, SSN, etc. This can create major damage that can be a total pain to fix...and it happens to thousands of people everyday.
3.) Saying that it hasn't effect your spending isn't evidence, you are merely assuming you are an exception because you think you're an extra-special financial person. But again, I'm speaking about the issue in general, this is in general a big risk for the majority of people.
Anyhow, you always have a long line of excuses about how what is true in general doesn't apply to you. That's fine, you can believe you are the exception, but hearing self-defensive delusion again and again isn't very interesting.
So, I claim, in general that people are better off not utilizing the sorts of loans discussed in the OP. That is my point here.
1.) Speaking about the issue generally, taking out this sort of credit can potentially result in damage to your credit report/score that can effect you down the road. As I said, it depends on the details.
2.) You're obviously avoiding the real issue, I'm not talking about someone stealing your credit card number which is relatively easy to deal with. I'm talking about someone getting your important financial information, namely your name, address, income, SSN, etc. This can create major damage that can be a total pain to fix...and it happens to thousands of people everyday.
3.) Saying that it hasn't effect your spending isn't evidence, you are merely assuming you are an exception because you think you're an extra-special financial person. But again, I'm speaking about the issue in general, this is in general a big risk for the majority of people.
Anyhow, you always have a long line of excuses about how what is true in general doesn't apply to you. That's fine, you can believe you are the exception, but hearing self-defensive delusion again and again isn't very interesting.
So, I claim, in general that people are better off not utilizing the sorts of loans discussed in the OP. That is my point here.
if you're speaking about the larger majority of people who are effected by using credit then i agree. i've said numerous times, it's not for everyone.
just like paying by credit is not for everyone because studies show that it affects how much people spend versus using cash (yet you defended this in another thread, rightfully so, because you yourself have been able to stick to your planned spending no matter what method you use).
i follow a budget. it's set. i don't exceed those numbers unless there is an emergency, in which i use my emergency fund, adjust my budget, and replenish my emergency fund. then, go back to normal budget.
it's not a long line of excuses. i follow a budget to prevent me from spending on stuff i didn't plan for. taking advantage of a 0% offer if presented to me doesn't diverge me from that budget or my planning, it just keeps the money in my savings longer than otherwise would have.
as for someone getting my name, address, SSN...yeah...it could happen. someone that works at the local utility company could steal it. someone who works at my cell phone provider can too. can someone at best buy? sure...if they have access to the information. but i actually work in a company in a role that reviews internal controls, to prevent just such type of security breaches. is everything perfect? not at all. but my number can be stolen from a variety of places if not properly protected. it's not that concerning to me. look at the statistics on how identity theft occurs. it rarely happens from credit card applications (which are mostly electronic these days anyways, humans don't even get involved). so no...this item, though it's a risk, really doesn't concern me.
the only way taking out this sort of credit can damage your credit down the road is if you don't pay. i control that, so that's not really an issue to me.
Great, so you agree, that in general its not a good idea, but you do it because you believe you are an exception. And yes, no excuses and thanks for repeating them, the first 10 times weren't enough. Good luck.
Great, so you agree, that in general its not a good idea, but you do it because you believe you are an exception. And yes, no excuses and thanks for repeating them, the first 10 times weren't enough. Good luck.
yes, for most people (because they can't follow a budget, or be disciplined enough to not buy things they cannot afford) using credit cards instead of cash, and using debt, even if cheap or free, to finance purchases...it's not a good idea. because most people will do what you said (spend more using credit, spend more using financing). i was never talking about most people. and you directly attack me and my methods.
i don't believe i'm an exception. i know i am, because i HAVE A BUDGET. most people do not follow a budget.
and no, they are not excuses. you call them that. telling you i follow a budget is not an excuse. it's showing you the reasons why i am an exception from "most people". i've done quite well for myself. no luck necessary, but thanks.
because most people are too dumb to use it properly. but its generally a good idea for people who use it wisely.
i wouldn't even say it's "dumb". i know smart people who just do not have financially-savvy minds. it's got to be a different way of thinking. my wife is inredibly smart, when it comes to finance. but if i didn't put together our budget for us...she could easily be a person who spends more than she makes. she's gotten better though because of the budget. but still...i can rattle off the date due and amount of any recurring expense i have. she needs to write it all down, or check.
she'll say "i still have $1,000" in checking....when she knows she is responsible for a student loan payment due in 4 days, and a credit card payment due in 6 days...before her next paycheck. where i would say that i have the amount in checking less those two payments.
i don't believe i'm an exception. i know i am, because i HAVE A BUDGET. most people do not follow a budget.
I have no idea why you keep yapping about a budget as if it says anything about how debt influences your financial decisions. You already have debt and you know you can accumulate more if you want to, hence debt and its availability are tacitly built into your budget.
Now, I can predict the response, "no it isn't...because I have a budget". But you are just begging the question, namely, how does your existing debt and the possibility of accumulating new debt effect your budgetary choices?
Furthermore, you want to believe that the seduction of debt only applies to people that can't form a budget or spending what you can't afford. This is hogwash... Budgetary choices are made with knowledge of debt and someone stupidly spending an extra $4k because of debt whether they can afford it or not is making is hurting themselves.
Anyhow, I really don't care how much debt you accumulate.
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