the more people i talk to about this the more i find out how poorly most people are managing their money and hanging out in their overdraft protection.
i tell it to local guys all the time, if you want to spend $1000 on your car you better have at least $2k in cash in the bank and lately i would say that it should be a 5 to 1 ratio.
just today i found out that people i thought were doing really well, making great $$$ are also chilling around overdraft… WTF?
how do you guys rationalize that? what happens if you have a major set back and need $5000 for legal fees / to buy a new car asap / to bail you mom out of jail?
who the hell uses their credit card to build a car when you dont have a steady income?
all these things boggle my mind.
whats worse is that my parents yell at me all the time for spending money on my car but then i go and lend $$$ to my brothers because even though they dont have a care or any over head they are still chilling at over draft while being regularly employed.
bing i look at what i have and put some away.actually i have 2 accounts one is just for saving and the other is for spending.don’t spend to much because i need to get financialy set when i get older. thus,i spend a little and put some aside
Well, for me after the $1200 is gone that goes into my house, probably about $400 - $500 per month that goes into gas and insurance, then you factor in food, that alone comes in at about 200 - 300 per month…
Then random extras ontop of that… Oh yeah… like the $600 car payment on my line of credit that also has a my new furnace, hot water heater, windows, siding etc. totaling over 10G’s…
There are a lot of factors when you are actually living like the rest of the world, buying your own food, paying for rent, hydro, heating, gas… etc.
That is already 2 G’s and you haven’t done a thing except eat sleep and shit.
And ontop of all that… car mods… tires… and paying for dates… :roll:
I agree; you shouldn’t be living in the red. If you can’t afford to keep up with the Jones’ then don’t. I’ve seen people’s lives destroyed because they can’t keep up with their debt. I wonder why so many young-middle aged men commit suicide, and alot of times break it down to money or mental illness.
I went into overdraft once, it freaked me out and then I bounced a cheque! I was completely flabbergasted, retraced my steps and realized a costly error ($35 NSF). My intentions were good but my overzealous saving cleaned my regular account out as I shouldn’t have purchased that much RRSP’s. Thankfully this only lasted 2 days as my pay-cheque was deposited…
No, I’ve never bounced a cheque before and consider my money management to be above average however not excellent (as noted above). I play it safe as I can’t afford to make risky investments. The best/biggest investment I have made is purchasing a house. Yes, most of my income goes into the house leaving little room for my car… in 20 years my house will still be making money (10% per year on average) however my car will be biodegrading in some junkyard.
I’m not trying to suggest that if you are in the red, your a bad person or irresponsible. Some people use their credit to make money… small businesses, self-employeed, a person who invests in stocks.
Please don’t get trapped by debt. We all make bad decisions and just remember you can get out of debt.
The average that I spent on my car per month was 1000 bucks for the last 12 months… that includes the cost of the car, mods, repairs, maintainance… I’m about done with almost everything I wanted to do with the car…
The rest of the money I made is in the bank
i can hack it, i’ve had to do it before and i’m no stranger to working 60+ hour weeks while taking 2 university classes all through the summer.
besides theo, you are in better shape overall than i am for sure considering your home.
i wasnt talking about a persons financial portfolio, more specifically i was addressing cash management and how some people, most people in fact, are no stranger to living cheque to cheque. even people with college and university educations.
a shock to me happened at work a few months ago.
i was chilling at my desk when someone asked me for change for a fifty. when i went to give him change he saw that i had a couple hundred bucks on me… nothing special really… but his comment to me was:
“how do you have so much money in the middle of the month?”
i was flabbergasted, it never occured to me that many many people really do live like that. more importantly is that this guy is a certified biologist in his late 60’s working full time well past his retirement age, he is 68 right now i beleive and has no intention of retiring.
i used to work in the equivalent to a pawn shop while at school in Guelph and i remember tons of people coming in on the first of the month after cashing their cheques but these were welfare people.
this guy who made that comment to me is a worldly, educated professional… it boggles the mind and all i can think of is how with the artificially increasing costs of living combined with efforts to reduce labour costs at all levels in this continent (unless you are a politician) how people with poor cash management now are going to fair when they get older and take on great financial responsibility.
I go into OD quite often But that’s b/c stuff just comes up and you gotta jump on it. Like for example the spot that just opened up in ORF, those don’t come up often at all, and a main shop spot is even rarer, so I didn’t really have a choice, had to go into OD.
As for if shit comes up… well, I hope it doesn’t And if it does, I can always borrow $ from my parents.
seeing as im 16 i dont have to worry about all this jibberjabber yet, i have ~1500 in the bank right now and thats with the purchase of my car and the build of my racing kart (which was more than my car :? ) i have stocks in BCE and Notel right now and thinking of investing in another company, i think im doing fairly well for a kid my age that gets no help for his parents
13+ G in the red… Not that I intend to be, but it’s a long long story and I’ve been Fkced 3 ways from sunda with the government etc many times. Finally slowly getting out of the hole and back to real life.
Personally I track every thing I spend to the penny via a spreadsheet (To damn lazy to make or start using a program). I also at ALL TIMES have enough money in a float fund to cover 3 months of my regular expenses just incase something does happen with my job I have 3 months to recover before I need to start making drastic changes. This is all fine and dandy now but I intend to buy a house soon which may require a revamp of my budget. For my car I only let 10% of my regular monthly income go towards my car and every purchase is always cash. Doing things this way I’m never in a bind for cash at anypoint through out the month. It works well for me anyways.
Geez Bing, as a salesperson shouldn’t you be encouraging people to spend thier cash? You have a good heart Mr. Bing…a good heart.
I know a lot of people who make pretty good coin and are broke 2 days after they cash thier paycheque. There’s nothing keeping them from saving money, it’s simply the lifestyle they’re accustomed to.
The problem is there’s no real penalty for overspending. There will always be another credit card company that will consolodate your debt or a bank that will loan you the cash knowing full well you’ll only be making minimum payments.
If that doesn’t work then hell, take it one step further. If you really bugger things up then you can declare bankruptcy or enroll in a credit councilling program that stops all of your intrest payments allowing you to pay tiny sums of your debt untill the day you die. Now all of your debt is downloaded to your family or the government.
With these options why would anyone bother trying to stay ahead?
After getting my 240, i spend almost all my money on the car, my previous insurance company was robbing me, but after swithing to bel air, i can now have some cash on hand. i spend around 500 on bills every month, and 212 on insurance, that leaves to around 600 bucks left for other things. most of it straight into the car. usually thers something new to fix on my car. went to get an alignment done, came out with nothing done but to replace 4 things(which i didn’t).
but then i’m doing delivery and selling shit…so i get a steady flow of cash around 200 a week of pocket money. so i can’t be broke…at least for now…
it boggles me too that some people spend their money beyond reason.
for example; my coworker, in full knowledge that we’re only seasonal employees for the government, bought a 37" widescreen LCD TV 3 weeks before lay off. and he always complains of how little money he has. It’s his pattern that pisses me off. buy something material, then complain about not making enough money, or not having any money for a decent meal.
I understand people buy things to make themselves temporarily happy. i love to do that, especially with shoes, or DVDs. I believe most people live atleast 10% outside their means, it’s Murphy’s law.
BTW, i never carry more than $100 cash around for more than an hour. you’re a baller Bing.
Good topic, and Bing I couldn’t agree more - and I thought I was alone on this!
It seems that instant gratification has become the new norm in today’s society, doesn’t it?
I’ll always have two credit cards, it’s become practically a necessity these days (and they are a wise thing to have provided you’re self-controlled)…but i’m determined to live slightly below my means consistently, staying out of debt completely by keeping the cards zeroed.
Money management is quickly becoming a lost art as your average family carries larger and larger debts, rather than savings for retirement and rainy days. Of course there are other factors too however; look at how our cost-of-living seems to quickly be creeping up as employers are cutting back and skimping out on their employees benefits/raises etc.
When I met up with a banking officer, for my first time ever, she said that I should be in schools teaching kids money management! I asked why, because i’m not at all a money guru - I just have basic principles I stick to. Her answer pretty much led me to believe that the next generation is going to follow in the same footsteps as their parents - “buy now, pay later” and that they don’t see any problems with that lifestyle.
And let me tell you, paying later always costs a heck of a lot more.
But that’s b/c stuff just comes up and you gotta jump on it. Like for example the spot that just opened up in ORF, those don’t come up often at all, and a main shop spot is even rarer, so I didn’t really have a choice, had to go into OD.
And if it does, I can always borrow $ from my parents.
right now and thinking of investing in another company, i think im doing fairly well for a kid my age that gets no help for his parents