A few days ago there was a short discussion about tax returns and business finances. I understand that a lot of folks (maybe most of them) who operate their own businesses use CPAs or other accountants. How about keeping track of household finances?
- If you have a business do you use accounting services or do you keep track on your own? If the latter, do you use a program like Quickbooks or Peachtree or something else?
- How about personal accounting? Again, software or pencil and paper? Or do you not bother to keep track and just pay the bills as they come in?
I’ve used Quicken for over 20 years. I was looking to update my software (my version is 2009) but I see that Quicken has gone to a subscription service that costs about $40 per year and your data are stored in the cloud rather than locally. I’d be interested in hearing if others have alternatives.
I have lines painted on the side of my bouillon barge so I can see how low or high it is in the water.
How many orphans do you have to throw into the shark infested waters before they can yell back what line your barge is at?
That is a needless and profligate waste of orphans! They can lean over the side and drop a sounding lead. Then they can go back to the bilge pumps!
DOH!
I have been doing it wrong…
Now that’s how you shit lord.
Microsoft Money, 2003(?) I tried some other stuff but this works really well for us. I use it to keep track of checking and savings, no other investments.
Same here. I have Microsoft’s “sunset” edition and it works fine. No way in hell am I switching to Quickbooks, which not only has one of the most annoying names of all time, but putting all that data on a cloud service seems insane.
I keep multiple bank accounts. This one is exclusively for paying the mortgage, this one is for the car payments, this one is all the random small ticket purchaces required.
It wasn’t an intentional system, I just needed a bank near me at several different times, and never closed older accounts. So the ‘random small ticket account’ has always been whichever one is geographically convenient, and the others were all eBanking.
I’ve never needed a great deal of detail so long as the activity doesn’t contain anything I didn’t do.
We recently switched to a 2 credit card system, also accidentally, but it works great. Utilities and etc go on 1, daily purchases on other, both paid off every month.
It shouldn’t matter, but it has smoothed things out a lot.
My wife.
She has a green accounting ledger that she tracks all
ourher money in. Unfortunately it is mostly in Korean so if she dies first I’m in trouble.You better start researching those “Get your own Korean wive” sites your holiness. Purely so you can be prepared.
My bank has some pretty good tools fur keeping track and then I usually port it over to Excell for extra tasks.
At work we use Quickbooks. Seems OK, but I have nothing to really compare it to.
At home, I don’t use anything. I just pay bills as they come in.
Spreadsheet with multiple sheets. Everything is color coded and semi automated. First one is monthly budget. Second is Sinking funds. Third is debt snowball.
I use Mint and Personal Capital (to a lesser extent) to make sure everything matches the budget and to check on investments.
i too have a Christmas line on my budget sheet.
Wifey loves Christmas. She could spend thousands of dollars on Christmas stuff. This is the first year we’re trying to save up over the year and work from a budget when December comes.
My ex used to leave us with a $8K Christmas credit card bill every year. I don’t miss that amongst other things.
*whistles through teeth*
I would have to restrain myself from violence if that was dumped on me.
Our Christmas problem is more finding decent gifts for each other (across the family). We generally already have anything reasonable that we need/want, anything we don’t have is because its too damn expensive (“No, dear, you aren’t going to wake up to an AMG with a big red bow on it.”).
I’ve gone to ordering fancy food packages for Bro Dean and Pater and Mater Dean. Nobody really needs more stuff, except the nieces (early 20s), and they’re easy to buy for.
Simple spreadsheet with multiple sheets, also. One sheet is every bill for the month ordered by date and then split up/grouped around paydays. Right side of the sheet is remaining balances for recurring payments. Monthly Income is also on the first sheet and run against payments as I enter them.
Other sheets track those balances for a “total debt” along with account numbers and critical info for all of them.
It’s worked for 12 years, since I got divorced and took it all over myself.
File me under “not bother”. I used a few softwares in the past but like leon says the banks now have some tools to do what little analysis I might be interested in.
“Am I broke?” “Is anyone else charging purchases to me?” These are the questions that matter when I track my finances.
Pretty much. I am fortunate to not currently need to dig any deeper than that.
This.
Though, I’ll add in a “Is it a good time to invest in more guns & ammo?”
I should probably mention that I set up my savings to be more or less automatic, so what lands in my account is already classed as “spendable” beyond the earmarked monthly bills.
I check my accounts daily, I’ve had my card info stolen a couple times. Back when paper was king I didn’t know it until I got my monthly statement. 2nd and 3rd time I caught it immediately and my bank (USAA) resolved it immediately. Last time was a Middle Easterner, flew from NY to Fort Worth first class. I don’t know how he did that, using his own name and my card number.
My life is pretty simple so I don’t have much need for other accounting means. Xmas and birthdays for kids/grand kids are pretty much a cash operation, my wife and I exchange token gifts.
I use Turbo for taxes and everything is the same every year, just plug in new numbers. Pretty easy-peasey for me.
I check my accounts daily
Me, too. I use USAA, and their app is excellent. Makes it easy-peasy to check our accounts (all three of them, not counting Mrs. Dean’s business account).
1. NA
2. Pretty much just pay stuff as it comes in. I used YNAB for a while but found that tracking two people’s spending across four accounts and two banks with a separate piece of software wasn’t working. To the extent possible I try to follow the YNAB system, though, and one of our banks has a lot of features that help with that. Mostly, though, it’s just paying stuff as it comes in. Mme. Naptown just got back into full-time employment for a decent salary so hopefully we’ll be getting past just treading water here before too long, and then I’ll likely switch to something a little more formal.
“2. Pretty much just pay stuff as it comes in.”
Pretty much do this, and do it in my head. Always verify the charges are legit first, though.
1. xTuple/Postbooks – open source accounting software, I use a highly customized commercial edition.
2. I’m not great in this area. Since I’m generally inseparable from the business, I focus more on that. If the business makes money, I’m OK. I only keep some credit card debt and the mortgage. Everything else is paid for and I try to keep it that way.
The last couple of years have been trying on the finances, between health issues and the ACA (fuck you Obama), I’ve lost some progress towards savings. Nevermind what having three kids (private schools, music lessons, medical, groceries…) does to your financial position.
I’ve had several people ask me how I can afford to do something. These people (about my age) all have multiple children, and you see the light come on behind their eyes when I point out I have no kids, no college loans, and no car payment. Mortgage I’ve got, but I’m in no rush to pay it off as it’s under 4% interest.
Kids are expensive! I have 2 starting college this fall. There will be no toys for pistoffnick in the next few years.
At least you can go to work and break stuff. Take solace in that.
1 – Spreadsheets
2 – Moneydance
We just use credit cards for most personal and day to day purchases. This provides us with cash back and airline miles. Pay off both each month. Notify each other of expenses over ~$250. Check the statement each month to look for strange charges or fraud.
Online banking for monthly bills like the mortgage, CC, car notes, and utilities. Keep the checking account flush enough so that tracking closely is not needed (same stuff each month). My wife is way more regimented than I so she handles this.
Accountant for taxes, due to my owing property in a LLC. A adviser for general financial planning of our IRAs outside of work related 401Ks and overall strategies.
We have a emergency fund in a savings account.
Gold buried in strategic places. I don’t know how may dollars of gold I have, but I know how many lbs. I also have a great collection of Beanie Babies and Kiss Army cards that are just as good as gold.
Are the airline miles credit cards worthwhile? I fly a decent amount, and I’m not looking for free flights per se, just to make my flights a little more comfy around the edges. (I’m pushing 50 years old and I’ve somehow never owned a credit card, just a debit card)
A website called Nerdwallet is probably be the best way to comparison shop for cards.
I have one simply to maintain the 600,000 miles I accumulated while working as a traveling engineer. If I didn’t, I’d lose those miles within two years.
If you fly a bit and want to be more comfy, try the rabbit hole of FlyerTalk.
Cool. Thanks all.
I use it to keep gaining miles instead of the measly cash back from others. You also get the equivalent to silver status right away for boarding early. There are big kickbacks for using the card for airline purchases and upgrades as well. As scruffy indicated, I can keep my miles from expiring with just the purchases alone.
Tea leaves and chicken entrails.
Oh, so you’re the Q behind Q’s Giblet Tea.
I use a spreadsheet, and budget based on two paychecks a month (I get paid every two weeks). That means twice a year, I get an extra paycheck month, the majority of which goes into savings. Personal accounting is just referencing the charges on the cards about once a week, and comparing what’s in the Checking account to what bills have been paid/not paid for the current month. That gets done about once a week as well (at which point the charge cards get paid off as well).
Oh, and for investment, I’ve been using the automated advisors that are being offered now (my IRA is 50% in one, my 401k is in one, and I have a personal fund for vacation savings and the like in one). As I’m in my early 40’s, all are set to be as aggressive as possible. The one thing I don’t like about that in the case of the IRA, is that it still leaves a portion in cash (~6% at the present). I just rolled over my previous workplace 401k into the IRA about a year ago, so I figure I’ll leave the intelligent against my personal picks, and see how they’re doing at ~2 years. If my picks are doing better, I’ll shift some from the intelligent back into self directed.
Oh no, wait, spreadsheets and moneydance for the business. Doh.
You guys pay taxes?
*For legal reasons, this is a joke*
Bravo on the disclaimer!
I just started again mid-year.
The one advantage of running a business into the ground hard.
1. N/A
2. Only loosely keep track. I have an approximate idea of how much money is in each of my accounts, and as long as the aggregate value is on an upward trend I don’t get into the weeds of budgeting. But my natural level of expenditure is quite below my current income, and if things changed I would probably pay closer attention.
So little money in or out for both business and personal that it’s not hard to keep track of.
Booze, bitches, and blow…
One single line item..
Am I right?
Booze,
bitches, and blow…
One single line item..
Am I right?
Who you gonna impress with a good case of whiskey dick if you don’t have the other 2 items?
OT: Tried watching Another Life on Netflix. Sweet Jesus is it bad. I couldn’t get thru the first episode. I gave up when they introduced the drag queen/transgender spaceship crewmember that was offering management advice to the ship’s first officer.
It’s going to be fun to get the token tranny character inserted into every show for the next few years. That virtue ain’t gonna signal itself.
Perhaps if the absurdity had been limited to that, but holy hell on a popsicle stick it’s god-awful across the board.
Well, that is the general result when the production team, writers, and cast are all chosen for ticking off intersectional boxes intead of quality of work.
Never heard of it, but just reading the character list sets of a goodly number of red flags.
Well, that’s disappointing.
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/straddling-two-worlds-transracial-adoption-and-the-aut-1836693865?
“You’d be better off as an orphan in the ghetto than raised by the white devils.”
I think I see the problem.
*climbs on stage*
*taps mic*
You’re all to obcessed with skin tone. Knock that shit out and deal with real problems.
*takes mic off stand*
*gently sets mic on stage*
real problems
RAAACCCCISSSTTTT!111!!! RHEEEEEEE!!!111
once you go black …
It’s almost touching on a salient point. If black kids not raised in the culture are I posters, then maybe the issues aren’t with being black, but with being in the culture. But that would shatter the entire oppression hierarchy, so nobody would dare blaspheme such.
Yeah, it’s almost like there is a subculture with a vested interest in keeping racism alive.
A subculture which denies the problems within it, like most cultures do.
Hmmmm I like to think we’re a self aware bunch….so Glib’s underlying issues are……?
Couldn’t say. We’re pretty much perfect.
Aspergers
I thought it was Ass burgers?
Meth use, Asperger’s Syndrome, boozing, gambling, seeking advice from Rapesquatches and giant flying stone heads.
Oh, and SugarFree stories. Definitely SugarFree stories.
And being lechers, all
“And being lechers”
We’re supposed to be identifying our shortcomings, not our strengths.
Don’t forget the overwhelming loathing of pineapple on pizza…
We’re a bunch of misanthropes who think (often with good reason) we are smarter and better than everyone else and so we hate the human race who by and large categorically rejects all we hold sacred
“I want to be a slave to the State!”
SLAVERY IS FREEDOM!
So I knew this middle class black girl in college and she hated me with a passion. She grew up in the suburbs of Oak Park while I grew up on the Southside of Chicago. She was always going on and on about how oppressed she was and always tried to display her blackness, but if you went through her Facebook photos and read her articles, she barely had any pictures with anyone who was black and also couldn’t relate to poor blacks. She views me as a sell out because I was not only in the Conservative Alliance in college but I refused to ever bitch about being oppressed.
She probably feels guilty.
The whole dynamic just makes me sad and demonstrates how horrifically toxic identity politics is. Simultaneously it encapsulates the following:
1. People are not capable of raising and loving a child that doesn’t look like them.
2. For blacks, identity and oppression are intertwined and inseparable.
3. Black culture is irreconcilable with white culture and must remain segregated.
4. By extension, interracial marriage between whites and blacks is equally immoral.
The statement by the NABSW could have been written by a KKK grand wizard.
“So I knew this middle class black girl in college and she hated me with a passion. She grew up in the suburbs of Oak Park while I grew up on the Southside of Chicago. ”
Damn Ed, you and I have way too many similar experiences. If the two of you were white, she would still hate you but call you a redneck or white trash. I’d bet her hatred of you stemmed more from you demonstrating higher intelligence than her, which should simply not happen to someone who went to OPRFHS.
The dinner table must have been a lot of fun in that family.
Dear all of these people:
Fuck you.
kthxbai
PS: “This was a woman who ‘…stands against the placement of black children in white homes for any reason…a white home is not a suitable placement…'” Pure evil.
That is pure evil. She would rather a black child to stay impoverished and out of white homes simply because they aren’t the same color as their adoptive parent.
“She would rather a black child to stay impoverished”
Or, if she’s a good Lefty, might prefer that the child had been aborted.
Arnold and Willis have a sad.
Sounds like one of them “we don’t need no black people unless they speak with black voices” types.
Our adopted daughter is bi-racial. She came to us as a foster child. I’m pretty sure she is better off with us than her biological parents (her dad (white) is/was in jail for selling cocaine, her mom (black) was 16)
I don’t care much for racial identity* so we never sought to give her a “black experience”or a “white experience”. We sought to give her as many different experiences as possible.
*in fact, I generally refuse to answer any question about my racial makeup (English, Dutch, and German – all assholes at one time or another)
Shame on you for depriving her of her rightful place as a ward of the state and trying to give her loving home. You’re just erasing her blackness.
Sooooo……cultural appropriation?
Problematic, bro.
*in fact, I generally refuse to answer any question about my racial makeup (English, Dutch, and German – all assholes at one time or another)
Just say American (or whatever is appropriate if you are not American). Doesn’t help with the “asshole” part, but it is more accurate and more inclusive than diving down the ancestors’ identity hole.
Mrs. McGinty does all of that. She’s made it complicated with her real estate business so she can deal with it. She has a spreadsheet and was trying to get me to discuss our financial situation every quarter, but saw that I was clearly not interested in discussing where to put this extra $50. But like the Pope (Jimbo, not the other one) if something happens to her I’m going to have a hard time figuring it out. At least mine is in English though.
My wife, which is good enough 95% of the time. There have been a couple of times when her system screwed up with semi-serious consequences.
“No! I said the shoe box under the END TABLE! Not the one under the COFFEE TABLE!”
Mrs. RBS: Walks in with several packages from Amazon
RBS: Did you pay the mortgage this month?
Mrs. RBS: Shit.
Autopay.
I though Amazon’s OneClick was the issue here…oh, you meant the mortgage…
AutoAmazon would break many households.
I dont keep track at all. Spend as i go along. At most have some total spending limits and try not to excede
Then again i spend most of my disposable income on alcohol and the rest i just waste, to paraphrase
I picked up a bottle of Old Grand dad 100 & a bottle of Rittenhouse Rye this morning.
*checks watch*
Is it time to go home yet?
i am currently sampling a GlenAllachie 1992
I am not jealous Nope. Not one bit.
*sobs*
it was bottled in 2018 so it is 26 not 27 years old if that makes it better
No, no that doesn’t make it better.
For my birthday this year, Mrs. Dean got be two bottles of the Del Bac Distiller’s Cut 19-2.
Del Bac is a local Scotch maker. Their usual is decent, but this limited edition stuff is really good. Really good. I’ll be back for more (although this one is sold out).
so is it American style aged in new wood and then finished in cognac casks? aged how long?
I am the one true libertarian in personal finance. I keep my gold buried in the back yard where only I know where it is. I don’t trust even my house orphan to know it’s location.
Gold isn’t like seeds, your money doesn’t grow when you plant it in dirt.
asset preservation?
Oddly enough, my wife who is a children’s librarian handles all of the finances. I work in accounting and the last thing I want to do after looking at a million spreadsheets and inputting numbers in those spreadsheets is to come home and do the same thing. And also, she’s way better at keeping track with household expenses then I am.
We set out a budget every month and then after the month ends, look at our bank statement and compare what we actually spent to the budget we set aside. At the very least it helps know what we spend all of our money on and where we need to cut back.
Oh yeah, we use Microsoft Excel to keep track of everything.
As for savings, we have an account with Chase where we can immediately have access to those funds if we need it, we have a savings account with Wells Fargo for our taxes and other household stuff, and we have a brokerage account with Wells Fargo where we put money into it monthly but it’s our, “When Shit Gets Real Account.”
So much this. I work with spreadsheets everyday.
My wife and I met while getting our MBA degrees. I use my financial knowledge daily while for her work she doesn’t use it all. Therefore she deals with it. Primary tool for account aggregation is Mint.
You’re more up to date than me, I’m still running Quicken 2000!
I bought a copy of 2004, and it wouldn’t work without also having 2002, so I told them to fuck off.
When 2000 stops working I’ll worry about it then.
1) Monthly budgeting with Mint. Yeah, I know all about the neck-beard objections.
2) I have a single savings account for liquid assets and a corresponding spreadsheet allocating that cash to various short-term savings goals (e.g., we have a tree that will need removed in the next 2 years, so it has a line item, but not worth turning it into a non-liquid asset) I have a single checking account that is just a pass through that gets emptied at the end of every month on pay day.
3) purpose driven accounts (retirement, mortgage, etc) generally take care of themselves any more with their own web portals.
4) Monthly spending is done with a credit card. Credit card is paid off every two weeks or so. Better fraud protection than paying cash or with a debit card. The card is with a different provider than my checking or savings account.
I like Mint too, neck-beards be damned.
Never heard objections to mint. I liked it, but my Bank account basically cloned the interface so I mostly use that now.
Objections are based on security.
Mrs. Dean has a business and uses Quickbooks.
Don’t really keep track or budget, just pay the bills as they come in. We run a decent cash surplus every month. I keep an eye on that and make sure that if it doesn’t show up as expected, I know why.
I get most bills online through my bank’s website and pay them there. Have another account at the bank that holds my mortgage in order to get a reduced rate. Keep investments simple, mostly index funds.
I have been using quicken for a couple of decades. My current version is somehwere in the 2010s, but not particularly recent.
Fuck quicken if they require a subscription and cloud storage. I will never buy another copy.
1. Do not have a home business.
2. I use Excel to track both my own and our household finances, separately. I pay bills twice a month, through the website the vendor uses (not through the bank’s website). I pay them all manually and do not enroll in any kind of autopay system. I chart once a quarter to track changes in discretionary and non-discretionary spending, again for both myself and our household. Mr. Riven and I review as often as I prefer. I initially suggested we review quarterly but he was not really into it; he’s happy to leave it to me and trusts that I would bring something to his attention if I needed to. We run at a surplus, monthly and generally.
I use 1-800-Accountant for my accountants, and they have web based apps for the book-keeping. The apps tie into my accounts directly so it’s easy to sort expenses.
(Not affiliated with 1-976-Accountant)
+1 late night commercials on USA Network
EXCUSE ME, IT’S MA’AM!
“I am wearing nothing…but a green eyeshade visor!”
Hawt!
“I want you to grab you big, hot, throbbing calculator…”
There have been several threads where we have discussed the merits of Dave Ramsey’s plan. There honestly isn’t too much to nitpick over, but I personally think the reddit plan is a better overall setup:
Basic Financial Advice Everyone Should Follow
What is the difference? All I can see is Step 3 is paying off most consumer debt vs all consumer debt.
And there is no step to paying off mortgage early.
I see another difference. Ramsey puts Food/Groceries before rent/mortgage in his chart (if you are in such a bad state that you can’t pay both).
Paying off the mortgage early would fall into “save for other goals.”
This one ensures someone is receiving the “free” 401k money from their employer before moving on to paying down debt. Also maxing out retirement before doing any college savings.
Ramsey’s plan also maxes out retirement before doing any college savings,s o that is the same.
And as far as matching money, he says if the budget has the debts paid off in less than a year, focus on doing that first, otherwise go ahead and get your match. It is at most a short delay on the free money. Nit difference, I probably agree more with the reddit version, but I see the advantage if the debt payoff is just a few months to attack it and get rid of it, then get your match with less pressure.
The big difference I see is building the big (3-6 month) emergency fund before paying off moderate interest rate debts.
We started out more on Dave’s plan but have shifted in the direction of the reddit plan. 4+ years with a $1k e-fund and no retirement contributions is too much just to knock out a 4.7% student loan 6 months faster.
I buy into Dave’s plan, to an extent. When Dave’s plan will cost me 5 figures in 401k match, I’ll play the numbers instead of the psychology.
His plan doesn’t say avoid matching for 4 years, in your case, he would say get the match from the beginning. If the debt plan is going to take over 1 year, don’t delay the match.
My one nit is the 1k e-fund, that is too small. I thought 2k worked better a decade ago, he has been saying 1k for 20+ years now. I like the reddit “1 month” version better.
$1k? I had that in my savings account by accident rather than design. It’s not an emergency fund, that would be destroyed by my mortgage in under two months.
If building an emergency fund, I’d aim for covering highest priority expenses for however long it last took me to find a new job – so six months of outlay. (It was 2008, and there were a lot of more experienced IT people running around)
The small emergency fund is for things like AC breaking, not for job loss.
That is what the big fund (3-6 months) is for.
I’m not poor anymore, that’s not an emergency level outlay.
I would pay down debt before getting that big an emergency fund. If you need it, you should have headroom on your credit cards for the emergency.
I prefer the debt-free approach to the arbitrage-low-interest-debt approach, for a couple of reasons:
(1) No debt closes the door on rationalizing being in debt (“Its OK, its low interest”).
(2) There’s been a lot of bankruptcies because the arbitrage on debt and investment went upside down. It always starts out looking good, and then the market does what the market always does sooner or later – it corrects.
I agree.
I have 0% interest payments on my cars right now and I don’t even like that (ignoring the fact that I didnt get the best deal possible due to the financing at 0%).
I want to pay them off to get rid of the payments each month. Once I have my new job figured out, we are probably selling one and using the money to pay off both. Freeing up those payments will allow for our probably larger mortgage payment (because where ever we end up is going to have higher housing costs than BG).
I want to pay them off to get rid of the payments each month.
We haven’t had any debt but the mortgage for years and years. It is remarkably . . . relaxing? freeing?
(ignoring the fact that I didnt get the best deal possible due to the financing at 0%).
The interest is just built into the principal on those deals. Its still there, make no mistake.
The interest is just built into the principal on those deals. Its still there, make no mistake.
Oh, I know. First time in my life I didn’t just pay cash for a car. And I did two in 6 months.
They will be the last 2 times in my life I do that too.
I did the same thing. Two financed cars in 6 months. I was so happy when we paid the last one off. I think we’ll enjoy it more when the savings isn’t being shoveled into the student loan, though.
I’m not as debt adverse, as long as it’s very low interest. I’ve become convinced after spending time on Bogleheads that it’s better to max retirement as much as possible rather than pay off the mortgage faster than required. This was a 180 turn for me as I’d been paying down the mortgage with the goal of being free and clear in 10 years total.
I think there’s an opportunity cost to consider in not taking 0% or low interest financing. In an absolute emergency where I need money right this second to pay off the car loan or mortgage, I can always take a penalty-free distribution from the Roth. That would be the same as not contributing that amount in the first place.
I think the philosophical difference is that low interest debt is “okay”. its just another goal vs Ramsey’s focus on entirely debt free.
It’s a math vs freedom thing. The reddit version makes more mathematical sense, in that investments are probably bringing in more than a 3.5% mortgage is costing, but there are advantages to not having a mandatory payment too.
Ramsey puts paying off consumer debt before employer matched retirement.
Depending on how big a hole you’ve dug for yourself, that could in some cases be for the best way to get started.
Only if the debt can be paid off in 1 year or less.
I just realized my link sucks in one regard, if you have a family for the love of God have life insurance (term).
Like most of you, I still use spreadsheets a lot for budgeting, tracking and forecasting. I use Quicken for bank balances and credit cards so that I know when I’m getting close to the limits.
I’ll look into some of the alternatives that have been mentioned.
Thanks for the replies.
For limits and such, I’ve got alerts set up on all of my accounts (push for some, text for some, and e-mail for some).
My wife pays most of the bills and tends to pay them the day they come in. I’ve given up pointing out that they aren’t due for several weeks.
We save some of the take-home pay. I rigged both of our benefits to invest heavily in our 401K’s and less in both of our employee stock purchase plans. I find saving it before it ever comes home works best.
I’ve given up pointing out that they aren’t due for several weeks.
Yeah, that sub-1% APR float over several weeks on your electric bill is a real missed opportunity.
I pay our bills the day they come in. That way, we never miss a payment because the bill got misplaced. There’s a reason why our credit rating is nearly perfect.
I autopay everything. If I could autopay my rent, I would.
I autopay everything I can, but I have also given up fighting my wife on paying things immediately. It isn’t so much about the float, just she freaks out if a bill doesnt get paid immediately.
All of our bills are set to autopay from the CC. I check the electric bill to set the number in the budget, and occasionally I have to move money over from a fund in the savings account, but they pay themselves.
I set my budget based on the highest expected electric/natural gas bill, which means in spring and fall, both come in way under budget, and my savings account gets a boost.
Same here – but she gets worked up about bills sometimes that exceed our checking balance. I have to point out that those bills are due in a couple of weeks and I’m paid more than that in 4 days.
^^THIS^^
Just wait until next paycheck instead of doing complicated money transfers.
I get paid twice monthly. With one check I pay the mortgage and car lease right away. With the other I pay the credit card bill off. Anything left is play money. I only worry when I can’t pay the CC bill off completely with that one check.
I have an app that alerts me of any spending, withdrawals, etc. for my accounts. I review those to make sure there all legit, no fraud.
*they’re
Their
TedS must be taking the day off.
1. N/A
2. I carry twenty-three great wounds, all got in battle. Seventy-five men have I killed with my own hands in battle. I scatter, I burn my enemies’ tents. I take away their flocks and herds. The Swiss pay me a golden treasure, yet I am poor! Because *I* am a river to my people!
*shuffles nervously away from Swiss*
2 sounds more like it should have been Pie’s response.
Auda abu Tayi wept.
Because *I* am a river to my people!
Yeah, those ex-wives and their spawn can really drag a man down. I feel for ya, Swiss.
-1 الحويطات
Is that the curse “May the fleas from 1000 camels come to roost in your private parts”?
La!
GnuCash
Open Source, I use it for personal, had an accountant when I had a business, who used QuickBooks, but GnuCash could handle a small business easily.
I set up GnuCash. I balance things if they get out of whack. Otherwise MrsC takes care of everything.
OT: Gene for libertarianism?
https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2019/07/17/Genetic-factors-are-primary-cause-of-autism-study-finds/9851563393479/?mpse=2
Vaccinations cause libertarians?
So it is not weed and messican butt seks?
I know is is genetic. My daughter is me turned up to 11. Which mean she is more clearly on the spectrum and probably smarter than me too.
Sounds like a lot of you have the same system as I do. I bring home the paycheck, and Mrs. TOK is the treasurer. She uses spreadsheets and online bill paying which I am not allowed to touch lest I lose a limb. Once I accidentally reset a password on the satellite TV site and she almost ended up a widow.
Monitor my accounts, pay bills due during the pay period (2 weeks) upon being paid and allocate the rest as needed or desired.
No business
For personal, I use Mint, mostly because it is easy and puts it all in one place, and 9 times out of 10 correctly categorizes things.
I could probably do it with a spreadsheet as we really don’t have all that many accounts to manage.
OT: Oh, shit. Looks like Warren will certainly lock the nomination after this move….
OT: John Dillinger – An Early Victim of Climate Change.
That was good.
Dog bites man.
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13489
‘You exposed our incompetence and corruption, therefore you must be punished’
Academia is such a shitswamp
They had no choice. If they didn’t punish him, it would be tacitly admitting that they are frauds.
When you point out that the Emperor is naked, he is not amused.
I don’t keep track of finances – EF checks the shared bank balance, shores it up if we’re unexpectedly low for bills or the mortgage. I provide “the cake” of the finances – paying for everything, while she usually provides the “frosting” – home improvements, car repairs, etc
We haven’t bounced a check ever, nor have we ever missed a payment on anything. So I guess we make enough money were budgeting is a secondary concern?
I could be a lot wealthier with some better savings plan, but all the upgrades we’ve been doing to the house chews through that cash.
“she usually provides the ‘frosting'”
I figured you’d be distributing the frosting IYKWIMAITYD.
I’d be happy with this if I weren’t 100% sure that the FedGov will start subsidizing statist rags when they finally become insolvent.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/23/key-takeaways-state-of-the-news-media-2018/
The aren’t insolvent already? I can’t believe anyone pays for a subscription to the fucking NYT website and who under 60 reads ‘the paper’ anymore?
I give them ~$50 a year for their crossword subscription.
I keep receipts, and use Apple’s nearly worthless alternative to Excel to keep track of my finances. I haven’t bounced a check since college.
“Apple’s nearly worthless alternative to Excel”
Apple’s Office knockoffs are absolute dog shit.
But they have one redeeming feature: easy conversion to its corresponding Office format.
Have either of you tried LibreOffice? I use it on my home machine (the Windows version) and it works for me.
Libreoffice is my go-to. It works better than the microsoft version because it still has a customizable UI. (I can clean out the crap that doesn’t need to be on the toolbars and leave that which I use in the cleaner interface)
Preaching to the choir man.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jul/23/why-college-waste-many-high-school-graduates/
I keep a budget in Excel that outlines our goal for spending. Any surplus in checking on the first of each month gets swept towards debt or retirement account. A deficit means a cut in spending to bring checking back up to baseline for the next month. All spending is done on credit cards, which are paid in full each month, so I can easily scan all of our expenses for that month. We rarely fly (twice in the past decade), so I just get cashback.
I stopped keeping a savings account because interest rates are so low that it seems pointless. Better to funnel that money into tax-advantaged accounts at this point in my life (early 30s with Roth IRA/401k). I intentionally keep checking a little larger than needed to absorb most unexpected expenses (e.g., car repair). For something larger than that, I have HELOC to draw on larger funds with a low interest rates. When I was in the hospital (and out of work for 3 months), I called my wife told her to just make a deposit from the HELOC into checking to make sure all of our automatic bills cleared. It turns out we didn’t even need to do that, though it was a nice cushion, and transferred it right back when I started working again. I think we paid something like 30 dollars in interest to have that breathing room available.
I’ve thought about getting a line of credit. Our savings get swept quarterly, except for a cushion, into our tax shelter where I can’t get to them. I have a $20K limit on my credit card, and I can get a personal loan in a couple of days from USAA, so I don’t think I need anything pre-loaded like that.
For the personal loan, what if you are in the hospital or otherwise indisposed? I like the HELOC because it just sits there without costing me anything unless it’s needed.
what if you are in the hospital
*looks around* Oh, my God!
I hear ya. I like having laying in my contingencies in advance. I’m falling into the trap of “Oh, its not urgent”.
One issue that comes up with the readymade line of credit is the lack of making due. Obviously in the hospital scenario it doesn’t come into play, but in home repair situations, for example, it’s much easier to just spring for the expensive fix than pay for the cheaper fix that won’t last as long and then save up for the expensive fix.
Absolutely, financial discipline comes into play.
I have yet to meet the hospital that wont get you a crazy long, interest free payment plan.
I guess RC Dean would know best whether that is less common than I think.
Not hospital bills. Unexpectedly being out of work while in the hospital and recuperating, assuming you don’t have an short term disability plan or the one you have is subpar. Especially if the spouse is SAHM.
Gotcha.
Pretty common. A little money someday is better than no money, ever.
Who issues the HELOC? Your mortgage company or a third party?
My mortgage company offers one, but I went with a third-party credit union to get a better rate.
various apps on my phone, Amex, Wells Fargo, vanguard, USAA, etc.
yeah right. Florida Man keeps his bills in a greasy wad in his tube sock, right next to his boot knife and crystal meth
That’s my emergency fund
Leprechauns
Just don’t accidentally go to Leper-Con, the atmosphere is contagious and you might end up dropping more than expected.
Are you paying them that $15 an hour Bernie will not pay his own employees?
Pay them?
So here’s a question. Emergency funds. What Rules do y’all follow? Growing up my dad said that for every 10k you want in pay you should expect to search a month. This had generally worked out to be true for me, so I try to keep X months of pay saved.
Luckily the bank offers a semi decent rate on CDs so I’m not totally getting hosed on the cash.
No emergency funds. I figure it things go bad, I will just turn to a life of crime. Or politics. Same difference.
Cigarette smuggling between Idaho and Arizona is my plan C
Our goal is to eventually get to 6 months of moderately pared down living expenses. That’s roughly $25k for us. An isolated emergency (HVAC replacement) is covered, and if I lost my job, we could stretch to 9 months or even more.
I’m close to 1 year’s worth of expenses, its in an account earning 2%… Wife is afraid to touch it since we have potential expenses incoming. I’m also risk averse, so I’ve been making lots of stupid decisions with money (like paying down the mortgage instead of investing it).
There is no investment secure enough for me to stay in debt for thirty years with a known additional $200k cost.
Most of that is front loaded and I’ve already avoided at least half of that cost… maybe the investment is worth paying 100k in interest?
I’ve been making lots of stupid decisions with money (like paying down the mortgage instead of investing it).
Eh, not sure there’s a stupid decision in there. Its a balance based on subjectivities. I am highly debt and risk averse, but I don’t throw every extra penny at our mortgage. We’ve a got a 15 year mortgage and we just make the regular payments. Six years in, the principal in each payment is around twice the interest, and getting better all the time.
Ha!
2-3 months worth of bills+living expenses is what was recommended to me.
Emergency funds. What Rules do y’all follow?
I used to keep around three months or so of expenses in the savings account, but with the tax shelter it gets knocked down to one month every quarter. But you can’t generalize from a wildly overpaid guy with no kids, etc. who has a nearly one-off tax shelter/retirement savings vehicle.
Now I’m curious about tax shelter. Is it a big shed in equador?
No. OBVIOUSLY Dean runs a crypto-mine in Belize. Each quarter he purchases a another orphan to work the generator feeding the servers. Damn kids exhaust so easily.
“Damn kids exhaust so easily”
That’s when you toss them the furnace that’s running the co-generation plant. Cheap and plentiful fuel.
Its a highly structured charitable LLC that will convert to a trust when we retire. All contributions are tax deductible charitable donations. The LLC holds whole life policies as investment vehicles – we get to set our investment mix, and so far they are outperforming my hospital’s investment accounts. On the front end, its like a tax deductible savings account.
On the back end, we will borrow from it (at 1% interest) for retirement income. Since these are loans, they are not taxable income, either. When we die, the life insurance pays off our loans, and any excess gets distributed per a charitable giving plan.
This is basically a miniature version of the trusts used by your big rich dynasties (think the Kennedys), only without the fancy intergenerational mumbo-jumbo you need to keep those going unto the umpteenth generation.
I put my emergency fund in a tax advantaged brokerage account. It makes more than savings and I can get it in a couple days without penalties. CD’s sometimes have early withdrawal penalties or at lest forfeit interest. Savings pay dick. For money right now emergencies I have a credit card with a 50k limit.
” I have a credit card with a 50k limit.”
Mine would only last me a month ATM.
“CD’s sometimes have early withdrawal penalties or at lest forfeit interest.”
Yeah I have them on a rolling six months. So one CD expires every month with enough to cover that months expenses.
I looked into CD ladder years ago, but the rates at the time didn’t make sense. I like that I can pull money from my brokerage account in 24-48 hours without penalties. Obviously they are subject to market changes, that’s why 50 percent is municipal bonds.
That makes sense too. Might look into that.
I’m at about 6 months because my wife is SAHM. If she worked too I would dial it back to 3 months.
I am bringing him up a second time because this is a Dave Ramsey no-no but I think a perfectly acceptable plan. BUT, if you do a roth IRA you can always use that as a break glass in emergency because the contributions to a roth can be pulled out at any time, you just cannot touch any growth without being penalized.
Because you can take out your contributions penalty free is why I have a Roth IRA.
I don’t really look at it as a retirement account because even maxed out it will never be as big as a 401k.
Its really just a way to park money in a tax advantaged manner that doesn’t lock it up entirely until Gov decides you may be permitted to get what’s yours without penalty.
How to invade Area 51
https://youtu.be/4bNeNL5tvMs
Huh, if Quicken forces you to the cloud that’s news to me.
I have Quicken Premiere 2019 and it is not cloud based.
Business- I have a CPA do the taxes but I keep track of all the week to week bullshit, no software just a shoebox full of receipts, a pile of invoices, and a ledger pad (I have started scanning everything and keep digital copies)
Home- I keep my monthly nut under $800 so I don’t worry about it, If I get one full week of work in each month I know I won’t be homeless.
Some animals are more equal than others.
https://hotair.com/archives/john-s-2/2019/07/25/florida-state-sen-says-received-threats-telling-back-off-epstein-case/
Florida sheriffs are a sketchy bunch.
Small gods among mortals.
Well I feel confident that they’ll figure it out.
Where do iguanas fall on that line?
Christ, why anyone would ever voluntarily get tangled up with the Clintons is beyond me. This is some mafia shit.
I’m guessing it goes far beyond just them in NYC and Palm Beach.
This never happened, claims “countless” threatening calls but no recordings or witnesses? C’mon.
question for the masses: how do you get your significant other to quit spending more money than she makes? my wife’s a smart gal but damn if she aint the worst with money. it is no exaggeration to assert she would be broke if not for my spartan miserly tendencies.
Divorce?
that would be a terrible financial decision b/c then i’d have to pay another mortgage and furnish the 2nd place.
That’s going to require a financial coach. A third party will help what could otherwise turn into a full blown marriage crisis.
Yeah it’s a touchy subject b/c she’s really embarrassed by it. A 3rd-party coach sounds like a good idea. thanks, i had not thought of that.
Take a Dave Ramsey class. She can be mad at him and/or the leaders of the class instead of you.
/This advice might be bad.
This is what got my wife from 4 alarm spender to somebody I can work around within the budget. That and threatening to leave her in TX with a divorce lawyer while I moved to VA.
On a serious note, try separate accounts and make her pay for her own spending. 3 accounts; yours, hers and ours. Joint expenses paid out of “ours” and personal paid for out of your own account.
doesn’t really work. she treats the family account as an “oops, i spent too much from my personal account” account. if anything, i am considering merging all of our accounts into 1 and then very publicly posting every single nitty gritty expense on our fridge. of course, i am fully prepared to justify my beer and ammo expenditures.
1) Cash spending for anything that is a pain point. If it’s an online thing, then do a prepaid card.
2) get the money out of the account ASAP. If it’s for a bill, pay the bill on payday. If it’s something you’re saving for, put it in a savings account, preferably not directly connected to your checking account.
3) actually talk about finances, and not just when they’re not going well. Make it a weekly and monthly rhythm. If she’s anything like my wife, there’s a whole lot of shame attached to money right now. That’s why these should be conversations not lectures.
We have been using three accounts for a bit over 30 years.
Our pay checks are direct deposited into individual accounts. We each transfer the majority of our pay into a joint account.
All joint expenses are paid from the joint account. Hobbies and personal expenses are paid from individual accounts.
It has worked for us.
Get her to agree to a budget and sticking to categories. My wife liked it as a game, to see what she could squeeze in. You have to be flexible and adjust categories around about mid-month and again 3/4-month.
And it doesn’t always work. But without agreement for her to try, I have no idea.
yeah, it’s almost like a drug addict. unless she is really willing to work at it and help herself, then i can’t force her to rehab herself. of course, i can take away the drugs but there are other enablers in this equation namely my MIL.
Sex and money are the top two reasons for divorce.
she’s not wracking up debt. not yet anyway. but yes if we can’t nip this in the bud, then there is the potential for it to spiral.
” there are other enablers in this equation namely my MIL.”
No wonder she is embarrassed.
How do people take money from their parents when they are adults?
spoiled as children would be my first guess.
Every month we send my MIL living expenses as she and dad can’t work anymore. The idea of taking money from my parents is inconceivable (and they wouldn’t do it anyway), it was almost a (verbal) fight when they wanted to pay for my wedding, after the fact, but I guess they’re allowed to give a wedding present if they want.
my wife’s a smart gal
She’s living her best life, and you should be doing the same.
Is it a case of not actually knowing how much she really spends?
Before wife and I put our stuff on Mint, I knew I spent a lot eating out at work, but I had no idea I was spending $300-350 a month on it, to say nothing of the 200+ we spent eating out together.
Yes, I think that’s it. I built a budget spreadsheet and gave it to her with very easy instructions: 1. get your credit card transaction detail, 2. get your bank account transaction detail, 3. fill in these shaded boxes on the spreadsheet. But i honestly think she may just be too embarrassed to face facts.
Ignoring the crazy lunch spending which was entirely because of laziness and ignorance of the true cost, and really was an easy fix, we didn’t actually have any sort of foolish spending habits we needed to curtail.
We figured we’d get ahead of the game and for the most part end the need for conflict over the issue by agreeing on an appropriate amount for us to have as an allowance each month.
Anything that is for me and me alone comes out of there. Hobbies, gaming, etc.
So that would be my suggestion…mutually come up with an appropriate amount for whatever this problem spending area is. Doesn’t matter if there is a sale. It doesn’t matter if its one of a kind, today only. You ran out of money for this for the month, you are done for the month.
I still have checks and my card wasn’t declined so that means I’m not broke yet
That reminds me. I need to change out the checks in my checkbook.
lol Live a little and go paycheck like a real man, cucks.
OT: What regrets about a hasty, high-profile #MeToo resignation reveal
This is a little old, and unlike the taste of your mom’s box it’s new to me, so I’m not sure if you…lol…”responsible”… dorks have seen it: What’s Cuter Than a Baby Cheetah? A Baby Cheetah With Its Puppy Pal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFzqTwg2xjs
Mrs. Animal does it. I think she uses Quickbooks. I’m self-employed and she runs a small business, so our taxes are a cast-iron bitch.
Mrs. Animal does it, same as above. I don’t know much about it. Other than my own billing, I don’t worry about money at all. She’s better at it than I am.