Comments on: New Series: An Inside Look at YOUR Finances!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:35:02 +0000

Awesome! Thanks so much for reading and dropping your first comment – how does it feel? Haha… I hear ya loud and clear on these types of posts too – I’ll be getting ready for another one here soon – stand by! :)

By: Shey

Shey — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 05:43:29 +0000

This is my first time commenting, though I read your blog all the time! I truly love the idea of this series! Its nice to read about your financial savy skills, but its also nice to see how others handle their money, and to hear your thoughts on their financial skills.

Though I’m only 20, and dont even really have a real income yet, I find these break downs to be fascinating. I hope reading and learning all these things from your blog will stick with me in the future!

By: J. Money

J. Money — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 13:50:00 +0000

Awww, well you’ll figure out a good system at some point – we all do :) Just a phase ya know? And actually, our food spending is pretty high too lately so we need to do some better tinkering around as well… it never ends! ;)

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 01:10:48 +0000

Man, really loving his tip about the food budget. Food is probably the biggest non-bill expense we have, and it’s constantly a struggle to keep that budget down. His savings makes me feel inadequate, though… =[

By: J. Money

J. Money — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 13:57:15 +0000

Love that bro, sounds like you’ve got a great plan going on. I’m huge into the emotional side of things too, which is why I keep pummeling away on my mortgages. It’s gonna feel SOOOO FREEEE when those things are out of my life! Much rather have that feeling than 3% more saved up in my investments or something ;)

By: Zach @ The True Generalist

Zach @ The True Generalist — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 01:55:26 +0000

1. Emotional: I really hate having so much debt! I want it gone and out of my life and stop anchoring me down!
2. ROI: If you’re loans are 6.7% int rate, how well are you doing in the markets/401k? If you’re positive you can make a more than 6.7% return on money invested in the market or matches in your 401k, then it makes more fiscal sense to keep investing the money rather than throwing additional into the loans.

What I did: I picked an age. I don’t want any more loans of ANYTHING that’s not giving me a positive cash flow after I am thirty five. For me, it was realistic and timely, so I structured all of my loans, car and student loans, to b paid off by that date. This helps me plan my future investment contributions too!

By: Zach @ The True Generalist

Zach @ The True Generalist — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 01:54:48 +0000

I feel ya on the student loans. I had $120,000 worth of them when I graduated! But now, after 8 years, they’re under $40,000 and will be gone within 4 yrs! For me, there are two parts to these loans…

By: J. Money

J. Money — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 22:18:11 +0000

Great stuff guys :)

@Slackerjo – We’ll have some here that doesn’t even come close to that amount of monthly income, believe me ;) I plan on posting up all kinds of ranges and situations over time, so some people may be able to relate to, and others not, but hopefully at least we all glean something from ’em all.
@B Simple – Good one! We REALLY REALLY need one too as we have zilch right now and just dread getting started :( But with our new baby now here it’s much more important we get this knocked out.. thanks for the reminder to everyone!
@Elisa – That’s an interesting idea actually :) Maybe do recaps on everyone 12 months later? Hmm… I kinda like it. A lot.
@MoneyGeek – Feel free to send over YOUR details too at any time if you want ;)
@Romeo – Great comment my man, we do tend to go batty over big numbers like that but you’re right – if the $hit hits the fan you’d much rather have $100k in savings/investments than zero debt which you can’t pull any money out of… thanks for stopping in! And glad you like the series – we’ll def. be continuing it :) See you at FINCON again? Hope so bro.
@Allison – That’s what I’m scared of! Right now it’s easy to watch him here and there while he sleeps, but once he’s going all over the place there’s no way I can do work at the same time :( But I realllllllllly don’t want to pay $2,000+ for childcare a month either, bleh. It’s gonna be a tough choice when that day comes, that’s for sure… we’re def. starting to plan now for it – whichever way we end up leaning.

By: Allison

Allison — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 17:16:31 +0000

I don’t know your wife’s exact work at home situation but you may want to plan for childcare in the future. When my daughter was 3 mon old I was able to work from home and care for her at the same time but as she got older and moved around more and needed entertainment it became near impossible to get any work done.

By: Romeo

Romeo — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 00:44:45 +0000

J, great series. Well, great start to a great future series.

I don’t know what all the fuss on the student loans are about. In THIS situation, the student loan wouldn’t be my biggest concern. $100,000 going into investments or continuing to build savings would be my priority. It appears that there is no financial stress whatsoever in keeping the loan around at this point. But, there would be a big concern if after paying $80,000 of this debt he were to get laid off.

The thing that the couple has going for them is the time value of money. Why rush to pay $100,000 down just to yield, what, $800 more per month? The interest is fixed…I hope. So with time, the loans will go away…eventually, and when the couple is ready.