How much do you save?

[monkie]

I'm just curious as to how much people save from every paycheck they get from work. Do you have a savings account such as IRA or 401K or others in place for the retirement future?

Well, with bills/debts and spendings on recording gears, sometimes I can't even save 10% of my paycheck. What's your story?

[legionserial]

I wish I could save. I live month by month and every penny is accounted for.

[Hard2Hear]

I pay myself 10%, donate 10%, have zero upside down debt, and don't carry balances on my credit cards. I would never EVER put recording gear on credit. I do it the old fashioned way and either save a little extra, work a little more, or sell something I already have that I'm not using as much.

[monkie]

Originally Posted by Hard2Hear

I pay myself 10%, donate 10%, have zero upside down debt, and don't carry balances on my credit cards. I would never EVER put recording gear on credit. I do it the old fashioned way and either save a little extra, work a little more, or sell something I already have that I'm not using as much.

Wish I could do that. I always seem to spend more the more I make. I'm still fighting and trying to break that habit. When I save, I only save just enough to get by and not enough to last. I'm trying really hard not to spend anymore for the next few months on gears.

[Nightfire]

Unless you cant afford it, you'd have to be a fool not to save a little bit every month. (Note: unless you cant afford it).

Stop drinking starbucks everyday, stop buying candy at the checkout till etc. If you think about it, we waste a whole bunch of money just on small impulse buys.

With that being said, right now I cant afford to save. Im still in university, part time job, car to keep running, phone bills to pay etc.


Mike

[mshilarious]

I think I spent about 60% more than I made this year

[drstawl]

For the past three years I have kept weekly records on a spreadsheet that updates every shred of assets and liabilities, down to the cash in my wallet!

It shows that I stash 28% of my income.

Don't be jealous. I'm broke as HECK.

Any money you have that you can safely assume you won't need for a year or two should be in an FDIC-insured CD.

$30B were spent last week on 1 month Treasury Notes that pay NOTHING and some more on 3-month Treasury notes that actually LOSE VALUE!

WTF were those people thinking?

I think I know.

They DO run your sorry ass through the ringer and stretch the float of your funds from the source to the destination should you try to open
one of these CD accounts. But it still is worth it to lose a MONTH of interest at 2% to get your money parked at 4%.

Do the math.

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by drstawl

For the past three years I have kept weekly records on a spreadsheet that updates every shred of assets and liabilities, down to the cash in my wallet!

Dude, that's noble and all, but spare a few bucks and pick up a three year old version of Quicken off eBay or something, it works MUCH better than a spreadsheet for that . . . take it from a dude who has wasted too much of his life on being a spreadsheet jock and accounting system guru . . .

[drstawl]

Originally Posted by mshilarious

Dude, that's noble and all, but spare a few bucks and pick up a three year old version of Quicken off eBay or something, it works MUCH better than a spreadsheet for that . . . take it from a dude who has wasted too much of his life on being a spreadsheet jock and accounting system guru . . .

Explain to me how anything can be better than an Open Office Spreadsheet!

I merely enter the data and the formulas are already written.

Quicken sucks. I dealt with it at work for years!!

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by drstawl

Explain to me how anything can be better than an Open Office Spreadsheet!

I merely enter the data and the formulas are already written.

That's the point, the formulae are hardcoded, essentially. Financial software is a database app; a spreadsheet's database function is limited, queries poorly, has no useful reporting features unless you kick major ass at macros, and most of all, doesn't have an easily done transaction scheduling system.

True, you can pull your spreadsheet into a database app like Access (or its open equivalent, whatever), but by the time you bother with that, you'll wish you'd just gone with an already developed app.

Quicken sucks. I dealt with it at work for years!!

Quicken or Quickbooks? QB is a powerful piece of crap. Powerful, because if you know what you are doing, it can do many many things. A piece of crap, because the unsophisticated user, which is 99.9% of the QB market, will just misused those features to get themselves in serious trouble. Like today, I looked at somebody's file; they are a small landscaping co., and somehow they have had 84 journal entries year to date. I did not give them any entries to post for 2008, so I don't even want to know

Quicken is a glorified checkbook, but those ad-hoc reporting and budgeting tools, they are very helpful. Can your spreadsheet autobudget for you? It could, but that's a lot of coding formulae.

Personally, I use Microsoft Money 97. Yes, the 1997 edition. Still works great on XP, 11 years later. I've archived the older years, but I can't imagine that amount of data being manageable in Excel. I mean, I probably have 10,000 transactions, many of them split. It also automatically does bank recs, loan amortizations . . . I can do an amortization table in two minutes in Excel, but I really don't want to use my powers for evil any longer. I'll let the Bill Gates of the'90s do it for me!

[gcapel]

I put in 3% into a simple IRA and my employer matches it.

My wife and I were saving 1000 dollars a month in a normal savings account before we built our new house. We saved 30k. Spent 15K on our new home while borrowing the rest. Spent the 15 k on small things like appliances, tile / laminate floors, light fixtures, plubing fixtures, furniture, etc... so that we wouldnt be borrowing money on items that may not even last during the loan period.

Having an emergency fund will decrease the chance of you having bumps in the road finacially. Reasons: Car repairs, ***insurance detuctables****, etc....


I am thinking of putting money in short term cd's. Anyone have any input on that?

[drstawl]

Originally Posted by mshilarious

True, you can pull your spreadsheet into a database app like Access (or its open equivalent, whatever), but by the time you bother with that, you'll wish you'd just gone with an already developed app.

I don't need to pull anything anywhere.

The real work is logging in to the Institutions involved and retrieving the updated information.

I don't need any budgeting apps. I simply pay my bills and calculate how much money is left over. That's my budget!

[TeyshaBlue]

Originally Posted by drstawl

I don't need to pull anything anywhere.

The real work is logging in to the Institutions involved and retrieving the updated information.

I don't need any budgeting apps. I simply pay my bills and calculate how much money is left over. That's my budget!

You probably don't want to hear how easy that is to do in Quicken or MS Money then.

[haystacker99and]

I dont save anything.
I pay my rent and bills and spend the rest of my check the weekend I get it...
I usually have to bum gas money or something for the rest of the week.

[drstawl]

Originally Posted by TeyshaBlue

You probably don't want to hear how easy that is to do in Quicken or MS Money then.

It can't get any easier than with the spreadsheet. No app is going to look up the data for me or enter it. So show me the savings!

[drstawl]

Originally Posted by gcapel

Reasons: Car repairs, ***insurance detuctables****, etc....

I don't know about your jurisdiction, but here insurance is mandated, so if I plan on driving, paying for insurance is not an unexpected emergency expense. It gets figured in just like the rent and the electric bill.

[TeyshaBlue]

Originally Posted by drstawl

It can't get any easier than with the spreadsheet. No app is going to look up the data for me or enter it. So show me the savings!

Dont know about savings, other than time.

I go online with my bank, WellsFargo, and download a file formatted for MS Money.

It fills in all the blanks...drops each entry into a budget column and shows me where I spent it, how often, what for...just about any way I want to display it. Or I can look at it like a standard check register.
When I'm ready to balance, I download again, hit "reconcile" and bing. It's done.
Saves alot.....of time!

[drstawl]

Originally Posted by TeyshaBlue

Dont know about savings, other than time.

I go online with my bank, WellsFargo, and download a file formatted for MS Money.

It fills in all the blanks...drops each entry into a budget column and shows me where I spent it, how often, what for...just about any way I want to display it. Or I can look at it like a standard check register.
When I'm ready to balance, I download again, hit "reconcile" and bing. It's done.
Saves alot.....of time!

I go online, also with WF, and copy the balance to a cell in the spreadsheet. Nothing to reconcile! The position of that cell in the spreadsheet already has the calculation done once I enter the number. You still need to review the line items at their site for accuracy.
No app known can verify that data for you.

[TeyshaBlue]

Originally Posted by drstawl

I go online, also with WF, and copy the balance to a cell in the spreadsheet. Nothing to reconcile! The position of that cell in the spreadsheet already has the calculation done once I enter the number. You still need to review the line items at their site for accuracy.
No app known can verify that data for you.

True Dat. I've already gone thru one hassle with them concerning the actual date of a deposit. Not fun, but I won that round.

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by drstawl

I go online, also with WF, and copy the balance to a cell in the spreadsheet. Nothing to reconcile! The position of that cell in the spreadsheet already has the calculation done once I enter the number. You still need to review the line items at their site for accuracy.
No app known can verify that data for you.

That's not true. Plenty of accounting systems will match transaction numbers/dates/amounts and flag likely discrepancies. Your life might be simple because you lack large quantities of uncleared transactions, but if your open check list was 700 items each month, you'd feel differently about spreadsheets . . .

[drstawl]

Originally Posted by mshilarious

That's not true. Plenty of accounting systems will match transaction numbers/dates/amounts and flag likely discrepancies. Your life might be simple because you lack large quantities of uncleared transactions, but if your open check list was 700 items each month, you'd feel differently about spreadsheets . . .

I write one or two checks each month. Everything else is done on the plastic which is paid off electronically.

NO APP can tell a legitimate charge from a fraudulent charge. That's just BULLSHIT! How would they know if you bought cat food on a particular date?
And how would they know the correct amount for each unless you entered that and provided them with that information?

[mshilarious]

Originally Posted by drstawl

I write one or two checks each month. Everything else is done on the plastic which is paid off electronically.

NO APP can tell a legitimate charge from a fraudulent charge. That's just BULLSHIT! How would they know if you bought cat food on a particular date?
And how would they know the correct amount for each unless you entered that and provided them with that information?

*Sigh*

Because you have already entered all the information on legitimate charges, some of which you will have made errors, some of which you will have omitted (like that gas station receipt--for using their air pump for you, I guess--that didn't print out). The program will flag everything that DOESN'T match, after automatically clearing everything that matches. It can also match up transactions that likely match, but contain minor errors such as dates or check numbers. Then you just have to sort out bank errors, fraudulent charges, and your own data entry errors from a greatly reduced pool of transactions.

I'm officially giving up explaining the benefits of spreadsheets vs. relational databases. Spreadsheets are good at what-if analysis, but a relational database with a good front-end and reporting suite will kick the crap out of a spreadsheet when it comes to repetitive reporting and even ad hoc analysis. This is not controversial at all; it's the way every business in the world larger than a hot dog stand works.

If your life is so simple that you don't really even need a spreadsheet, perhaps that will not be obvious.

[drstawl]

Originally Posted by mshilarious

If your life is so simple that you don't really even need a spreadsheet, perhaps that will not be obvious.

The spreadsheet merely tallies all the balances and gives you the net amount.

There is no need to enter the individual purchase amounts- they are reviewed online on the plastic bill. Only THAT sum is "entered" on the spreadsheet.

Fast. Fast. Fast.

700 charges? Do you shop at 23 stores EVERY day of the month?

When do you have time to actually use the shit you buy?

[gcapel]

Originally Posted by drstawl

I don't know about your jurisdiction, but here insurance is mandated, so if I plan on driving, paying for insurance is not an unexpected emergency expense. It gets figured in just like the rent and the electric bill.

I was refering to health and car insurance. Both policies for me in NC have 500-1000 deductables in addition to monthy premiums that have to be payed for the year before the insurance company pays on a claim. Its a rip off, but I would rather have a low premium and higher deductable.

[drstawl]

Originally Posted by gcapel

Both policies for me in NC have 500-1000 deductables in addition to monthy premiums that have to be payed for the year before the insurance company pays on a claim.

It still cannot be called an "unexpected" expense. The deductible- yes, the premiums, no.