My biggest monthly expense is my rent payment. It takes up about 40% of my budget. I can eradicate this expense by marrying someone who already has a house. It makes a lot of sense for my situation to do this because I'm in my 30s and ready for love, marriage, and children.
Our mortgage (followed closely by childcare). Mortgage is currently 31% of our net and 20% of our gross. Childcare is 24% of our net and 15% of our gross. The two together are a heavy burden!
I disagree with a lot of these. I really like the BabyBargains book that helped weigh safety ratings against price. For instance, with car seats, the most expensive car seat does not necessarily have the highest safety rating. Similarly, I have put a lot of wear and tear into my strollers. In my opinion, there is no need to spend more than $250 on a stroller. Also, the generic Target sunscreen works just as good as the more expensive kinds and we are very very very pale people. I absolutely do pay premium for childcare though. So, basically I disagree with almost everything in this piece.
I read a tip that seems to help when I try it. Cross your fingers. It is supposed to interrupt the pain signals going to your brain. It helps a bit for headaches and other miseries too.
Mortgage is my biggest expense. I pay $1100 a month between my condo mortgage payment and HOA fee. I've thought about trying to sell my condo and move into an apartment but the apartment costs are not much cheaper where I live so I hate the thought of paying someone else's mortgage instead of my own if it's not going to save me much money.
The only criticism I have is the one about at age 72 having 20 times your annual spending amount. With pensions pretty much gone and social security and Medicare under attack plus the recession AND the uncertainty of the stock market, there is NO WAY the vast majority of the public can produce that target --unless they add a house, which may go down in value--not up, a car which means spending $25,0000 usually and goes down in value as you drive it off the lot, and the stuff you own which is probably actually worthless because you do not need half of it. If you are left with social security which averages $15,000 a year and have nothing else in income you must have a house, car and stuff which equals $300,000. Possible, but barely enough to live. So I guess they have to "sell" their homes to live. Which means added cost to their budget like rent which keeps going up! The deck is stacked against ANY secure retirement since 401k's have taken over, pensions dissolved, and now social security is under attack.
Our biggest expense is rent, followed by food. It probably takes about 30-40% of our income. We could probably find a cheaper place to live, but we love the area & being able to garden (which saves on food in the summer).
No, that's not it at all. By the time you are in university or college you are expected to do research from primary sources. All encyclopedias (Britannica through Wikipedia and everything in between) are inappropriate research sources.
Such a good list! So much is tech related, but it's true! You need these skills to function in the world today! As far as Facebook settings, I feel like you should review them every 6 months or a year because Facebook and constantly changing them and adding new privacy features. They will silently add a new feature and their default setting may not be what you'd like it to be.
I 100% agree. More people should consider desk tops. I need both, but at home I do prefer my new desktop. It is so easy to upgrade to. I am not a gamer but I do like the extra pwer the Desktops mes with. I will however buy a new lap top later, but it will be thin and light. So I get the best from two worlds.
It's funny how you say you don't go to the grocery store and try to negotiate for a can of soup. You don't have to do so at a dealership, either. Just walk up to the car and pay what's on the sticker.
You don't walk into a grocery store and tell them you're not paying full retail for that can of soup, are you? You wait for them to put it on sale and then get it later, which is what car dealers do. Try asking the store manager to see their invoice cost on soup. Offer the cashier 1$ less than retail for that soup.
Can you negotiate at a store? Absolutely not. Can you do so at a dealership? Yes.
Customers are empowered not to pay the full amount, and dealerships made that monster.
So the next time you're out car shopping and don't want to haggle or go through games, just walk in, pick out a car and pay whatever the sticker says. Just like grocery shopping.
Securing your financing before you get to the dealership isn't any different than financing at the dealership. I don't understand why people think the dealership offers rates higher than anyone else. Dealerships use multiple banks, and some rates are simply different than others that the banks themselves offer.
The person at the credit union that writes up the loan marks up interest just as much as the car dealership does. It's called the "finance reserve" and is how the dealership makes money. The person at the credit union also gets paid a finance reserve in the exact same amount that the dealership gets. Think about it for a few seconds - how does the loan officer at a credit union make money if they don't get money for writing loans? Simply, they get the same thing a dealership gets.
The only thing that makes sense is to go to your credit union and see if you're qualified and see what the term/interest is. Walk into the dealership and present the offer from your credit union and see if the dealership can beat it. If the dealership sends the request over to the credit union that you got approved from before walking in, it will be the exact same interest/term that you get from walking in yourself. At that point just decide who's going to make the money from writing the loan. It's literally no advantage to getting financing from whatever institute unless the dealership can't get a better call from a bank.
That claim of a credit union won't jack up your interest rate like a dealership will is probably my biggest peeve in the industry.
Alpine harnesses are usually used for short sections of a longer mountaineering expedition.
My biggest monthly expense is my rent payment. It takes up about 40% of my budget. I can eradicate this expense by marrying someone who already has a house. It makes a lot of sense for my situation to do this because I'm in my 30s and ready for love, marriage, and children.
My biggest expense is Rent. I would definitely suggest living within your means (30% of monthly income to rent) or you may struggle like me.
Our mortgage (followed closely by childcare). Mortgage is currently 31% of our net and 20% of our gross. Childcare is 24% of our net and 15% of our gross. The two together are a heavy burden!
I disagree with a lot of these. I really like the BabyBargains book that helped weigh safety ratings against price. For instance, with car seats, the most expensive car seat does not necessarily have the highest safety rating. Similarly, I have put a lot of wear and tear into my strollers. In my opinion, there is no need to spend more than $250 on a stroller. Also, the generic Target sunscreen works just as good as the more expensive kinds and we are very very very pale people. I absolutely do pay premium for childcare though. So, basically I disagree with almost everything in this piece.
I read a tip that seems to help when I try it. Cross your fingers. It is supposed to interrupt the pain signals going to your brain. It helps a bit for headaches and other miseries too.
Mortgage is my biggest expense. I pay $1100 a month between my condo mortgage payment and HOA fee. I've thought about trying to sell my condo and move into an apartment but the apartment costs are not much cheaper where I live so I hate the thought of paying someone else's mortgage instead of my own if it's not going to save me much money.
The only criticism I have is the one about at age 72 having 20 times your annual spending amount. With pensions pretty much gone and social security and Medicare under attack plus the recession AND the uncertainty of the stock market, there is NO WAY the vast majority of the public can produce that target --unless they add a house, which may go down in value--not up, a car which means spending $25,0000 usually and goes down in value as you drive it off the lot, and the stuff you own which is probably actually worthless because you do not need half of it. If you are left with social security which averages $15,000 a year and have nothing else in income you must have a house, car and stuff which equals $300,000. Possible, but barely enough to live. So I guess they have to "sell" their homes to live. Which means added cost to their budget like rent which keeps going up! The deck is stacked against ANY secure retirement since 401k's have taken over, pensions dissolved, and now social security is under attack.
None of these are really that cheap. Was looking for inspiration but turns out im already doing way cheaper than this...
Our biggest expense is rent, followed by food. It probably takes about 30-40% of our income. We could probably find a cheaper place to live, but we love the area & being able to garden (which saves on food in the summer).
I lost my wallet tonight
No, that's not it at all. By the time you are in university or college you are expected to do research from primary sources. All encyclopedias (Britannica through Wikipedia and everything in between) are inappropriate research sources.
My biggest monthly expense is my retirement savings: $2,858. This includes maxing out my 401K, Health Savings Account and Roth IRA.
Building payment and property tax.
mortgage
Nothing original here, it's my mortgage. Looking forward to the day when it's paid off and I can have a different answer.
My biggest monthly expense is my mortgage, by far! But it won't be forever...I'm aggressively working to pay it off early!
Such a good list! So much is tech related, but it's true! You need these skills to function in the world today! As far as Facebook settings, I feel like you should review them every 6 months or a year because Facebook and constantly changing them and adding new privacy features. They will silently add a new feature and their default setting may not be what you'd like it to be.
Student loans! We are paying off 4x the minimum payment to try and get them paid off quickly.
I 100% agree. More people should consider desk tops. I need both, but at home I do prefer my new desktop. It is so easy to upgrade to. I am not a gamer but I do like the extra pwer the Desktops mes with. I will however buy a new lap top later, but it will be thin and light. So I get the best from two worlds.
Housing bundle...mortgage, park fee, insurance, taxes...grateful that I can keep it all manageable and under control
It's funny how you say you don't go to the grocery store and try to negotiate for a can of soup. You don't have to do so at a dealership, either. Just walk up to the car and pay what's on the sticker.
You don't walk into a grocery store and tell them you're not paying full retail for that can of soup, are you? You wait for them to put it on sale and then get it later, which is what car dealers do. Try asking the store manager to see their invoice cost on soup. Offer the cashier 1$ less than retail for that soup.
Can you negotiate at a store? Absolutely not. Can you do so at a dealership? Yes.
Customers are empowered not to pay the full amount, and dealerships made that monster.
So the next time you're out car shopping and don't want to haggle or go through games, just walk in, pick out a car and pay whatever the sticker says. Just like grocery shopping.
The mortgage
Securing your financing before you get to the dealership isn't any different than financing at the dealership. I don't understand why people think the dealership offers rates higher than anyone else. Dealerships use multiple banks, and some rates are simply different than others that the banks themselves offer.
The person at the credit union that writes up the loan marks up interest just as much as the car dealership does. It's called the "finance reserve" and is how the dealership makes money. The person at the credit union also gets paid a finance reserve in the exact same amount that the dealership gets. Think about it for a few seconds - how does the loan officer at a credit union make money if they don't get money for writing loans? Simply, they get the same thing a dealership gets.
The only thing that makes sense is to go to your credit union and see if you're qualified and see what the term/interest is. Walk into the dealership and present the offer from your credit union and see if the dealership can beat it. If the dealership sends the request over to the credit union that you got approved from before walking in, it will be the exact same interest/term that you get from walking in yourself. At that point just decide who's going to make the money from writing the loan. It's literally no advantage to getting financing from whatever institute unless the dealership can't get a better call from a bank.
That claim of a credit union won't jack up your interest rate like a dealership will is probably my biggest peeve in the industry.
Definitely rent. Student loans are a close second.