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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2011 8:19:07 GMT -5
when did you start? Why did you start? What prompt you to start?
- For us it was realizing last june that after being married for two years we were in the same position financially: no savings, no retirement, alot of student loans, credit card debt. --> In our defense we were living off my income only (my wife was going to school full time for her Masters) but we spent every penny we made.
- We eventually want to have kids and we want to be able to provide for them without --> having to lay in bed awake at night thinking how we can afford them --> going into debt --> worrying about them having to take care of us in our old age
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jul 9, 2011 8:43:09 GMT -5
THAT is usually the wake up call. I didn't get my house in order until after my divorce. WAY too late to start but better than never.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2011 8:53:24 GMT -5
I *thought* I was getting my life in order a number of times, but something would come up and the debt never quite went away. When I was 29 is when it finally sunk in for me. It was one thing to be fat, broke and miserable but there was no way in hell I was going to be fat, broke, miserable AND THIRTY.
Cue the running, WIRR, the hunt for a better job, going back to school, etc. I'm still a work in progress, but there has definitely been progress.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 9, 2011 10:18:59 GMT -5
I'm with Zib. My divorce was my wake-up call. I see my kids in their 30s making some of the same mistakes we did. An example--my DGS has to wear glasses for the first time. He picked out the most expensive designer kids' glasses in the store. They bought them for him so he'd be "cool." He's 8. They won't be cool long enough for them to get their money's worth even assuming they hold up. It's hard to keep your mouth shut, but I do.
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wodehouse
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Post by wodehouse on Jul 9, 2011 10:25:55 GMT -5
CraftySarah, I'm like you. I reinvented myself in my late 20's. Graduated with my BS when I'd just turned 31. Best thing I ever did (save for marrying DW). Lots of other reinventing. Good luck with it!
As far as financial house, it was never in too much disarray. But I really started building it when I was around 33 and a couple years out of college. Fortunately I never had any debt other than car loans or mortgages.
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❤ mollymouser ❤
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Post by ❤ mollymouser ❤ on Jul 9, 2011 10:32:14 GMT -5
I "got my financial house in order" in my early 30s when I was overwhelmed with credit card payments and not living on a budget. So I buckled down, read a bunch of books by Larry Burkett (Crown Financial Ministries) www.crown.org, and really tightened my belt and tackled my consumer debt with a vengeance. This improved my credit rating which allowed me to refinance (lower interest rate) my condo and my car, and to keep nibbling away at my student loans. By the time I got engaged, I was down to just my condo mortgage, my car loan ($11,000), and my student loans ($57,000).... and as an engagement present my wonderful DH paid off my car and my student loans so that I could enter our marriage (like him) debt free except for the mortgage.
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busymom
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Post by busymom on Jul 9, 2011 10:46:11 GMT -5
DH & I realized we weren't making much headway on our debt, and our oldest was in high school (a couple years back). DD is a smart kid, & we've always known she'd be college-bound, & we knew we didn't want any debt & college expenses too. So, I put together a pay-off plan, & we've been working it ever since.
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jul 9, 2011 11:03:33 GMT -5
I haven't managed to yet. And, that's after two kids of my own and two of DH's, two marriages, three houses, a master's degree, and now a 26-credit post-graduate/pre-doctoral program. DH and I have between the two of us $470,000 in debt--$50K in CC; $280K in mortgages; $75K in SL; $55K in Cars & Camping Trailers. And only $2,000 in savings. I hate the real estate market right now. I'm at least aware of it and have been for four years. With the exception of my new $13K in student loans, we've not added to the debt. So, while we've not reached "order", we've at least reached "awareness" and "working on".
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mandyms
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Post by mandyms on Jul 9, 2011 11:08:00 GMT -5
After I had my DD when I was 27. I was in a relationship similar to Doxie's; had a gut feeling he was cheating, he stopped contributing time/support after she was two weeks, financially when she was 3 months old. ALL the bills (the house, 2 outrageous car notes, insurance, etc) were in my name; I was drowning in debt, living paycheck to paycheck with no savings or retirement, even with a decent income. Even after promise after promise of getting help to keep everything (mostly so he wouldn't have to give up his car), I really had to ask myself do I want to depend or even be tied down to this person financially let alone emtionally? The answer was a big fat no. Best decision I ever made was to kick him out, file bankruptcy and start fresh. After 3 years, I am maxing out a Roth, getting my 5% match in my 401, working on a EF, remaining debt free and now looking at saving for a down payment with occassional help from the ex that I don't HAVE to depend on. Extra bonus is not having to pick up after or keep track of an additional "child." I had to learn the hard way, but thank God I learned.
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suesinfl
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Post by suesinfl on Jul 9, 2011 11:12:01 GMT -5
THAT is usually the wake up call. I didn't get my house in order until after my divorce. WAY too late to start but better than never. It sucks since I'm still paying for pre-divorce debt that technically is not mine, but in my name. dumb, dumb, dumb and never again.
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Post by crystal1588 on Jul 9, 2011 12:13:47 GMT -5
For me, it was my junior year in college when after the holidays, I had 1k in cc debt and I couldn't tell you one thing I bought with it. I froze (literally) my credit card and paid it off in about 4 months. Although it was a small amount, it sucked paying it off and it taught me a good lesson. Since then, we buy only what we can pay off when the statement comes in. On top of that, I have an awesome DH who has always been really good with money. When I was 20, he told me to open a 401(k). At first, I put $50/paycheck in but now we're both up 15%. So I was 20 when I got smart with money. It pays to have a spouse that is good with money. I was never horrible with money, but I wasn't awesome either. He helped me to be a saver, not a spender.
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dcmetrocrab
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Post by dcmetrocrab on Jul 9, 2011 12:25:54 GMT -5
I was 26 and had just gotten laid off. I had a lot of time on my hands and natural instinct to squirrel money away but knew I had to do more than leave it in my checking account. I had over 40k in my checking account the year prior.
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phil5185
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Post by phil5185 on Jul 9, 2011 13:22:15 GMT -5
DH and I have between the two of us $470,000 in debt--$50K in CC; $280K in mortgages; $75K in SL; $55K in Cars & Camping Trailers. This, by itself, doesn't mean that your financial house isn't in order - Net Worth is the key. If I recall, there are 3 houses? And >$25k worth of 'rolling stock'? So maybe $400k of that $470k is offset by the assets?
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constanz22
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Post by constanz22 on Jul 9, 2011 13:57:23 GMT -5
I'm now 41 and I didn't start until my mid-30's. I've come a long way, but still have a LONG way to go. I was in credit card debt up to my eyeballs, lived paycheck to paycheck and never had a cent in savings. I know a lot of people knock Dave Ramsey, but, when things were at their worst for me, I stumbled on his tv show. I had never heard of him before and it honestly was the kick in the a$$ I needed to start doing something different.
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jul 9, 2011 14:37:52 GMT -5
DH and I have between the two of us $470,000 in debt--$50K in CC; $280K in mortgages; $75K in SL; $55K in Cars & Camping Trailers. This, by itself, doesn't mean that your financial house isn't in order - Net Worth is the key. If I recall, there are 3 houses? And >$25k worth of 'rolling stock'? So maybe $400k of that $470k is offset by the assets? I suppose. I'm not sure of the current sale value of the houses. I just know that it's less than what we owe on each of them. Two years ago, one of them was recommended to list at $35k less than what I "paid" for it. The other one, DH's, was recommended to list at $10 less than what he owes on it. There's at least $10k in IRAs and DH has $80K in PERS and I have $15K in PERS. I just find the debt so overwhelming and not going away anytime soon. Of course, that's why I've gone to get an additional professional license; when i get the job with that license, I'll get around a $20k yearly salary increase. But thank you for pointing out that it's not just debt and no assets. It's nice to be reminded not all disastrous.
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on Jul 9, 2011 15:15:05 GMT -5
Can I say that we've always had our financial house in order without getting flamed? We graduated from college without any debt (both working our way through and probably not doable today, but ...) and we were both able to get jobs with the same company shortly after graduation. We moved into a modest 2 bedroom apartment. It was nice, but not super fancy and well within our means. We were able to live having only one car for the first seven years of our marriage. We lived off of one income and saved the other. All overtime/raises went into savings. We did this for 5 years. We maxed out profit sharing/401ks from the day we were eligible. We've never paid interest on a credit card and have never had a car loan. When we bought our first home, we used 1/2 our savings for the 20% down payment and we kept the other half as a huge EF. So, technically we COULD HAVE bought a home that cost twice as much, but we chose to LWBYM. We waited a couple years after buying the home to have kids. I gave up my job to stay home and raise our son which cut our income by 50%. We are now in our third and final home (selected with retirement in mind). We paid both of the others off way in advance cuz the interest rates were quite a bit higher back then. We currently have a sizable mortgage and could almost pay it off if we needed to/chose to; but since the interest rate is historically low, we have chosen not to. DH stayed with the same company his entire career and right now is facing the possibility of a layoff as his company announced that they are going to be making some SEVERE cuts to middle management. Although he is under 55, if he gets a pink slip, he'll just retire. Our only concern at this point is Medicare or the lack thereof, but I think we'll be okay and still be able to live well in retirement, perhaps with a little less travel than what we had expected. He will receive a pension, we both will receive retiree medical when he turns 55 (however, it will be far from free), he has a healthy 401k and I have a modest IRA, in addition to the house payoff money. If we did not have our financial house in order and he got laid off, we'd be screwed as the chances of him finding an equal position for equal pay, at his age in this economy, are probably slim to none. There are a lot of people that he works with right now - really good workers and nice people - who are not sleeping well right now AT ALL.
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Jul 9, 2011 15:18:47 GMT -5
No flames from me, just congratulations. I'm glad it's all worked out for you. (Said with only the mildest of jealousy )
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Formerly SK
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Post by Formerly SK on Jul 9, 2011 15:35:23 GMT -5
About a year into our dating, DH and I moved in together and combined finances (not exactly a YM-approved decision ). We had about 83K in debt (1/3 SL, 1/3 CC, 1/3 car loan). We also had zero in retirement (we were both in our mid-20s). We immediately started contributing 15% to retirement and hit the debt hard. About five years later we had zero debt and 80K in our 401k. Now, ten years later we are still mostly debt free and have about 150K in retirement. We've lost a lot of steam in our finances in the past few years (over 60K in OOP medical expenses plus I became a SAHM) but I'm hoping we'll get back on track once I go back to work.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Jul 9, 2011 15:45:59 GMT -5
I am embarrassed to admit that my financial house didn't start to get in order until after I had to file for bankruptcy after some medical bills that I couldn't see my way out of.
I was already retired and had used my savings on the bills. So I am starting over. I have purchased a new home (yes it was with 0% down using rural development financing), but it is the only debt I have. No CC debt.
I have more in savings than I've had in a long time, but not nearly enough.
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SVT
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Post by SVT on Jul 9, 2011 18:27:18 GMT -5
Never been in CC debt without it being purposely at 0% interest. When I was younger, 16-21, I would save up my money then practically spend it all. I did buy a brand new car at 18 that I didn't need and a sport bike at 19. I put $5k of my savings on a down payment and paid it off in 2 years and I sold/paid off the bike 6 months after buying it. The reason I sold the bike and decided to pay off the car, was because of all the money I was blowing away. It was fun (sporty car and sport bike) but I was working 50 hours/week to pay for it all. I decided it wasn't worth it. I still have the car, it's 7 years old now. Being a car person, that's a surprise
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garion2003
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Post by garion2003 on Jul 9, 2011 18:32:50 GMT -5
My story is a lot like Molly's. I was in my early 30's, recently changed jobs and had no budget and was using credit cards to just buy whatever I wanted. Nothing extravangant, but a big car repair bill then a new computer suddenly put my credit card debt up into the 5 figure range! I had a basic retirement plan due to my job, but was doing nothing extra.
I realized I couldn't continue living like this. I started a budget by keeping track of what I spent on things ,then allocating appropriate amounts for fixed expenses, and the rest to what I could control (books, movies, eating out, etc - very similar to the 60% plan on MSN). Then I started putting every spare dime toward the credit card debt. I got a raise partway through that cycle, so that helped a lot, basically that all went toward the debt. I'm now debt free and even have an EF!
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Waffle
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Post by Waffle on Jul 9, 2011 18:49:31 GMT -5
My financial house isn't in order, yet. On the plus side I started putting money in my 401k as soon as it was available, thanks to conversations with coworkers who seemed to be more money savvy than me. But, I've also got way too much cc debt and not enough non-retirement savings. I've only started getting serious about the credit card debt about a year ago - I don't remember the exact catalyst, but it had something to do about thinking I didn't want to go into retirement with a bunch of cc debt.
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telephus44
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Post by telephus44 on Jul 9, 2011 19:30:47 GMT -5
My financial house was never really out of order, but about a year after we got married DH and I started taking steps to change our financial situation from "good" to "great." Yes, we're still working on that. I'm not sure if there really was a moment when we really realized we should do this, but it was about the time we started talking seriously about buying a house and having kids.
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busymom
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Post by busymom on Jul 9, 2011 20:09:09 GMT -5
Theo, don't apologize for medical debt. That is the kryptonite for a LOT of folks. DS's surprise diagnosis of a disability, and therapy was a lot of the reason our finances got so off track, but we're fighting our way back.
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dancinmama
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Post by dancinmama on Jul 10, 2011 8:45:42 GMT -5
No flames from me, just congratulations. I'm glad it's all worked out for you. (Said with only the mildest of jealousy ) underwater: No jealousy allowed. Maybe someone just starting out will read my post and know that with a little careful planning and LWBYM (ESPECIALLY when first starting out), consumer debt does not have to be "a given".
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jul 10, 2011 9:13:03 GMT -5
I have no consumer debt and I have some rentals free and clear for income. I also have an IRA and some stocks. On paper I am fine even with the downturn in RE because I'm not selling. Actually, that isn't true, I do have my old home for sale but tenants in there who are fine with it being shown because they are in no hurry to move but will if it sells. It'll probably be on the market forever but it only takes one buyer.
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luckyme
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Post by luckyme on Jul 10, 2011 9:43:08 GMT -5
Can I say that we've always had our financial house in order without getting flamed? Same here. We are able to live the way we do today, me a SAHW, 3 kids, and a modest income, solely due to having always been financially responsible/conservative. There was about a decade when DH went through a lot of lay offs: his field is industrial maintenance . So when manufacturing started going overseas he went through a lot of jobs. He finally hit an income slightly over what he was making 10 years ago. We managed OK during that time period, but there wasn't extra for investing or retirement. I would like to put more into that now, but we now have the kids getting close to college age , so don't know how that is going to pan out. We need to sit down and really take a good look at our finances going forward.
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zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Jul 10, 2011 9:52:24 GMT -5
There is still financial aid and scholarships. DD got one for 2k just for writing a paper on the first man to fly out of Tampa airport!!!
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luckyme
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Post by luckyme on Jul 10, 2011 10:07:44 GMT -5
There is still financial aid and scholarships. DD got one for 2k just for writing a paper on the first man to fly out of Tampa airport!!! I know, and that is one thing we have to consider. With our oldest now driving, I could probably work part time, but at a recent financial aid seminar, the guy said now is the time to reduce income if at all possible. With the 3 kids, and a modest income, we could probably get some decent financial aid. Just one of the things we have to discuss.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Jul 10, 2011 12:44:25 GMT -5
We somewhat always had our financial house in order. We both got undergrad and grad degrees without going into debt. We had no car debt and minimal cc debt. Our parents taught us to live within our means for both small and big ticket items (including choosing a college.)
I didn't start saving for an EF until I was gainfully employed. Our first two years, our total gross income was something like 30K, and I still managed to save 6K towards an EF.
It wasn't marriage, necessarily, that prompted me. Growing up, I always thought we were poor and on the brink of financial disaster. My parents were middle, middle class folks. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized that we weren't poor. But, not wanting to be poor is a good motivator for saving money.
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