WELCOME New Posters!!

[Peace Of Mind]

I've noticed a lot of new names/low post counts that imply we are getting a lot of new posters here.  Yay and Welcome!!!



If you want to - feel free to use this thread to introduce yourself but I'm so glad we are getting more/new people.  Not to imply that the "old" people were getting boring or anything.      I still love you all but love meeting new people too. 

[Tennesseer]

Thank you for the welcome.  I am tired of lurking.    

[Peace Of Mind]

LOL, Tenn!  Welcome!   I see you suffer from CRS disease since you think this is your first time showing yourself. 

Dark - Good point.  Maybe I should also say Welcome Back!    And if that's the case they already know where the bar is.   

[mmhmm]

Jan 8, 2015 20:15:31 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Are they really new?  Usually if I see a low post count I start looking for a regular that's been missing for a little bit.  I figure the "lurkers" are the folks that left coming back incognito.  I might be a touch jaded though.

No, they're really new. We have gotten a number of new posters lately.

[Deleted]

I don't know if I should say Welcome New Posters or thank you for the Welcome. I'm fairly new, but not bright, shiny new!

[Value Buy]

I guess most new ones are still lurkers

[Deleted]

Not know what to say. So honored. Except for Sum Dum Gai paranoid ill manners

[Deleted]

What are levels of membership?

[Peace Of Mind]

Jan 8, 2015 21:25:01 GMT -5 mmhmm said:

Jan 8, 2015 20:15:31 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Are they really new?  Usually if I see a low post count I start looking for a regular that's been missing for a little bit.  I figure the "lurkers" are the folks that left coming back incognito.  I might be a touch jaded though.

No, they're really new. We have gotten a number of new posters lately.

That's awesome!

Jan 9, 2015 16:44:00 GMT -5 alwaysbeoptimizing said:

Welcome! really, it is great to see new people join. it's a fantastic community with a lot of great perspective and knowledge.

I agree and hope more feel brave enough to come out and join us.

Jan 9, 2015 18:39:14 GMT -5 @ezzie said:

I don't know if I should say Welcome New Posters or thank you for the Welcome. I'm fairly new, but not bright, shiny new!

You now qualify for both.  New enough but around long enough to belong.  You were also one of the newbies I was thinking of.  

Jan 9, 2015 18:41:55 GMT -5 Value Buy said:

I guess most new ones are still lurkers

LOL! Based on the count when you click on "home" I think you are right.

Jan 10, 2015 10:06:42 GMT -5 @tbird said:

Jan 8, 2015 17:24:45 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

I've noticed a lot of new names/low post counts that imply we are getting a lot of new posters here.  Yay and Welcome!!!



If you want to - feel free to use this thread to introduce yourself but I'm so glad we are getting more/new people.  Not to imply that the "old" people were getting boring or anything.      I still love you all but love meeting new people too. 

But I still love you even if you are old.   

Jan 10, 2015 13:06:34 GMT -5 @taliare said:

Not know what to say. So honored. Except for Sum Dum Gai paranoid ill manners

Awwww. You were one of the newbies I was thinking of. And that's part of Sum Dum Gai's charms.   He has many.

Jan 10, 2015 13:36:05 GMT -5 @taliare said:

What are levels of membership?

New, bright and shiny.
Interesting.
Starting to annoy.
Totally annoying.

[Jaguar]

They all mostly went to WIR.

[Deleted]

Jan 10, 2015 17:11:08 GMT -5 Jaguar said:

They all mostly went to WIR.

WHAT?  Don't they care for the men over here?  Did they get scared off?

[Jaguar]

Jan 10, 2015 17:44:18 GMT -5 @ezzie said:

Jan 10, 2015 17:11:08 GMT -5 Jaguar said:

They all mostly went to WIR.

WHAT?  Don't they care for the men over here?  Did they get scared off?

Budgets and saving money, gets them every time.

[daisy]

Me me me!!!!  I'm bright shiney new, right?  

I promise to become a fully-vested YMer by posting a budget one of these days.  I'm sure it will generate controversy because I am not as frugal as everyone else, but it is what it is.  I did purchase YNAB though and I do use it!!!  Does that get me a reprieve?

[Peace Of Mind]

Jan 10, 2015 18:21:54 GMT -5 daisy said:

Me me me!!!!  I'm bright shiney new, right?  

I promise to become a fully-vested YMer by posting a budget one of these days.  I'm sure it will generate controversy because I am not as frugal as everyone else, but it is what it is.  I did purchase YNAB though and I do use it!!!  Does that get me a reprieve?

Yes and I might also add that you are gorgeous!  Your avatar is where I want to be most days - when it's not crappy out. 

ETA:  YMers LOVE "not as frugal as everyone else" so we can teach.

But you may need this if/when we offer tough love.  I'll give you one in red to hide the blood stains better. 

[Deleted]

How do we get hard hat icon. It is needed!

I will never post budget. Then you find out there isn't one!

[daisy]

Jan 10, 2015 18:37:47 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

Jan 10, 2015 18:21:54 GMT -5 daisy said:

Me me me!!!!  I'm bright shiney new, right?  

I promise to become a fully-vested YMer by posting a budget one of these days.  I'm sure it will generate controversy because I am not as frugal as everyone else, but it is what it is.  I did purchase YNAB though and I do use it!!!  Does that get me a reprieve?

Yes and I might also add that you are gorgeous!  Your avatar is where I want to be most days - when it's not crappy out. 


That's my back yard!! Well, part of it anyway.  My DD2 is an amateur photographer and after she took this pic she made it look better than it really is and I decided to use it as my avatar.  It's a very peaceful place (We have 15 acres) and I spent a lot of time down there during chemo.



ETA:  YMers LOVE "not as frugal as everyone else" so we can teach.

Cant wait!! 



But you may need this if/when we offer tough love.  I'll give you one in red to hide the blood stains better. 

Yikes!! Perhaps I should reconsider....I'm married to a shopaholic/hoarder so just remember, I'm not the financial bad guy in my relationship!

[daisy]

I guess I could do an into of sorts ..I turn 50 this year so it's a big year for me!  I want my financial house in order(ish), to move out of my disaster of an old house, to travel more maybe to even finally figure out what I want to be when I grow up sort of year.

I'm married to a great guy guy who retired at 55 last year, has a nice pension but works as much as he can teaching, running EMS and whatever else he wants to do.  Between us we have 4 kids (his are financial train wrecks), maybe more on that later; my oldest has finally figured herself out and is working 2 jobs to get herself moving forward; youngest still in school and the ONLY frugal one in the bunch.  

We earn 100+k a year but just cannot get a grip on spending(DH) and I am an enabler because he grew up poor, was poor with first wife (I believe she siphoned cash throughout the marriage because the first thing I said to him was "how the hell can u make 88k a year and be dirt poor"?) but we have an EF now (5k) and a savings account and are paying some of next month's bills with this month's checks so this is the year we will figure it all out!!  

[Deleted]

Yes, this is good news! I was here in the days when this Board was part of MSN Money and they shut down their Board and "upgraded" us to some weird site called bundle.com. It was pretty useless and most of us found our way here.

And how's bundle.com working for them?

From bundle.com's site:

"Bundle was founded in 2009 with the mission to help people make more informed choices with their money through data insight. In the subsequent three years, we created a collection of content and tools that reached millions of people.

We were excited in late 2012 to join Capital One, a company with a shared passion for changing the world through data. Through that partnership we are now able to scale our vision and impact millions more people. Bundle’s team seeded the NYC office of Capital One Labs, and we have been busy over the past year creating new data products to help Capital One customers.

We have decided to retire Bundle.com to shift our full attention to Capital One initiatives in service of our mission to Change Banking For Good. Thank you to all of our users over these years who helped to make our community and products a success."

[ZaireinHD]

yes I do notice the post count
(especially since I had a 10k post celebration)
but I notice the join date for new members
more than 6 months - not so new

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

Jan 10, 2015 19:11:10 GMT -5 @taliare said:

How do we get hard hat icon. It is needed!

I will never post budget. Then you find out there isn't one!

We already have a "Tinfoil Hat" icon - that should fit the bill.

[tallguy]

"Bungle" thread from before  

Aug 17, 2013 at 10:23am milee said:
Not sure if I'm misremembering, but if it's the site I'm thinking of, I remember at the time wondering if I was so old I was missing something or if the Bundle people were as simplistic as they appeared to be. Anyone else remember when the new editor (Kevin or something like that - knew absolutely zero about money) came onto YM to tell people how great Bundle was? The conversations went something like this:

Editor: Check out Bundle! You guys are all going to love it! It does super cool things and it's awesome!!!

YM: The super cool things appear to be incredibly simplistic. There are no tools that would be interesting or useful to anyone with more than a 4th grade education and the forum format will make it tough for people to post. You're going to drive away an existing community of fairly sophisticated users with this drivel.

Editor: But it's so shiny! Look, shiny!!!

YM: Yes, it's shiny. But we're more the nerdy, analytical, detail types who want a little more than a 5 second fix. Can you at least fix the forum and message boards?

Editor: We're so very cool and shiny. Really. You're just not seeing how very um, sparkly, our site is. Look, shiny!!!

YM: [Silence.]

Aug 17, 2013 at 5:42pm tallguy said:
Yes, his name was Mike (Michael Dang.) I remember you in particular (along with myself and maybe a couple others) giving him some very good advice on what would attract people who actually knew something about money and would want to add to their discussion board feature. Sadly, they had absolutely no clue. I also recall him becoming somewhat upset and defensive when I questioned his age and level of financial sophistication. (And yes, that was a pretty good summary of the exchange.)  

He also apparently moved on and started a NEW site about money. It is called The Billfold. I looked VERY briefly but it doesn't look very sophisticated either. If anyone wants to look more in-depth and figure out if it is any better than bungle, go ahead.   

[Deleted]

Jan 10, 2015 18:03:37 GMT -5 Jaguar said:

Jan 10, 2015 17:44:18 GMT -5 @ezzie said:

WHAT?  Don't they care for the men over here?  Did they get scared off?

Budgets and saving money, gets them every time.

I wander over there and lord knows I love a budget and saving money, but I don't think I could keep up on all the saving, decluttering, and getting in shape goal threads. 

[Chocolate Lover]

Jan 12, 2015 12:12:26 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Jan 10, 2015 18:03:37 GMT -5 Jaguar said:

Budgets and saving money, gets them every time.

I wander over there and lord knows I love a budget and saving money, but I don't think I could keep up on all the saving, decluttering, and getting in shape goal threads. 

You mean I'm supposed to keep up on the decluttering thread?  Dang, I just post randomly

[Deleted]

Jan 12, 2015 12:14:18 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Jan 12, 2015 12:12:26 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

I wander over there and lord knows I love a budget and saving money, but I don't think I could keep up on all the saving, decluttering, and getting in shape goal threads. 

You mean I'm supposed to keep up on the decluttering thread?  Dang, I just post randomly

I guess that works too.   

[Chocolate Lover]

Jan 12, 2015 12:21:19 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Jan 12, 2015 12:14:18 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

You mean I'm supposed to keep up on the decluttering thread?  Dang, I just post randomly

I guess that works too.   

I keep up, reading wise, most of the time. The work itself? Meh, not so much.

[Lizard Queen]

Jan 12, 2015 12:39:26 GMT -5 @sroo4 said:

Jan 12, 2015 2:18:09 GMT -5 tallguy said:

"Bungle" thread from before  

He also apparently moved on and started a NEW site about money. It is called The Billfold. I looked VERY briefly but it doesn't look very sophisticated either. If anyone wants to look more in-depth and figure out if it is any better than bungle, go ahead.   

Oh dear... Bungle 2.0  I am looking at it now... I don't know that this is going to be much better.   First article,  freelance budget. 

My freelance income is both variable and predictable. Right now, I have $1,030 worth of assigned work per week. This is the steady work that I’ve already arranged to do for my various clients, such as my weekly Ask A Freelancer column at The Freelancer. During the first full week of January, I was able to complete $1,311.80 because I had some extra work, and I can continue to get extra work if I pitch articles, pick up copywriting assignments, or—ideally—add another client to my portfolio.

So, for the purposes of estimation: I can predict that I’ll have at minimum a $4,120 monthly income (gross, before taxes). But here’s how I explained my 2015 income projections in my new column Tracking Freelance Earnings for The Write Life:

I’m earning around $4,500 a month now, and I’d like to push it to at least $5,000 a month by summer 2015. If I average $5,000 per month over 2015, I’ll earn $60,000 for the year, which would be incredible.

$5,000 is a nice round number to work with, budget-planning-wise. 

Oh dear.. I suspect we'll see a follow up article... "Why budgets don't work and you shouldn't even bother" 

at least one of the readers seems to have some sense: 

For me, it’s important to have savings (and if I were in freelance shoes, taxes) as part of my “fixed expenses.” I also separate out budget items like pet care and transportation costs. Otherwise, I tend to get that “WHEEEEE!” feeling that you’ve got here, spend all the money, and then don’t make my goals. So, for me, that’s an edit I’d make here: make savings and taxes a mental priority by moving them to fixed, making a more granular list for variable, and then seeing what the number looks like at the end. (Mine works out to about 10% of my net income as totally free spending money, which feels reasonable to me but I’m curious about others.)

(I also feel like a killjoy saying this but I personally would budget on what I actually made, rather than what I hoped to make, so especially since you’re not planning to make 5K/month til summer, I’d be writing my budget expecting a $4500/month income. And then anything extra you make is an exciting surprise!)

Link to article: thebillfold.com/2015/01/planning-a-2015-budget/#more-64810

Anyway... to get back on track.  Welcome (back) to our new(er) members.   

That was one of the most worthless posts that I've ever read about budgets.  Wow. 

[swamp]

Cool.

I'd like to make $20,000 per month, so I'm going to plan my budget based on that.

Foolproof, right?

[Deleted]

Well, there are people out there still taking baby steps. What's sad about the blogosphere (and that's what billfold.com looks to be) is that there's plenty of info that sounds authoritative and is really full of crap.

I LOVED the priceless paraphrase of the exchange on bundle.com! I suspect they were trying to build a site where users entered all their spending and other financial data, which would provide other users an idea of where they stood relative to averages, and, more importantly, build a giant, detailed database that the site owners could "monetize" by selling to advertisers, etc.  Problem is, you need to build a critical mass of data before people start to trust it and I don't think that ever happened because the site was so lame.

[Value Buy]

You guys are running up their viewer numbers!

[Deleted]

Jan 11, 2015 16:02:01 GMT -5 ZaireinHD said:

yes I do notice the post count
(especially since I had a 10k post celebration)
but I notice the join date for new members
more than 6 months - not so new

OH MY GOD!!!  I just looked and I joined 1-1/2 years ago!!!  Doesn't seem possible!