AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP
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Post by AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP on May 28, 2011 2:34:59 GMT -5
So after that very stressful morning when I frantically tried to transfer the cash in time for the charge to clear... turned out it was all for nothing. They had already tried to take out the cash - on FRIDAY, when the money wasn't there - resulting in overdraft #2. They didn't bother to let me know until today, a whole week after the fact. That's why I kept looking at my account and not seeing the debit. I'm mad, but also kind of over it. It is what it is. I've spoken to the manager and she knows what's going on, so I'll get a certified check from the bank today and bring it down tomorrow. Then I'll pay the remainder of the balance on Tuesday after I get paid. It's just so incredibly annoying. I'M GOOD WITH MONEY THESE THINGS SHOULDN'T HAPPEN TO ME, POOR ME, VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCES BLAHBLAH ![:'(](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/cry.png) /sarcasm. I am confused by this thread-- specifically the statement that you are 'used to banking $1,600 a month' and won't be able to do that again until August... I interpreted 'banking' as saving-- but that begs the question, where is the money that was saved? I'm assuming, but it still isn't completely clear to me, that you mean total earnings? Your earnings are reduced? In August you'll be back up to where you were? I know we've had our 'disucssions', I'm geniunely not trying to be antagonistic-- I'm just trying to clarify the term 'banking'-- is that earning, or saving?
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Firebird
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Post by Firebird on May 28, 2011 2:42:54 GMT -5
Saving. Until recently I was auto transferring the appropriate amount each month ($800 every two weeks). Lately I've been having to transfer it right back, so I stopped the auto part for now. I'll reinstate it once I have our finances well in hand.
Our EF is currently about $2k. I look forward to building it back up. Going strictly by numbers, DF and I should be able to save between $2k and $2.5k per month. Hopefully starting in August.
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AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP
Distinguished Associate
Joined: Dec 21, 2010 11:59:07 GMT -5
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Favorite Drink: Sweetwater 420
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Post by AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP on May 28, 2011 9:57:07 GMT -5
Saving. Until recently I was auto transferring the appropriate amount each month ($800 every two weeks). Lately I've been having to transfer it right back, so I stopped the auto part for now. I'll reinstate it once I have our finances well in hand. Our EF is currently about $2k. I look forward to building it back up. Going strictly by numbers, DF and I should be able to save between $2k and $2.5k per month. Hopefully starting in August. OK, now I'm really geniunely confused- $2K is all that's in the EF, or are you talking about contributing to retirement accounts? In six weeks on your plan you'd have $2,400 if you were putting it in the EF. I don't understand how the math works if you were saving that much and now everything is so tight-- or is it that you're just frustrated that you're not saving right now, and it's not really that tight? You sound a little like my wife-- she's slightly compulsive. She is a paranoid saver-- she still saves now like when we had jobs and we were broke. She keeps a miniscule amount of money in checking, and uses words like 'out of money' to describe having only $100 in checking, but $100K in savings. I'm always reminding her that if you have $100K in savings, you're not 'out of money' to which she responds with, "Yeah, but that's in savings...
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Deleted
Joined: Jul 4, 2024 2:18:56 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on May 28, 2011 10:04:26 GMT -5
"She keeps a miniscule amount of money in checking, and uses words like 'out of money' to describe having only $100 in checking, but $100K in savings. I'm always reminding her that if you have $100K in savings, you're not 'out of money' to which she responds with, "Yeah, but that's in savings..."
I think like this, though I don't have near $100k in savings. Was your wife ever a spender? If I consider savings when I'm considering how much money I have, I wouldn't have any savings.
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Firebird
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Joined: Dec 29, 2010 12:55:06 GMT -5
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Post by Firebird on May 28, 2011 10:30:24 GMT -5
I can see why it would be confusing, actually, if you didn't know the backstory. Here's the deal:
Up until recently (this month) DF and I had separate finances. For me, that meant my committed expenses were about half of my take-home income. So I've been putting away $1,600 more or less consistently since last summer. Until recently, I had around $14k in my account.
Then a lot of things happened - I made my 2010 and 2011 ROTH contributions ($10k), I had a couple actual emergencies, and I had to start making wedding deposits. I could do some from the money that I would have allocated to savings, (i.e. "I'll allocate $1,000 this month to savings instead of $1,600 and use the $600 for the deposit") but not all of them. The trouble with wedding savings is that if you don't have it right when you start, you're going to need to come up with some of it right away for deposits. You can't just save for six months and pay off the wedding in one fell swoop.
So anyway, then this month's clusterfuck happened. I'm not used to keeping a huge cushion in my checking account, because my finances are normally so tightly controlled that I never need one. A bit shortsighted on my part, since I was about to combine finances with DF and there was bound to be some transition friction, but there you have it.
I don't have a huge amount in saving right now, but obviously it adds up fast when one contributes $1,600 to savings per month. And in the normal course of things, we can do exactly that. Now that I have DF's income to play with as well, we actually should be able to save close to his entire take-home pay.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on May 28, 2011 11:34:55 GMT -5
Firebird, You are not the only one who stresses about money and is having a bad month.
I've moved our checking account to a credit union. Went to pay a bill and, by mistake, paid it from the wrong account. So it bounced, costing me $30, embarrassment and inconvenience.
Then I also moved our IRA accounts (and taxable investment account) to Vanguard - forgot to wait until the IRS check cleared. Smith Barney sent me a "returned check" statement, then the next day they sent a "reversed returned check" statement. Last week I got a letter from the IRS saying I now owed the original amount ($916) plus a $25 penalty.
I mailed them a letter of explanation, included copies from Smith Barney, and paid the $25 penalty. Since the $916 has disappeared, I'm hoping that the IRS actually does have it.
Ugh!!!
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midjd
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Your Money Admin
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Post by midjd on May 28, 2011 13:03:51 GMT -5
Oh GG, that must have been frustrating! I didn't have any troubles with the IRS this year, but had to leave a $1100 cushion in my checking account for 6 weeks because it took the Dept of Revenue so long to process paper checks (I could have paid online for $25, but some part of my brain fundamentally objected to paying them to take my money ![;)](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png) ) I started to get worried I was going to get one of those "you didn't pay" letters... and I'm a state employee so it could have been awkward. It finally cleared about a week ago, it is only by sheer luck I didn't forget it was earmarked for something else and spend/transfer it.
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TD2K
Senior Associate
Once you kill a cow, you gotta make a burger
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Post by TD2K on May 28, 2011 16:52:27 GMT -5
I'm always reminding her that if you have $100K in savings, you're not 'out of money' to which she responds with, "Yeah, but that's in savings..."
I'm also somewhat like that. Once I put money into any of my investment/savings accounts, it's in there pretty much for good. I've never taken money out of my retirement accounts.
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Gardening Grandma
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Post by Gardening Grandma on May 28, 2011 18:56:24 GMT -5
I'm always reminding her that if you have $100K in savings, you're not 'out of money' to which she responds with, "Yeah, but that's in savings..."I'm also somewhat like that. Once I put money into any of my investment/savings accounts, it's in there pretty much for good. I've never taken money out of my retirement accounts. DH is like that. After he retired, it took me and a financial planner to convince him that, now, it was OK to withdraw funds from his IRA.
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