When we last spoke, I gave you the whistlestop tour of the idiocy that was my law school tenure. Long story short, In March 2017 we were new to the NoVa area, $255k in non-mortgage debt, with maxed out credit cards, my Roth IRA almost completely cleaned out, and less than $500 cash. My 8 month pregnant wife was working a few odd shifts at the local running store to make enough money to put gas in the car, and I was panicking because I had just gotten an email saying that our homeowner’s insurance was declined because of the condition of our roof. Payday wasn’t for another two weeks, and there were enough financial deadlines between now and then that it wasn’t exactly clear how ends were going to meet.
ASIDE: We’re icky Jesusfolk, and there are a few times in our life together where we see God’s provision most clearly. This is #1 on that list. Despite a lack of planning and spending tens of thousands of dollars, we got within ~$100 of having to do some pretty desperate things to ensure that we were staying in our house. Everything had to come together perfectly to prevent us from various catastrophes.
From the depths of chaos sprouted a flower. The best thing I did was tally up the damage and get angry. In January or February, before things had become quite so dire, I got pissed off at the way things went, and I had the knock down, drag out fight that my wife and I needed. Thing is, it wasn’t that much of a fight. It was Hiroshima. I dropped a nuke.
She had no clue how bad it had gotten. I had become so efficient at patching up the financial tatters we had left at the end of each month that she thought we had hundreds of thousands fewer dollars in debt. My demand that we attend Financial Peace University wasn’t even a point of contention. The problem was blasted all across the living room. Fallout was drifting down from the ceiling, burning away our comforts and our preconceptions. That was the day everything changed.
We enrolled in and attended FPU at our church, and despite both of us knowing the material, we grew a unity of purpose that we couldn’t have done by ourselves.
Its hard to tell whether doing Dave’s plan is harder for single folks or for married couples. Personally, I think it was harder for me to do it while married. I’m a driven, all-or-nothing person, and when I commit to something, I commit wholly. My wife is likewise driven, but doesn’t have that all-or-nothing spirit. There are a few things that she pours her passion into, but most of the time her commitment lands somewhere in the middle. On something like finance, where she has no intrinsic drive, it’s a fight for her to keep up any level of intensity. Add in the fact that she has a more confrontational personality than I have, and she can steamroll me solely through inertia.
That dynamic had primed the pump for our descent into madness, and it made fixing our finances much more complicated.There was a constant tension between keeping up the intensity to a level that I felt comfortable with versus not putting my wife over her threshold where she just gives up and falls off the bandwagon. As you can imagine, my resentment from the initial accumulation of debt would recede, but I’d occasionally have to tamp down growing resentment when I felt like I was dragging her across the finish line. Conversely, she would constantly struggle with feeling like I blamed her for everything and feeling like I would never let up on the emotional pressure to keep a tight budget, forever. However, we persevered through all of this tension because we were aligned on our ardent desire to fix our financial problem.
The first step to fixing any problem is defining the problem. This is usually fairly easy in the financial realm. There are some whose eyes glaze over when they look at their credit card transaction history, but mostly its just a bit of addition and subtraction.
There are two components to quantifying the “problem” in personal finance, figuring out where you are on a broad global level, and figuring out what happens to your income on a monthly level.
The first was simple, add up the debt that we owed, add up the liquid assets, and compare. We had $255k in non-mortgage debt, a $290k mortgage, $2500 cash, and ~$65k in various retirement accounts.
The second was a bit more complex, but no more challenging. I took a few months of bank and credit card statements and categorized the expenses. I actually used mint.com to do this, as it pre-categorized most of the expenses and massively reduced my effort.That exercise has been lost to the sands of time, but two takeaways were that we spent way too much money on food (mostly on restaurants) and that Amazon was a nemesis.
Okay, so that exercise was not too bad, I do some math, we have a discussion about what we see. No biggie, right? Wrong! All of this preparatory work was rote math, now came matters of the heart.
Everybody has a motivation for wanting their finances to be a success. Most of us aren’t motivated to simply increase a number on a screen, and most of us don’t want a scrooge mcduck pool to swim in our dollars. Dave calls this the “Why”. Why do you want to be financially successful?
For me, a picture immediately clarifies in my mind. I’ll not describe it in detail, but it involves retiring early, living on land, and basically running a hobby farm. For my wife, a different picture appears, and that’s some of the problem we had to work out. Not being on the same page on the why impacted our positions when we did the monthly budget.
Budgeting sucks. It just does. For couples, it’s 3 or 4 months of fighting before you start speaking the same language. For me, it was almost 2 years before the resentment subsided. Budgets aren’t complicated, you can do one on a lined sheet of paper folded “hot dog style”. Budgets are hard, though. For those who aren’t on a budget, it feels like voluntarily putting yourself into a straightjacket.
The good news is that the feelings of restriction subside. Assuming that you’re not doing the financial equivalent of a crash diet (which is sometimes necessary), you’ll find equilibrium. The first couple budget sessions were awful. That’s where we really hashed out our velocity for paying down our debt. Dave has the concept of “gazelle intense”. your creditors are lions and you’re the gazelle. They’re more than happy to chew you up, so you need to run for your everloving life!
That message speaks right to me. I’m a binary person, and I can switch on to 100% effort. Dave has a whole bunch of mantras that his followers use to embrace the suck. The big one is “beans and rice, rice and beans”. The implication being that you’re going to be finding 50 ways to eat rice and beans because they’re really freaking cheap.
My wife cringes when she hears beans and rice. Her “gazelle intense” was eating out a couple times per month, limiting grocery spending, and flying to visit family every 6 months. Even now as I write this, my chest is tightening thinking about it. I bit my tongue many times, because my uncharitable response would have been “you entitled brat! I just spent 4 years working all day and going to school all night to provide us with a great income, and the best you can fucking give me is a reduced restaurant schedule and sticking to a grocery budget?”
Thankfully, I’m not an idiot, and found more constructive ways to describe what I was feeling. The result was a compromise on the velocity. We’d pay off the debt in 5 years. It was an uncomfortably tight budget for her, and an uncomfortably long payoff for me. However, I found that the discomfort on both sides reduced as time went on. Hers because we had additional income loosening the budget up, mine because we were consistently hitting or exceeding our payoff goals.
Anyway, our first few months, we did a paper budget and hung it in the kitchen. Dave has a great starter budget on his site that walks you through every step. It’s not complicated. The math is 4th grade. We eventually switched to a spreadsheet so that I could do projections and velocity and color code things. If people are interested, I could share, but it’s nothing all that special.
That said, I promised a budget on a lined sheet of paper, so here’s how to do it. Fold it in half “hot dog style” (so the crease runs parallel to the long side). On the first line of the left side write “Financial Priority”, on the first line of the right side write “Budget”. On line 2 Left, write “Income”. Then, on the following lines of the left hand side, make a priority order list of your financial priorities. Most people start with putting a roof over their heads, basic groceries, transportation, and utilities. Dave calls these the “four walls”, and they are the highest priority to pay, no matter how angry the collections gorilla is about that defaulted credit card.
As you continue your financial priorities, minimum debt payments will probably show up pretty early, but there may be some additional expenses that are higher priority than debt payoff. This is the “danger zone”. There’s a cutoff lurking somewhere in here where you run out of paycheck. If your aggressive debt payoff falls below that line, you’re going to be treading water. This is also where the heartache lies. Some of your ardent desires are about to be excised from your life.
Once you have your priority list, your budget is basically done. The rest is just subtraction until you run out of money. So, on your left side of your budget, you have your priority ordered budget categories. On each line, staying on the left hand side, you simply write the monthly cost of that budget category. Some (like grocery) you won’t know to the penny, but you can guess and readjust next month. You may want to put a miscellaneous category up high on the list for a few months to catch any overages.
Then, you put your full monthly income on Line 2 Right. Finally comes the most emotionally taxing part. Line 3 right equals Line 2 right minus line 3 left. Line 4 right equals line 3 right minus line 4 left, etc. You keep doing that until the number on the right hand line is zero (or close enough that the next line item would push it below zero), then you draw a big ugly horizontal line below that last number. Everything below that line isn’t important enough to get paid. If there’s something necessary sitting below that line either you rejigger the order, or it’s time to have a heart to heart with yourself.
Once you have your budget, the even harder part comes… sticking to it. Dave mentions that it should be treated as a solemn contract and I agree. you put so much effort into “negotiating” your budget, and now you’re just gonna blow through it? Nah. The discipline required is extreme at first, but it becomes habit soon enough. Submitting yourself to the process of setting your financial priorities and sticking to them is what separates those who meander financially from those who are able to achieve their goals.
I’ve heard more than a few people say that budgeting just isn’t their thing. I’ll say that I think this is mostly bullshit. I’m sure there are some out there who are naturally frugal enough to stumble into a pile of cash, but I think that one of two things is happening. Either they’re setting and achieving financial goals using informal budgeting (also known as “oof, I didn’t put as much into the retirement account this much. I’ll rein it in next month”) , or they’re not planning for the future more than a couple years in advance. I think that having goals, making a plan to achieve those goals, and executing on the plan is foundational personal finance, and it’s on top of these disciplines that everything else is built.
Next time, I’ll talk about Dave’s debt payoff philosophy, and a few ways we intentionally strayed from Dave’s plan.
I turned 56 in June and I did my first budget in my life last month. I ate beans and rice and rice and beans last week. Not a problem because I make awesome beans and rice. The rice and beans are better.
*55* What year is this? No wonder I am bad with money.
Close enough for government work.
Joe Biden Approves.
Can confirm.
You sound just as bad with me about birthdays.
If I get the month right, I’m doing good.
Except for a couple of relatives, don’t ask about birth year.
Unfortunately, the only birthday I can remember is one ex-girlfriend’s birthday. I haven’t talked with her in years, but right around her birthday, boom, the fact that it is her birthday pops into my mind. Shit, I sometimes have trouble keeping mine straight, but hers? Fuck.
As I’ve spent a long career in various financial service companies I really have enjoyed this series.
It’s always interesting how people come to terms with their finances. I had a friend who declared personal BK with literally nothing to show for it. Essentially furnished a studio apartment, ate out all the time and took trips. No car, no house, just the clothes on his back and furniture.
I’m guessing Mrs. Trashy doesn’t read articles here.
I listen to Ramsey on weekends here. He is what is on when I go to work in the early morning. From what I gather the couples who actually take his plan on have many disagreements but eventually come around to what couples do if they are going to stay together. They agree to do it as a couple..
I live in a yours, mine, and ours paradise. We haven’t seen strife in many, many years.
#nokids
I have friends who have made that work for decades and decades but had to listen to more than a few bitches about how one was not taking more responsibility than the other for some large unforeseen expenditure. Glad it is working for you and the crazy Irish girl! I trust it will keep that way forever.
She wins by a slim margin for responsibilty. Luck and foresight makes that margin disappear.
I used to enjoy listening to the Mutual Fund show on the radio with Adam Bold (he started the Mutual Fund Store, which has been acquired twice since then).
Budgeting sucks. It just does. For couples, it’s 3 or 4 months of fighting before you start speaking the same language.
So that’s my problem. I’m experiencing Premature Budgeting Fatigue. After two months, I just give up arguing.
I never was smart enough to try a budget with either of my wives. One at a time mind you I am not a Mormon. But it wouldn’t have worked if I had. Their choices for cuts would have been beer and my choices would have been car payments. I am ok with driving a piece of shit car, neither one of them would have been. Now that those marriages are over two decades in the rear view mirror of my POS car I actually stuck to a budget I made. Seems now I am married to beer though but at least we get along and she fits in the budget.
One at a time mind you I am not a Mormon.
A friend of mine has multiple girlfriends that all know about each other.
When his married friends comment about how wonderful this must be, he says to them, “Imagine having multiple wives and having all of them pissed off at you.”
The married friends say, “Oh”, and change the topic.
Seems now I am married to beer though but at least we get along and she fits in the budget.
That sounds like a good marriage.
Beer fits into the entertainment or grocery budget for me. Of course, if I get some motivation, I can brew up 5 gallons of beer for ~$30 easily.
Funny, I put bar time with the wife as an entertainment expense. That was before the end of days. We used to eat dinner at a favorite bar/restaurant once or twice a month, at the bar. It was nice. We actually talked to each other, instead of at each other.
Some (like grocery) you won’t know to the penny, but you can guess and readjust next month.
When I started tracking expenses and budgeting, I set a value for these types of things higher than past spending. This built up a reserve. After I had my reserve, I started adjusting down based on an average of past spending.
I have the reserve for a splurge here and there or in case prices rise.
It’s worked out well so far.
Who needs a budget when you have Trump bucks!? Actually my wife and I have always been bad with budgets. One day we just stopped buying stuff, came to an agreement anything over $40 needs to be discussed mutually. We still don’t really have a formal budget, but slowly we’re paying off debt and saving a little. Next year the oldest monster will be in Kindergarten. We’ll be living like royalty with one less monthly daycare payment.
I (like a lot of people) got too deep into credit card debt when I was younger.
I’m at the point now where I’ve got savings goals set for the next two years, and I’m on schedule for all of them. The savings has tightened up since the girlfriend was without a job (and is still at reduced hours), but I planned the budget on my salary alone, so that’s good.
One question I’ve got for the lot of you, is what do you do with credit card reward money? I’m at the point where cash is moved from the spending pile to the reserve pile as money is spent (rounded up to the nearest $20). So, the rewards are just building up on the cards (not the worst situation to be in).
Since I use my credit card for groceries, I cash in the rewards and use them to subsidize my groceries spending. Arbitrary, but it is working.
“cash in rewards” – apply as credit to my outstanding balance. The option to receive the money isn’t currently possible for me because I don’t have a bank account with my credit card company.
Almost all of the credit cards I’ve got will send me a check… which would then make me deposit them into my checking account.
As it’s been, I’ve just been letting them build up.
It depends on your reward program. Typically, the credit card companies cash you out at value of 1/2 cent per point. You can typically redeem points for gift cards for around 1 cent per point. If they offer gift cards you can use where you would otherwise spend cash then the gift cards are a more valuable reward.
I use my points to buy more stuff, I use my Amazon (Chase) card pretty much for everything, pay it off at the end of the month. I don’t let the points accumulate too much, use them every 3-4 months.
Yeah… I’m getting between 2% to 5% depending on the card I’m using and where I’m using it. The amounts aren’t huge, but I’m trying to decide the best way to use them.
Of course, I also save all my singles and change. The singles get taken into the bank when I’ve got $250, and split between a home repair fund and a “fun” fund. The change goes into a growler that gets rolled up when it’s full and gets put entirely in the “fun” fund. That’s the money that is spent on vacations, gambling, high end liquor, etc.
In 2016 I had a come to Jesus moment when my past life ended the prior year with the crash of oil prices. I had the money in the bank to clear them all just like I had done every month prior to being laid off. But I didn’t. Because I am an idiot. And an asshole. And other things. I cut the fucking things up and put them on payment plans. Hence the beans and rice rice and beans four years later when I finally realized what an idiot I am. I mean I always knew I was an idiot but it took me four years to get sick of it.
That’s where I’m getting concerned about the future. I have no idea where to park my excess funds: savings seems like it’ll lose based on inflation; the stock/bond markets are being propped up by the Fed in a bubble; Gold/Silver seem inflated now (but may be the best choice); crypto seems like random speculation (one step below gold/silver); lead would require a lot of training and seems expensive as hell now.
Cliche, but invest in skills.
Ya, I should have learned to code in my free time!
I’m in a niche industry (call center telephony), and have some (old) experience with coding already. I suppose I could try to get my company to pay for the Cisco certifications (even though the network track would not be of interest to me).
Credentialism has it’s problems thanks to academia, but having something tangible to aim for is motivating.
Invest in more brewing equipment/skills after TSHTF getting loaded will be more important than ever, a good brew master will be able to write his own ticket.
Shit… I’ve brewed once during the lockdown, and I still haven’t even tapped that beer. Since I’m still working and getting paid, I’ve been trying to spread the love around at my local breweries.
I don’t know/have no fucking idea. If I had excess I would buy ammo. and a new gun.
If you have maxed out your 401(k) then look at commercial real estate. If you haven’t maxed out then get to it.
Maxing out the 401(k) runs into the same problems of what to do with the cash.
Commercial Real Estate also seems like a market that will be crashing in the next 12-18 months.
Everything seems so overbought. I’m tired of dumping money into financial services, commercial real estate seems set for a crash, residential/rental is hard to make a return on, franchise takes work and time. 401k/Roth win by default, which just feeds more money to Wall Street…
I’m still in my early 40’s, so I can buy the dip during a crash. The question is if there will ever be a recovery and what’s going to happen with currency, inflation, and other items.
I’ve been contemplating if there’s a big enough real estate crash if it’ll be worth buying some nearby houses to rent out.
/queue Cancelled screaming NOOO!
There are always bargains available in single family rental property, but it isn’t an investment it is a business. Investments are passive. Neither finding deals, nor managing rentals is passive. You don’t buy property at market value. You buy from motivated sellers. Of course that means 1. you need to find them, which means marketting not just looking in the MLS and 2. you are buying distressed property and putting it back in service most of the time. If you are at all handy, and patient you can make a good living and eventually end up with wealth. If you are thinking you can just write a check and make money you will be sad.
During the hyperinflation in 1920s in Germany, people were speculating on the stock market. That’s one way to fight the inflation.
and I am now Cancelled because I made a stupid joke a few days ago and changed my name to keep it going and then forgot to change back. But I kind of like fooling myself into thinking I am now anonymous.
Neph – Words of wisdom from a real estate appraisal continuing education instructor: “A certificate of deposit will never call you in the middle of the night to tell you the furnace has crapped out.”
I’m just trying to find the best use for excess cash in the current times, and am seriously lost.
Cancelled:
Yeah… I am not handy, and I’m well aware of it.
GT:
A CD will also only return a sadly anemic return in the current troubling times.
well, you won’t get the double digit returns generally, and you may at some point end up owning property, but there are always opportunities to make private mortgage loans.
I’m just trying to find the best use for excess cash in the current times,
I got nothin’
Buy real stuff; useful stuff; stuff that you will always need and can use for years to come. {assuming hyper inflation}
I’m pretty sure your named started with a j… or a y. But I’m pretty sure that avatar is Shodan, maybe.
Dude, I’d know that cat anywhere.
Jarflax.
Bite your tongue. My avatar is the Cheshire Cat from American Mcgee’s Alice. A fantasticly creepy and beautiful game, which unfortunately does not work well on modern PCs
Just in case Cancelled… you know there was a sequel, right? In fact, I think it’s in my Steam and Origin library.
The sequel didn’t live up to the original for me. It wasn’t the gameplay so much as the visuals and music that made the original so appealing. And some of it was probably the difference in me, I don’t have the patience to die 10,000 times trying to figure out a long platforming sequence anymore.
That one comic that Penny-Arcade had to take down.
Weird, weird how memory works. That was seventeen years ago.
During the last real estate crash, when SFRs were plummeting in value, apartments were increasing in value. Rents rose consistently during the crash and in the succeeding years. Unless you are anticipating the apocalypse, you should take another look.
Think we know what this guy’s retirement plan is.
https://twitter.com/knot_agency/status/1295790761787772931
What do you mean? He wants to work?
I’d work for that guy in a second.
#metoo
Wrong country. He is in CA.
There are things happening here locally about expanding the Covid theater. I am………………
The mob finds him and ensures he never works again. Or worse, the feds do, and he pays for the privilege of never working again.
Fuck yeah. That is the State of Jefferson right there. Only wish it was reality, instead of the north state being under occupied rule.
I’ve always avoided debt, other than car payments and they were always manageable. Thrifty from childhood, being poor is sometimes an asset. I decided at 45 I wanted to retire at 55, seemed like a good idea. Mrs F worked, managed her own money but she too was a saver. Biggest thing was to pay off the house ASAP, which I did. Was able to get my son through college without any debt, he worked a lot but I was very financially instrumental. My daughter decided not to go, though in hindsight she realizes her life would have been much different had she gone.
At 55 we were able to retire comfortably, not extravagantly, but we traveled a little, she has traveled extensively, more than 20 trips abroad, including the 7 continents. My preference was fly in fishing trips in Canada. Even now we live within our income. A couple years ago we went with a living trust, our kids are not the same as we were with our financial planning.
Helps that both Mrs F and I are pseudo tightwads. Tight as a drum for some things but help others financially. The stock market has been our friend the past 25 years.
I haven’t been checking my 401k plan since January. Now that we’re back to stock market records, I checked. Apparently, my balance was down $120k in the first quarter.
Thanks for the article, Trashy. It’s easy to lose track of your finances when you look at what is likely coming in the near future. Long term investments right now seem like a total crap shoot, but one thing is true: having savings (even if low yield) will never be something you wish you hadn’t done.
Oh yes. There is no substitute for an emergency fund.
Thanks for sharing.
I’ve got a bit of a problem as a compulsive spender myself – may share more about that in the future.
My main “problem” with trying to budget historically has been a lack of consistency in “life” – between being in and out of the military, moving in and out of the military, etc. I just build up my debts. I’ve paid off two cars in full, 2 personal loans from usaa in full- but then maxing out my cards again, I took a loan from my tsp to pay them back – then maxed them out again while paying back that loan….(and to “assist” with “moving expenses” I took another personal loan) – and now I have my mortgage.
Still – things are fairly consistent now…and if I can be patient, I think I can take my time to address stuff – schedule is good now other than the reserve stuff – which can provide more money, but which is also a schedule stressor and potential unseen costs for travel/food/etc.
At least now that I’m back into gaming – having bought a stack of cheap games at the same time, I shouldn’t need to make anY more casual purchases for a while (lots of flicks to catch up on in my collection too).
We’ll see ;p
Board or Video games?
I’ve got spares of both that I can share.
Well, I’ve got plenty of Xbox games already (and just found out how to hack my snes rom library onto my snes classic).
As far as board games…I’d need at least one person to play with and that isn’t likely to change in the short term ;p
/points at Boite a Jeux and Board Game Arena.
Same handle on both as I use here. Feel free to hit me up.
I really like this series, especially since it has a happy ending (so far 😉 I am really impressed that you managed to come back from that far down with the relationship intact. For all my kvetching about horses I’m fully aware that they were just a proxy for my/our inability to communicate and care for the other. There’s some old saw about money not mattering but just being a means of keeping score. I don’t want to keep score in my relationship but I kind of do.
Back when I was first out of the military, newly married (first wife), and going to school on the GI Bill + an academic scholarship that came along a little later – when we first moved in to married student housing we decided to find our financial floor. We bought a big bag of flour (15 – 20 lbs) and a similar sized bag of pinto beans. We got the government cheese and the cheapest meat-like substance (hot dogs IIRC). I made flour Tortillas and refried beans and we lived primarily on Burritos for lunch and dinner. The two of us lived on $50 a month for food – this was the early 1980’s. We never bought sodas or even beer for the first couple years.
My current wife has never lived like that and I’m not sure how she would deal with it. Fortunately, we have pretty good financial reserves and income property (all paid off) as well. I’m not exactly sure how we are going to get through getting our two grade school kids through to adulthood – if worse comes to worst we’ll have to pack up and head back to the US (wouldn’t be a total downside for me) where education/living costs are not so crazy.
For the first time in my life, I’m living Month to month instead of paycheck to paycheck, even that is a wonderful feeling, breathing space……..
I lived month-to-month for 20 years in the army. Even when the military went to 2X a month I stayed to one. I could take the bigger amount and buy something without having to worry about it, budget the remainder of my pay for the rest of the month. OTOH I wasn’t buying any big ticket items, save a little in case of car repair, ec.
Alone helps a lot, not in a good way personally but Financially it’s pretty smooth, I know exactly what goes in and out, and can adjust, truly a good thing for me,
I’ve been able to avoid a lot of debt outside my student loans for my useless degree (and small car loans, never over $4500). And I’ve avoided having to pay off those student loans by being poor, Income Based Repayment that equals $0 a month, that’s a payment I can make! But now, I’m guessing starting the next tax cycle I’m gonna have to face those loans.
Also, I feel very privileged that a budgeting master deems paying an internet cartoonist monies to be a good choice, that’s why you are SUPREME OVERLORD.
I just give almost all my money to mrs. pistoffnick. I keep $100 a week for walking around money. Hardly ever spend it all – the rest goes into the gun savings fund.
Hmm. Time to set a new budget for me and the Mr too. The move to Cali and house selling/buying racked up some cc debt and it’s making me feel queasy.
Maybe not this weekend (anniversary) but the next one…
It would indeed be helpful to use this method instead of having it seem like it’s all coming from me.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for writing this series, and hope you keep them coming. They’re inspiring me. I’m not in any sort of trouble because my needs are few and I have zero interest in impressing the neighbors, but I could definitely be doing better with my budgeting than I am.
I have learned to budget my Firsts to several times a week. Firsting too often was leading to soreness and irritated skin. Now that it’s down to a few times per week I get a larger high.
They have ointment that will help with that chafing.
+ Bag Balm
You can get it at Fleet Farm or Macs. Both have stuff you just wouldn’t expect. Fleet Farm is the best place to buy can n st.
To buy candy. Autocorrect sucks
You rang?
That’s what I ended up doing with pot. If you’re smoking it all the time, you stop noticing that you’re high. Better to give yourself time to notice the lack before indulging again.
You got beat by a guuuuurl this afternoon. On a libertarian website, you got beat by a girl at your chosen game.
If I had intended to be first in the PM links, I would have been first. A true First is about more than being first. But even Michael Jordan missed the occasional shot.
Have you been raiding Kanye’s stash again?
I’ve told this story before, but I got lucky because I met my spousal unit when we were both attending the MBA program at the University of Alberta. Having formal financial training gave us a common “language” to talk about finances, and we’d both been impressed with the “magic” of compound interest early on (pro tip: it’s only “magic” if people owe you money — if you owe them money, it’s the single-biggest-obstacle to developing long-term wealth, or, if you prefer more colourful langauge, it’s the proverbial millstone around your neck).
The second thing we’ve done is buy housing in a rising market, pay it off quickly, and then move to another rising market that’s temporarily depressed; we’ve pulled this “trick” four times in our marriage, and have pocketed the difference each time, which has probably been the best money-making move we’ve done, much to the chagrin of our financial advisor who can’t match the returns (but is better at tax-planning). This was a combination of some foresight and more luck, for which we are thankful. It also made us understand why so many of the people we’ve known who’ve retired from major employers like Telus have pulled up roots and headed to the Maritimes — the cost of living there is a fraction of what it is even on the Prairies, and you can buy very impressive homes in (say) Halifax for half the price of a “meh” home in Calgary or Edmonton. That leaves a lot of money to enjoy retirement, rather than just endure it, and the international airports there are muuuuuuch closer to the great cities of Europe than Edmonton’s is.
And of course, there’s the L’il ‘Rona, the ‘Vid, the Wu Ping Cough, the CCP flu, that lovely gift from the CCP that just keeps taking all over the world, whether directly or by driving our Moral and Intellectual Superiors™ to fits of political and economic madness. I have no idea where our finances will be a year from now, or even if my country will still be together five years from now, and for all I know, a lifetime of planning and craft could get flushed down the drain through no fault of our own.
May you live in interesting times indeed.
I peeked at my deferred comp today. It had a nasty v-shaped dent from Q1, but it up to just shy of the last purchase price of my house. I actually do have a positive net worth (but there’s not enough to retire on in there)
Sorry, I’m late to this thread. I’ll post my responses to topics brought up above:
Neph “What do you do with credit card reward money?” If you’re asking how to track it in a budget, I include mine in the Income as either its own line or as Misc/Additional Income. If you’re asking what should you do when you’ve earned any reward money, my general philosophy is to cash it in ASAP. For my USAA Visa credit card, I can immediately apply the reward money to my account and I do that whenever I log into the account. For my Discover Card, as soon as I have enough to get a gift card for a retailer/restaurant that I know I’ll be buying from soon, I order the card (or electronic gift card so I have it immediately). For my CitiCard Mastercard, they make me wait until I’ve accumulated $50 before I can request a paper check – I hate this card’s approach the most because they make me wait and it ‘s a damn paper check sent via snail mail.
Neph – “I have no idea where to park my excess funds” If you look at my “how I retired” article, you’ll see that I recommend investing in the stock market. I know ypu’re concerned about the stock/bond markets being propped up, but if your horizon is more than 10 years, I point you to this article
I think you said you’ve maxed your 401K. Do you have a Roth IRA yet? If not, you could put money into that.
I also wanted to say thanks to Trsh for another great article. I think I replied to the last GlibFin article that I’m lucky that Mrs. Nomad is of the same mindset as me – a good saver and also good at sticking to a budget. But she’s so used to that mindset that she gets very worried about spending money in retirement because she doesn’t see the regular income from employment. I’ve had to review our budget with her so she wouldn’t feel guilty spending a bit extra on golfing. I showed her that we’re under-running on multiple other budget lines that the additional golf expenses were easily absorbed. And she deserves to enjoy herself.
Thanks for the series. I am lucky in that I found “The Tightwad Gazette” in my early twenties and through that “Your Money or Your Life”. I have a mortgage and some student loans (and a zero interest car loan – I chose that over paying cash). But, I’m on track to retire comfortably, my bills are comfortably less than my income, I’m able to travel. I have no credit card debt. I feel like a success, but others are way ahead of me. That’s ok.
I used to tell people that I would feel affluent if I could go to Barnes and Nobles, buy what I wanted that day and not have to think about the light bill. I’ve been there for years now, so that’s why I think I’m a success.
I don’t have a budget, but when I feel like my expenses are getting out of hand, I track every penny and think about whether I like spending that much on that category (see “Your Money or Your Life”), for a few months. I only have to do this every couple years.
I’m livestreaming tonight’s Glibs.com meetup.
I was expecting someone watching the DNC.
I may be into some weird shit, but that’s even too perverted for me.
I’m surprised you have limits.
I’m just lazy.
The man’s only human, Chafed.
I’ve read HM’s bio. I don’t think that’s true.
I’m getting a bone graft in two days. From what I’ve read, it may introduce some animal cells into me. Or cadaver. Being undead would be cool.
Jeebus HM. I’m sorry to hear that. What’s going on?
Long story, but the short of it is that a root canal got infected pretty badly, so I have to get what’s left extracted and then repair the damage to the jawbone and be thankful I didn’t get meningitis and/or sepsis.
Sorry to hear this. I thought my numerous gum graft surgeries were unpleasant.
That’s no fun. I hope this goes well for you.
Hoping for the best too and a speedy recovery.
How many times, HM? Just because Asian princess says her father is out of town on business doesn’t make it so.
If I haven’t learned by now…
Sadly predictable
https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/08/bat-wielding-man-terrorizes-se-portland-businesses-over-black-lives-matter-signs-cops-and-shops-say.html
I’m surprised he isn’t charged with a hate crime.
Oh, he was
Somehow I missed that.
That’s exactly how it works in places full of sectarian violence, like northern India or Burma or Pakistan, etc.. An outrage (real or imagined) is spread across phone texts or social media and it causes vigilante groups to form and attack other communities in vengeance. Then that act spurs revenge from the other side. Over and over again. Unless something changes very soon, we will be heading down the same path.
This is what worries me. There appears to be a collection of mayors and governors that are oblivious. I’m a bit surprised it hasn’t happened in Portland.
Me too. There’s no special dirt in Ireland or El Salvador.
How you gonna stop it from devolving into full out tribal war? We know how prisons do it.
First rule of finding yourself in a hole, stop digging further?
If you keep digging far enough, you’ll come out the other side.
True, but it’s not your digging that is causing the problem. How do you get the tribalists to stop digging?
Fill in the holes behind them.
Ditch the analogy. What can the average Joe do to help stop the descent to madness? Just be a good guy and post memes on Twitter?
I dunno that Joe Sixpack can. It’ll take someone or people with respect and authority to oppose it. The Army McCarthy hearings- that’s what it would take to put the brakes on it.
The other problem is that there’s not many institutions and people left with universal appeal.
Second way is it descends far enough into savagery that either one side achieves victory or the general populace rises up in exhaustion, or more often supports a strong man, and crushes the extremist elements. See end of the Cultural Revolution, French Revolution, 1920’s Germany, etc.
The second scenario is straight out of road to serfdom. The default position of human societies doesn’t inspire hope.
Listening to people talk about their personal finances is like listening to adults talk about their HS sex life.
Makes you nostalgic?
Yes. Miss that geology that bored me with rocks.
Well good thing for you that my HS sex life is my personal finances.
^Why are we so eager to share our experiences online? Statute of limitations, HM.
https://youtu.be/83uFs-o1yBA
Well, that was the cutest song about enjo kosai I’ve ever heard.
Yasushi Akimoto’s life work.
And he married one of the girls from Onyanko, too.
Awkward, confusing, and over too quickly?
Don’t forget morally questionable.
Looks like fatty has a taste for dogs.
https://nypost.com/2020/08/17/kim-jong-un-orders-pet-dogs-to-be-confiscated-in-pyongyang/amp/
They went from bark to “bark”.
He knows how to WOK your dog, amirite ?
*Bites Tres*
/rolls up newspaper
BAD SCONNIE! BAD!
WTF did they think would happen?
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2020/08/18/cant-make-it-up-elizabeth-warren-featured-speaker-on-dnc2020-native-american-caucus-livestream/
You ever get the feeling that everything online is like real life except the emotional manipulation is cranked up to 11?
It’s from not being physically in the same room. Few people who won’t hesitate to SCREEE online would do the same to your face.
It’s not just fear of getting punched in the nose, either. Being physically near someone and looking them in the eye makes them human and thus harder to rant at than an abstract idea or stereotyped amalgam of “others.”
Maybe I have been a bit more abrasive online than I am in real life, but not much. That’s gotta be weird to be an anonymous keyboard warrior and then be a Walter Mitty in meat space. That sounds like hell.
I am by far more vocal online because I am surrounded by people who staunchly believe things that make no sense, and spending all of my time arguing with true believers is exhausting.
Vocal is different. You’re well within glib’s wide scope of respectful disagreement.
Only in real life? Have you seen the nonsense people here believe? Astrology, cryptozoology, limited government, individual rights…
ITS HER TRUTH!!! VALUE HER LIVED EXPERIENCE!!
She personally suffered on the trail of tears and was forcibly sterilized.
Is Rachel “Ain’t Jemima” Dolezol leading the African American panel discussion?
Why not? She believes it’s teue.
That will never be misused.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/08/18/university-minnesota-medical-school-application-question-racism-george-floyd-rayshard-brooks/
“This material is irrelevent to the study of medicine and any institution which would include it in a medical school application is irredeemably racist and should be dissolved, with the faculty and administrators barred from any instructional, government, managerial, or medical post for the remainder of their lives, or from any post which might influence those in such positions.”
“[A]n application cannot be rejected based on choosing not to answer this question or based on how it may be answered,” she said.
Go for it. She seems trustworthy.
“Prove that I did!!”
**Crosses arms smugly**
But in order to do SCIENCE we need diversity on our team.
And by diversity I don’t mean shallow stuff like different medical experiences and ways of thinking. I mean diversity important stuff like the color of the team members’s skin.
It’s like you don’t even prog, man.
“sociocultural humility”
There sure area lot of ways to say ‘whitey bad’.
Trashy – thanks for writing these. They’re very well-conceived and well-executed.
Yes they are and they depress me to no end…
6.5 million views. Kim Klacik. ???
In case you missed it: https://mobile.twitter.com/kimKBaltimore/status/1295461903268040707
MAGA, bitches.
Morning, Sean and Lack. Yes, at the end of her walk drugs fall out of her ass.
Morning.
Yeah, I know… I already posted it once myself.
Nice avatar, btw.
I’m a huge fan. Some nice camera work there for the foot/shoe enthusiasts.
Some fresh ideas and a great rack. Would subscribe to her Newsletter.
https://mobile.twitter.com/ElijahSchaffer/status/1295977007390568451
2020 symbolism.
https://mobile.twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1295905168744038400
O M G
???
In the sidebar:
“Umm…yeah. We totally meant for her to do that. Everything’s following the script. Smooth as silk!”
https://covid19.nj.gov/faqs/nj-information/travel-and-transportation/which-states-are-on-the-travel-advisory-list-are-there-travel-restrictions-to-or-from-new-jersey
Hot tip, avoid NJ. They don’t want your money anyway
https://www.fox29.com/news/florida-man-arrested-for-possession-of-child-porn-animal-cruelty-and-bestiality-deputies-say
Oh Florida man…
The mug shot is exactly what you would expect. ?
He makes me want to rethink my stance on abortion.
Mornin’ Glibs!
Mornin’, TARDy!
He don’t FEEL tardy!
Actually I was tardy this morning. On account of having to clean up multiple piles of cat puke before leaving for work.?
Mornin’
So… most people can’t do it?
I think both me and the wife fall into this category. Myself moreso.
Also, fuck Amazon. Way too convenient for anyone’s good.
Something to help you start your day with a smile.
https://mobile.twitter.com/LionelMedia/status/1296015029075169280
Smile achieved 🙂
I smirked a little.
Great Googly Moogly! Westernsloper is younger than me?
Good googly moogly! Here’s a tune what for activating them ants in your pants.
Good morning, hot Scruffy.
It was a Zappa reference but Goog Morging to you, Sirrah!
I’ve got all the ingredients to start making my stew, except time. And no that was not an autocorrect for thyme.
Beef? Vegetable? Rabid Democrat?
Vegetable stew with beef.
My mental plan was thus:
Cut up and render a few rashers of bacon in the stewpot
Sear the stew meat in the bacon fat, remove and reserve the beef.
Add onions to pot (and maybe some more bacon if fat reserves are low.)
After onions are at least translucent, add carrots, potatos and celery.
Add wine, beef stock, and herbs to pot, get bacon crud off bottom and into the mix.
When carrots and potatos start getting soft, add canned vegetables.
Thicken the darn sauce by some combination of reduction and/or starch.
Return beef to mix.
I want the meat to be more intact than the veggies.
I’m also debating whether to use the MSG which hasn’t arrived yet.
Also being debated – thickening to the point of being a gravy that I pour over egg noodles.
Sounds like a good plan. Now I’m hungry. Scraping with wine is always good.
Shirley you’ll not need any MSG if using a decent beef stock?
Store bought stock, can’t tell if ‘decent’.
Well I suppose time will tell and you can always add it if you need it. Good morning, squire.
You had me at “bacon.”
Morning, Treacherous Lady.
Treacherous? Moi?
Please disregard the black cat on my lap. It’s not my familiar or anything.
Good morning, limey/JD.
Cook the carrots longer than the potatoes. Most potatoes will turn to mush before the carrots are done. Depending on the cut, keep that beef in the stew pot for the entire time or it might be tough. You forgot quartered mushrooms, black pepper flakes and dumplings as a topper. Still sounds pretty darn tasty. Now I want stew.
I can only cook with ingredients I have.
THIS! IS! GLIBTA! *kicks UCS down the well*
*grabs Festus’ foot, drags him into well with me*
You should get a deeper well.
Well rescue? Call Tacoma FD.
Stove top or slow cooker?
stovetop. See plan in response to tardis, above.
::Kif sigh::
Not just my tax dollars at work – yours, too.
Well I contend that we already paid to buy the commies a bunch of guns and ammo, so what’s a little more waste and graft.
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/08/blm-protesters-smash-pinata-effigy-of-wife-of-minneapolis-police-union-chief-in-their-driveway/
JFC.
Larping. Fuck the pain away in real time.
I must admit that the best part of that song parody from the DNC was the singer doing his Jamie Gumm impression right at the start.
The only DNC song I’m interested in.
I’m very curious how many people you could get to click on that link before getting kicked off the Twitter for being “misleading”.
Wow. 2014? That’s racist.