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35 votes
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Housing market rate hikes. Media doom and gloom or real hard times ahead?
Rate hikes. "COVID mortgages" up for renewal at much higher rates. Wondering how badly the current rate environment is affecting people IRL. How much of this do you think (or know) is actual bad...
Rate hikes. "COVID mortgages" up for renewal at much higher rates.
Wondering how badly the current rate environment is affecting people IRL. How much of this do you think (or know) is actual bad news vs. just media doom and gloom?
21 votes -
How do you manage your finances?
Always curious what others peoples finances look like, what they use to manage it, etc. Do you use budgeting software? Do you follow a certain "method" to achieve your financial goals? How strict...
Always curious what others peoples finances look like, what they use to manage it, etc.
Do you use budgeting software? Do you follow a certain "method" to achieve your financial goals? How strict are you with your budget? Do you automate your retirement investments/contributions?
45 votes -
How to raise $89 million in small donations, and make it disappear
6 votes -
Borges and $: The parable of the literary master and the coin
1 vote -
Adam Savage's advice for pricing freelance work
6 votes -
Swedish retirees demand fairer pensions for women – The Old Lady Patrol's protest against the country's pension system enters its tenth year
5 votes -
Google to prohibit personal loan apps from accessing user photos, contacts
11 votes -
What's the best way to save/store money?
Lately I've been thinking about withdrawing most if not all my money off the bank and investing in a safe box, but I'm not sure how wise of a decision that is. How does everyone here go about...
Lately I've been thinking about withdrawing most if not all my money off the bank and investing in a safe box, but I'm not sure how wise of a decision that is. How does everyone here go about that? Do you keep your money in the bank? Do you have a safe box at home? Why one over the other? Do you invest some of it, say in things like cryptocurrencies/stocks? What would you recommend or advice someone to do in regards to this if you could?
12 votes -
Why the South has such low credit scores
9 votes -
The greatest tax system in the world – why can't America be as great as the Faroe Islands?
14 votes -
China’s global mega-projects are falling apart
8 votes -
What’s driving TV’s un-renewal wave
7 votes -
What are your financial goals? What habits, practices, and strategies do you use to reach them?
How do you spend your money? How do you want to spend it? How do you save? I'm curious what strategies my fellow Tildenizens use to spend efficiently, build savings for retirement and other...
How do you spend your money? How do you want to spend it? How do you save?
I'm curious what strategies my fellow Tildenizens use to spend efficiently, build savings for retirement and other purchases, and otherwise maximize their financial lives. How do you use your money to maximize your happiness?
Here's me: I'm young, single, thankfully debt-free, and my annual salary is about $70,000. I'm able to save approximately 35% of that by living relatively frugally:
All My Stuff
- I live in a big city, but not an expensive one. I pay rent, but it's pretty low for the amenities I have access to.
- I live with a roommate to reduce expenses. We're on the same wavelength about minimizing spending.
- I don't own a car and rely on public transit and carpooling to get places. I also work from home.
- I go out of my way to shop at the cheapest grocery stores in the area to cut my weekly bill in half (or more).
- I have three credit cards, but I always keep my utilization low and never miss a minimum payment.
- I have a separate bank account (checking) for bills than for general spending. I set up my direct deposit to automatically put in all necessary funds for bills into the bill account. Then I set up autopay with all my providers so I don't miss payments. I have one month's buffer in this account in case there's some issue with my paycheck.
- I contribute as much as I can to my employer-provided 401(k) savings account every month and invest in index funds. I can get to about 65% of the IRS max contribution limit with my income.
- I contribute to a Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA) every month to reach the IRS max contribution limit for the year, and invest in index funds.
- I have a high-deductible healthcare plan (HDHP) which lets me use a Health Savings Account (HSA). My company pays a little into my HSA each month, and I contribute a similar amount to reach the IRS max contribution limit. Instead of using the HSA to pay for medical expenses, my strategy is to pay out of pocket for all expenses and simply invest the funds in my HSA in index funds to maximize their growth potential. Since this account is so tax-advantaged, investments here are more efficient (as far as I can tell) than in any other account I know of.
- I have a taxable brokerage account that I contribute a small amount to each month. I know this isn't technically as efficient as putting more into my 401(k), but I figure I might want to use some of this money before I retire. I also kind of like betting on random stocks. Irresponsible, I know, but it's like $20 at a time. Gotta have fun?
- I set up my TreasuryDirect.gov account to automatically buy I-Bonds while inflation is high, but only on the order of $100/mo. I don't know when I should stop exactly... we'll see what the interest rates are in May?
I'm not really sure what I'm saving for here. I know you're not supposed to make financial decisions without a plan, but I honestly don't know what I want to do in the next 5 years, let alone 50. People tell me that I should buy a house to build equity instead of throwing away money in rent, but I'm enjoying not dealing with maintenance, and I don't know if I want to stay in this city for more than a few years. It's cute, and I have friends here, but city hall is full of goobers and there are too many highways nearby messing with the feng shui.
Someone also suggested that I buy a small property and rent it out through a property management company, even if I'm still renting myself. Besides landlords being the scum of the earth and the moral quandaries that might present if I were to become one (even a tolerable one), that also feels like a lot of work. Possibly also financially unrealistic considering I'd need a 20% down payment on a house I don't intend to live in, and... I don't have that.
I also might switch careers soon-ish, possibly to software engineering, which has a better earnings potential. I've avoided it in the past because I feel like I'm just not good enough at programming. I don't know how I would properly improve those skills now that I'm out of school.
My pipe dream is that I want to build a really fricking big building. That's my goal. I want it to be really sick and have big Gothic spires and gargoyles and stained glass windows and cool stone carvings everywhere (but also be ADA accessible and not full of asbestos, because it's 2023). And people would come from miles around and say, "Wow, that's a cool building." All the non-racist secret societies could meet in its various hidden chambers and do whatever they do. I would hire whoever builds concert halls to design the acoustics so I could have some bomb choirs going in there, and make the floor sprung so they could do those crazy ballet dances too. Maybe at the same time. Also there would be a moat full of lava. And a robot dragon to guard it all just in case. I think this would cost upward of $500 million in total. Unfortunately that's slightly out of budget, even at my abnormal savings rate.
But priorities change, right? I figure that if I can save enough to make myself think I might be able to build my big-ass building one day, when I eventually realize, "Wait a second, my kid needs to go to college," I'll accidentally have enough to make that happen.
How does this compare to your life? What tips, tricks, and ideas would you like to share to help each other out? What are your financial dreams? I'm really interested in chatting with everyone about this.
6 votes -
Beauty gap: How the cost of living crisis is ruining women’s confidence
18 votes -
Denmark's new coalition government is set to scrap a bank holiday to boost defence spending – hopes of boosting productivity and economic activity
4 votes -
Fast-rising electricity bills and surging food price inflation are taking their toll in Sweden – Matmissionen and the social stores offering food at rock-bottom prices
7 votes -
Norway-style windfall tax on energy companies could raise £33.3bn extra by 2027, plugging a hole in UK government finances, analysis has found
4 votes -
How to pay your rent with your open source project
5 votes -
Grab – Asia's Uber – knows customers and drivers so well it can vet them for loans
6 votes -
Mexican scam loan apps will edit your face onto X-rated photos and send them to your family
8 votes -
How cryptocurrencies actually work
7 votes -
What happened to the debts of conquered countries?
6 votes -
Dollar Street: Pictures of worldwide living situations arranged by income
7 votes -
The Fed’s entry into check clearing reconsidered
3 votes -
IWTL financial literacy
It's a very hard topic to research lately because of the crypto-bros lately and it's very hard to trust a stranger on youtube spouting financial advice. Can tildes suggest any must-read books...
It's a very hard topic to research lately because of the crypto-bros lately and it's very hard to trust a stranger on youtube spouting financial advice.
Can tildes suggest any must-read books and/or resources to become more financially literate?
Background: I'm a software engineer from Germany, I'm making decent salary, but I've always been incredibly bad with money. I just spend what I need and almost never look after my financial state. The result, as you can imagine, is a very low rate of savings and a lot of unrealized gains.
Honestly, it's kind of embarrassing to ask, I lucked into a great industry, but has been so irresponsible with my money, I guess the first step is acceptance.
8 votes -
Kidney failure, emergency rooms and medical debt: The unseen costs of food poisoning
3 votes -
IRS will soon require selfies for online access
18 votes -
Mortgages are a manufactured product
12 votes -
Sweden has earmarked $661 million for a temporary scheme to help the most affected households cope with high electricity bills this winter
6 votes -
Frugal living 101: Huge list of ways to curb your home expenses during COVID times
8 votes -
How to get a near perfect shave in less than ₹5
5 votes -
Venmo gets more private—but it’s still not fully safe
5 votes -
Young, dumb, and broke: Why outdoorsy types suck at money
13 votes -
Paternity leave: The hidden barriers keeping men at work
12 votes -
Robinhood: We're all investors, alone
5 votes -
The big business of manifesting money
3 votes -
How to find money
3 votes -
How Georges St-Pierre spent his first $1M in the UFC | My First Million
5 votes -
The personal finance and investment advice fallacy
13 votes -
US rent has increased 175% faster than household income over past twenty years
36 votes -
How the Wolf of Wall Street created the internet
8 votes -
One in eight California households is past due on their water bill, and the total debt is over $1 billion
11 votes -
Electric cars are better for the planet – and often your budget, too
6 votes -
How Iceland is closing the gender wage gap
6 votes -
The life in The Simpsons is no longer attainable
22 votes -
An investment firm has bought more than twenty nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic, leading to disruptions at multiple facilities that weakened care for vulnerable residents
6 votes -
Evidence suggests several Florida state senate candidates were plants funded by dark money
16 votes -
A Canadian study gave $7,500 to homeless people. Here’s how they spent it.
29 votes -
Google sued by US Department of Justice in antitrust case over search dominance
26 votes