A "financial literacy" course for working professionals who are doing OK financially and not worried about money (and thus probably could tighten their budgets in substantial ways) but with the understanding that 2/3s of the money recovered by improvin...
-
A "financial literacy" course for working professionals who are doing OK financially and not worried about money (and thus probably could tighten their budgets in substantial ways) but with the understanding that 2/3s of the money recovered by improving their mortgage rates, cutting useless subscriptions etc. would be donated to practical material help for working poor people in their area.
Assigned as penance for anyone claiming that poor people "just need to budget better."
Money saving and finance tips *can* be very effective... if you have some money.
And if you do, it is worth taking the time to see if you are using your money well. For example, do you spend a lot of money at an online retailer because it's "easy" to shop with them but, as of late, the quality and reliability of the products they deliver isn't worth the premium price? *waggles eyebrows*
It's kind of horrible how much money I've saved since dumping amazon.
-
Money saving and finance tips *can* be very effective... if you have some money.
And if you do, it is worth taking the time to see if you are using your money well. For example, do you spend a lot of money at an online retailer because it's "easy" to shop with them but, as of late, the quality and reliability of the products they deliver isn't worth the premium price? *waggles eyebrows*
It's kind of horrible how much money I've saved since dumping amazon.
In line with the concept of this post I've decided I will spend half of the money I've saved on art commissions. They other half I will "save for retirement" which is a topic that gives me anxiety as I don't have a lot of confidence in this country holding together well enough for such planning to make sense.
There is a chance it could be a sucker move and I can't rule that out as glibly as I have in the past. To save money you have to have some confidence in your civilization.
-
F myrmepropagandist shared this topic
-
Money saving and finance tips *can* be very effective... if you have some money.
And if you do, it is worth taking the time to see if you are using your money well. For example, do you spend a lot of money at an online retailer because it's "easy" to shop with them but, as of late, the quality and reliability of the products they deliver isn't worth the premium price? *waggles eyebrows*
It's kind of horrible how much money I've saved since dumping amazon.
@futurebird We use it a lot because I can’t just go to stores without coverage for caregiving. Also the “little things” you may need are an issue. Like our manual/crank can opener is dying. So I’d never drive somewhere to get that one thing because the resources I’d need to access cost more. So I wait for the little things to add up with more and then buy and get delivery. This is the problem I can’t easily resolve so I buy less from Big Vendor.
-
@futurebird We use it a lot because I can’t just go to stores without coverage for caregiving. Also the “little things” you may need are an issue. Like our manual/crank can opener is dying. So I’d never drive somewhere to get that one thing because the resources I’d need to access cost more. So I wait for the little things to add up with more and then buy and get delivery. This is the problem I can’t easily resolve so I buy less from Big Vendor.
If you don't need the little item in a timely manner. If you can wait a few weeks aliexpress is much cheaper and it's literally the exact same plastic stuff from the same places... sometimes it's even shipped in the same box just with different people taking cuts of the product.
If you can't wait I understand that feeling of being trapped. I had some of the same worries.
-
In line with the concept of this post I've decided I will spend half of the money I've saved on art commissions. They other half I will "save for retirement" which is a topic that gives me anxiety as I don't have a lot of confidence in this country holding together well enough for such planning to make sense.
There is a chance it could be a sucker move and I can't rule that out as glibly as I have in the past. To save money you have to have some confidence in your civilization.
@futurebird I've been putting money in a 401k with effectively zero trust that the market or capitalism itself will hold together well enough to ever see that money in the future. But I don't see the money in the first place so if it ever amounts to something that will be a nice little surprise for future me.
I guess it's like buying lottery tickets. I'm taking a long shot on society remaining solvent and even if I don't expect it to happen it's nice to dream
-
@futurebird I've been putting money in a 401k with effectively zero trust that the market or capitalism itself will hold together well enough to ever see that money in the future. But I don't see the money in the first place so if it ever amounts to something that will be a nice little surprise for future me.
I guess it's like buying lottery tickets. I'm taking a long shot on society remaining solvent and even if I don't expect it to happen it's nice to dream
I know I won't regret a penny I spend on art commissions. The 401k could be a toss up. As always the standard advice applies (and is easy to say and hard to do if you don't have enough money)
* diversify: have a pension, savings, keep track of your Social Security but also buy a house or apartment if you can.
* Avoid things like bitcoin and gold unless you are an expert in commodities.
* Always look at reoccurring expenses cumulatively over at least 5 years.anything else?
-
I know I won't regret a penny I spend on art commissions. The 401k could be a toss up. As always the standard advice applies (and is easy to say and hard to do if you don't have enough money)
* diversify: have a pension, savings, keep track of your Social Security but also buy a house or apartment if you can.
* Avoid things like bitcoin and gold unless you are an expert in commodities.
* Always look at reoccurring expenses cumulatively over at least 5 years.anything else?
* paying rent is the major cause of not having enough money. If you can find away to avoid any rents it's worth it!
It is not always possible or reasonable to take any of this advice.
-
In line with the concept of this post I've decided I will spend half of the money I've saved on art commissions. They other half I will "save for retirement" which is a topic that gives me anxiety as I don't have a lot of confidence in this country holding together well enough for such planning to make sense.
There is a chance it could be a sucker move and I can't rule that out as glibly as I have in the past. To save money you have to have some confidence in your civilization.
The future is definitely hard to see, but it's not really necessary to be specific about what one is saving for. While "saving for retirement" has tax advantages at the moment, just amassing some amount of "savings" creates a resource that could be used for retirement or more art or an emergency relocation or whatever. Putting a little away each month in a separate account of some sort where it's out your everyday view is not that hard (if you can spare the money).
-
The future is definitely hard to see, but it's not really necessary to be specific about what one is saving for. While "saving for retirement" has tax advantages at the moment, just amassing some amount of "savings" creates a resource that could be used for retirement or more art or an emergency relocation or whatever. Putting a little away each month in a separate account of some sort where it's out your everyday view is not that hard (if you can spare the money).
Maybe paying down a mortgage can be an alternative to saving money if your confidence in "the market" and the ability of pensions to work as planned has been totally destroyed.
Paying down a mortgage at a low interest rate is foolish if we see growth as we have in the past two decades. However, if things get VERY bad it could be a wash. Hmm. How pessimistic are we feeling?
-
I know I won't regret a penny I spend on art commissions. The 401k could be a toss up. As always the standard advice applies (and is easy to say and hard to do if you don't have enough money)
* diversify: have a pension, savings, keep track of your Social Security but also buy a house or apartment if you can.
* Avoid things like bitcoin and gold unless you are an expert in commodities.
* Always look at reoccurring expenses cumulatively over at least 5 years.anything else?
@futurebird one thing I did over the past couple of years, the first time in my life I haven't been barely scraping by, is pay down debt as aggressively as I could. My interest rate on my car was terrible (turns out that it's almost impossible to refinance a car that's 10 years old because most of the lenders, including the ones that bombard you with refinance offers, refuse to even consider it) so I just ignored the official monthly payment and paid as much as I could afford every month. Got it paid off in two years instead of the six it was contracted for and now I can just save that money for the next four
-
@futurebird one thing I did over the past couple of years, the first time in my life I haven't been barely scraping by, is pay down debt as aggressively as I could. My interest rate on my car was terrible (turns out that it's almost impossible to refinance a car that's 10 years old because most of the lenders, including the ones that bombard you with refinance offers, refuse to even consider it) so I just ignored the official monthly payment and paid as much as I could afford every month. Got it paid off in two years instead of the six it was contracted for and now I can just save that money for the next four
Nice!
-
Money saving and finance tips *can* be very effective... if you have some money.
And if you do, it is worth taking the time to see if you are using your money well. For example, do you spend a lot of money at an online retailer because it's "easy" to shop with them but, as of late, the quality and reliability of the products they deliver isn't worth the premium price? *waggles eyebrows*
It's kind of horrible how much money I've saved since dumping amazon.
@futurebird I went to a private catholic school in middle school (my uncle who was better off than us paid for my tuition presumably because he was worried about my soul, it was certainly not for quality of education lmao)
nearly all the parents were well off, and one time they had a parent who I think was like a fiduciary (can you be a fiduciary? I mean like, investor guy) come in to give us the students financial advice.
I'm sure this will shock you but the words "Roth IRA" don't mean much to a 13-year-old on food stamps!
Like admittedly I'm on SSI so I can't save much money without being kicked off it so I am sort of uh... worried about the future regardless of if the US collapses.
Also admittedly I hated geometry (I did algebra fine, could not wrap my head around geometry, yes since I enjoy doing things like crochet and amigurumi I do realize this is kind of ironic) but.... do people who complain schools didn't teach them to do taxes realize that many public libraries this time of year will offer to help you with your taxes if you come in at certain times (I must stress it is not the librarians helping you, at least in my town, they just arrange for people who CAN help you to come in) though looking at my library's page you do have to make an appointment.
Like I do understand the complaints about "School didn't teach me how to do thing fundamental as an adult" because a lot of my life (and I don't think it's just because I haven't met the milestones of "successful adult" previous generations were big on) as there's a lot of knowledge of resources that don't get passed around, but depending on the complaint (for example, if it's lack of DIY skills or car stuff, maybe because NCLB forced your school to scrap automotive / shop / home ec classes?) I'm not sure it's fair to blame the school
