Tag: automobile
There are 4 entries that are tagged automobile. Now displaying reults 1 - 4.
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Weekly Roundup, Expensive Parking Edition
Posted on January 17, 2008 by Him
Living in a big city with big city prices has definitely warped my sense of money. For example, when did paying $16 for parking downtown for the day become "cheap"? I guess when there's other places charging $25+, I guess it isn't so bad. Onto this week's roundup...
Frugal Law Student asks who actually deposits money in ATMs? Answer: We do. For us, it is convenient, quick, and hassle-free.
Over at Wisebread there is a good article on how a realistic budget can be a marriage saver. The story is quite endearing, and is almost mirrors the way that Her and I do things. Especially budgeting with a bottle of wine.
Ask Dong tells you that before you date, get a credit report. That is definitely the way to not let your dong see any action.
Speaking of getting action - guys and gals, if you're thinking of getting something to spice up the ol' love life, remember that vibrators are too expensive (and they break easily). Thanks, Her Every Cent Counts, for that.
Single Ma tells why she kicks ass goes against the grain. I have to agree, the pfblogosphere gets really old when all you read are the same things over and over and over...
DINKs give some good tips on how to talk about money. We have our State of the Union talk every so often.
2 Million is going through Smart Couples Finish Rich and creating value circles. When we read this book we did the same thing, and going back to these circles really helps us focus on where our money goes.
Living Almost Large thinks about the consequences of having your parents move in with you. Since both of our parents' are getting older, we're going to have to start thinking about decisions like this.
English Major is thinking about the the economy and how it works. She muses philosophically about topics like the stock market and corporations. What's really fascinating are the comments which reveal where to get more information.
Managing Our Debt - A Review Of How We Live With A Large Debt Burden
Posted on December 19, 2007 by Him
photo: iandavid
Over at The Digerati Life, Silicon Valley Blogger muses about handling large debt loads. Her examples include two bloggers who have large amounts of debt: the always controversial Casey Serin and a newer blogger Debt Kid. She also narrates a story of a man she knew who bought a $1.5 million dollar home, but who had a bunch of contingency plans should things go financially awry.
In our own writings, I have to admit that we can be brazenly blase about the amount of debt that we have and how we're tackling it. I feel that we can do this because we've come up with our own action plan to manage our debt. When we first started this blog, we had $18,054.88 in credit card debt, and $135,966.11 in student loan debt. Many people look at those numbers and tend to freak out; we did too. Fast forward to today and we've eradicated all of the credit card debt, and we're working to accelerate the student loan payment. Here's how we've managed this amount of debt without waking up in cold sweats.
1. We have relatively low rent. This was our first step for our finances after college and has been paramount to freeing up cash. Currently our housing costs are 18% of our take home income (about 10% of our gross).
2. We used the debt snowball for debts with balances of under $1,000. We had a few cards with a few hundred dollars debt on them; each of them demanded a minimum payment every month. One of things I do like about Dave Ramsey's debt snowball is that it frees up cash relatively early in the debt payoff. Even though it made more mathematical sense to pay off the higher balances first, when we paid off the lower balances it freed up more cash in that it was one less minimum payment we'd have to deal with.
3. We applied freed up cash towards the higher interest rate balances. When we first started this blog, I was paying off a debt that was at 20.99%. As soon as a few of the lower balance cards were paid off, the extra cash went towards battling the debts with monster interest rates.
4. We took advantage of great credit card deals. I managed to lower the debt of my credit cards to 0% and 2.99%; Her got all of her debt on a card with 0% interest as long as we made 2 purchases a month on it.
5. Since we started this blog, we increased our income by at least 42%. In these two years, I received three pay raises; Her received two. We also have some income from this site. The extra cash definitely made sleeping at night easier.
6. We have an emergency fund. Yeah, it's not clearly defined, but we know that if there is an emergency that arises we can take money from our savings. After the wedding, we plan on having 6 months of expenses remaining in our savings accounts.
7. Once we paid off the credit cards, we took advantage of another offer to put $11,000 on a card at 1.9%. We put exactly that amount of student loan on there, saving us a lot of cash in the future.
8. We have not incurred any new consumer debt. We vowed to never pay another penny in credit card interest and now take advantage of rewards programs.
9. We are a one car family. Shortly after moving to Chicago I sold my car; it was costing me a lot of money to have it in the city. With the car we do have, we minimize our expenses.
10. We continue to look for ways to increase our income, use leverage and arbitrage to get better interest rates, and make solid decent financial decisions.
For us, it was these actions that showed us the light at the end of the debt tunnel.
Are you under a mountain of debt? How have you managed it? How do you let it not keep you up at night?
Car Maintenance = Free Airfare
Posted on November 01, 2006 by Him
This past weekend we went out to the 'burbs for dinner with some of Her's family. Shortly after pulling out of their driveway, we heard thwump thwump thwump thwump thwump coming from the back of the car. I got out of the car to see what was wrong and discovered that one of the tires was flat. We pulled into a K-Mart parking lot down the road to change the flat tire and found there was a philips head screw neatly lodged in the tire tread.
It was a little past due for us to do some maintenance anyway, so I brought the car in to get the tire replaced and have a bunch of other stuff done. The total cost of everything was a little over $300.
Instead of this being a major financial headache, we're looking at it as sort of a mixed blessing. Last week, we received in the mail a special promotion for one of my rewards credit cards: spend $300 from now until the end of the year and they'll give us a free plane ticket. Fortunately for us, that card has a zero balance on it. We were going to pay for the services with cash, but now we'll just use the rewards card and then pay that off as soon as we get the bill.
We believe that credit cards can be used as a great tool to complement our financial plan. We've learned our lesson about overspending and credit card abuse. In this case it makes sense to use a card for the free plane ticket. Hopefully we can use it for Her to join me on one of my business trips sometime next year and we can have a cheap vacation.
How Much Would You Pay For A Non-Feminine License Plate?
Posted on June 28, 2006 by Him
A few months before we started this blog, I sold my car. The decision was pretty easy and was brought upon by a few factors:
1. Racked up about $200 in parking tickets in about three months. One fine summer day last year I got two tickets at the same time. When I paid them for some reason the city of Chicago website didn't process it, but the money came out of our bank account anyway. That was a real treat, trying to prove that I paid tickets with no documentation other than the charges on my bank statement. They ended up only crediting me for one ticket. Note to all: always print out the payment confirmation!
2. Insurance. When I was younger I got into two minor accidents. Premiums suck.
3. Gas. Expensive. Even more so today.
4. My employer pays for our pubic transportation. I love you, CTA.
5. Driving around and around the block looking for parking spaces. I felt like I had Alzheimer's going around the same damn blocks over and over and over.
When I sold my car, I was pretty content with taking public transportation everywhere, and using Her car whenever I needed it.
Except for her license plate. In the interest of anonymity, let's say it was "FLUFFY 8."
Every time I would drive her car, I felt a little embarrassed. A little emasculated. A little humiliated. Seriously, I couldn't drive a car with such a feminine license plate. Her car might was well could of had a furry pink steering wheel cover. Ick.
After much complaining by me, we made a deal. We could get a new license plate at the time the registration sticker expired. I even offered to pay, from my own money, for all of the expenses of getting a new plate, $26 for a new plate and $78 for registration renewal, a total of $104. When we actually renewed it, for some reason we were only charged $26. Someone along the way screwed up, but we weren't going to correct them.
$26 dollars for a random number plate. I think that's a cheap price for a little dignity.
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