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189 votes
Accepted

Spouse wants to pay all debt in a month but I don’t. Is this a good idea?

Split the difference. Keep $30K in the bank and pay $25K of loans now. Use your $4,300/month to pay the remainder of the loans over the next 6 months, and then use the following 6 months to replenish ...
NL - Apologize to Monica's user avatar
162 votes
Accepted

What to do if I can't trust myself with monthly wages?

Not sure if you can do this at your bank, but here's how I would do it at mine: Set up 2 accounts - an account with limited access (do not order checks or an ATM/debit card) and a second checking ...
D Stanley's user avatar
  • 134k
82 votes
Accepted

Company stopped paying my salary. What are my options?

If it was me, I would count the bonus lost. You need money to live, and they are not paying you so the answer is obvious: seek another job (or three). I'd have a chat with your manager about you ...
Pete B.'s user avatar
  • 76.5k
80 votes

What to do if I can't trust myself with monthly wages?

Sort of a strange answer here, my apologies: If we extrapolate your problem to its extreme, you spend all of your money as soon as you are paid, you can't make rent or pay bills, you are evicted, and ...
Todd Wilcox's user avatar
  • 1,056
77 votes

Are there any financial disadvantages to living significantly "below your means"?

It's important to differentiate between "living below your means" and being smart about money. Buying a used car with low mileage is generally a smart financial decision considering every car becomes ...
daytrader's user avatar
  • 2,232
76 votes

Spouse wants to pay all debt in a month but I don’t. Is this a good idea?

If your interest on those loans accumulates monthly, it's cheaper to pay them off now (unless the interest rate is below what your money earns you in the savings), though I would make sure I have ...
GOATNine's user avatar
  • 2,404
72 votes
Accepted

Is keeping track of your money and having a budget the same thing?

A budget is a plan for spending money in the future. Tracking spending is only looking at what happened in the past. Many people only track their spending, a proper budget can be key to achieving ...
Hart CO's user avatar
  • 70.4k
65 votes

Spouse wants to pay all debt in a month but I don’t. Is this a good idea?

Look at how much interest keeping that amount in cash is costing you. At 5% interest, that's $200 a month wasted in interest payments just for the peace of mind of having cash in the bank. I agree ...
D Stanley's user avatar
  • 134k
63 votes
Accepted

What are the advantages of doing accounting on your personal finances?

In my opinion, every person, regardless of his or her situation, should be keeping track of their personal finances. In addition, I believe that everyone, regardless of their situation, should have ...
Ben Miller's user avatar
  • 115k
56 votes

How to prevent myself from buying things I don't want

I found the best way to do this was to make a spending plan at the beginning of the month with someone else. If you're married or in a relationship where you pool resources, then this is a natural way ...
NL - Apologize to Monica's user avatar
55 votes
Accepted

Do people tend to spend less when using cash than credit cards?

I found the study "The irrationality of payment behaviour" accidentally while searching on the term "DNB Study" instead of "D&B Study". This study, which, when I followed the link, went to the ...
Ogre Psalm33's user avatar
  • 1,517
54 votes

What is the purpose of budgeting if all I need to do is look at my bank/credit card statement?

It is simple: you need budgeting to plan your smaller and bigger future expenses (and savings). Here some examples: I planned a budget of $100 per month ($1200 per year) for car maintenance and ...
some_coder's user avatar
48 votes
Accepted

How to prevent myself from buying things I don't want

How to prevent myself from buying things I don't want We all buy stuff from time to time that only satisfies us for a short time. I was able to locate a few expenses that fall under that category....
Aaron Hall's user avatar
48 votes

How to manage monthly salary

A simple budget spreadsheet is fine for this. In one tab, track all your income: - take-home money from employment (use an online calculator to estimate if you only know your gross salary, but ...
Vicky's user avatar
  • 24k
48 votes

Company stopped paying my salary. What are my options?

Not paying your salary is a form is constructive dismissal. That is grounds for filing an unemployment claim — possibly the fastest way to get money for paying bills that doesn't put you into further ...
200_success's user avatar
  • 1,713
47 votes

What to do if I can't trust myself with monthly wages?

Nobody minds if you pay bills early For people struggling, it often does not occur to them what happens if you pay the electric company 3 months worth. They think some clerk steals the extra and ...
Harper - Reinstate Monica's user avatar
46 votes
Accepted

How to manage expenditure when billing cycles and paycheck cycles are not aligned?

It sounds like the problem is that when your husband got paid twice a month, his paycheck was large enough to cover the bills in full so you were able to pay them right away, then you could use the ...
lizziv's user avatar
  • 1,746
46 votes
Accepted

Why do personal finance apps focus on outgoings rather than income

This phenomenon is something I have discussed in previous answers. Essentially, I see budgeting software lumped into two categories: the proactive approach and the reactive approach. With the ...
Ben Miller's user avatar
  • 115k
46 votes
Accepted

How much should retail investors spend on financial data subscriptions?

For the great majority of retail investors, the appropriate amount to spend is $0, because it would be a better idea to buy an index fund and pay no attention to the data from those subscriptions. ...
BrenBarn's user avatar
  • 23.9k
43 votes

Do people tend to spend less when using cash than credit cards?

I'd like to know if there is any reliable research on the subject. Intuitively, this must be true, no? Is it? First, is it even possible to discover the correlation, if one exists? Dave Ramsey is a ...
JTP - Apologise to Monica's user avatar
43 votes

What are some possible reasons that a heating oil rep would be anticipating oil prices falling?

Heating oil is at record high prices. It's not unreasonable to think that the price will go down at some point, especially if production increases due to high prices. However, generally the cheapest ...
D Stanley's user avatar
  • 134k
42 votes
Accepted

How much of my income should I put towards paying off student loans vs saving for a house?

In my opinion, you should pay off the student loans as soon as possible, before you start saving for the house downpayment. $26k is a big number, but you have a great salary. (Nice!) Up until now, ...
Ben Miller's user avatar
  • 115k
42 votes
Accepted

Is there any financial benefit to being paid bi-weekly over monthly?

Especially for people just starting out, without much reserve, the biggest concern is the rhythm of their expenses and income. If you're paid every two weeks, but your rent, car loan, and other "big ...
Kate Gregory's user avatar
  • 13.1k
42 votes

Spouse wants to pay all debt in a month but I don’t. Is this a good idea?

Unless You plan on investing that cash in a way that will bring you higher returns or You really believe you will need that money for an emergency You should pay it off. Stopping the paying of ...
Jamie Clinton's user avatar
41 votes

How to do the maths on affordability?

You are at the point that many millions of people are at (and where I used to be) - you have no idea where your money is going. You just spend, spend, spend until there's nothing left, and/or you ...
D Stanley's user avatar
  • 134k
39 votes

Can I hedge my household expenses using the financial markets?

You don't consume enough of any one good to make hedging with futures economical. I'll present an alternate method - you hedge against risk in household expenses by setting a budget and sticking to it....
D Stanley's user avatar
  • 134k
37 votes

Are there any financial disadvantages to living significantly "below your means"?

Other answers do a good job explaining direct financial disadvantages, so here's another point of view: Living frugally might negatively affect your social life. For example, if your friends like ...
August Janse's user avatar
36 votes

Spouse wants to pay all debt in a month but I don’t. Is this a good idea?

You're both right! I agree with your spouse's inclination to stop paying interest when you have the money sitting in the bank. I also agree with your trepidation of paying it all off due to a possible ...
TTT's user avatar
  • 47.2k
36 votes

Paying off debt and living within means vs. long term planning

In my opinion, your idea is bad and your husband's idea far worse. You need to find a way to live within your means, that is spend no more than 84K/year. That could be done in a few ways: You get ...
Pete B.'s user avatar
  • 76.5k
36 votes
Accepted

Paying off debt and living within means vs. long term planning

Frugality When someone mentions living frugally, I always point to the book "America's Cheapest Family". I'm not affiliated with this book in any way and do not gain anything from promoting ...
computercarguy's user avatar

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