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USA edition:
If you’re a billionaire: vote Republican.
If you’re not a billionaire: vote Democrat.
(*) may not apply in elections where the Republican wants to start a profit-conflagarating civil war
War is a racket.
And either way, you still get to be poor. Great system we have here.
Pop quiz! What was cumulative inflation for the last 4 years, and what was the change in working class wages?
Basically what I’m asking is, did people get more poor, or less poor? Were there any specific government actions that led to this outcome?
69
We didn’t need that.
Make a budget, each month.
Write down your expected expenses. Keep it simple. Use paper and a calculator.
Rewrite the list, in order of priority, to you.
I’ve met so many people who are scared to do this, yet would be pleased if they did.
And compare your expected expenses to your actual expenses. Those occasional small things here and there can add up.
Inherit your wealth!
Invest in tennis balls. They have a high rate of return.
Serious version. Probably mostly US-centric:
Credit cards are a tool. Just like any other tool, they can be useful or they can cause damage when improperly used. Educate yourself on how to wield a credit card effectively.
Credit cards are a tool. Just like any other tool, they can be useful or they can cause damage when improperly used. Educate yourself on how to wield a credit card effectively.
What he’s trying to say is, learn to use them like ninja stars - shuriken. They’re sharp and deadly if scaled properly.
Maybe like nunchucks. Use them wrong and they’ll whack you in the nuts.
Look up how cumulative interest works, then start investing in ETFs or index funds that follow MSCI World or S&P 500 for example. Then wait.
It’s been 4 hours. What’s supposed to happen?
Line go up
For bills that are due on a regular basis but not monthly (car registration, oil changes, pet’s annual check up, HVAC check ups if you own a home, etc) - figure out how much each costs per year, add them all up, divide by 12, and set up an auto-transfer to a savings account for that amount every month. Don’t forget to include that amount in your monthly budget too.
This x100. I literally never worry about bills anymore.
Actually it’s x12
If you can use credit cards responsibly, look into credit card churning for points. I fly business class for any extended flight and I pay less than what economy would cost.
Absolutely this, people paying cash and with debit cards end up just subsidizing points redemptions. Merchants aren’t eating card fees (typically 1.5-3% of a purchase), they just baked it into prices.
With a stable income, watching what you spend, and auto-pay, carrying a card balance is super easy to avoid these days.
Think of playing a 4x video game, focus every day on building your economic engine. Everything you spend should have some economic engine return (school, books, computer, etc)
Play this like 50 times https://buildyourstax.com/
Avoid debt.
Use the FASFA (in the us), if your under 25 marry another student (then your EFC is 0). Don’t pay for grad-school, only join programs that pay you.
Networking, and Experiences are more important then over-time alone. Building your network is part of building your engine. Join the club, go to the networking parties, improv group, show up sometimes to the toastmasters, NETWORKING IS WORTH THE TIME AND MONEY. But, always make sure your networking with people who inspire you, and don’t drag you down. It’s ok to hangout with the down group, just not habitually.
It’s ok to say no! No, really - you can say no to things. Nobody gives a shit about your phone, or car.
Learn how to use a spreadsheet (or just do the math by hand), get the TOTAL cost of all commitments over the life of the commitment (total cost of car, or house, etc), including all the one time origination fees. The only number that matters is the total cost, all the other numbers move around, but the total cost should drive your decisions.
Learn about your credit, and keep it clean (credit wise is good enough here)
Read Debt: The first 5000 years, appreciate the power of liquidity and opportunity costs.
Subscriptions are traps, avoid them as much as possible.
That site was pretty fun.
If you want to increase your credit score and are financially responsible, switch over to using a credit card.
Diversify your portfolio: Instead of putting everything into savings, split some of it into stocks and shares.
I’ve heard that they amount you should be putting into your pension is a percent of your income equal to half the age you were when you started saving. Not sure how accurate that is.
If you do happen to be well off and/or have a good job, spend your money on things you like rather than hoarding it.
Donating to charity and supporting small businesses is usually morally correct. If you have the means, tip your instance admin or developers of software you use.
Be careful when buying things that the seller can remove from you at any time. But don’t use that as an excuse to not buy things you’ll enjoy while you have them.
You can find just about anybody’s Social Security number. (Equivalently, they can find yours.) Amazingly, some institutions still use knowledge of this number as proof of identity for purposes of extending credit to a stranger.
Budgeting is very important. some people like the 20% of income for saving, 30% for living expenses and the other 50% for everything else. Pre or post tax is up to you as this is a rule of thumb. Important part is that it should be easy for you to build up your savings to cover important expenses. spending 50% of income on housing may be really bad since having back to back years of badluck can screw over your savings, and not give you enough time to save up in between.
This is a general rule that applies when you make enough to do so. If you’re struggling to pay rent, do what you can to remove risk and cut down on costs. One thing that helps is aiming to have savings. Often times, its cheaper to have money up front to resolve emergencies rather than later.
Car is one of those things that can make sense to remove. If you’re commuting one hour already by car, and there’s no public transit option then a car is a necessity. If you can take public transit, that could save you money on car insurance, car payments, car maintenance, and possible accidents.
i don’t know anyone who can keep their living expenses at 30%… is this finance tips for well-off childless people?
If your retirement fund isnt 7 figures or larger, you probably aren’t going to retire in your own home. “The old folks home” ain’t cheap, and they WILL take it all to pay for it.
What if you own your home?
In order to save money, you have to start putting money back, even if you consider yourself too poor to save. Every time you get paid put $X aside and don’t touch it until it’s enough to do something with
And then don’t do anything with it other then invest it some more
Don’t buy anything unless you’re u can pay for it in full cash, you don’t need to use cash but it’s a good way to be prepared
I treat my accounts like hit points in a game. The higher it is, the more health i have.
If you don’t touch an account for 7 years, it disappears from your credit report. That means NO ACTIVITY at all. No usage of the card, no payments, no nothing.
There are some debts that this does not apply to, like school loans, but I know it works on credit cards.
Now, here’s the real world disclaimer. During those 7 years, your credit will TANK. You will have a hell of a time trying to finance a Happy Meal. If you have good credit, it will take another 5-7 years to get it back to where it was. But, if your credit is already trash, and you can’t afford to pay every bill, it is an option that could get you back within your means.
Is it ethical? I figure the system itself isn’t ethical, so stealing back from the ones who take advantage of others doesn’t bother me one bit, but I totally understand if someone would disagree.
You sure about that? I have a friend who thought that too but found out 7 years later that only a bankruptcy will disappear after 7 years, not just idle delinquint accounts. He needed to actually file for bankrupcy to make it go away. This was in Usa, NY; maybe it’s different other places.
As a second “data” point: I have some accounts on my credit report that have not been touched in a decade+ yet they are still there (they are not delinquent).
I don’t know why those situations didn’t work out, and without more details, I won’t bother to guess, but yes, I am sure because there’s a few utility bills and two credit cards with a couple thousand each from about 20 years ago that are no longer a problem for me.
You will have a hell of a time trying to finance a Happy Meal.
I don’t know much about finance, but don’t do this!
The entire credit system is to keep undesirables from moving into “better” neighborhoods, to keep the po folk in their place - both geographically and socioeconomically.
Generally speaking, idle unpaid accounts like this are either sold by the creditors to a third party debt collector, resetting the clock, or they will sue you for the non-payment to get a judgment or lien, resetting the clock.
The only sure bet is bankruptcy, which will drop off your report after a period of time that varies from state to state in the U.S. (generally from 7 to 10 years). Not sure is this applies outside the U.S.
🤷🏻♂️ Worked for me.
The real financial tip is don’t listen to people like this guy. “Trust me bro, you can rack up a ton of debt and then just never pay it off!”
Use credit cards as cash, and pay off the balance weekly. This protects your bank account from fraud, as chargebacks and fraud are more easily dealt with on credit, and they tend to have better account monitoring and security than banks and credit unions. Even better if you have a cash-back/points card, that’s basically free money.
This also makes it easy to track spending if you have specific purpose credit cards. E.g, one card for groceries and gas, another for recurring bills or service payments, another for frivolous stuff, etc.
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Even if you have no other investments, open a high yield savings account and keep the bulk of your funds there, other than what you need for a general emergency fund and monthly bills. Current yields are over 4%, generally better than inflation, without any risk.
