Money Management

As a strapping young lad still in college, I was wondering if you old fogeys had any tips you'd like to share about how to build up a decent nest egg to fall back on in case of emergency once I get ejected into the real world.

Save what you can and exercise discipline in not touching it. Or set up an account that has a maturation time if you have the spare cash.

edited 5th Oct '13 10:16:13 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Basically I have money for necessities (bills, groceries, gas, ect.), money set aside for emergencies in my savings account, and then if I have any left over it's for fun and luxury stuff (video games, trips, ect.).

Learn to set a budget. Write down everythign that is a must. That would be utilities, housing, food, gas for the car, other must pay bills.

After all of that see how much you have left and decide how many extras if any you can afford. After everything is said and done you may only be able to set aside 20 or so bucks a month depending on income.

Keep receipts/ bills and file 'em somehow: having the proof in front of your eyes can save trouble later. Even the silly ones you don't think you need bother with are worth keeping.

Having said that: if you can no longer read the receipt, you should have thrown it out three months ago.

You never know when you'll need proof of purchase, even beyond keeping up on what you have going out.

Cut out unnecessary expenses (eg. Starbucks, name-brand items, etc). Store-brand food is indistinguishable from the expensive stuff. An egg is an egg, after all. Also, if there is an Aldi's in your area, shop there instead of your usual grocery store. The products they carry are generally cheaper. One caveat though: they don't carry everything, so if you need something unusual, you won't find it there. They do always have the basics in stock though.

Also: Make sure you set aside a minimum of 10% of your paycheck if at all possible. Having that little bit will help outside of school for emergencies.

edited 5th Oct '13 12:03:22 PM by tdgoodrich1

Three things I always say to students:

1. Make sure you always have some money left over before your next paycheck, and cut out any expense you can that isn't essential. You need to decide for yourself what is essential and what isn't, but to me spending £80 a month on a television subscription isn't unless you really need the subscription for something. If you enjoy watching sports for example, then you can still hold onto that for the sports channels, but there may be cheaper ways of getting those same channels - moving to a different provider, for example. A good internet connection though I would class as essential, for how much is online now.
2. Consider buying cheaper goods of the same sort, or finding ways to spend less on essential purchases. I for example spend £40 a month on all the meat I will eat, and then an extra £5 at most on herbs and sauces. That's £45 for potentially twenty meals.
3. Put what money you can into a savings account month after month, and just let it roll up. You'll likely save enough for a particularly bad day, and can the same day your washing machine fails simply buy a new one, which may be much better than what you had before.

Learn the basics of spreadsheet software and you can set up a 6 month budget in half an hour. Google drive has a free online program so don't bother buying Excel if you don't have it.

Get a loose change jar. It adds up quick if it's all in one place.

Don't forget to set aside a little spending money so you don't go mad from budgeting.

"Spend less than you make,and stagnate what you do get in-between the paychecks" has usually worked like a charm,...or if you get to a point where you can't get a job,stockpile it up and cut back on anything beyond the absolute necessities.

And write down the balances every time you can.

I put aside a few hundred pounds every month into a seperate account. Once it has been taken away from my current account I mentally class it as 'gone' and don't spend it.

Go download Mint. It tracks your spending in real time and allows you to set monthly budgets.

I pretty much save everything by nature and every time I go to a store or see something I ask myself "do I really need this?" before I get it.

edited 28th Jun '16 1:32:08 PM by iamathousandapples

Since the exchange rates are steadily dropping, I decided to convert some of my savings to Euros. Looking at how the local politics look, I'm assuming that they've been cooking the books and once it gets out, the local currency's gonna tank again, and hard.

So either I have bailout money, or at least some 5% return come end of the year, and that's a conservative estimate.

I had my bank set up a plan on my giro account that automatically transfers any surplus over my iron reserve to a saving plan at the end of a month.
Additionally a fraction of my salary goes to different funds each month, most into a relatively stable one and a little into a medium risk one.

edited 23rd Apr '18 6:34:52 AM by Kiefen

Anyone have suggestions before I talk to my credit union about pre-approval for a mortgage?

Oh no, unfortunately I'm in a similar boat.

In the next few years, I really want to buy some land within a couple hours of New York and build my own house on it because 1) it's so much more affordable than here in California and 2) I'd need to move anyway to further my acting career, and I don't want to go to LA or Atlanta. Does anyone have information on buying land in a different state?

Ooh, money talking thread!

So I actually started to organize my receipts and my God, it's astonishing how much I spend on frivolous things. Like, I am not even kidding, around 75% of my budget is spent on eating outside and snacks.

Goddamn! That explains SO many things, including but not limited to my health.