Current Savings

Mishra

I'm curious of what everyone's current savings are? I've seen a few posts of people losing their job and being tight on money. I'm curious at what level you all are at in your savings.

I'm talking about liquid assets here... So don't include your car/house/diamond ring. Poll only assets you know you can sell/withdraw get just about immediately. I included my stocks and any 401k after tax/fees.

Feel free to post your stories, but I'll make the poll private.

Mishra

Some nice data coming in. Thanks for responding. This is cool.

badboyeee

I wish i can say half a mil.. too bad id have to take away a couple zeroes at the end of that.

tiersten

badboyeee wrote: »

I wish i can say half a mil.. too bad id have to take away a couple zeroes at the end of that.

Mishra never said what currency! I've got 100 billion Zimbabwe Dollars in a single note! Not that its actually legal currency anymore as their currency got suspended back in 2009...

Devilsbane

How come 500,000 is the top? I was looking for 20 million...

Actually quite sad that 60% of us are under $5,000.

xenodamus

The wife and I are listening to Dave and paying down our debt at the moment. We aren't totally "gazelle" but we're making headway. We keep a few thousand in the bank...everything else is going to debt for now. Here's what we have left:

Student loan: $2500
Credit card: $4500
Car: $21,000

We could sell the car and be done with all of it pretty quickly.....but we like the car . So, we're just going to pay it off in 2-3 years.

Heero

Just finished college recently and I'm working a full time internship that pays pretty well. During college my monies were going down because of the expenses of college and the fact that i could only work part time. Good thing is that now the monies in my bank account are going up.

Paperlantern

Wife and I had a real rough spot financially consisting of about the last decade. Lets just say credit cards ate us alive and we are pretty high up there. We have them under control now with a steady income again, and are paying it down, probably will have it zeroed out somewhere near the end of 2013, maybe beginning of 2014 if all follows the plan we have in place. Course that doesn't account for car breakdowns or house problems unfortunately. We really had to do something since we want to have a kid in the next couple of years (getting up there and dont feel like being 60 when the kids get off to college... heh). because of the debt paydown, we really have ZERO savings. Anything we save usually goes to car repairs or house issues before we can even keep it in the bank a full year.

Devilsbane

How do you get credit card debt? I had my card for over a year before they raised my limit from $500 up to $750.

I complained to them half a dozen times that I have to make payments 3 times a month to not exceed my limit and they didn't care.

twodogs62

Best to do what you are doing. Keep credit card low. Pay for most things with cash.

My cousin built up a $40,000 debt. Unless, you quit spending and put every $ of income, you'd never get the interest paid off.

jtoast

Devilsbane wrote: »

How do you get credit card debt? I had my card for over a year before they raised my limit from $500 up to $750.

I complained to them half a dozen times that I have to make payments 3 times a month to not exceed my limit and they didn't care.

It's easy...my lowest limit card has a $10K limit. Once your scores/salary get high enough and you get the right credit mix, limits start to increase.

You may not know this but there are tiers of credit cards, even within the same company. For example, Capital One sub prime cards will rarely go over $1,500 while their prime cards start in the $5K range. Also, higher limits begat higher limits. Keep perfect history and request regular limit increases, have more than one card, etc.

Paperlantern

twodogs62 wrote: »

Best to do what you are doing. Keep credit card low. Pay for most things with cash.

My cousin built up a $40,000 debt. Unless, you quit spending and put every $ of income, you'd never get the interest paid off.

This is roughly what happened to us, thats the ballpark we were in and are currently digging ourselves out of. When you lose jobs (whether it was me, or my wife, or both of us at once), and you HAVE credit available to you, you use that to live while you look for another job or other source of income. unfortunately for us, it happened more than once, like i said, now we are more stable and its coming down, but damn if it isn't hard.

Devilsbane

twodogs62 wrote: »

Best to do what you are doing. Keep credit card low. Pay for most things with cash.

My cousin built up a $40,000 debt. Unless, you quit spending and put every $ of income, you'd never get the interest paid off.

I pay for almost everything with plastic. I'm better about it now, but there used to be months that I would go having like $4 in my pocket. It isn't that you have to use cash, you just need to understand that just because the machine allows you to swipe doesn't mean that the purchase fits your personal finance plan. If you can't grasp that concept, and some people really can't, then paying by cash is the way to go.

My ex girlfriend was the opposite. You put $5 in her pocket and it was gone in 10 minutes. But because she would look at online statements and compare all of the values, she was a much smarter spender with plastic. Everyone is different. Go to a bar on a Friday night with $100 cash, you will likely spend it all and have no idea. But by using a card you now have some accountability the next day.

SteveLord

Yeah wish I had most of those numbers right now.

Forsaken_GA

If you're going to pay for things with plastic, you should be using a debit card. Visa and Mastercard, at the least, have the same fraud protection as a regular credit card, and you can't spend more money than you have.

At the risk of parroting someone else - learn to live on less than you make, and you'll be fine, and for gods sake, cut the credits card up, they are *NOT* your friend.

Forsaken_GA

Devilsbane wrote: »

My ex girlfriend was the opposite. You put $5 in her pocket and it was gone in 10 minutes. But because she would look at online statements and compare all of the values, she was a much smarter spender with plastic. Everyone is different. Go to a bar on a Friday night with $100 cash, you will likely spend it all and have no idea. But by using a card you now have some accountability the next day.

I'm the exact opposite. I have to take cash with me in order to limit my spending. If I'm using the debit card, I don't think as much about the purchase, I know there's money in the account, so I think I'm fine.

If I have to fork out actual cash, it hurts, because I know I'm never going to see that particular copy of president jackson ever again.

za3bour

I've never used a credit card and will never do.

tbgree00

I got this and the how much do you owe thread confused. I'm lucky enough to have the ability to survive total joblessness for awhile if I had to. I found a job in a month that pays twice my previous so as long as things don't change too much we're doing okay.

Priston

I hope most of the people on the lower end are 25 or younger

Bl8ckr0uter

500K in savings? Baller

brownwrap

Mishra wrote: »

I'm curious of what everyone's current savings are? I've seen a few posts of people losing their job and being tight on money. I'm curious at what level you all are at in your savings.

I'm talking about liquid assets here... So don't include your car/house/diamond ring. Poll only assets you know you can sell/withdraw get just about immediately. I included my stocks and any 401k after tax/fees.

Feel free to post your stories, but I'll make the poll private.

Well, I don't have much liquid savings, but I have two houses paid for, one more in 2015, and live in the 4th, so I'd be on the lower end of your scale.

Mike-Mike

a year ago I would have done much better on this, but being unemployed and a full time student from March to December put a dent in my wallet something fierce... but.... I have one week on the job now, and will be getting a regular paycheck soon, and thanks to my unemployment I learned to be a little more thrifty... I learned it waaaaaay too late, but learned it regardless

Mishra

What is the most depressing for me is.. I've been saving all my life and live below my means. I've amassed one of those top numbers.

But if I get married, and introduce my girlfriend's 130-170k in student loan debt. It all is for nothing.

However, I've made a KILLING in stocks. Let's pretend I have 100k. I've made 32% for the year of 2010. That's an extra 32k! Wow.

sidsanders

for those making more than the limits of a traditional ira, do you contribute to a roth ira?

ive had to pay some extended family debt... that cut into my saving goals. not pleased about it.

tpatt100

When my wife and I got married we were really good about paying ourselves first. When I got a new job and had to move we had no problem paying the 10K difference because we ended up selling our house for less than what we bought it for. It seemed the more money I made the poorer we were. I think when I made less I appreciated a new Xbox or Playstation game a lot more, now I spend 50 bucks, game sucks? Oh well.

I checked our online bank statements and we were dying the death by a thousand cuts. It was not a big mortgage I was **** away 20 dollars here, 15 dollars there all the dang time. We dined our several times a week spending something like 400-500 a month.

I started the Dave Ramsey program and got gazelle intense, gazelled my butt right off a cliff because I paid off a few debts out of savings and then I got laid off. We are looking at six months living expenses now. Which is not bad at all, but our roof or furnace better not have something go wrong.

Now I am thinking long and hard about stepping back and trying for mid level engineer positions so I can get back into the actually techy side of things. I am going to sell my car but glad I put 30 percent down because I owe quite a bit less than what it is currently selling for used.

Hypntick

I try and keep at least 3 months available in the bank at all times. Not as much now due to car issues the last week but that's why it's there. Then again when I was growing up my mother always kept at least 3 months worth of food around the house as well. Finally asked her why one day and she says it's in case she loses her job so we'll be able to eat. Now that i'm on my own I try and do the same, it's helped since i've been out of work.

za3bour

45% get less than 5000$, that's really interesting.

mikej412

za3bour wrote: »

45% get less than 5000$, that's really interesting.

What's scary is that I'll walk around with more money in my pocket than 25% have in savings

joshmadakor

mikej412 wrote: »

What's scary is that I'll walk around with more money in my pocket than 25% have in savings

So how much is in your pocket right now?

Devilsbane

mikej412 wrote: »

What's scary is that I'll walk around with more money in my pocket than 25% have in savings

Note to self: mug Mike as he's walking to his car tonight....

joshmadakor wrote: »

So how much is in your pocket right now?

Well if 25% have between 0 and $1,000... it sounds like he has about $1,000.

Mike-Mike

Devilsbane wrote: »

Note to self: mug Mike as he's walking to his car tonight....

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note to self: mug Devilsbane after he mugs Mike.... double bonus!