Managing money

[Washington Resistance Army]

Money management is for nerds, spend all your cash on my machine guns.

[Northwest Slobovia]

Never use credit cards, they are a huge drain on income.
If you have credit card debt, pay it off and cut up the cards. It is like earning 23 percent.

ITYM, "don't carry a balance on a credit card". That's good advice. Using a credit card as a 30-day interest-free loan is also good advice.

[The Blaatschapen]

Never use credit cards, they are a huge drain on income.
If you have credit card debt, pay it off and cut up the cards. It is like earning 23 percent.

ITYM, "don't carry a balance on a credit card". That's good advice. Using a credit card as a 30-day interest-free loan is also good advice.

Mine get automagically paid from my bank account.

Provided that there is enough money on them in the first place. Then again, I don't use credit cards that much. Only for some online payments.

[Ethel mermania]

ITYM, "don't carry a balance on a credit card". That's good advice. Using a credit card as a 30-day interest-free loan is also good advice.

Mine get automagically paid from my bank account.

Provided that there is enough money on them in the first place. Then again, I don't use credit cards that much. Only for some online payments.

I dont know if you have it over there but a lot of durable goods, (Furniture, refrigerators, cars etc) will Zero percent finance, I will do that. Otherwise I do try to not carry any credit balances, (aside from my mortgage).

[Saiwania]

Credit cards are actually a financial benefit if you know how credit works and never have a late payment. You get a good credit score and credit history which will get people to be more willing to lend you money or give you lower and better interest rates if you're seen as trustworthy with money. You get cash back and rewards points and perks depending on what credit card you have, if you follow certain rules that result in good credit and never carry a balance over the due date.

You're really missing out if you don't use credit, except for if you don't have lots of self control or discipline with regards to spending. Credit cards have superior fraud protections and etc. to debit cards.

[Ifreann]

Money is shit and we should abolish it.

What shall we replace it with?

Nothing?

[Saiwania]

Money is shit and we should abolish it.

Barter is no way to run an economy, and people want to trade and do business; it is just how people are. Without a universal medium of exchange like a national currency, people run into the problem of how to measure their current resources, value, or worth. Which is all quite important to any economy, even if it introduces inequality over the long term.

So long as material goods are finite in quantity, we can't move past needing some economic system to be able to efficiently allocate everything.

[The New California Republic]

What shall we replace it with?

Nothing?

How would we get goods and services?

[Ethel mermania]

Nothing?

How would we get goods and services?

Friendship and magic.

[Ifreann]

Nothing?

How would we get goods and services?

Friendship and magic.

[The Blaatschapen]

How would we get goods and services?

Friendship and magic.

I am not ponying up for that.

[The Blaatschapen]

Credit cards are actually a financial benefit if you know how credit works and never have a late payment. You get a good credit score and credit history which will get people to be more willing to lend you money or give you lower and better interest rates if you're seen as trustworthy with money. You get cash back and rewards points and perks depending on what credit card you have, if you follow certain rules that result in good credit and never carry a balance over the due date.

You're really missing out if you don't use credit, except for if you don't have lots of self control or discipline with regards to spending. Credit cards have superior fraud protections and etc. to debit cards.

My credit score here is not based on my credit card usage.

Funny, how different countries have different rules regarding credit scores

[Ethel mermania]

Friendship and magic.

I am not ponying up for that.

Speciest.

[Saiwania]

My credit score here is not based on my credit card usage. Funny, how different countries have different rules regarding credit scores

Wouldn't you agree that someone has to have credit history of some form, to have credit in the first place? So far as lenders are concerned, someone having no credit is effectively the same as their having bad credit. If they see no payment history, no data on their credit utilization, no proof of income or anything, they won't know whether someone is a good risk or not, so it is safer for them to reject them by default unless there is enough information for a credit score.

For US, the FICO score is allegedly determined by the following:

payment history (35%)
amount owed (30%)
length of credit history (15%)
new credit (10%)
type of credit used (10%)

[Mtwara]

Good financial advice has to reflect your values and goals. As such it can vary from person to person. This is all based on my personal experience.

I would say the best things to do are;
[*]Find a couple of cheap hobbies, eg I play sax, expensive up front but after that very cheap, and I live in an area of outstanding natural beauty so I go hiking and cycling a lot
[*]These days houses in many countries need huge deposits, so I would suggest either not investing your money, or investing it in something low-risk and easy to liquidate until after you have paid your deposit and associated fees, this could mean NOT putting money into stocks and shares, even if they do sound fancy
[*]Put more into your pension when you're young and have few responsibilities (mortgage, kids, etc), this gives you a great head start and more flexibility when you are older, including the option to cut contributions if money is tight
[*]You will almost always be financially better off working as a contractor or starting your own business, keep this in mind at all times throughout your working life
[*]Most highly paid jobs are mostly dull, you have time to decide when you're young, but eventually you have to choose if you are willing to put up with it

[The Blaatschapen]

My credit score here is not based on my credit card usage. Funny, how different countries have different rules regarding credit scores

Wouldn't you agree that someone has to have credit history of some form, to have credit in the first place? So far as lenders are concerned, someone having no credit is effectively the same as their having bad credit. If they see no payment history, no data on their credit utilization, no proof of income or anything, they won't know whether someone is a good risk or not, so it is safer for them to reject them by default unless there is enough information for a credit score.

For US, the FICO score is allegedly determined by the following:

payment history (35%)
amount owed (30%)
length of credit history (15%)
new credit (10%)
type of credit used (10%)

It's not up to me to agree or not. Go talk to Schufa, the german credit bureau on how they calculate scores.

[The New California Republic]

How would we get goods and services?

Friendship and magic.

I'll try that when I next buy something on eBay. I'll buy something, and I'll message the seller to ask "do you accept friendship and magic as a payment method?"

[Petrolheadia]

Friendship and magic.

I am not ponying up for that.

Yeah, seems to be utter horseshit.

[The Chuck]

Money management is for nerds, spend all your cash on my machine guns.

This I would do... except then I wouldn't have any cash for ammunition!

On a serious note. My method to money management is quite simple. Don't impulse buy and try to use cash for most feasible purchases. By avoiding impulse buying and using cash, it helps give you a physical idea of how much money you're spending. I'm a university student and although I have a debit card, I go to the bank twice a month and use it to withdraw money from my account. I attempt to avoid paying with the debit card unless I am paying tuition or something major. Even then I look at my account and see how much money I have in it total.

Although we all have our instant gratification monkey in our heads telling us to buy now, be frugal and thoughtful with your money to come out on top.

P.S. If you're one of those jokers who "doesn't like carrying around change", quit being a dummy and save those coins! Nickels, Dimes, 2 Euro cents, etc. add up over time!

[Ethel mermania]

Friendship and magic.

I'll try that when I next buy something on eBay. I'll buy something, and I'll message the seller to ask "do you accept friendship and magic as a payment method?"

Friendship and magic doesnt work that way.

[Ifreann]

Friendship and magic.

I'll try that when I next buy something on eBay. I'll buy something, and I'll message the seller to ask "do you accept friendship and magic as a payment method?"

Best of luck.

[Pope Joan]

Here's a pointer: Do not look at your bank balance, see that ample funds appear to be there, and then spend them.
First deduct any automatic payments that are authorized monthly, such as your phone.
Then make a note of outstanding bills for which payment may not yet have cleared, If that check is still in the mail, it may bounce once it hits your depleted account.
The point is to not assume you are flush when you may not be.

[The New California Republic]

I'll try that when I next buy something on eBay. I'll buy something, and I'll message the seller to ask "do you accept friendship and magic as a payment method?"

Best of luck.

If lots of eBay sellers start adding the line "we do not accept friendship and/or magic as a payment method" to their listings then you will know why...

[Major-Tom]

As a college student, my current idea of "saving money" relates less to investing and what have you, but really just shopping at value/dollar stores, cooking my own food as opposed to eating out, always checking price tags, and putting whatever money I have left at the end of the month into savings.

[Neu Leonstein]

What about just buying up tons of land?

In principle, in terms of outright expected return, this might be ok. But there are a couple of issues with it... and mostly I think they have to do with illiquidity and minimum trade size.

Illiquidity is obvious... if you suddenly need the money, it's a lot harder to sell a bunch of commercial real estate than it is to sell some stock market funds or something. The sooner you need the money, the more it will cost you to get it.

The second is sorta obvious too - there's a minimum amount of money that you sorta need to buy enough real estate to collect rent on it. That means two things. The first is that someone who has less than that minimum in spare cash sitting around (which is most people) can't really do it at all. And the second is that unless you really have a lot of spare cash, your bit of real estate is going to be a very big chunk of your total assets. And that means no diversification... stuff can happen to your one piece of land that ruins your day. And I'm not even talking about real estate market crashes ... I'm talking problems with tenants, damage to the premises and all that sort of thing. Idiosyncratic problems that don't really worry you if your investments are spread across many different things.