How do you manage your money?

by Billygoat 20 Replies latest jw friends

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  Billygoat

  As a child, I used to baby-sit kids in the neighborhood for money. It wasn’t much, but $2 or $3 an hour to a 14 year-old back in the early/mid 80’s was pretty big stuff. On New Year’s Eve when a lot of parents were clamoring for baby-sitters, the price would go up to $5 an hour, which was awesome. They would usually leave the house around 5 to travel to a dinner spot or party and not come home until 1 or 2. Forty to 45 dollars in one night?!?! Wahoo! To my little teenage mind that was like a million dollars!

  When you’re a JW and “the end” is right around the corner, it never seemed that big of a deal to save. Retirement fund? For what? Armageddon was going to hit before I graduated high school, right? Uh…yeah.

  Now that I’m in my thirties, I am realizing I never really learned to manage money well. Up until about 5 years ago I was waiting tables, struggling to makes ends meet. The last 5 years, I’ve joined the corporate world and made better money. But I still struggle with saving it. My standard of living has gone up, but the savings account has not. The fear the word “Armageddon” used to instill in mean does nothing for me today. I know I will need to put money away for my retirement. I have no doubt someday I’ll need it. But I can’t seem to get away from the paycheck-to-paycheck mentality.

  My parents struggled for years financially. I remember eating King Vitamin for breakfast because it was one of the few breakfast cereals WIC would pay for. Those large blocks of government cheese? We got those too. Government powdered milk? Ate that with the King Vitamin. (I still love KV btw!) Credit debt was a BIG issue growing up in my family. We never really seemed to have much materially, but I do remember my parents filing bankruptcy when I was in my early teens because of the debt they had accumulated. I’m realizing how important it is to teach children the benefits of saving from an early age. Teaching MY future child about that terrifies me. I HAVEN’T FIGURED IT OUT MYSELF!!!

  Neil and I have quite a bit of debt. We have car loans, school loans, and a few credit cards left over from our REALLY irresponsible parts of our college lives. We want to buy a house someday and get out of debt. But sometimes the digging ourselves out of that debt hole is so overwhelming and frustrating!

  Do any of you find yourselves struggling because you never learned to save?

  Was the impending doom of Armageddon a factor in how you spent money?

  Did you abuse credit because it would get cleared in the New System?

  Do you think it is for JWs today? Or is it different from when I was a kid?

  Did your parents teach you good finance management habits?

  What are some things you’ve done to teach yourself new spending habits? (I mean practical little things.)

  Any recommendations in terms of how to clear debt?

  Any recommendations on how to GET MOTIVATED and STAY DISCIPLINED? I don’t want to be 50 and realizing I’ve made a tragic mistake!

  Thanks for letting me share. This has been heavy on my heart for a couple years now, but I’m in the same place I was back then. The black debt hole seems neverending sometimes! Andi
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  acsot

  I read "Your Money or Your Life" by Joe Dominguez and ___________ can't remember her name. Suze Orman also has good stuff, you can check out these books at the library I imagine.

  Set up a savings account that's inconvenient to get to, don't tie it to an ATM card, and have automatic deposits done each month, doesn't matter if it's $10 or $100, the point is to start. After awhile the savings will make you feel motivated to continue.

  Some books like "Miserly Moms" have good advice, some of the stuff is radical and time-consuming, you have to balance saving money with saving time as well.

  Anyway, my two cents worth!
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  Jessica Rabbit

  I recommend Dave Ramsey to this maddness. I just recieved some tapes of his from a good friend of mine. She swears by it. He teaches you how to live on a budget. I used to think budget was another word for "NO FUN". I am beginning to see that it will save your marriage, your sanity and you will actually be able to sleep at night. You might look up his name on the net, I haven't tried yet.

  JR
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  Simon

  It is hard and you always seem to get knock-backs just as you think you're getting ahead. We're by no means well off and have a modest terraced house (but a low mortgage by today's standards) and a couple of small cars that are both nearly paid off (damn loans seem to go on forever!).

  We've never had many (any) savings really but since leaving the borg I've started a private pension so have something saved for the future even if it isn't a great amount. Since getting badly ripped off by a previous employer and having some hard times a few years ago we've struggled along with some debt, mainly credit cards, and at one point were about £18k in the red (plus loan amounts etc ... !)

  It does feel like a millstone around your kneck and can get you down but we've clawed our way back and in a few months should have finally paid everything off and even have some savings. It was a combination of working hard to make some extra money (though this was scary 'cause getting started involved spending even more and racking up the charges) and also cutting down on expenses, moving to cheaper cards etc...and just generally being less frivolous.

  I don't intend to ever get in debt again and want to save some money now (which we need for the Canada thing)

  I am keen to teach our kids how to handle money and to save for things. It is much better to save for something and buy it outright than buy it and pay interest. All the interest, however low, all racks up and your money does not go as far. It's easy to overstretch forgetting that final payments are due or intending to pay things off to get the 'interest free credit' but not having the money when the day comes and paying a high rate.

  Bottom line is, don't give up and don't let it get you down. Don't cut down on everything though - you need to treat yourself once in a while. Somethings you need spend money on - we still went to Canada for holidays and it was worth the 6 month setback in payments to have a good break and see relatives for instance.

  Anyway, I have to go browse for laptops and gadgets
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  Big Tex

  I HAVEN’T FIGURED IT OUT MYSELF!!!

  Boy join the club Andi. My parents were just the same, we lived in government housing as well. Now Nina's parents on the other hand grew up in the Great Depression so they were fanatical about saving money. Katherine would drive around all day going to different stores to save 10 cents or 25 cents off of one item. They NEVER (ever) ate out. They both wore cheap clothes that were out of date in 1955. But they were able to save $300,000 by the time Katherine went into the nursing home. Of course Bill promptly blew it all in a couple of years so there's nothing left for us, but that's okay but it was never my money to start with.

  But I hear what you're saying. I've only recently (4 years) joined a 401(k). When Nina had her clothing line, it went well, but we wracked up about $50,000 in debt. We got that paid off but we're still in a little debt now. We've never been very good with saving and I don't know why. Money seems to me like the Internet. Full of mystery, confusion and something everyone is good at but me.
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  unbeliever

  I got myself into some credit card debt when I turned 18. The interest was damn near killing me. My dad got a loan from his bank to pay it off. I made the monthly payments to the bank at a much lower interest rate. Lesson well learned. I have one credit card that I use for emergencies only. I have not had to use it yet thankfully. Debit cards are the way to go. You can even use them to buy plane tickets off the internet.
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  Analysis

  For basic financial advice Suze Orman on CNBC on weekends gives some good basic advice. She at one point in her life was deeply in debt. So she speaks from experience. She states that it should be people first, then money then things. Having money is of more value then the things most westerners spend their money to obtain.

  The best advice ever came from Ben Franklin in his autobiography. Simply spend less then you make.

  As for my story:

  I came from what I thought was a very poor family. In fact we were just lower middle class, living in one of the most affluent areas in the western world. But, the fear of being poor was stronger then any faith I had in being a JW. It took over 20 years for me to progress from being a very good MS to making elder. They thought I was materialistic and that the rare occasion I time missed a meeting it was because of work. So I was not the proper example for the rest of the congregation.

  As to simony, I guess they thought I had more to give. I gave money to every CO for that 20 years and it didn’t help me. I guess $20 in the 1970s growing to $100 in the late 1980’s just didn’t keep up with inflation. But when I was a child $20 would buy food for my family for a week. $20 will not buy a dinner for a family of 4 at a fast food restaurant in my area today. So maybe I am just a cheap. Which in the book "The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy" -- Thomas J. Stanley, William D. Danko, basically shows that in the US most millionaires are just thrifty people who work very hard and save their money. They tend to drive older cars and they do not wear the latest in fashions.
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  Hamas

  Most of the time, I throw it in a small savings account I call 'the gutter'
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  Latin assassin from Manhattan

  The best thing to do is to invest securely for the long term. Stay away from the stock market and stick to sure bets like savings bonds, CDs, and real estate.

  Try to stay away from credit card debt as much as possible. Keep some credit cards, but use them for things you REALLY need.
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  MegaDude

  Andi,

  step one is to figure out what you're spending your money on.

  Track every dollar of your spending for a month. It's a bit of pain but when you tally it up you will figure out where it's going, and most likely you will be very, very surprised.