Living in place with incredibly cheap and accessible public transport (365€/ year for the whole city; 1090€/year for the whole country), while not owning a car.
Hello to Vienna. If you live just outside that city then you get to pay for three states instead, no longer cheap.
We still need a big car for travels.
Yeah I got the Austrian-wide ticket, bc I go to Linz a lot. If I need a car I can borrow or rent one. Still is so much cheaper thann owning one
Leaving my wife, She destroyed my credit and finances.In less then 2 years I have fixed both.
Congrats on turning that around so quickly!
Kept scores like it was a video game.
My country doesn’t really work with credit scores, so I don’t really understand it. How can you ruin and fix your score like that?
In the U.S. there’s a system that reports all of your financial information to 3 different credit bureaus. When you make an owed payment late ,don’t pay for something, apply for too much credit or just not even use credit your credit score shrinks. By paying bills on time ,having more available unused credit and just doing that overtime makes your score go up.This is a simplified explanation and I’m no expert ,but that’s the basics of it.
The less you spend the better? Goes a bit against economic progress. But I’m probably not really getting it. Thank you for your explanation.
Left my ex four years ago now and I’ve got a 700 credit score!
She didn’t fuck up my finances directly, but she undermined my sense of concrete reality and filled me with enormous amounts of stress and I couldn’t do anything but hang on by my fingertips in my career.
Four years of active healing and it’s finally starting to manifest in my external life.
Good for you getting your head in a better place.Sometimes what we want the most really is the worse thing for us.
It was love at first sight, literally. We didn’t even discuss going out. The first day we met, we were together as a couple. I cannot emphasize enough that we did not discuss being a couple even a single word, but we both knew.
I ain’t doing love at first sight again. Fuck that.
Not owning a car is probably the single most significant saving most people can make, a moped/e-bike will pay itself off within the year from gas costs alone, and public transport in europe at least is usually slightly less than that for a year ticket.
I wish it was possible not to own a car in the US. But our infrastructure is built so poorly that it is actually impossible.
I feel bad for the younger generations. This whole car culture and at most places being mandatory is just bad.
I am fortunate to live in a city with decent public transit. I could have owned a car back in 2018 but I put that on standby indefinitely. The money I saved went into buying a house. And now, a bigger house.
Yes awful public transportation…but “impossible”? Nahh. Still, could save alot of wear and tear getting and ebike for a portion of travel distance.
I was doing a 20 mile one way commute on an ebike in Austin before I moved and now work from home. Driving was still slightly faster but not being in traffic was worth it.
I feel the same. Even in a state as populated as NJ the public transit system is mediocre unless you are going into NYC.
I only live about 6 miles from my job. If I rode my bike, I’d probably get killed on the road I’d have to take to get to work.
Question about the public transport system, how long does it take to get to common destinations like work, grocery stores, doctors, and etc? Also, how easy is it to get to stations/stops?
For example, the closest grocery store by me is a 37 minute walk or 12 minutes by bike I just don’t think it would be practical to ride with a weeks worth of food for a family. There is no public transportation available.
There are electric cargo bikes that you can strap large panniers or containers to
I personally don’t ride anymore except for exercise, partially because I’m soft, and partially because there are not many safe paths/bike lanes to shopping areas
For distances you can reach within 20-30min on bike, public transport is usually about equal. Here in sweden (where public transport is kinda eeeeh) gettign to the stops is easy so long as you’re not outside a town.
I think your problem is that you’re applying car logic to non-car modes of transport: when you can reach the store in 12 minutes by bike there’s little reason to buy a week’s worth of food at once.
I usually buy food for maybe 2-3 days at a time, and not seldom i will just buy the ingredients for a meal literally a couple hours before, since it takes no time at all to go shopping.
You can also get a cargo bike which will honestly fit about as much food as people bring in their cars anyways. Same goes with a bike trailer.
When living in more walkable areas you don’t feel the need to stockpile food as much. Often times you’ll pass a grocer on your commute and can grab some fresh ingredients to use that night or the next few days. This can help save money too as you can take better advantage of short sales and have more opourtunity for “eat today” type discounts. Theres also the health benefits of active transportation. Unfortunately in most western society being able to walk to essential life giving food isn’t seen as a priority in neighbourhood design.
I buy the best car I can afford for cash and maintain it. Repayments on a $30,000 car work out at around $7500 a year for me. Until a car starts costing me big in repairs or breaking down repeatedly and inconveniencing me I just pay the money and keep it well maintained.
A $10,000 volvo that Ive had for 3 years has cost me $3k in assorted repairs. So $13000 vs $22500.
Buying shares in a company I work at when it started up. I’ve had a 500% return in dividends over 7 years so far.
Putting all the money and labor into one horse is generally not a good financial advice. Glad it worked out for you.
I didn’t put all my money in. I bought a 1.5% share. It was funded from part of my redundancy settlement from the previous company I worked for. Was it a gamble? Yes. Was it high risk to me? No. Besides the question wasn’t asking for advice.
It’s a tie between getting rid of my car and learning to stop “trading”. Cars are just the worst in terms of finances, and you can save bank if you’re able to move somewhere walkable. Only buy stocks you’re happy to hold for five years or more. A good test is “if the price crashes, would I be excited to buy more?”
Coincidentally, having cars as a hobby has been the worst financial decision of my life lol.
Hobbies aren’t supposed to be about whether they’re a good financial consideration, they’re about passion, self fulfillment and looking after yourself.
This is of course true, but sometimes what you’re getting out of a hobby is not worth the resources you put in.
Then it’s a shit hobby, or the wrong time in your life for that particular hobby. Hobbies aren’t meant to be financially sound investments, and the best hobbies aren’t cheap.
I think, at least for non-savvy people, that buying individual stocks is not a great idea anyway. If you’re investing to have long term capital gains something like the MSCI World ETF would probably be the better choice. If you invested in that specific index fund in 2016 you’d have doubled your money by now, even during this economic downturn. Sure, you can make more money in a shorter time day trading but that shit is damn near a full time job and more risky unless you heavily diversify your portfolio (which you should do anyway).
Another poster mentioned stocks of the company he works for. My company for example distributes a good amount of their yearly profits to their employees. Meaning that once a year you can choose between a couple hundred bucks one-time payout or get a bunch of company stocks for a heavily discounted price, but they’re trade-locked for two years. At the beginning of 2020 I chose the stock option and the shares got bought right at the beginning of the covid dip. When 2022 rolled around I had essentially quintupled my initial investment in the discounted stocks. So that’s another great tip, provided you company offers similar plans.
Counterpoint to company stock is, if the company has trouble, your stock is likely to plummet at the same time as you lose your job. Definitely go for discounted shares/options, but consider dumping them (ie, diversifying) as soon as you can.
I joined a hotel company a couple of years ago where they offered stock options, which is good and I appreciated it. But there were a lot of people that had worked there for decades just because they felt invested in the company. Meanwhile, working conditions were absolutely awful and the culture was the worst I’ve ever experienced. And I kept thinking how crazy it must have been during COVID as the stock tanked and everyone was staring down the barrel of layoffs. Like, if your employer is your entire retirement plan then you could be in huge trouble all at once.
Stop spending on games :(
Paying off all our credit cards and cancelling them and living off cheque / savings accounts rather than credit.
We did this about 5 years ago before COVID uncertainty and the current cost of living crisis and I’m just so relieved we don’t have to worry about paying anything off.
If you’re good about treating it like cash, credit cards aren’t a bad thing. The cashback/rewards are nice as they are not taxable. (At least in the US)
That said, for some the temptation of credit is too much.
The gamification of credit card points can be a problem, too (overspending on stuff you don’t really need or want to get those rewards). I use a credit card for this, too, but it can be murky waters if you don’t have really good planning and impulse control (which I will admit I don’t always have myself).
The cashback ones are better than the points collectors. Though they both have some positives.
With the cash back ones you just get money back for spending money that you would have already spent. If you spend enough to get more cash back than the fees for the year then you are ahead. With the points ones if you use them up once a year to get something that you would then not have to spend money on including the yearly fees then you are also ahead.
I get enough enough points to get a gift card for my favorite steakhouse. So we don’t pay each year for our two yearly visits to the steakhouse because of points.
Consistently investing in mutual funds for last 7 years (Systematic Investment Plan)
Bonus: not caring about what others think of my clothes, car, jewellery or gadgets.
not caring about what others think of my clothes, car, jewellery or gadgets.
That really goes a long way.
A lot of people are against credit cards which is understandable. But I use them almost exclusively and pay them in full every month.
As long as I don’t go over whatever I have in cash, these credit cards help me in building credit score as well as provide a layer of protection should some person or site try to over charge me later.
It’s not for everyone, but it worked for me.
Just to add to this, being selective about which card(s) you use and maximizing bonus points can lead to some pretty significant travel benefits.
While not always too significant, many credit cards also offer points or cash back. I do the same as you (use my credit card for practically everything and always pay it off), and can use whatever points I get to make small mortgage prepayments, buy gift cards, etc.
I solely use an Amazon Chase card. I buy a lot from Amazon and still get cash back to spend at Amazon when making purchases elsewhere. I buy the occasional game for myself at no cost and when Xmas rolls around I can buy a number of gifts with Amazon points.
This is what I do. I don’t use a debit card, but instead use a “credit condom” so that if someone steals my cc and uses it, I’m not liable. I also pay in full so I don’t have to carry cash and keep a healthy / active credit history.
My credit score is about as good as it can get, and I have no problems buying anything big ticket.
This is basically what I do. It made keeping track of my finances really simple. I just try to keep my checking account balance higher than my credit card balance. If there’s anything left when I pay off the card at the end of the month I move that over to savings. Easy peasy.
The thing I found about using my credit card like this is it actually ended up saving me a bunch of money because in times when money was tight it gave me the flexibility to stock up on things when they were on sale, or to get the extra jumbo value pack with better per-unit cost, because I could spread the cost over several paychecks instead of being limited to what I could afford out of just that week’s paycheck. If you do it right it does a lot to take the edge off of “Vimes’ boots” theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
Put at least 10% (including match) of your salary in my low load market index 401k.
Start with your first job. You will never miss it.
“The best time to plant a tree is 30 years ago. The second best time is now.”
- some wise MF
I’ve never gotten this “save 10%” thing. Why target a percentage of your income? Save as much as you can.
I diversified my savings account. Some is put into precious metals,a CD, and some in stocks.
Starting a business
What’s your business?
TLDR: Computers
I got super lucky being in the right place/right time. I started a company when COVID hit with the intention of just selling computers. The market sort of pushed me into selling computers for AI/ML which i knew nothing about but had a good background in Linux, so I could offer a lot of added services in terms of DevOps/MLOps, setting things up for customers as added value which my (much larger and more established) competition didn’t. This led to some enterprise connections, started selling servers, more things happened and 3 years later I have a full engineering team and we’re morphing into an OEM. There’s a lot I’m leaving out but if there’s one takeaway I can give, it’s that:
- Never underestimate what you’re capable of learning by just putting in the time and work
- Don’t de-value random things you’ve put time and effort into learning. Even something you were obsessed with as a teenager and seemed like a complete waste of time may eventually become critically important in your adult life.
Stop trying to beat the market. Invest in a cheap global index fund and just keep buying.
This, in combination with “budgeting” as explained in that other comment, is probably the best advice to sleep sound and well, at least when it comes to the financial side of life.
Changing jobs in 2021. Managed to almost double my salary overnight with less stress.
Multigenerational living, on a farm. Most everything we eat or use comes from our property, our neighbors, or my husbands family’s property.
I’m very well cognizant this is not an option for a lot of people, and I know how lucky I am to not have to spend money on bills most people have… it’s a big reason why I try to pay it forward in many ways, as often as I can.
That said, I grew up in abject poverty… so I’m playing catch up, even now.
Such is reality.
Hope you got tomatoes then
It would be silly to not.
Here’s a tomato for you 🍅
