Are you "good" with money?

Not me. I always have to end up borrowing 40 dollars at the end of the month for smokes. No matter how much I put aside I always break into it saying: "if I only smoke so much a day than I can afford BLANK."

Any extra money burns a whole in my pocket and by God I'll find a way to spend $10 on eBay.

Sucks being on a fixed income too, I only get paid once a month and it's from Social Security so it's not a lot.

Edit: So are you "good" with money OT!?

I'm in much better financial shape than most.

• I've got a full 6 months of net pay in cash savings
• 15-year fixed mortgage below 3% (my only debt)
• I put 18% of my pre-tax income into a retirement account
• I invest in a brokerage account
• Wife has a good job and also saves in a retirement account.

I waste money here and there; I need to quit smoking and we eat out more often than we should. The wife isn't as disciplined as I am about spending though.

Well it kinda depends on what you mean by that. I never really had a hard time with cash. Some times when i was studying I barely made a month but I never had to borrow money or anything. Now that I'm done studying and work 100% with a girlfriend which also works 100%, money really isn't an issue. We do spend a lot though on stuff like travels and now recently, for the wedding in May. We can pay it all easely with our savings but we certainly could save more if we wouldn't spend so much on stuff we don't really need. Like, in my case, games I pre-ordered but never played since I own them ... and those are a lot of games. Also games I get on Steam sales etc. I own over 1000 games on Steam alone and I haven't played like 80% of them xD

Family calls me Scrooge McDuck.

So I dunno if that means if i'm "good" with money or just a cheapskate.

easy give up smoking.

I think I am then I wake up and my money is gone and left me a fake phone number.

No. That's why the wife has her paycheck and mine too. Me? if I had to pay a bill, I pay it without question just so I don't have to deal with it. The wife would open the books (hers and the bill source) to see if they add up on both.

Well I built up a bunch of money last year from various jobs. I'm not constantly broke so I'm not bad with money. That being said I suppose the next step is to make my money earn more money so I guess I have a ways to go before I will consider myself good with money.

@bforrester420: Eating out is definitely something my girlfriend and I do a bit too much of. We're pretty good about other things though. We don't do much excessive shopping, neither of us smoke, and we don't spend too much on alcohol. We're both working on getting better jobs as well. She has two degrees (one associates and one bachelor's) and I'm working on getting my bachelor's. It's all a work in progress, I just wish thhere was a way to speed it up a bit.

Yes.

Yes I am.

I have a good career that pays well, I'm good with my financials, but I do spend lots of money such as games and PC stuff but despite I'm good with money, I still save little by little when it comes to buying games. When I get paid, I put $20 dollars to the side for that game I'm saving when it's going to release, that's how I'm good at this saving stuff and my family, bills, and buying food for the house all comes first, games second. [depends who you ask]

I'm good at spending it. And yes, i've hustled since i was a young lad, and make enough to support my fam. Thats good enough, but there's always room for more. I just don't push too hard, cause i'm comfortable.

@Serraph105: It's really nice being in your mid 30s. By this age you're usually established in your career.

Personally, I tend to "waste" my money on golf during the warmer months and expensive single malt scotches. But hey, if I'm able to save 30% of my income, I figure I've earned the right to let open my walled from time to time!

To an extent. When you have college tuition to pay for, it's hard to keep money in your possession.

Yes, I rarely buy anything that's unnecessary, and I constantly look for ways to squeeze every penny.

Gotta figure out how investing works in the future.

I manage alright. My partner and I make great money and were able to put money into a retirement, pay the mortgage every month, pay our bills, etc. and still have money left over to play with. We could probably still improve our money management but we are never broke.

I have my ups and downs.

@bforrester420: How high is your mortgage? When you say brokerage account, is that for shares?

If you're smoking, pick up a cigarette machine and buy a pound of pipe tobacco and some filter tubes. Pipe tobacco isn't taxed the same as tobacco intended for cigarettes, and if you get the unflavored stuff it's just cut tobacco. $15 will get you a pound of tobacco and less than $4 for 200 filter tubes.

If you want a good, easy and sure investment, grab some US Treasury Notes/Bonds. Read here.

No, but it's something I'd really like to get under control. Credit card debt and school loans will probably make things difficult, but as long as I can manage to pay everything I need to pay and survive, that's worth something.

wife and i are in good shape. both have good jobs, only debt is mortgage, good cash savings, both contrib > 10% to retirement though admittedly we could both afford to do more there. only major things we have really spend much money on over the past few years is vacation. neither of us really spend frivolously as there isn't really anything we want/need.

though that will change soon when the kid arrives and --cks everything up :)

By "how high", do you mean my interest rate? If that's the case, my rate is 2.75%.

Yes, when I say brokerage account I mean for individual shares. That might also include ETFs (exchange traded mutual funds), depending on how the wind blows. Right now, I'm been staggering purchases of the oil majors, mostly ConocoPhillips for that sweet, sweet dividend yield. If the U.S. market falls another 10%, I'll probably start buying index funds.

I disagree because Treasuries don't pay nearly the rate that you'll get out of equities. If you want an easy and sure investment, and we're talking a long term investment, I would suggest VOO (Vanguard S&P 500 ETF). You'll get a dividend yield that rivals the rates on a Treasury and you'll get capital gains as well.

Long term sure. I was more thinking much shorter term. You can get Treasury notes that mature in a month.

I would say so, being from a miserly Scottish family. Got through all my education without any student loans, finished school 7 months ago and already got a good amount of savings from my job and some investments on the side.

I've never really had a problem with lack of money even when I was unemployed for a summer in University and between my undergrad and post-graduate education. Now that I can afford to spend money on superfluous shit like wall-art I still don't, I just can't do it. I don't even spend much money on cloths since I work somewhere without a dress code and zero fucks are given about appearance. Probably spend a bit too much on booze though.

@with_teeth26: Favorite whisky?

I've only started drinking whisky in the last couple years but the nicest i've tried is probably Glenfiddich

@with_teeth26: Need to try Lagavulin or Ardbeg

My current favorite bourbon whiskey is W.L. Weller Special Reserve. It's not the smoothest, or the oldest (7 years), but it's a wheated bourbon with it's own special flavor. Just like it's older sibling "Antique Weller" (which is 12 years) it shares the same mix as the famous Pappy Van Winkle. If you get the chance I really recommend picking up a bottle of this up as you it will only cost you around $30.

It's not that I'm terrible with my money, I just have a pricey hobby and like to live decently...that's what I tell myself.

I buy too much "project stuff" like scopes, logic analyzers, and development boards...but everything I purchase is in the pursuit of learning more. I do try to buy used when possible. My bench power supply is an old HP analog meter supply ($40) and one of my scopes is an old HP DSO ($80). If the old equipment can suit my needs then I don't mind.

I have student loans, but I'm fine with something I can pay off in 6 months at a job. My girlfriend has a stable career which is enough to support us and I get plenty of money from research and academic scholarships (enough to fund my mad scientist lifestyle), things are ok.

well , I live in Iran , a country that has been under sanctions for the past 10 years , Business relationship with western countries was bad and government is ... well lets not get into that . so I would say most people here are not good with money . country's currency value has dropped drastically . 5 years ago the money my family made from work was equal to 6000$ a month , now it's equal to 2000$ . which means the value of Rial ( Iran's currency ) is 3 times less than it was 5 years ago .

but with all that , my situation isn't half bad . I Studied Chinese and english . I work as a Translator and I make good money and I'm on the right path to get into importing business from China . I just need the right connections with the right people .

When it comes to money, I am TERRIBLE. And I mean that in every sense of the word. I have no self control when it comes to buying guns and I'm pretty sure I have an amazon addiction... God help me

Yes and no.

I don't spend a lot of money, and if I could just get my food budget under control (cook more, eat less, etc), I'd be saving a lot more. I don't have high standards of living, and I tend to favor practical stuff (i.e. I'd love to have a new Jeep, but I would just get a more efficient, better made, and inexpensive Honda) and don't give in to impulse buys.

I am sitting on quite a bit of money, but I don't have it invested :( it's just sitting in my savings account earning jack squat per year lol.

I am also single, which is basically like making 30% more money lol. Really wish they'd legalize prostitution...

Pretty good. I have savings, but what I do spend, I spend on pointless things.

I spend way too much on videogames.

Bingo

@sheriff514: what do you buy? Whenever I browse Amazon I find nothing to buy. Nothing that worth buying I mean.

I am okay with money. I have no loans or debit and got money saved that I would like to invest, but not sure how.

haha, no. Especially with the 1 click buy.

@k--m--k: man.. anything and everything. I literally do all my shopping on amazon. Things for work (which is a huge variety of objects) I bought my tv, TV stand, pretty much every gadget I own, I am full of shame

I'm a good consumer and get things on sale... and not the sales where the list price is inflated type of sale. I hardly ever overspend and I usually do all services by myself thanks to the internet. I find a way for everything to make more and save more. It's my little obsession.

@sheriff514: you got to get that under control or you will end up on one of these documentaries about shopping addiction.

ooh. sounds like a good hobby :) make anything cool?