Best financial advise you will ever hear. PERIOD.

[phyregod]

Quick question how does one book flights, hold a hotel room or rent a car with out a credit card..

Debit Card. Same thing, except you pay cash and you dont get charged interest. most debit cards are etiher visa or MC. Works exactly the same as a credit card.

when you're miles away from home, and your car breaks down, and you have $1.82 in your asstray, if you don't have a card, you're screwed.

Same thing. Instead of $10k in a credit card, you'd have 10k in your "emergency fund" which is linked to the debit card in your pocket. If its a money market you can earn 5% on that 10k while it sits, instead of paying 5-17% on a credit card.

Then, you'll start paying cash for those "impulse" buys. then they wont seem like such a good deal. $1k to a tv takes 1k cash out of your pocket, and you arent earning 5% Interest on that $1k until you put it back.

Make your money work for you. Not against you.

Add up all the interest you pay in any given year. Mine comes to a few bucks shy of $9k. Thats interest alone. I could sure use that extra 9k every year.


P.S. Gold isnt keeping up with inflation long term. Yer losing money.

 

[Celerity]

The Gold is N3v4r wrong ! Brian said so !

 

[posol]

i've NEVER pushed gold. only silver and plat.

besides, who ever told you that about gold not keeping up with inflation is an asshat.

in one year, we've grown about $100/oz

or, 13% growth over one year.

inflation is at about 4-6% a year.

please, show me where i'm wrong.

 

[phyregod]

Long-Term. Gold is doing very well right now. And over the last several years. But if you compare it to a 30 year chart, you'll see what I'm talking about. I tried to find one that wasnt adjusted for inflation but couldnt.

Anyway, I'm not the stock market king. Hell, I'm just figuring out that I'm being raped by credit card companies/loans/mortgage, etc. I'm a financial baby.

But this thread isnt about stocks or gold values. Its about simple money management.

 

[phyregod]

Want a rock solid investment that will return 5-17% guaranteed?

Pay off your credit cards.

 

[Celerity]

5-17% is a conservative figure.

 

[get_nick]

Then, chop up all of your credit cards and cancel them. Pay cash for everything from here on out. (aka cash, debit, checks, blah blah blah, NO credit!)

ask any credit counselor, DO NOT CANCEL cards. Just don't use them. cancelled cards hurts your credit score.

 

[Celerity]

most cards penalize you if you don't use them.

 

[phyregod]

ask any credit counselor, DO NOT CANCEL cards. Just don't use them. cancelled cards hurts your credit score.

Honestly, if you are going to pay cash for everything from here out, who cares what your credit score is?

And yes, you are expected to pay cash for cars and houses, too. Which will be retardedly difficult. But its doable. We have to get away from the creditor's who have crammed it down our throats that its the only way to live. We are sold on the fact that credit = life. But in reality, credit is a product that they sell. And they sell it very well. Stop buying it!

Is it hard? Incredibly. This isnt easy stuff here.

 

[get_nick]

Honestly, if you are going to pay cash for everything from here out, who cares what your credit score is?

And yes, you are expected to pay cash for cars and houses, too. Which will be retardedly difficult. But its doable. We have to get away from the creditor's who have crammed it down our throats that its the only way to live. We are sold on the fact that credit = life. But in reality, credit is a product that they sell. And they sell it very well. Stop buying it!

Is it hard? Incredibly. This isnt easy stuff here.

i agree with you on most of the stuff. but i'm with b on this one. you MUST have 1 card for emergencies. if you are low on cash, or there is no ATM around. sometimes you just HAVE TO HAVE a form of credit.

 

[NoJokE]

Credit is a fact of life that we can't escape. You want to buy that $400,000 house or nice Corvette down the road? You better believe you aren't paying cash. Everyone should have 2 or 3 cards, and if possible, have them all be rewards cards so you get something back. You CAN make money off of having credit cards. There are so many cashback credit cards out there that it's stupid to NOT have one.

I currently put all my bills on my AMEX Blue Cash that pays up to 5% cashback at the end of the year and have my money sitting in an ING Checking account that yields 4%. I pay off my AMEX in full monthly and I made money just by paying my bills/eating/random shit. I'm making money off of my non-savings money by doing what I normally do. There is no reason that everyone has to pay cash, unless you're a drug dealer or have some serious debt that you're way behind on.

Get with the program, this is the 21st century, you won't get far without credit unless you have megabucks.

 

[reckedracing]

Credit is a fact of life that we can't escape. You want to buy that $400,000 house or nice Corvette down the road? You better believe you aren't paying cash. Everyone should have 2 or 3 cards, and if possible, have them all be rewards cards so you get something back. You CAN make money off of having credit cards. There are so many cashback credit cards out there that it's stupid to NOT have one.

most cash back rewards cards only give you a reward if you carry a balance on the card, which means they are giving you some of your interest money back
i had one card that i've had since 1998, never late, never missed a payment, only once did i carry a balance, and after 7 years with the card i had NO credit score...
i paid it off every month so they never ranked me with a score
so i went out and got a 4 wheeler on a small loan to build credit
bam, credit scores are flying colors now
still waiting to find a house

 

[phyregod]

Credit is a product. It has one of the most (if not THE most) agressive marketing campaigns out there. Its crammed down our throats that we cannot live without it. And we believe it. Listen to yourselves. Read the last few posts.

Banks sell it. Retailers sell it. They want you to buy it because it makes them mad $$. It is their product.

You dont HAVE to buy it.



P.S. Park your small savings in a paypal money market account (paypal.com). Its kicking 5.04% and your $ is 100% liquid. They'll even send you a MasterCard Debit card.

 

[NoJokE]

Credit is a product. It has one of the most (if not THE most) agressive marketing campaigns out there. Its crammed down our throats that we cannot live without it. And we believe it. Listen to yourselves. Read the last few posts.

Banks sell it. Retailers sell it. They want you to buy it because it makes them mad $$. It is their product.

You dont HAVE to buy it.



P.S. Park your small savings in a paypal money market account (paypal.com). Its kicking 5.04% and your $ is 100% liquid. They'll even send you a MasterCard Debit card.

I already have a high yield savings account with ING... I do this with my CHECKING account, money I need to eat/pay rent/go out. Please check out the fatwallet.com finance forum and you'll see hundreds of people making thousands off of credit cards a year.

reckedracing, what card was this? That is not true that you have to carry a balance for it to be reported, as long as there is ACTIVITY in the account that month you can pay it off, it will show up as "Pays account as agreed" if they report to the 3 credit bureaus/

It is also not true that you have to carry a balance to get cash back. The cashback is on purchases made with the card, whether you carry a balance or not. It's not wise(read:retarded) to carry a balance with a cashback card, because you'll be eating away at the cashback with the monthly interest.

You'll need good credit if you want to get the best rates on an auto purchase/mortgage in the future is all i'm saying. The cashback credit card and everything else i'm saying is not for everybody, I understand, but with a little effort, you'll be making money off the credit cards WHILE building your credit.

 

[reckedracing]

the card that wasn't reporting was a capital one card
i even called/wrote to them with no results, so i got a bank of america card, and a small loan through hsbc for the 4wheeler

do you need to pay a membership fee for the cashback card?
all the ones i have seen are 1) memberships fees or 2. cash back but only if you carry a balance
i have seen the rewards cards with no strings, but they weren't cash back

 

[NoJokE]

the card that wasn't reporting was a capital one card
i even called/wrote to them with no results, so i got a bank of america card, and a small loan through hsbc for the 4wheeler

do you need to pay a membership fee for the cashback card?
all the ones i have seen are 1) memberships fees or 2. cash back but only if you carry a balance
i have seen the rewards cards with no strings, but they weren't cash back

That's odd, my Capital One was the first card I ever got, they've reported everytime I've made a purchase and paid.

Check out Credit Cards - Compare Credit Card Offers at CreditCards.com, there's a bunch of cashback/rewards cards that are no fee and you don't have to carry a balance.

The Chase Freedom is a great card, 3% cashback on your top 3 expenditures for the month, no minimum yearly spending limit to get the 3%. My AMEX Blue Cash has 5% cashback but you have to spend $6500 a year to get 5%, which I know I can do with the amount I spend on bills/food/misc stuff.

 

[DarkHand]

I've been recently doing alot of the sensible things that Phyre's class is teaching, just out of necessity. I've got no credit cards (due to having screwed up credit that I'm having trouble clearing up, not by choice ) and my monthly expenses are hovering around 90-95% of my income right now, so I have virtually no room for error. I was getting lazy and falling behind when, fortunately, my tax return and my company performance bonus came in. With absolutely no safety net I used that money to just about even myself back out, and as long as I'm a total budget nazi for the next few months, that extra 5-10% will put me in the black again.

 

[cheese9988]

My 401(k) has been making an annualized return of 12.74% for the past 6 years. You just need to educate yourself a bit on the market. It's not impossible to do.

I looked at mine, its around 5% or so, which isn't bad considering my savings account is a whooping .7%. Just thought 12% was pretty good.

 

[NoJokE]

I looked at mine, its around 5% or so, which isn't bad considering my savings account is a whooping .7%. Just thought 12% was pretty good.

How long have you had a 401k? 5% is pretty bad if you're constantly getting that return. There are savings accounts that get that much return with zero risk. What's your allocation like? If you're under 45, you should have at least 90% stock, 10% bonds. I have 95% stock and 5% bonds.

reckedracing, keep on grinding man. Debt is a ball and chain and once you break free, you never want to see it again. I was 14k deep 2 and a half years ago, I managed to get out of it and it feels fanfuckingtastic. Good luck to you sir!

 

[Bob Vila]

This guy was on the Early Show on CBS this morning...