So how much is "too much" to have in the bank?

[quote name='elessar123']Yea, you're not supposed to spend more than 40% of your paycheck on housing, as a general rule of thumb.[/QUOTE]


We've tried to sell the house twice. Mainly because the wife wanted to move back to Anchorage. At the current market's state we'd just barely break even selling it. We only bought the house 3 years ago. 50% going to mortgage might be an overestimate. It's probably closer to 40-45% $1850 or so every two weeks and about $825 comes out at the same time for the mortgage payment. Having the mortgage payment come out every 2 weeks automatically is a very helpfull budgetary wise. I dont have to worry about counting pennies to make sure I have enough to pay the morgage. It's the same every 2 weeks. Get paid, mortgage comes out of checking account automatically next day.
 
[quote name='eldergamer']We've tried to sell the house twice. Mainly because the wife wanted to move back to Anchorage. At the current market's state we'd just barely break even selling it. We only bought the house 3 years ago. 50% going to mortgage might be an overestimate. It's probably closer to 40-45% $1850 or so every two weeks and about $825 comes out at the same time for the mortgage payment. Having the mortgage payment come out every 2 weeks automatically is a very helpfull budgetary wise. I dont have to worry about counting pennies to make sure I have enough to pay the morgage. It's the same every 2 weeks. Get paid, mortgage comes out of checking account automatically next day.[/QUOTE]

That's why I'm hoping we can put down a large downpayment. $1650 a month mortgage is insane imo. Though I'm sure javeryh's is a lot higher than that. When we were planning on staying in Ohio we were thinking around $800 a month for a 15-year mortgage depending on the cost of the house and our downpayment. If we move to Massachusetts as planned it's going to have to be higher than that if we want decent housing.
 
Mine is roughly $3,100 (including taxes which are $900+). I live on 0.14 acres in a house with a 625 sqft. footprint! It is insanity!!!
 
[quote name='javeryh']Mine is roughly $3,100 (including taxes which are $900+). I live on 0.14 acres in a house with a 625 sqft. footprint! It is insanity!!![/QUOTE]

I'll be paying similar when I get a house in the LA area.
 
Yeah, CDs have sucked for a few years. Short term, low deposit ones are just a waste since the interest is barely above a decent savings account.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Yeah, CDs have sucked for a few years. Short term, low deposit ones are just a waste since the interest is barely above a decent savings account.[/QUOTE]

Our savings account is only earning 0.5%. Who has better rates?
 
[quote name='shieryda']Our savings account is only earning 0.5%. Who has better rates?[/QUOTE]

ING.

I have a local checking account and use these mofos for savings. They keep lowering rates but savings is at 1.1% which is still miles better than local banks.

[quote name='javeryh']Mine is roughly $3,100 (including taxes which are $900+). I live on 0.14 acres in a house with a 625 sqft. footprint! It is insanity!!![/QUOTE]

How big was your downpayment (either % or dollar figure)? Just curious.
 
For a 4 bedroom 1600-1800 (?) square foot house we got a fairly good deal. The house was worth a -lot- more 3 years ago when we bought it though. I think we almost have too much space for our needs. We don't use the upstairs space for anything but sleeping.
 
[quote name='shieryda']Our savings account is only earning 0.5%. Who has better rates?[/QUOTE]

ING Direct and other online banks. Some local banks as well depending on where you're at--my parents just moved money out of IGN as their local small bank (still FDIC insured) has a better rate.

ING is what I use currently, rate is 1.095%.

Even the online savings have went way down, they used to be 3.xx% a few years back.

Edit: Oops, missed that DoK already answered for me!
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']ING.

I have a local checking account and use these mofos for savings. They keep lowering rates but savings is at 1.1% which is still miles better than local banks.

.[/QUOTE]

That's what I thought. The problem is, we have all of our shit through Chase (credit, savings, checking). The other issue is that my wife doesn't feel comfortable having money "in different states".
 
[quote name='shieryda']That's what I thought. The problem is, we have all of our shit through Chase (credit, savings, checking). The other issue is that my wife doesn't feel comfortable having money "in different states".[/QUOTE]

FDIC insured is FDIC insured. So I'd try to talk her out of that since it's twice the interest.

Only negative of ING or other online banks is you have a 2-3 business day delay to transfer the money back to your savings (and longer immediately after moving it over).

But it savings, so it should be money you're not needing on an instant basis anyway.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']
But it savings, so it should be money you're not needing on an instant basis anyway.[/QUOTE]

This. I still keep a couple thousand in my local checking that is available immediately.

And you use Chase? You poor bastard.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']This. I still keep a couple thousand in my local checking that is available immediately.

And you use Chase? You poor bastard.[/QUOTE]
+1

Get away from Chase asap if you can.
 
As noted, I've been keeping around $10K in my checking--probably should move more over, but the interest is so low I'd rather just keep the 3-4 months of living expenses in my checking.

I use Bank of America for checking. Haven't had any issues with them. Had always used local/regional banks before moving last year. But was tired of hassling with closing accounts, paying ATM fees when traveling etc. so wanted to go with a major bank that has locations everywhere.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']As noted, I've been keeping around $10K in my checking--probably should move more over, but the interest is so low I'd rather just keep the 3-4 months of living expenses in my checking.

I use Bank of America for checking. Haven't had any issues with them. Had always used local/regional banks before moving last year. But was tired of hassling with closing accounts, paying ATM fees when traveling etc. so wanted to go with a major bank that has locations everywhere.[/QUOTE]

You use Bank of America? You poor bastard.

I can't think of a single bank that's national (ie has branches in most states) that's any good. Decent ones seem to be regional at most, and even a lot of those are bad.
 
I've never had any problems with them. Good online banking features and lots of ATM locations area about all I care about.

Fraudulent charges etc. are pretty unlikely as I never use my visa check card for anything as I pay for everything with my Amazon.com Visa and pay it off in full each month to earn reward points. So hopefully I'll never have a need to deal with their customer service which I've heard is pretty poor.

Though my girlfriend has had BoA for years, paid of a car loan with them, has her mortgage with them (and refinanced to lower rate once) and hasn't had any complaints.

But I've got other friends who had problems with getting fraudulent charges refunded with BoA etc., so I guess like any big corporation, it's a mixed bag.
 
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[quote name='Dead of Knight']How big was your downpayment (either % or dollar figure)? Just curious.[/QUOTE]

About 5%. The house was roughly $500,000 and we had to take the hit because we didn't have $100,000 (20%) laying around 6 years ago...
 
[quote name='Anexanhume']The above are reasons why I use a credit union.[/QUOTE]
As do I. I get up to $25 a month in ATM fess refunded to me, so I don't really worry about using another bank's ATM, i don't take out cash much anyway. I also get my dental insurance through them too.
 
[quote name='javeryh']About 5%. The house was roughly $500,000 and we had to take the hit because we didn't have $100,000 (20%) laying around 6 years ago...[/QUOTE]

Remind me to never move to NYC/NJ.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Remind me to never move to NYC/NJ.[/QUOTE]

I'd love to move away from the northeast but if I do then I can basically never come back and all of my family and friends are here.
 
[quote name='javeryh']I'd love to move away from the northeast but if I do then I can basically never come back and all of my family and friends are here.[/QUOTE]

At first, I thought it was really expensive, till I realized it was 6000+ sq ft of land. Around here, it's like $400k for a 1000 sq ft CONDO occupying the same land as someone above/below you, with no yard =P
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']Single accounts. You can however have multiple beneficiaries on that account, which allows 250k (until 2013) per benefactor.[/QUOTE]



It's 250K yadda yadda yadda... everything said is correct just wanted to go into the beneficiaries part tho...

It's 250K per institution... per owner of account.

so if you have an account with joint ownership with someone else... it would be 250K per person... or 500K

if you had the same joint account with 3 beneficiaries... the beneficiaries would be the ones insured and not the owners... but each beneficiary would be insured per each owner... meaning 1.5 million in FDIC insurance.

all at the current FDIC insurance amount.



I'm still betting that the 250K will be made permanant before it actually expires.
 
[quote name='elessar123']At first, I thought it was really expensive, till I realized it was 6000+ sq ft of land. Around here, it's like $400k for a 1000 sq ft CONDO occupying the same land as someone above/below you, with no yard =P[/QUOTE]

Well, I don't live in the city. I have friends in Hoboken who paid $700K for their 3 bedroom condo and it is 1/2 the size of my house and still about a 30 minute walk from the PATH. They do have a garage though so they've got that going for them, which is nice.
 
[quote name='Anexanhume']The above are reasons why I use a credit union.[/QUOTE]

I do have a couple accounts at the credit union, which is why I want to start moving some funds to those. The rates I quoted above from there.:lol:

I do li e Chase for the Vise Rewards, online ban ing and bill pay. Not to mention all the ATMs in the city.
 
I don't have much money but I keep it at Citibank. No fees and I can get cash at 711. I wouldn't worry about having too much in the bank unless you have no other investments. You can have 100,000 at multiple banks can't you?
 
Another finance-related question: 15 vs 30 year mortgage? We were definitely going to do a 15 if we stayed in Ohio but it may be too expensive for our tastes in MA, especially if one of us is unexpectedly unemployed. How bad of an idea would it be to get a 30 year mortgage but just dump as much into it as possible every month? Like, perhaps dump as much as the 15, but have that extra security in case one of us loses a job.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Remind me to never move to NYC/NJ.[/QUOTE]

San Francisco is even worse, and LA (where I'm at) is just as bad. In the right place, you'll pay 1 million for 1000 sq ft here.

[quote name='Dead of Knight']Another finance-related question: 15 vs 30 year mortgage? We were definitely going to do a 15 if we stayed in Ohio but it may be too expensive for our tastes in MA, especially if one of us is unexpectedly unemployed. How bad of an idea would it be to get a 30 year mortgage but just dump as much into it as possible every month? Like, perhaps dump as much as the 15, but have that extra security in case one of us loses a job.[/QUOTE]

You want to spend no more than 28% of your gross income on housing expenses as a general rule. If the 15 year fits inside of that, I would do it, as your salary should only increase. If it's close, there's no harm in going 30 in making extra payments, as that eats away the extra interest you would have been paying.
 
[quote name='Dead of Knight']Another finance-related question: 15 vs 30 year mortgage? We were definitely going to do a 15 if we stayed in Ohio but it may be too expensive for our tastes in MA, especially if one of us is unexpectedly unemployed. How bad of an idea would it be to get a 30 year mortgage but just dump as much into it as possible every month? Like, perhaps dump as much as the 15, but have that extra security in case one of us loses a job.[/QUOTE]

Depends on how you view a house payment. We did a 30 year loan (had to) but after getting it down to 24 years we refinanced it back to 30. The monthly payments went down by ~$900 which gives us a bit more freedom in our day to day lives which has been great. The house is the one thing I look at as "I'll be paying this thing off until I'm 65." If you can do 15 then go for it I guess - I imagine owning a house free and clear is freaking awesome. If I owned mine my life would be so different - I'd be rolling like Jay-Z or some shit fanning hundreds at all the biotches.
 
I keep $10k in personal savings, a $10k emergency fund, and $1.5k in checking, and everything else is either in CDs or an IRA.

Though I wouldn't put any money into CDs right now at .75% or whatever. Most of my CDs I locked in at 4.25% just over 18 months ago.
 
i would get a 30 year no matter what because that will give you flexibility. let's say your were quoted to $1k/month for 30 yrs and $1.5k for 15 yrs, you can always pay $1.5k with your 30 year mortgage, but can't pay $1k for your 15 yr mortgage. having a 30 yr mortgage and pay $1.5k will have you pay that loan off in 15 yrs. just make sure your loan doesn't have pre-payment penalty
 
[quote name='dude2003']i would get a 30 year no matter what because that will give you flexibility. let's say your were quoted to $1k/month for 30 yrs and $1.5k for 15 yrs, you can always pay $1.5k with your 30 year mortgage, but can't pay $1k for your 15 yr mortgage. having a 30 yr mortgage and pay $1.5k will have you pay that loan off in 15 yrs. just make sure your loan doesn't have pre-payment penalty[/QUOTE]

Exactly what I was going to say.
 
Yep, longer term is the way to go as long as you have no pre-payment penalty.

Always better to have the flexibility to pay less if money gets tight for a period, vs. being locked into a higher minimum payment.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Yep, longer term is the way to go as long as you have no pre-payment penalty.

Always better to have the flexibility to pay less if money gets tight for a period, vs. being locked into a higher minimum payment.[/QUOTE]

It depends how you handle your money. If you're prone to spending extra cash rather than saving (doesn't sound like DoK's problem), you may be better off with a higher payment, shorter loan.
 
Both of those points are true and must be considered.

Any time going for a longer loan period is a trade off of almost always paying more in total (even with extra payments) for having lower minimum payments and more flexibility.

But the real key is to not get a loan you can't afford. Meaning that the minimum payment is a very affordable percentage of your income, and that you have a big enough rainy day fund to be able to weather 6-12 months of unemployment.

No one should buy a home before meeting those. Then after those are met, just a matter of deciding on the loan length. I'm more likely to opt for longer loan as I'd rather have smaller payments and more to save up while still paying more than the minimum. And have the nice, small monthly payment that's easy to afford even if things get tough for a bit.

But I'm kind of like the other guy who noted that a mortgage is just something you expect to be paying on for pretty much all your working years, so it's not some bad debt that I'd obsess over paying off as quickly as possible.
 
Bringing this back from the dead.

Along the same lines as the OP. How much are you guys budgeting for "fun" in your monthly budget or expenses? It seems to be tough to get an answer from anyone, so I'd like to get some opinions here.
 
I'm a nerd, so in the spreadsheet I use for my budget I have a formula set up based on the previous month's expenses to figure out what we have for extra spending money for the current month. Right now though it maxes out at $275 a month. And that's for each of us for everything other than necessary expenses. It's going to be a lot tighter when I start getting paid less though, probably around $125 since I'll be making at least $400 less a month (while trying to keep saving at least $600-650 a month).

So that's while we're making ~$3400 a month and starting in the fall it'll be $3000 or less.
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']Bringing this back from the dead.

Along the same lines as the OP. How much are you guys budgeting for "fun" in your monthly budget or expenses? It seems to be tough to get an answer from anyone, so I'd like to get some opinions here.[/QUOTE]

I don't have a "fun" budget per se. As I've gotten older then need to own miscellaneous junk (DVDs, games, etc.) has fallen dramatically - mostly because I just don't have the time for that stuff anymore. I'm lucky in that I'm at a point in my life where if I want something (within reason) I just go for it because it's actually a pretty rare occurrence. I just dropped about $500 to see Pearl Jam last week ($150 for 2 tickets, $250 for dinner and drinks and $100 for a souvenir) but this is a once a year thing - if that. Since I have kids I rarely go out so I don't have to budget for bars or restaurants. It's a really subjective question and hard to put into words.
 
[quote name='javeryh']I don't have a "fun" budget per se. As I've gotten older then need to own miscellaneous junk (DVDs, games, etc.) has fallen dramatically - mostly because I just don't have the time for that stuff anymore. I'm lucky in that I'm at a point in my life where if I want something (within reason) I just go for it because it's actually a pretty rare occurrence. I just dropped about $500 to see Pearl Jam last week ($150 for 2 tickets, $250 for dinner and drinks and $100 for a souvenir) but this is a once a year thing - if that. Since I have kids I rarely go out so I don't have to budget for bars or restaurants. It's a really subjective question and hard to put into words.[/QUOTE]

Yeah. I'm just taking a sample of responses really. Seems there is no real set amount, just like savings, etc.

Personally I was allocating about 10% of my income to fun. The thing is that I never even come close to spending even that. I might spend close to 2-3% of my income, if that. I have everything I want and have the basic needs covered. One thing that I keep getting from people around me is, "you work hard for your money, you should enjoy it." I reply with, "I do enjoy it. I own a home, have a new car with no payment, money in the bank, and money in my retirement account(s)." I suppose I'm just reaching that point where, like javy, I don't need to own all that junk anymore. I buy a game or five here and there (on sale or clearance), but that's about it.
 
Yeah, my gf usually doesn't come close to spending her extra money because she's too busy. Right now I'm not all that busy so I spend pretty much all of mine. Hopefully being busier is going to make it easier for me to spend less after the fall. Right now I think I just get bored.

I think the "enjoy your money" bit is just consumerism mtx. People just think you're supposed to buy random shit you don't need. If you aren't doing that then there must be something wrong.
 
[quote name='SpazX']
I think the "enjoy your money" bit is just consumerism mtx. People just think you're supposed to buy random shit you don't need. If you aren't doing that then there must be something wrong.[/QUOTE]

I'm starting to see that as well. It amazes me sometimes that when you mention money or the word budget, people either won't talk about it, or act like you're speaking some foreign language.
 
[quote name='SpazX']I think the "enjoy your money" bit is just consumerism mtx. People just think you're supposed to buy random shit you don't need. If you aren't doing that then there must be something wrong.[/QUOTE]

I think this is true too. I tend to spend my disposable income on activities rather than things anyway. I'd rather go on a nice vacation than say upgrade my stereo equipment or something.
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']I'm starting to see that as well. It amazes me sometimes that when you mention money or the word budget, people either won't talk about it, or act like you're speaking some foreign language.[/QUOTE]

You shouldn't restrain your money with a budget, you have to let it be free!

The word "budget" itself has a negative connotation I think. Saying you're "on a budget" is equivalent to saying you don't have much money and "budget" is another word for "cheap" as far as merchandise goes. So not having a budget is kind of a status symbol. If you have a lot of money then you don't need a budget, you can buy whatever you want. And that leads to not having a budget being kind of a goal. All this being to the advantage of those selling you junk since the less conscious you are about the amount of money you have the more likely you are to buy their junk.

That added to the general sense in the US that talking about how much money people have (synonymous with talking about socioeconomic class) is like talking about religion and politics - something to be avoided.
 
[quote name='mtxbass1']Bringing this back from the dead.

Along the same lines as the OP. How much are you guys budgeting for "fun" in your monthly budget or expenses? It seems to be tough to get an answer from anyone, so I'd like to get some opinions here.[/QUOTE]

my "fun" budget is about $150 a month, which accounts for things like going to the movies, out to a restaurant, playing a round of golf, buying a dvd or video game. its less than 10% of my monthly budget after ive put money into savings, 401k, etc.
 
[quote name='SpazX']You shouldn't restrain your money with a budget, you have to let it be free!

The word "budget" itself has a negative connotation I think. Saying you're "on a budget" is equivalent to saying you don't have much money and "budget" is another word for "cheap" as far as merchandise goes. So not having a budget is kind of a status symbol. If you have a lot of money then you don't need a budget, you can buy whatever you want. And that leads to not having a budget being kind of a goal. All this being to the advantage of those selling you junk since the less conscious you are about the amount of money you have the more likely you are to buy their junk.

That added to the general sense in the US that talking about how much money people have (synonymous with talking about socioeconomic class) is like talking about religion and politics - something to be avoided.[/QUOTE]

I suppose it's just how I view my assets. I say I have a budget because I know how much I bring in and what goes out. I certainly can't say that equates me to being cheap however or not having money to spend. I think it's more that I'm very conscious of my money and how to make it work for me.

Why do you think our society is now structured like that? Why has the topic of wealth become such a taboo thing, rising up to the level of politics and religion? Since when is it bad to talk to other people about how to use the money you do have wisely? It really amazes me really money can really be clumped in to that grouping. Not disagreeing one bit with you btw in those regards. It's just a bit sad that it's becoming one of those "things" you don't talk about.
 
I think it is because money = social status for the most part. It's also easy to get into arguments over spending habits.
 
[quote name='javeryh']I think it is because money = social status for the most part. [/QUOTE]

The real secret to life is not to worry about that shit.

I don't budget, but my husband does. I just try to save as much as I can while spending money on food, toiletries and home essentials, and clothing (I hardly buy clothing these days, can't remember the last time I bought clothing other than socks or underwear) as needed. We get higher-quality, more expensive food than a lot of people (organic and local farmer's market, and a couple restaurants), but we do try to buy on sale and save money when we can. I even try to save on videogames and wait for price drops. If I don't like a game or don't see myself playing it in the future, I sell it on Amazon Marketplace ASAP to recoup most of my costs. Videogames are pretty much the only things I get with "fun" money unless you want to include going out to restaurants. Other than videogames, we try not to buy shit we don't need, and we try to go with the best deal for the money when we do have to buy something. We have extremely inexpensive chairs and tables from Target and the like for home furnishings (except for my childhood bedroom furniture set and mattress that we use that are high-quality and nice-looking, but were purcashed probably over 10 years ago when I was a kid) that aren't very fashionable, but are durable. Even though we bought cheap from Target we made sure not to buy cheap shit. We don't have guests over so who gives a shit if we have cheap Target furniture? We sure don't. Even if we had friends over, we have friends who would not give a shit about it. I don't see a need for a budget as long as I spend my money carefully and save the rest.
 
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