CaspianXIWhat's the best financial decision you've ever made?
Opacity9850Stop spending on games :(
Gradually_AdjustingIt’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?”
HubiCoincidentally, 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.
SickIcarusThen 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.
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.
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.
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 to 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.
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.
dixius99While 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.
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.
Stop trying to beat the market. Invest in a cheap global index fund and just keep buying.
Changing jobs in 2021. Managed to almost double my salary overnight with less stress.
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
DinodicchellathiccI 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:
PopcornChicknMultigenerational 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.
Become self-employed with a practice. Reliable income that depends on how much work I’m willing to put in and no one can fire me.
The only caveat being… if I get seriously ill, there’s nobody to cover me unless I’m willing to pay someone a small fortune.
Ahh, that’s why you get a partner that can cover your business and only occasionally frustrates you with incompetence or laziness…
I wish. I’m not there yet money-wise, but that’s the plan. ATM there are only expensive emergency backups.
trouser_mouseOffset mortgage
bi_tuxMedia piracy.
If I wanted to watch a show, I’d have to pay 80€/month, because every streaming site only has one or two seasons.
I’m just done with corporate greed, fuck big companies.
What about the actors and actresses who don’t get paid?
What about the actors and other staff who don’t get paid for their work? Not everyone is a major Hollywood star.
themoonisacheeseThey still don’t get paid when you pay for the service it turns out.
They aren’t getting paid anyways, clearly.
They get paid by the producer. The producer get’s money by selling a license to netflix, scamazon prime, etc. Netflix get’s their money by scamming people, if no one wants to get scammed anymore and everyone’d stop subscribing to streaming services. The producer would have to actually sell it for a fair price directly to consumers or sell it to someone who sells it to consumers, like it used to be.
Always remember, that if they can’t pay their staff, they have to find another buisnes or distribution model. The actors aren’t the risk takers of the producers investment.
You should also never view pirates as a potential customer, if I wouldn’t pirate I still wouldn’t buy it.
Although monopolies can suck balls, at this point, in the streaming industry, there’s just too much competition, to the point that you have to purchase a service for its catalog, and that’s 4-5 services to subscribe to at this point. It used to be more convenient to pirate stuff, then it got more convenient to just get netflix and hulu, now I’m back sailing the high seas.
Staff don’t see a dime off revenue. They were already paid for their time worked during production. You paying a ticket or subscription doesn’t give staff any more money.
True, and you even end up paying for a service that abuses you and your privacy. no, thanks
Buying a crappy house. It’s structurally sound, but not a good neighborhood, crappy schools, and I don’t want to have people visit, but it cost half the county median and the difference in mortgage goes into index funds. My peers have nicer homes, but its their only asset: if they want to retire, they have to sell the house and move somewhere cheap.
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 know 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.
Sorry ,that was a broad explanation. Using only about 1/3rd of your available credit is a plus.no matter if that’s $100 or $100,000. The other crazy part is the worse your credit is, the more things that require credit costs.So it’s a bad cycle to fall into and helps keep people broke.
oscar_falkeLiving 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.
PlutoniumAcidHello 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
EntropyTaking out a good loan to consolidate my credit card debts, and make them cheaper at the same time. I might be paying it off for 5 years but the interest and monthly payments are cheaper.
Very simply: consistent budgeting. We (my wife and I) go envelope-style and budget/plan or money every paycheck. I swear it’s magic that turns money into more money.
It’s also let us systematically pay off all our non-mortgage debt and save/invest a large amount over the last decade. Now we have enough that we don’t worry about money anymore.
The single most important thing I’ve ever done for my finances was learning to budget so I could have a plan and manage my money on purpose.
Same here. When you’re struggling financially, it can feel easier to stick your head in the sand and not deal with your problems. Unfortunately that solves nothing.
At some point in my career, I spent a few years in banking. Banks treat money with a very cold and emotionless attitude. The goal is to extract the maximum value out of every dollar and you’re either getting the most value or you’re not. That experience shaped a lot of my views on money. I started budgeting and tracking all my expenses. It took a few years but today we’re in very good financial condition.
Heard of YNAB? You need a budget.
Great for envelope budgeting!
Yup! I’m a fan and a current customer (have been with them over a decade)… except that it’s kinda expensive now. For people new to it I’d recommend actualbudget instead and just do manual/semi-manual imports.
How is actual these days? Development was rocky in the early days of open source so I left for plaintextaccounting. Based on the discord seems to be waaay more vibrant now.
If we had good bank imports and more flexible/robust reporting, I may go back
I’m a big fan of budget with buckets, which allows you to import via simple fin bridge. One time $50 payment, also unlimited time trial. I used it for about 4 months before paying up.
the16bitgamer2 pieces of tech, 1 piece of software (4 if we include freeware)
A 3D Printer has become a corner stone of repair and tidiness in my house hold thanks to it. Saves me money on knickknacks on tools to keep things working and wires cleaned up.
FreeCad and PrusaSclicer have been helpful to make that happen.
The other is an Elgato hdmi recorder, allowing me to turn my various mobile devices and stream boxes in DVR. With editing software like DaVinci Resolve, Magix Vegas I am able to record my shows at a good quality and edit them down to remove things like streaming company logos.
I wont go into the specifics since I don’t want this gravy train to stop, but handbrake is the last part of the process to compress the video down to a bit sized format.
Dark ArcI need to get going on my 3D printer, it’s just collecting dust at the moment… Last few times I tried to do a test print it just slid around after a few layers and ruined the print.