General Banking Advice - Page 2

If I had a substantial amount of bearer bonds stolen from me and a representative of the guys who ripped me off offers to sell the bonds back to me at 60% of their value do you think I should do it? The bearer bonds were insured so not only would I recoup 100% of their value from the insurance company but I'd also gain 40% of their value by buying them back from this crew of thieves.

Thanks for your advice in advance, Judas.

The more I think about it the more I think I'll pass on the whole buy back offer. I don't know much about this Nate character, can't really understand a lot of what he says to be honest. I don't want things to go south and worry about being shot while enjoying an evening of televised hockey.

Thanks again, Judas!

Great thread.

I basically need to track all my expenses and figure out exactly where all the money is going on a month by month basis. My problem is I get extremely, stressed out by this but I know I have to do it.

Anyways, I feel like entering this in a program like Quicken or Money would probably help, do you have a preference of one over the other?

I meant that I was transferring the balances among the 5 cards that I already have, not opening new ones. But your original suggestion to just put the entire balance on one card and close the rest is probably best.

Hmm. Are they willing to throw something out and then let me get back to them or do I have to commit right then or there? I feel like I'd end up turning down the first card's offer to hear about the others and lose a good deal. I'm also terribly impatient and would probably jump at the first offer anyways.

Actually, it's a good deal so long as you don't try to fuck over the guy who is willing to sell the bonds back. My advice keep the assassin away from the drive-in theater.

Thanks. Any tips on what to actually negotiate for? I assume a reduced APR, but will they say something like "Pay 2 grand now and we'll forgive the rest?" I have no idea what else could be negotiated.

You can do this just as easily in an excel spreadsheet.

It's what I do.

I budget all my income at the beginning of the month on paper. That way, you know where everything is going before you actually get the money. If you need something, budget it out.

You won't be perfect the first few times you do this. But eventually you'll get pretty good with practice.

I haven't seen this through wachovia online. What banks do you know that have this?

I couldn't live without my AMEX. Everything goes on it.

I opened up several dozen off-shore accounts and I funnel all of my income through a Venezuelan ex-patriot, Pepe. So, yes. I did.

I'm making a killing with my own Ponzi scheme.

I moved all of my money into leather jackets and juke boxes. I'm starting a Fonzi scheme.

Excellent thread. I just found it. Would you mind if I added some amateur suggestions?

1) Keep at least $1,000 in your emergency savings account AT ALL TIMES. This is even more important than paying off your credit card. Once you reach that $1,000 mark, do not touch unless it is an absolute emergency. Don't use it as your overdraft account. Don't use it if you forget to factor a bill into your budget. That $1,000 is only for an extreme emergency. If and when you do have to dip into it, make refilling it your top priority, above all other expense concerns aside from necessities. Always keep the $1,000 liquid but never touch it unless you have to.

2) Once you've got the $1,000 and paid off your credit card debt, focus on socking away three to six months' salary in a separate, high-yield account (ING is awesome, as noted before).

3) Once you got your liquid emergency fund and salary account locked away, then start investing (in addition to your 401k, IRA, etc., which you hopefully have been contributing to all along).

Trust me as someone who has been there--never underestimate the importance of an emergency fund. Even if you are incredibly fortunate and never have that emergency, the peace of mind alone is worth far more than $1,000.

Heyyyyyyyy Inc.

Oh, totally. My point was more to get a firm dollar amount in mind so that it's an accessible goal rather than "Oh, I really should save for an emergency one of these days," which I did for a long, long time.

$1,000 can take care of most emergencies short of extensive medical stuff, and even then you're in better shape. Your car no longer fills your heart with terror when it starts making a weird noise. It's quite liberating.

Dave Ramsey man huh?

I have one credit card left to pay off, then I'll be fully stocking my emergency fund.

Most car emergencies can be saved for too. I have an older car and I sock a little bit away to take care of expected maintenance. But, shit happens though.

What happens after a while is emergencies now, become non emergencies later.

Oh, and I do expense out for Christmas, a little bit each month gets saved.

Guilty as charged.

Though I will say that I differ with him on sacrificing investing in your 401k to pay down debt. That's really a no-brainer for me.

I'm also a little torn on whether to pay off my student loans before going full-on with the emergency fund, since the interest is fixed. His "debt=bad" makes a lot of sense, but it's a little too simplistic. Although the simple aspects are what make it so appealing.

of course, mathematically it's a bad idea, but some of the people that call in need all the forward momentum they can get

same thing with his debt snowball, but if people were so smart with money to begin with, they probably wouldn't be drowning in debt

I would look at your job situation, if it seems a little shaky I would save right now

I'm fortunate that a) I don't have all that much debt compared to the truly clueless and b) the the bigger of the two debts I do have (student loan) has the lower interest rate. So I'm lucky I won't have to turn the left brain off, because I'm not sure the psychological momentum the snowball provides would get me past the monetary loss.

Thanks to some solid advice from my mom, I never got a credit card in college. Saved my ass in the long run, because there were plenty of missed chances for meals out and long(er) nights at the bars that would have sunk me.

Great thread Judas, seriously you've put a lot of work into this and I appreciate the tips. We could all benefit from doing a few of the things you suggest (I know I will).

When I moved to Canada from the UK I was stunned how different (and backward) the banking systems were (it had been over 5 years since I wrote a check [cheque] in the UK - we just don't use them). The main issue was that in the UK I had great credit, eg. a couple of big credit cards with zero balances, unused overdrafts (lines of credit) etc. but when i came to canada - fuck you - no credit. Even when i got a job I had to put down $1200 to secure a $1000 CC, the fact that in the UK, mastercard had been falling over itself to suck my dick meant nothing. But I put down the money (which went into a nice little savings plan) and I paid it off every month (I'll start carrying a little balance now - thanks Judas) sometimes twice a month (we get paid every 2 weeks in Canada - weird), and now they've approved me for a waaay better card. The $1200 is now my 'holy shit' money.

I still keep my UK accounts ticking over - the odd ebay/ amazon purchase to avoid the automatic fees and to keep my credit good back there when i need it.

I'm not a natural saver but my bank (scotia) brought in a fucking amazing system called bank-the-rest, I'd never come across it before (maybe it's really common outside of the UK) but everytime you use your debit card it rounds up the transaction to the nearest $1 or $5 (you choose online and can change it any time)and then puts it into your savings. It is seriously fucking great, especially if you use your debit card all the time (like they do here) the difference between a $7 lunch and a $10 lunch is pretty small but over a month that's nearly $100 in your savings account just from that. And you didn't have to do a single fucking thing but eat lunch. I probably save $150-$200 each month without even trying or noticing.

in the uk there's a bit of a guru who runs a really great site, he has a slot on a few radio and tv shows (probably even more now the economy is in the toilet) he's helped thousands of people get their overdraft fees back by getting them to threaten the banks with sending in the repo men unless they pay the fees back. and lots of other sly scams the banks have been running for years. Check the link, it's a gold mine although it's a bit of a busy site - it's mostly for the UK but a lot of the stuff is that same sensible wisdom we've been talking about.

I'm so jealous my eyes are watering slightly.

mr_adam, I know that down here in the states with Bank of America, they have plan called 'Keep the Change' which does the same thing; rounds up debit card purchases to the next dollar. I don't think it rounds to the nearest 5, though I've never explored the possibility. It's a great saver for me, and though it's not as dramatic as your example, there's still a good 15-20 dollars a month in small little loose change you can rack up into your savings.

what do you know about 529 plans. I'm about to commit to a Hartford 529 plan for my 3 year old son.. since my parents gave me $500 to start an account.

Is this enough to start an account? We went to 2 different places and both places expect me to put money in on a semi-regular basis. Unfortunately we CANT afford to put money in on a semi-regular basis, until hopefully next year.

Are these guys just shitting me to get my money? I already contribute heavily into my 401k.. I just can't afford to extract more money at this current time..

If it weren't for the fact that my dad is a financial genius type guy my money would be in piles in my closet, and I've been financially independent since I graduated high school.

I wound up tallying up all my debt, including my mortgage, three credit cards and home equity loan. In short, I'm looking to have at least two of the cards paid off by the end of the year (one will definitely be paid off within the next couple of months). My mortgage will be paid off in about six years (thank you refinancing!), and my home equity loan should be within 7-8 years.

The advice works great, Judas, thanks!

I have my debit card and one credit card that I always pay instantly, and 1/4 of my monthly income goes directly into savings. Besides a couple of bills like rent and car payments that's as far as I go when thinking about money (my dad invests for me). Not that I don't want to, but my mind doesn't seem to work that way.

Thankfully he knows that.

That would be absolutely fantastic, but the real reason why I'm so concerned about saving for the future is I work in the comic industry (oy) and I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I didn't know I had something to fall back on. Even though my shop is great, under the folding economy we could have one horrible year and be out of business.