Madison MoneySports - Personal Finance Thread

[Kaan]

So is this gross income before taxes AND other deductions? Mine comes out to be like <9% if that's the case. $550 for the truck and $250 for the Fiesta.

Add in gas and insurance and maybe that's another $350 a month? I suppose that's alright. That can't be right. I feel like I spend a lot of money on car payments. Are people really out there dropping $800+ a month on car payments when they aren't enthusiasts?

i dont know... its seems to have started as a percent of take home pay. 

which in theory, 15% of my take home would be close to a diesel payment... but i dont "like" it. if you add taxes (higher on the heavy weight trucks), insurance, etc. it wouldnt fit. I just need to put more money down to make it work. $$$$$$

right now my tundra (paid for) cost to me is SUPER low (also thanks Covid)... which is allowing me to look at other things improve the race program... a new truck might be last lol

[Sijray21]

I mean, it's all relative. I'd just use the percentages along with your other expenditures as a tool to see where you can save/make changes as you see fit.

I usually do after taxes to be conservative since that's the money I have access to.

When I do a budget I include a column for % of income of take home pay. Car loan + insurance + fuel (est) + property tax (cars) is 9.21% of my take home pay. Compare that to my mortgage + property tax + insurance + utilities = 21.67% of my take home pay.

My daughter's preschool is 15.65% of our take home pay and that's going to drop considerably (hopefully...) next August when we pay for SACC.

[Steve85]

Never thought of it that way either. Looks like we are teetering on the edge, all in max, we are 16%. Accounting for the payments we get from the kids for their portion of insurance and our actual fuel spending, we are closer to 14%. (Relative to take home)

I've been looking at the F31 payment lately and having a harder time justifying it with the reduced driving (not just covid, but with another driver in the house and less activity this coming winter). I'm not sure I'd be happy with anything significantly cheaper though.

[Sijray21]

I've been looking at the F31 payment lately and having a harder time justifying it with the reduced driving (not just covid, but with another driver in the house and less activity this coming winter). I'm not sure I'd be happy with anything significantly cheaper though.

Yeah, i've been looking at my R loan in the same way. The pleasure i get when i drive it is still high enough to justify the loan cost for me, but as long as the cost doesn't become a stress i'll be keeping the car for now.

[CaptainHenreh]

I recently paid off the flex (a little early) and I'm going to try to continue to make the payment into my savings account. I'm hoping I can still do that with my new mortgage, I will be able to do something, but we'll see what.

[Apoc]

It's 15% of take home, including gas, insurance, and taxes.

All our cars are paid off, so we're at <2%.

[.RJ]

Add in gas and insurance and maybe that's another $350 a month? I suppose that's alright. That can't be right. I feel like I spend a lot of money on car payments.

And property tax, and maintenance.

Are people really out there dropping $800+ a month on car payments when they aren't enthusiasts?

Maybe not $800/mo in payments, but, all of the other stuff adds up - cars are expensive things to own. At the moment I'm content having one of them and I'll be happy when its paid off this year.

The math is a little fuzzy because it includes pre-tax along with post-tax contributions, but something like 30% of income is going into retirement savings the past 2 years.

[Sijray21]

Add in gas and insurance and maybe that's another $350 a month? I suppose that's alright. That can't be right. I feel like I spend a lot of money on car payments.

And property tax, and maintenance.

i'm also including gas, insurance, tolls, and taxes for 2 vehicles and 2 drivers. YMMV

Also, those numbers are pre-COVID, so tolls and fuel budgets should be adjusted.

[Kaan]

The math is a little fuzzy because it includes pre-tax along with post-tax contributions, but something like 30% of income is going into retirement savings the past 2 years.

I know a lot of folks are doing okay for retirement in this thread... but when i was supervising folks (especially younger folks, but i had some +50 year olds with the same attitude) it was hard to get them to put in anything into retirement, let alone anything over what the employer would match. i'm at 15.9% pretax (fed life, my salary is public knowledge) to max out my employer contribution and about 16.6% post tax (max roth IRA plus some side long term stock buys, etc)... their jaws would drop thinking about putting that much money away. 5% of their income was "a struggle". 

 
We (the people) dont get long term tax breaks (if we ever get them), I haven seen a year without inflation in my life, no one should bet on social security (most of us have years to go with lots of people doing weird stuff with it), and over all expenses could go up due to medical expenses (old age sucks)... so you need to pack it away. hell Sylvia is trying to put 50% (fuzzy math) of her pay away for retirement so she can retire with me (7 years my younger). I guess that 20% difference is my race budget

[Apoc]

You can tell which ~40 year olds don't have kids in this thread based on % retirement savings. 

[Kaan]

You can tell which ~40 year olds don't have kids in this thread based on % retirement savings. 

el oh el... i guess thats true too. having no children means i will 100% have to pay for care when i'm older. i cant have a kid swing by and make sure we are okay. 

we joke that the race car is our kid... and that we had it late in life to make sure we could afford it and retire too.

[Sijray21]

Kids aren't guaranteed to look after you when your older. I'm definitely not factoring that, lol.

[Apoc]

Our kid taking care of us had never even entered my mind until I read Kaan's comment.

Homeboi isn't in preschool because it didn't open due to COVID, but part time childcare is 13% of after tax for us. It's a lot more if you factor in the income my wife *isn't* making because she's a stay at home mom.

[Kaan]

Our kid taking care of us had never even entered my mind until I read Kaan's comment.

Homeboi isn't in preschool because it didn't open due to COVID, but part time childcare is 13% of after tax for us. It's a lot more if you factor in the income my wife *isn't* making because she's a stay at home mom.

I mean you have a chance for him to look after you (not full time care, but to be helpful... assuming he is local).... we have 0%

[.RJ]

I know a lot of folks are doing okay for retirement in this thread...

Well, I'm playing catch up.... not having a kid yet makes it easier now, but, that will just force some other choices, hopefully ones involving not having this overpriced fucking house.

I also want to start diversifying into some rental property next year.

[Apoc]

Our kid taking care of us had never even entered my mind until I read Kaan's comment.

Homeboi isn't in preschool because it didn't open due to COVID, but part time childcare is 13% of after tax for us. It's a lot more if you factor in the income my wife *isn't* making because she's a stay at home mom.

I mean you have a chance for him to look after you (not full time care, but to be helpful... assuming he is local).... we have 0%

Yeah, I guess I just never thought about it because my parents are very financially dependent and live on the other side of the country. (#priviledge)

[Kaan]

I know a lot of folks are doing okay for retirement in this thread...

Well, I'm playing catch up.... not having a kid yet makes it easier now, but, that will just force some other choices, hopefully ones involving not having this overpriced fucking house.

I also want to start diversifying into some rental property next year.

we arent looking to get into the rental property game. we talked about it... sometimes it comes back up (usually on beach vacations... talking about building an AirBNB empire) ... but overall its just not our game. One thing i am planning to do is "play catch up" when i turn 50... but thats just turning up the investments we are currently doing. Instead we are looking to try to pin down a region we are looking to retire in and possibly purchase property there. 

one reason i'm waiting until 62 to retire is for the government pension... the extra 25% of my high 3 pay will do a lot for us in retirement... the big bonus is my healthcare cost is locked in to whatever i use for my last year (the insurance coverage is locked in too)... most folks do the caddilac government plan, which is "primary" in retirement (paid for by my pension... with plenty of money to spare... BOAT time!)

---

Our kid taking care of us had never even entered my mind until I read Kaan's comment.

Homeboi isn't in preschool because it didn't open due to COVID, but part time childcare is 13% of after tax for us. It's a lot more if you factor in the income my wife *isn't* making because she's a stay at home mom.

I mean you have a chance for him to look after you (not full time care, but to be helpful... assuming he is local).... we have 0%

Yeah, I guess I just never thought about it because my parents are very financially dependent and live on the other side of the country. (#priviledge)

my parents were doing great for a long time... my mom recently went into hospice from diabetes complications (3 week serious downward spiral). lucky my brother is close to help out my dad... even the 1.5 hour drive to go there has been "rough" lately. obviously we make the trip no matter what. obviously these thoughts have been at the forefront lately.

[D_Eclipse9916]

I know a lot of folks are doing okay for retirement in this thread...

Well, I'm playing catch up.... not having a kid yet makes it easier now, but, that will just force some other choices, hopefully ones involving not having this overpriced fucking house.

I also want to start diversifying into some rental property next year.

we arent looking to get into the rental property game. we talked about it... sometimes it comes back up (usually on beach vacations... talking about building an AirBNB empire) ... but overall its just not our game. One thing i am planning to do is "play catch up" when i turn 50... but thats just turning up the investments we are currently doing. Instead we are looking to try to pin down a region we are looking to retire in and possibly purchase property there. 

one reason i'm waiting until 62 to retire is for the government pension... the extra 25% of my high 3 pay will do a lot for us in retirement... the big bonus is my healthcare cost is locked in to whatever i use for my last year (the insurance coverage is locked in too)... most folks do the caddilac government plan, which is "primary" in retirement (paid for by my pension... with plenty of money to spare... BOAT time!)

---

  
My wife is currently 1/2 time, but she is going back at a minimum at 48 years old for the healthcare plan. (If you get offered early retirement it can be as early as 53, although benefits dont hit till 62 you are at least locked in).  Her pension will basically cover our insurance and "basic" life necessities as long as no mortgage into retirement (which is stupid any way).  
Rentals make a little less sense without kids, plus how do you not have wayyyy too much money into retirement with DINK??!?!  .  I plan on using it as passive income, but one of the main reasons is the "step up" basis for realty is an extremely easy way to avoid taxes and pass on wealth for my kids.

[Apoc]

FWIW, most people I've known in Seattle that didn't have family near and had a kid returned back home. They do it because they realized kids are fucking terrible without grandparent help, but that also means adult children are around to help parents when they age.

---

 one of the main reasons is the "step up" basis for realty is an extremely easy way to avoid taxes and pass on wealth for my kids.

My dad's dad, who died in 1991, did this. He had both land and property in PA and VA that landed in his adult kids' lap. Honestly, it's the basis for most of the wealth my parents had when I was growing up.

Not to get political, but this is why ownership of property is a big deal in building generational wealth and why historical redlining policies remain harmful to this day.

[.RJ]

Healthcare and college costs remain the huge wildcards in my retirement game. Guess we'll see later.... its easy to make more money.