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.
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.
While 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 bought a little town house 12 years ago. I didn’t really want to. My wife talked me into it. I was worried that I’d never pay it off. With the cost of housing now I couldn’t possibly afford to buy. I have a house, and a nice nest egg for retirement one day. Thanks wife!
Started cooking at home.
Working from home helped a lot with this. Saving money on transportation, plus the lunches out and after work drinks, made a huge impact on my finances.
Am a devops engineer. Started working in my home country (in Europe) making 1.2k€ a month. It wasn’t the money I wanted, so last year changed my linkedin location to the Netherlands. Offers just poured in. Now I make 4k (liquid) a month being a JUNIOR devops engineer. Insane how just changing linkedin locations changed my life so much
But did you move? And where are you from?
I did endup moving (for tax reasonsand because I always wanted to live abroad), but I could stay in my home country if I wanted, as the job is fully remote. I’m from Portugal
Bought a car for $500, drove it for a year, sold it for $500.
My mom bought a car in my home country for 1.4 million local currency, sold it 2 years and an accident later for 1.6 million because Japanese imports stopped.
I went for a 5 year mortgage rather than a 2 year at my last renewal. With how much rates have increased by recently, I think this will have saved me about £15k by the end of the 5 years.
Bought a derelict lot of land in echo park, 5 dilapidated buildings, pigeons in everything, the kind of place you hung out as a kid to break bottles and smoke cigarettes. It has been vacant and falling in for 30 years. Everyone thought we were crazy (1999).
tl;dr pulled up 10,000 sq ft of asphalt by hand, turned one building into a house legally, later outfitted s garage into a sprawling oddball house we rentcto friends.
Now it’s all grown in, our biggest problem rn is a tree fell over from soaking up winter rain.
I can’t complain but sometimes I still do.
I bought an electric car.
Now when I drive by the gas station I couldn’t care less how much gas costs!
I’ve never tasted such freedom.
I’ve owned one for 3 years now. My only maintenance costs were a $10 tire rotation and filling up wiper fluid. Even better, the park by my house where I walk my dog has free solar charging!
Do you have any range issues? Forget to charge it?
I have to be very proactive about where super chargers are.
I live in Georgia USA and there’s a bunch of dead zones without chargers still. But there hasn’t been any single time where I was unable to charge and I drive A LOT!
I haven’t forgotten to charge, at least not yet!
What I have had an issue with is installing a home charger. Electricians have given me estimates estimates ranging from 2500 to 10,000. Like wtf!
Nice. How do you like charging at home / at stations? Are charging stations sometimes a pain? I haven’t seen many but I’m also not actively looking out for them but from what I’ve heard it’s all expanding nicely.
I’m looking to trade in aTacoma for a Ford F150 lightning or some other electric pickup since 99.9% of the time it’s just used to drive around town.
I’ve been having some issues getting the plug installed. I’ve gotten estimates across the board from 1600 bucks to 8k! But I’ll get it taken care of eventually.
I live in Georgia USA and there are plenty of dead areas for chargers unlike California where you can’t spit without getting it on a fast charger.
If you get a level 2 charger installed in your house it is completely possible to charge only at your house.
Chevy is releasing the Silverado and Suburban fully electric along with the Equinox. It’s worth a consideration.
The house I bought in 2012 because I was mad my landlord was raising my rent… I wasn’t trying to be smart…it was a fuck it scenario. Damn was housing “cheap” back then. Houses around me are renting for damn near 3x what my mortgage + insurance is. And selling for as much.
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.
Definitely the house we bought. Bought just before COVID. There was a bloody ton of houses on the market. Got my house for 70,000 under asking with them paying for half the cost of a new roof(inspector said it was fine for a few more years but we tossed it in to see if they’d bite).
Haven’t done anything to the house other than paint and the new roof, we stand to profit well over 100,000 now. Considering, we’re potentially moving to the city I grew up in to raise a few tykes, it will come in handy.
Moved from the east coast to California, without a job lined up. I had an apartment with two roommates to move in with however.
This was about 1.5 years after graduating from a mostly crappy school with a BS in Computer Science. The job opportunities in the Bay Area super paid off. 23 years later I’m living a life that I couldn’t have dreamed about growing up.
It’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?”
Coincidentally, 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.
Then 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 unless you heavily diversify your portfolio (which you should do anyway).
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.
Rolled over a 401k into a cash IRA the week before Lehman died
ETA: the timing was pure luck. I had no clue what was about to go down.
I buy my rolling papers in bulk, boxes of 24. Each pack costs around £1 instead of £2. I get those Connoisseur Packs with the included roach cards. Saves me a lot of money, as I do smoke a lot of spliffs if I’m honest.
another genius revelation from jaden smith
