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.
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.
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.
This is basically what I do. It made keeping track of my finances really simple. I just try to keep my checking account balance higher than my credit card balance. If there’s anything left when I pay off the card at the end of the month I move that over to savings. Easy peasy.
The thing I found about using my credit card like this is it actually ended up saving me a bunch of money because in times when money was tight it gave me the flexibility to stock up on things when they were on sale, or to get the extra jumbo value pack with better per-unit cost, because I could spread the cost over several paychecks instead of being limited to what I could afford out of just that week’s paycheck. If you do it right it does a lot to take the edge off of “Vimes’ boots” theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
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.
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.
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.
Media 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, piracy is a service problem.
What about the actors and other staff who don’t get paid for their work? Not everyone is a major Hollywood star.
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.
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.
I took a lower-paying job that I was more competent to do.
Due to lower stress levels, somehow I spend less money and my finances are way better. For the record we’re talking about making $110k then vs making $45k now.
My finances are in better shape. I have cognitive surplus at the end of the day, and I think maybe that’s translating to less escape-seeking.
Also, this year I made a new year’s resolution: I am going to have $5k in the bank, come hell or high water. I’ve lived my whole life without a buffer and life without a buffer sucks so hard.
Just having that goal — $5k in the bank — has changed my whole relationship to money. I haven’t even hit the $5k. I’m at $3k and even that feels amazing. It doesn’t matter if my paycheck is late. I can just pay my rent. Moving into a new apartment and the agent was like “are you prepared to pay a deposit and first month today?” and I was like “yup”.
In the past I’d always answer like “Well my next paycheck is on such and such date and can I maybe pay you half then, then the other half two weeks after that?” I was always relying on the flexibility and mercy of financial gatekeepers.
I’m amazed how such a small amount of money (compared to the total flow) being held onto has changed my perception of myself. I feel like a “legit” person now. I feel like a stakeholder in society. I feel like an adult, instead of a boy in a man’s body. I don’t even know when my paydays are any more.
And my income didn’t really increase between the time I had no buffer and the time I did. I just made the resolution, and then started putting money away.
I think your experience that your finances are better on $45k than $110k is quite mysterious and could do with some further elucidation
Like I said I have cognitive surplus. I don’t have to mainline takeout, drugs, and impulse purchases to feel safe.
Drugs like prescription and over the counter stuff to deal with burnout, or drugs like street variety, risk your life to forget your troubles drugs?
Yeah, these three categories explain the difference to me. Good for you, getting your life in order and starting to budget/manage money!
Not OP, but… I took a pay cut years ago not as dramatic of a cut about 104k to 72k. I no longer had to drive to work but took a bus so I saved 90 miles (145 km) a day in driving. So I had a big savings on gas, and car, and with the time savings I could switch my kid to a regular daycare because I no longer needed extended hours. I had more free time to cook all of our meals so I had a big savings on food versus take out all the time. I also had the time to do work on my house versus hiring out. I cut back on vacation budgets but we had time to get out of the house and play at the parks and trails nearby every day. All and all a cut in income but a big increase in enjoyment in life. For savings I was able to save about the same between the two jobs.
Leaving my wife, She destroyed my credit and finances.In less then 2 years I have fixed both.
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?
Left my ex four years ago now and I’ve got a 700 credit score!
She didn’t fuck up my finances directly, but she undermined my sense of concrete reality and filled me with enormous amounts of stress and I couldn’t do anything but hang on by my fingertips in my career.
Four years of active healing and it’s finally starting to manifest in my external life.
Good for you getting your head in a better place.Sometimes what we want the most really is the worse thing for us.
It was love at first sight, literally. We didn’t even discuss going out. The first day we met, we were together as a couple. I cannot emphasize enough that we did not discuss being a couple even a single word, but we both knew.
I ain’t doing love at first sight again. Fuck that.
