Where does one go for financial planning advice that isn't debt-focused?

[Xantippe]

Actually I took a look around my local area craigslist. It looks like rooms for rent aren’t hard to come by around here - looking to be in the $500 range. Most chemicals are ok as long as they aren’t in my regular living space - I don’t generally react to cleaning chemicals or personal care products as long as not a lot of them are used, they’re not in my sleeping quarters, and they’re not unusually strongly scented. (Hairspray roommate was a bit of an anomaly, due to the dorm situation and the sheer amount and scent she used.) Smoke is usually the biggest issue but that’s easier to avoid. Things like paint or heavy-duty cleaners can be issues but those tend to be rarely used, worst comes to worst I could probably airbnb a night or two if I really had to. So the whole “live in someone’s spare room” is totally a live option. It usually means you’re not paying utilities and you have an on-site laundry (important for allergies!), which helps.

I think the whole car loan thing gave me a bit of a wakeup that, while I haven’t made any huge financial mistakes, I need to pay better attention to what’s going on. Also realizing that being able to put 8k down and having a good credit score is part of why I could get the car I got and be confident I can pay it off quickly, and I’d like to be able to keep doing that.

I need to check the exact amount, but I do have access to some savings bonds totaling around 3k if I really need emergency money. They’re not quite fully mature - 30-year bonds taken out in the first few years of my life - so I’d rather leave them if I can, but if I really 100% need the money it’s there.

That sounds good.

Dorm living is weird because you normally wouldn’t be sharing a single room with a total stranger.

If things go well, you might never have another car payment.

 

[DarkLight]

It looks like the first step might be to figure out what I’m actually worth on the market.

I had a job pop up in my facebook ads that I am at least on paper rather overqualified for, and that pays half again as much as what I currently make. So there’s at least be a decent possibility that I’m qualified for significantly more pay than I’m actually currently earning, with a little bit of a field jump. My current job seems to be dumping more and more work on my department and we rather suspect it’s because they can get away with paying us less than the positions they got rid of.

 

[EasterJoy]

The main worry about living with my parents is the threat of being kicked out for being disrespectful. And generally what she’d call “disrespectful” is what I’d consider having reasonable boundaries for my own sanity. So it’s rather unlikely that I’m going to reliably meet her standards of respectfulness.

Your relationship with your parents and probably the opportunity to have them as a support system would probably be much improved if you were to move out.

I grew up as one of the youngest in a family of eight. My eventual rule of thumb was that it is time to move out when your parents’ house rules don’t work for you any more. When you want different rules, that is the sign that you need your own place with people who either have rules you like or who have you on an equal footing to make house rules.

When you move out, it really does help your relationship with your parents, because you can respect their rules without giving up your own adult need to self-determine. Everyone is happier and I think respect generally goes up on both sides.

 

[Xantippe]

It looks like the first step might be to figure out what I’m actually worth on the market.

**I had a job pop up in my facebook ads that I am at least on paper rather overqualified for, and that pays half again as much as what I currently make. So there’s at least be a decent possibility that I’m qualified for significantly more pay than I’m actually currently earning, with a little bit of a field jump. **My current job seems to be dumping more and more work on my department and we rather suspect it’s because they can get away with paying us less than the positions they got rid of.

I think that (with any luck) you should be able to make a lot more than you are making now.

 

[ToeInTheWater]

Regarding the issue of roommates and the risk of being left responsible for their rent if they vamoose; I am not sure about your location, but where I live, many people who own houses will rent out the bedrooms. The “common areas” of living room, kitchen, etc. are shared by everyone who lives in the house. This is pretty common near colleges. Sometimes the home owners live in the house as well. Others live elsewhere and rent out the whole house.

In this arrangement, each person living in the house, signs their own independent contract with the landlord. They do not have to find their own roommates. I knew a woman who did this essentially as a source of income, as she was disabled. She even built an extra story on to her house (obviously not by herself, she hired people) so she could rent out more rooms.

Of course as opposed to renting from a commercial firm that specializes in rentals, there is a risk that the homeowner might wind up losing the house. But if someone has been doing this for years and years the risk of that is probably less overall, than the “find a roommate to rent a traditional apartment with” option.

 

[Xantippe]

Regarding the issue of roommates and the risk of being left responsible for their rent if they vamoose; I am not sure about your location, but where I live, many people who own houses will rent out the bedrooms. The “common areas” of living room, kitchen, etc. are shared by everyone who lives in the house. This is pretty common near colleges. Sometimes the home owners live in the house as well. Others live elsewhere and rent out the whole house.

In this arrangement, each person living in the house, signs their own independent contract with the landlord. They do not have to find their own roommates. I knew a woman who did this essentially as a source of income, as she was disabled. She even built an extra story on to her house (obviously not by herself, she hired people) so she could rent out more rooms.

Of course as opposed to renting from a commercial firm that specializes in rentals, there is a risk that the homeowner might wind up losing the house. But if someone has been doing this for years and years the risk of that is probably less overall, than the “find a roommate to rent a traditional apartment with” option.

Yes.

 

[DarkLight]

Your relationship with your parents and probably the opportunity to have them as a support system would probably be much improved if you were to move out.

I grew up as one of the youngest in a family of eight. My eventual rule of thumb was that it is time to move out when your parents’ house rules don’t work for you any more. When you want different rules, that is the sign that you need your own place with people who either have rules you like or who have you on an equal footing to make house rules.

When you move out, it really does help your relationship with your parents, because you can respect their rules without giving up your own adult need to self-determine. Everyone is happier and I think respect generally goes up on both sides.

To be fair, I don’t think I remember the house rules ever working for me, even as a child. They were a thing to try to stay out of the way of, nothing more. (Can’t recall that I ever respected her either, to be honest.)

But yeah, I’m planning on moving out as soon as I get into a position where I’m not thinking I’d have to choose between paying rent and having medicine.

Regarding the issue of roommates and the risk of being left responsible for their rent if they vamoose; I am not sure about your location, but where I live, many people who own houses will rent out the bedrooms. The “common areas” of living room, kitchen, etc. are shared by everyone who lives in the house. This is pretty common near colleges. Sometimes the home owners live in the house as well. Others live elsewhere and rent out the whole house.

In this arrangement, each person living in the house, signs their own independent contract with the landlord. They do not have to find their own roommates. I knew a woman who did this essentially as a source of income, as she was disabled. She even built an extra story on to her house (obviously not by herself, she hired people) so she could rent out more rooms.

Of course as opposed to renting from a commercial firm that specializes in rentals, there is a risk that the homeowner might wind up losing the house. But if someone has been doing this for years and years the risk of that is probably less overall, than the “find a roommate to rent a traditional apartment with” option.

That’s essentially what I’m looking at, although I’d prefer a single room where the owners live in. Owner-occupied units tend to be more protected from certain forms of bad behavior.

 

[DarkLight]

Ok, credit is weird.

I just got the denial letter from one of the companies we looked at for a better rate on my car loan.

The reason? Not enough revolving accounts and accounts are too new.

Am I the only one who thinks that’s kind of a stupid system?

 

[Xantippe]

Ok, credit is weird.

I just got the denial letter from one of the companies we looked at for a better rate on my car loan.

The reason? Not enough revolving accounts and accounts are too new.

Am I the only one who thinks that’s kind of a stupid system?

Dave Ramsey agrees with you.

As he would point out, you could have $10 million in the bank, but they wouldn’t care.

 

[DarkLight]

Dave Ramsey agrees with you.

As he would point out, you could have $10 million in the bank, but they wouldn’t care.

Yeah, I’m a little scared what would happen if I’d never had a credit card at all.

I had one that I opened when I was 18, paid faithfully every month, so that gave me a bit more of a history.

Then again, I got a new one with a better cashback right after that, and they gave me a 10k credit limit!

So yeah, this whole “credit” thing just gets weird.

 

[Xantippe]

Yeah, I’m a little scared what would happen if I’d never had a credit card at all.

I had one that I opened when I was 18, paid faithfully every month, so that gave me a bit more of a history.

Then again, I got a new one with a better cashback right after that, and they gave me a 10k credit limit!

So yeah, this whole “credit” thing just gets weird.

Some years ago, I kind of freaked out when credit card companies sent us $30k of those fake “checks” (that are actually cash advance loans) in a short period of time. I called them up and got them to discontinue those offers, as it didn’t seem like a good idea to have those floating around with our names on them.

 

[DarkLight]

My problem right now is that I’m not sure how to find jobs to apply for. It’s obvious I need a new job. But almost no job posts any information about the pay and benefits - they won’t give that out until they decide to hire you. It’s obviously not possible for me to apply and interview for every job that might be worth it, keep up with all my doctor’s appointments, and do everything I need to do to make money. My experience is that most (but not all) jobs won’t be worth it, but that you won’t be provided with the information to tell until after you interview, and that trying to find out before the interview makes you “pushy” and thus not worth hiring.

 

[Millie123]

My problem right now is that I’m not sure how to find jobs to apply for. It’s obvious I need a new job. But almost no job posts any information about the pay and benefits - they won’t give that out until they decide to hire you. It’s obviously not possible for me to apply and interview for every job that might be worth it, keep up with all my doctor’s appointments, and do everything I need to do to make money. My experience is that most (but not all) jobs won’t be worth it, but that you won’t be provided with the information to tell until after you interview, and that trying to find out before the interview makes you “pushy” and thus not worth hiring.

Have you considered looking up your prospective companies that youre looking into on glassdoor.com? It’s a website that gives projected pay and reviews for job seekers of specific companies. I noticed that for my company that I work for, what they list about them is pretty accurate.

 

[DarkLight]

I do wish there was more advice or support out there for medical cost problems of the time I have. Most personal finance stuff seems to talk about medical primarily as past bills that come all at once, and then you negotiate and figure out how to pay them down.

 

[UbiCaritas]

I do wish there was more advice or support out there for medical cost problems of the time I have. Most personal finance stuff seems to talk about medical primarily as past bills that come all at once, and then you negotiate and figure out how to pay them down.

Do you anticipate the medical stuff to be lifelong, long-term (say, for the next few years), or short-term (once you figure out a medication solution, it’ll just be a question of a yearly/every-six-months checkup)?

I’m wondering if the hospital/facility you primarily use might be willing to negotiate payments based on your income, rather like student loan payments can be reduced. Of course, this might mean some nasty interest accumulation, but it can hardly hurt to inquire. Your doctor might also be a source of information about this kind of thing; I really doubt you’d be the first patient to say, “look, doc, this $300/month medication is killing my budget; is there a cheaper alternative?” A reasonable doctor would like to help you deal with this problem, not least of all because a good doc wants you to keep getting treatment even if you get hit with an unexpected but probable expense in a given month–say, someone runs into your car, and you have to get a rental in order to get to work while insurance takes their sweet time sorting through whose fault it is.

If medicine is a big portion of your medical expenses, does your insurance company offer a refill-by-mail option? Some do, and the cost is often ridiculously low compared to a retail pharmacy. For example, I was on a reoccurring script last year whose market price was $100+/30-day supply, but between insurance payments and the insurance’s mail pharmacy option, came to $5 and change for a 3 month supply when I went through them. Which probably says all sorts of things about what’s wrong with our medical system, but I digress…

(Of course, you may well have thought of all this before–thought I’d mention it just in case, though!)

 

[DarkLight]

Do you anticipate the medical stuff to be lifelong, long-term (say, for the next few years), or short-term (once you figure out a medication solution, it’ll just be a question of a yearly/every-six-months checkup)?

I’m wondering if the hospital/facility you primarily use might be willing to negotiate payments based on your income, rather like student loan payments can be reduced. Of course, this might mean some nasty interest accumulation, but it can hardly hurt to inquire. Your doctor might also be a source of information about this kind of thing; I really doubt you’d be the first patient to say, “look, doc, this $300/month medication is killing my budget; is there a cheaper alternative?” A reasonable doctor would like to help you deal with this problem, not least of all because a good doc wants you to keep getting treatment even if you get hit with an unexpected but probable expense in a given month–say, someone runs into your car, and you have to get a rental in order to get to work while insurance takes their sweet time sorting through whose fault it is.

If medicine is a big portion of your medical expenses, does your insurance company offer a refill-by-mail option? Some do, and the cost is often ridiculously low compared to a retail pharmacy. For example, I was on a reoccurring script last year whose market price was $100+/30-day supply, but between insurance payments and the insurance’s mail pharmacy option, came to $5 and change for a 3 month supply when I went through them. Which probably says all sorts of things about what’s wrong with our medical system, but I digress…

(Of course, you may well have thought of all this before–thought I’d mention it just in case, though!)

I expect most of the expenses are going to be ongoing, if not life-long at least on the order of years.

Medication is part of it, but the expense tends to come from number of medications rather than cost. So no one medication is more than $20 to $30 a month - but I’m taking 6 or so currently. And of course there’s a lot of doctor’s visits and this and that and the other. Again, no one thing is particularly expensive, it’s more like this visit was $85 and that one was $100 and that one was $120 and all those numbers add up fast.

 

[zea_maize]

I do wish there was more advice or support out there for medical cost problems of the time I have. Most personal finance stuff seems to talk about medical primarily as past bills that come all at once, and then you negotiate and figure out how to pay them down.

I expect most of the expenses are going to be ongoing, if not life-long at least on the order of years.

Medication is part of it, but the expense tends to come from number of medications rather than cost. So no one medication is more than $20 to $30 a month - but I’m taking 6 or so currently. And of course there’s a lot of doctor’s visits and this and that and the other. Again, no one thing is particularly expensive, it’s more like this visit was $85 and that one was $100 and that one was $120 and all those numbers add up fast.

I’m going to quote my earlier post in this thread. YNAB, as a method, will teach you exactly what you need to know to plan for these types of expenses. There are live classes and pre-recorded classes, all for free.

Check out You Need a Budget (YNAB). It’s more than just a budgeting software - it’s an actual method which will allow you to start planning for savings, like you requested. It’s fairly inexpensive and you can get a 3 month free trial if you use this link. I have no affiliation with that link - but it’s better than the usual 34 day trial on the regular page.

 

[DarkLight]

I’m going to quote my earlier post in this thread. YNAB, as a method, will teach you exactly what you need to know to plan for these types of expenses. There are live classes and pre-recorded classes, all for free.

I wouldn’t say it’s that I don’t know how to plan for it, in the sense that if I have the money to allocate to it I know how to allocate it. The problem is that it’s just a big number compared to a not-so-big income. When you’re paying basically a rent payment a month in medical bills, that eats into your income real fast.

The simple problem is I did the math. Add up monthly medical costs, the cost of rent, the cost of food, the cost of transportation and insurance, and the cost of minimum payments, and there went pretty much everything I make in a month. I’m not really sure things like YNAB are going to help much with that.

It’s a case where either expenses need to go down or income needs to go up. I’d like to get medical expenses down, but there doesn’t seem to be much available to do that.

 

[Xantippe]

I expect most of the expenses are going to be ongoing, if not life-long at least on the order of years.

Medication is part of it, but the expense tends to come from number of medications rather than cost. So no one medication is more than $20 to $30 a month - but I’m taking 6 or so currently. And of course there’s a lot of doctor’s visits and this and that and the other. Again, no one thing is particularly expensive, it’s more like this visit was $85 and that one was $100 and that one was $120 and all those numbers add up fast.

The medications should at least eventually get cheaper as there are more and more generics as time goes by.

 

[Xantippe]

I wouldn’t say it’s that I don’t know how to plan for it, in the sense that if I have the money to allocate to it I know how to allocate it. The problem is that it’s just a big number compared to a not-so-big income. When you’re paying basically a rent payment a month in medical bills, that eats into your income real fast.

The simple problem is I did the math. Add up monthly medical costs, the cost of rent, the cost of food, the cost of transportation and insurance, and the cost of minimum payments, and there went pretty much everything I make in a month. I’m not really sure things like YNAB are going to help much with that.

It’s a case where either expenses need to go down or income needs to go up. **I’d like to get medical expenses down, **but there doesn’t seem to be much available to do that.

Better insurance will do that.