tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31427364.post8081858969448550650..comments2024-03-26T03:52:23.395-07:00Comments on Housing Analysis: Personal Finance: Budgetingmohicanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06094213357140749289noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31427364.post-76694228439005076322007-03-20T15:35:00.000-07:002007-03-20T15:35:00.000-07:00scoop - I think the general principle of tracking ...scoop - I think the general principle of tracking spending and keeping yourself within reasonable spending limits is fine as long as it works for you. I know people who use a similar system to yours and it seems to work good. My wife and I are too analytical for that to work for me. I need the detail and the charts!mohicanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06094213357140749289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31427364.post-2370855841026647542007-03-19T17:50:00.000-07:002007-03-19T17:50:00.000-07:00OH! You're just talking about the difference of de...OH! You're just talking about the difference of deferring until the end of the monthy to pay and what you can do with the money instead.<BR/><BR/>The earlier post gave me the impression one might take an advance on the credit card, deposit that, earn interest, then pay back with it was actually due - and it sounded like it was interest free.<BR/><BR/>That would be nice, except I don't know any that do this and all charge interest immediately on cash withdrawals...<BR/><BR/>That aside, I do have switched to paying all bills with credit card (except for when I had hydro - they had the most convuluted system as opposed to anyone else)<BR/><BR/>Get the points, no worries on lateness or forgetting... just pay it off.<BR/><BR/>I also have an avion card but am thinking of switching to the gold as the avion charges $200 or $250 whereas gold does not, the only difference is the points on avion can be used for airfare... but it takes forever to get there anyways and I have 200,000 in Air Canada miles...<BR/><BR/>Lastly - having put myself into super-savings mode is wonderful though I would imagine many would roll their eyes.<BR/><BR/>I went from the Yaletown, own a new car, spend crap loads of money on stuff to cheap rental ($300), no car, sold what I don't need and spend very little.<BR/><BR/>Its contagious but also, I have more money, I am wiser on money (I look for ways to make it go further), my salary has increased (how thats related, I dunno), I've increased my skills through education and I am in excellent physical shape (cause I'd rather be at the gym than the $300 rental)<BR/><BR/>Granted, can't be done with a family but I would be a good 3/4 of people in Vancouver don't really know how much they're wasting in their spending...<BR/><BR/>Most of that is due to learnings gathered from these blogs BTWlittlemanrenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14756983126447319971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31427364.post-83623203706182598882007-03-19T17:11:00.000-07:002007-03-19T17:11:00.000-07:00littlemanrenter - it works like this -Every month ...littlemanrenter - it works like this -<BR/><BR/>Every month we purchase everything with cash from the bank account. This includes the hydro, telephone, internet, groceries, and everything else. Lets say this adds up to $2000 / month. In this scenario the cash left the account immediately at the time of purchase and had no opportunity to earn interest/dividends/etc.<BR/><BR/>Let's say we switch to using a credit card for all purchases totalling $2000 / month and defer the cash expense for 30 days. We are now able to earn interest/dividends on that $2000 every single month that the credit card company lends us the money for free - until the bill is due. This essentially allows us to carry $2000 more in investments than we would otherwise be able to. <BR/><BR/>Earning 4% on $2000 compounded monthly over 10 years results in a $981 gain.<BR/><BR/>Does that make sense?mohicanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06094213357140749289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31427364.post-75463282112018250672007-03-19T17:02:00.000-07:002007-03-19T17:02:00.000-07:00My wife and I were just talking about this the oth...<I>My wife and I were just talking about this the other day and discovered the added benefit of the continual float of $2000 / month of interest free credit from the credit card company works out to approximately $1000 of 'free' earnings over a 10 year period of investing that interest free float in a 4% dividend paying stock or mutual fund. </I><BR/><BR/>Can you please provide more info/detail/example of this?<BR/><BR/>Thankslittlemanrenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14756983126447319971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31427364.post-600374169326761842007-03-19T13:25:00.000-07:002007-03-19T13:25:00.000-07:00"Great post mohican, I wonder if you would be will..."Great post mohican, I wonder if you would be willing to share the excel template you use? I never know quite how far I should divide categories. "<BR/><BR/>Mohican, Pope. I got a proposition of sorts for you. Been toying with an idea for a while. This great and to the point post cinched it for me. I will e-mail you what I had in mind (hopefully sooner than later).<BR/><BR/>Also, if you want to go the fancy route, software like Money and Quicken can automatically download your statements and even categorize the expense automatically. I had this up and running at least 6 years ago. The problem is that I stopped using it for some minor reason or other.<BR/><BR/>There is something for simplicity and the KISS formula. That is why I like Mohican's suggestion. You could also use a Google docs spreadsheet so that you can access from anywhere, and share with family members.freakohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06236681769619303395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31427364.post-11313347027893774982007-03-19T12:47:00.000-07:002007-03-19T12:47:00.000-07:00My expense/cash outflow categories on my personal ...My expense/cash outflow categories on my personal budget are: <BR/><BR/>Taxes<BR/>Charity<BR/>Car Expenses<BR/>Home Expenses/Utilities/Strata<BR/>Home Improvement/Maintenance<BR/>Furniture<BR/>Phone/Internet<BR/>Health/Gym/Medicine<BR/>Food<BR/>Entertainment<BR/>Clothing<BR/>Holidays<BR/>Gifts<BR/>Work Related<BR/>Other/Misc<BR/>Mortgage<BR/>Investments<BR/>Life/Health Insurancemohicanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06094213357140749289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31427364.post-39461667043842638502007-03-19T12:44:00.000-07:002007-03-19T12:44:00.000-07:00"payment terms are NET30"My wife and I were just t..."payment terms are NET30"<BR/><BR/>My wife and I were just talking about this the other day and discovered the added benefit of the continual float of $2000 / month of interest free credit from the credit card company works out to approximately $1000 of 'free' earnings over a 10 year period of investing that interest free float in a 4% dividend paying stock or mutual fund.mohicanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06094213357140749289noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31427364.post-73449392012752100062007-03-19T11:33:00.000-07:002007-03-19T11:33:00.000-07:00Great post mohican, I wonder if you would be willi...Great post mohican, I wonder if you would be willing to share the excel template you use? I never know quite how far I should divide categories.the popehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13212759004148473692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31427364.post-77179745318884908152007-03-19T10:00:00.000-07:002007-03-19T10:00:00.000-07:00Note: My wife and I use a simple MS Excel spreadsh...Note: My wife and I use a simple MS Excel spreadsheet to track our income and expenses. It cost us nothing to buy and is customizable for our needs.<BR/><BR/>We have also decided to use our credit cards for all our monthly expenses. We did this for three reasons: 1) we get points / cash back on all our purchases; 2) we can more easily track our expenses; 3) we don't pay bank fees for cash withdrawals or debit purchases<BR/><BR/>If you decide that using your credit card is the best way to track your expenses, just ensure you have enough money to pay the bill in full every month.mohicanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06094213357140749289noreply@blogger.com