Comments on: The One Thing Not to Say After You Pay Your Bills

By: Marcelo

Marcelo — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 12:42:39 +0000

A better strategy is to conduct a “bill reduction analysis” to determine the needs from the wants and justify their expense. This will modify your spending patterns in the future and reduce the end of the month pain

By: Bret

Bret — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 20:31:44 +0000

I pay myself frist, before I pay any bills. Then, I pay the bills using Bill Pay. After that, I enjoy the rest of my money, knowing that I am pulling ahead each month.

I had a very low income when I was young and a much better income now that I am middle-aged. This strategy always works at any income level, as long as you are gainfully employed.

Any reason not to save, is generally just an excuse to spend. And, if you are living at the poverty level, you have an income problem, not a spending problem. Saving will help force you to increase your income.

By: cjbr549

cjbr549 — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:13:09 +0000

I think being poor at one time helps the savings ability out. I don’t consider myself rich now, but I don’t have to go out and shoot things to eat (I did that for a few months in JC, 22 cartridges were only 2 cents each). As I graduated from college, got a job then worked my way up I didn’t increase my standard of living by as much as my income increased. This allowed me to put some into savings (and pay off the debts I had run up), but still allowed a modest increase in standard of living. I look back on what I have lived on in the past and I am thankful for what I have now. And it’s nice not to have to worry if the transmission takes a crap in the car, because I have a stash that I can have someone else change it if I don’t have the time or inclination to do it myself (although after the fiasco with the last one I will probably just do it myself anyway).

By: SimplyForties

SimplyForties — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 01:38:19 +0000

Paying yourself first is probably the one best piece of financial advice out there! Really makes the savings grow.

By: MasterPo

MasterPo — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:14:21 +0000

Terry and Kitty – While I agree with the concepts you’re talking about, it’s mere pennies in comparison to the costs of life. The *real* things of savings – housing, energy, food, clothing, taxes(!) – you really can’t cut that down by much, without hurting yourself in the longer run.

By: kitty

kitty — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:55:12 +0000

“Actually, when I was an undergrad, I considered assistantships large, relative to what I was earning.”

You may have a point here. I had a room in a (graduate) dorm rather than an apartment, the dorm room and university food service came close to half of the assistantship. Textbooks was additional, and I hardly bought anything else — some cheap clothes here and there, make-up once in a long while and a (very occasional) ticket to the university theater. So yes, maybe it was large compared to minimum wage. But… a 50-something friend of a friend saved money while working as a home care worker i.e. caring for the elderly. She promptly gave all of 70K she saved after a few years of hard work to her good-for-nothing son in Russia for some harebrained “investment” idea of his – breaking a CD and losing interest in process, so now she doesn’t have money again.

I do hope you’ll find a way to have a blog going. It should be an interesting read. There are cheap used or refurbished computers around – craigslist, ebay, Dell’s outlet. And sometimes Dell has great sales. Another thing is learning (from internet) how to build your own computer or finding a friend who does it. Building a computer from parts is cheaper.

By: Terry Pratt

Terry Pratt — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:09:39 +0000

kitty -

thanks, actually i have what i consider the best as-yet-untapped idea for a blog. that is, the best idea for a blog that nobody is doing yet.

it requires a lot of ongoing online research, which perhaps is why nobody is doing it yet. (one could, if sufficiently ambitious, make a full-time job of it, which kinda excludes most people who already have full-time jobs. my paranoia is that one of the growing number of unemployed will come up with the same idea.)

i don’t have home internet access (i don’t have a windows computer, and a lot of ISPs seem to not support my operating system)

so right now i’m trying to figure a way i can get online at home, then i’ll be able to spend a lot of time getting my blog going.