New and Need Advice

[Notlikeyou]

Good Afternoon,

I would like everyone to evaulate what I am doing now and see what else can be done to put me in a better postion.

-I am a 23 yr old male
-I work as a finance manager for a car lot originating loans
-I make $4000 gross
-I have 12,200 in savings
-I just purchased a home for 105k
-Put down 5k
-My mortgage+taxes+HOA+insurance is 1050
-I am currently paying an extra $200 principal
-My Girlfriend pays me $350 for rent
-My father pays me 500 for a room in my house as he got divorced for the second time
-My car payment is 420
-My car insurance is 150
-I spend way too much on food/going out about 400 a month
-Utilities/cable 115
-Phone 60
I have a 5k school loan at 6.8% 2800 CC debt at a high interest.

I am wondering how I am doing and what I need to do better and keep going on to be successful. Opinions or concerns?

[mcfroggin]

You make $4000 gross? Is that per month?

Pay off that debt

[Notlikeyou]

Yes, I am sorry. I make 4000.00 Gross monthly....not yearly

[disneysteve]

You gross $4,000 from the job + $350 from girlfriend + $500 from father = $4,850/month total gross income.

What is your take home pay?
What are your total monthly expenses? You listed some ($2,195) but that doesn't include everything.

Without any more info, I'd immediately stop the extra payments to the mortgage. Put that $200 toward the CC instead. Once that is gone, put it toward the student loan. What is the interest on the car payment? And as a car loan manager, you should know better than to borrow money for a car but that's another issue. Out of curiosity, how much is the car loan and what is the car currently worth?

[Notlikeyou]

Net 3190 (with my dads and gf rent money)
- 1050 Mortgage,HOA, taxes, insurance
- 420 car payment (BMW 330i owe 14,500 at 2.99, retail vaule 20k.
- 150 car insurance
- 115 utilities/cable
- 100 cell phone
- 400-500 food
- 200 gas
- 39 gym
ENTERTAINMENT budget is not set as I know its excessive
I think those are all of them... I have 12.2k in savings

My debt is : 2800 CC, 5k student loan

What should I do or not do, work does not offer 401k was thinking about roth ira and contributing 10%. I am almost graduated with my BA so believe I might get higher pay.

[Frugal]

I agree, I would pay off the credit card and student loan first. It seems that is a lot for a monthly entertainment budget, but with the money you get for rent, maybe it is not.

[krantcents]

I would pay off the credit card debt first and then work on the student loans. You can set up an IRA and start contributing 10% of your income.

[frugalgirl]

Net 3190 (with my dads and gf rent money)
- 1050 Mortgage,HOA, taxes, insurance
- 420 car payment (BMW 330i owe 14,500 at 2.99, retail vaule 20k.
- 150 car insurance
- 115 utilities/cable
- 100 cell phone
- 400-500 food
- 200 gas
- 39 gym
ENTERTAINMENT budget is not set as I know its excessive
I think those are all of them... I have 12.2k in savings

My debt is : 2800 CC, 5k student loan

What should I do or not do, work does not offer 401k was thinking about roth ira and contributing 10%. I am almost graduated with my BA so believe I might get higher pay.

Your listed expenses are $2475/month and your net is $3190. I am still not clear if this includes your rent money but, considering your net income, assume the $3190 does NOT include the rental income. Some thoughts:

1) Create a budget for yourself that does not include the rent money from your father and gf. That would be a worse case scenario for your income. ($3190-$2475 = $715 left after your listed expenses.) I would make myself live within those means in case, long term, you lost that rent money. You would be able to maintain you lifestyle without that supplemental income. I'd use that supplemental income as 100% savings.

2) As far as budgeting goes, as a homeowner, you need to be budgeting some money for "home repairs and improvement". The suggested amount is usually given as 1-2% of your home's value per year. In your case, that would be $1000-$2000/year. Believe me, you will need this money (not just for things like a broken furnace but also for lawn maintenance, tools, paint, etc).

3) If your expenses are about $2500/month, then you currently have about 5 months worth of expenses in savings you could call your "emergency fund". I'd immediately pay off the credit card debt which would still leave you with 4 months of savings. Then, I'd put all of the rent money from my father and gf toward paying off the student loan and get that paid ASAP.

4) Once your debts are paid and you have a fully-'fleshed-out' budget, then I'd start considering where to put my retirement savings. (In your budget, you don't have any money budgeted for entertainment or "vacations" and probably a few other things that you consistently spend money on.) Also, take a second look at how many months of expenses you now have in savings with your new budget numbers and make sure you still have an adequate emergency fund.