Just get it out of here, please. in Will Fly For Food

Free, just get it out of here pls.

Ahhh I love my life.

I was reading an article on yahoo (yes I know, the most reputable news source on the interweb) about "How to pay off 30K of debt in 3 years." Their suggestion? Pay nearly $1000 each month instead of the minimum payment.

The overwhelming majority of people were blasting it in comments. This is one of my favorites: "$923.57/month?! Let's see.... rent: $1500/month. food: $400/month. utilities: $100/month. Phone: $120. Clothing: $200/month. Entertainment: $200/month. Medical: $100/month. Dental: $30/month. Savings/Retirement: $100. Let's assume you're single, no children, no car payment and you're keeping it simple with just these monthly expenses, that's a total of $2750. Your starting salary is: $50,000/year. After minimum taxes, annual take-home is: $37,500 or $3125/month. That leaves $375 in the bank account and we all know that budgets work better on paper than they do in actuality because there is always those unforseen expenses, so, yeah, the ONLY way a person could afford to fork out $924 a month toward school loans, assuming you really did only take out $30,000, is to live with mom and dad and not that many parents are willing to contiue to suport their kids after they've graduated from college. This is the most ABSURD money management suggestion I think I've ever seen!"

Most of this I could stomach, but I lost it when I saw the $200 clothing and $200 entertainment budget each month. You really have to spend $200 on clothing every month? That's $2,400 per year. And $200 per month on entertainment? Also $2,400 per year. If you stopped buying clothes and spending $200 a month on "entertainment" you would have nearly $5,000 a year to put towards that debt. Granted that isn't $1000 a month, but it's a hell of a lot better than minimum payments.

I don't know how to say this.... I'm putting $1000 a month, in addition to more-than-minimum payments, on my small salary. When I did my first budget, with just my FT job, I found I had 200-300 left over each month after necessities. That wasn't enough to make progress, so I went out and got a part time job. I take home about $2000 a month from my FT job and about $800 a month from my part time job. That's after taxes, medical/dental/vision, and 6% retirement. $2000 a month x 12 = $24,000. $800 a month x 12 = $9,600. Between my two jobs I actually take home about $33,000 a year. And I spend $1000 a month on my debt. But you know what that requires? Sacrifice. I don't spend $200 a month on clothes and another $200 on entertainment. I don't spend $450 a month on food (that would be like eating at a decent restaurant once per day for the entire month). My clothing budget is $30 a month because I KNOW I like buying clothes. Sometimes that means I have to wait a couple months to buy a pair of shoes or to go shopping and spend $100. My "me" budget is about $15 a week/$60 a month. I can spend that money however I want. When it is gone, it is GONE.

Having said that, I'm sure my "money management suggestion" is also absurd. It's absurd because it's not normal. Normal is buying stuff you can't afford to impress people you don't even like. Normal is working 40,50,60 hours a week to afford the biggest house you can get, even if that means you're at work more than you're at home. Normal means that you ask "How much down" and "How much per month" instead of thinking about what something really costs. Normal means you HAVE to go to work because you can't afford NOT to.

Why would anyone want to be normal? Normal sucks. How do you plan to ever save any money when all of it is promised to Discover, or Wells Fargo, or Sallie Mae before you even get your cut.

I just read an article recently saying that over half of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. What the fuck do you think is going to happen? Do you honestly think the United States government, which is AWESOME at managing its money, is going to support you?

Common sense isn't common any more. I had to pay a stupid tax. I took out student loans. I have credit cards. I've bought a car on a car loan. I paid my stupid tax. I paid off my car loan and kept the car (kept it, didn't get a new one. Even though it is a 2006 with 140,000 miles on it and some of the paint is chipping and the buttons on the CD player are worn, and the AC smells like cats when it rains, It is MINE) . I paid off the credit cards and cut all of them up except for one, which I don't even carry with me, I keep it in a safe in our apartment. What was on them? Stupid shit. A shirt I saw on sale that I've never even worn. A dinner at a restaurant. Stuff that doesn't fucking matter the next day, or the next week, or the next year.) I've paid off one student loan and I have 3 more to go. I'm paying my stupid tax and it has been an expensive lesson to learn. But I'm learning it. It's a hard lesson to learn, a hard tax to pay but it needs to be done.

So don't tell me it can't be done.