Whenever I get back on my feet life seems to kick me down again. I never am good at saving, but every time I start to get my debt under control,pay off a loan or something, something else hits me that i need to take out another loan for, or i lose my job and have to struggle to pay the bills for a few months while racking up credit card debt. The house I moved to 3 years ago was the single worst financial decision I ever made, and I wound up having a day 1 plumbing emergency (6k), replacing the roof and all the windows (30k each), replacing the dish washer, clothes washer, and dryer (another 6k), having the sewer line collapse for 12k, finding out all the electrical outlets used aluminum wiring and were sparking during the winter when it got cold so another 7k, the finished basement started flooding and to get it waterproofed they had to rip out the finishing and that cost 7k to do, and the repairs to put it all back will be another 7k after I pay off this other loan I’m close to paying off. That’s just the past 3 years but my life has been a Neverending series of crap like this.
Comment on I don't have to check the price because I know I can't afford it.
Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee 1 week agoWhat stopped you from saving up a few hundred bucks?
Just curious. Everyone’s situation is different. Most of us who came from nothing had to make a lot of hard choices to get to a point where money was enough that a few hundred dollar purchase had no material impact on our lives.
Razzazzika@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Ouch. That’s 68k of house repairs in 3 years, or 1888/month for 3 years. For that i’m guessing you could come close to renting a 2BR… but then you’d lose the ubermortgage rate of 2021. 500k @ 7.5% here means i’m on the hook for 5kish per month before food/car/gas/internet/clothes expenses. (includes hoa/taxes/utilities/pmi and other escrow expenses.)
I throw away about 3300 on interest only per month because my wife forced us to buy and money is tighter than ever, but I still have an emergency fund.
I will say i’ve never put anything on credit unless cash is in the bank already. 20-30%+ interest is something you just can’t climb out from under easily. That being said I have no idea how i’m going to afford a ~15-20k replacement hvac system once my ~20 year old one dies, could be tomorrow, could be in 1-3 years - who is to say? Definitely on the hook for a water heater next year. Dishwasher is ready to go but i’d handwash.
Razzazzika@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Closer to 100k. I still owe about 75k. I couldn’t get anything on a 3 year plan. I’m on 5-10 years depending on the loan. My mortgage is about 2k a month and the repairs are another 1k a month, half my mortgage
Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
Having to save us a couple hundred dollars to be able to go on a dinner and movie type date isn’t the same as just being able to do that impromptu knowing it’s okay.
Both are nice though, but one has a lot less stress overall in life.