Life's going good.

Finishing up college, going to start working at a company from april, which terrifies me.

And yeah I got the inheritance, havent spent much though


Havent been outside in like a week, ****ing reports

This

Financial advice:

I'm in a pretty decent spot work wise, making a lot more than I need. This year I should net about 60k more than I need to live on. The current plan is to put aside 40k for a house deposit, 15k for a car (and borrow 15k as well to pay off over 1 year) and then 5k for a holiday. I'm confident that the bank will approve both loans as my credit/income are very good. The current plan was to save the full amount till end of year, then do both.

However, I kinda want the car now. I'm going to talk to the bank on Thursday and confirm that getting the car loan now won't affect drawing a mortgage at the end of the year, but I'm confident it won't. If that is the case, the plan would be to just borrow 30k and pay it off over two years. I've asked a few friends, and they have told me this is stupid, and I should just be patient. However they are life nits and annoying.

The interest cost of each year of the loan is about $1200, plus some negligible amount the savings will gain me this year [say $200]. By my logic, as long as the value of having the car for me is greater than $1400 (which it absolutely is), getting the car now is the right move. Am I missing something? I have an emergency fund so this is no concern.

Intangible bonus as well: Right now in a sales job it's hard to find motivation to make the absolute top levels of commissions, because I simply don't need the money, it's all just going into a savings account. By increasing my monthly cost of living (mortgage savings are set aside automatically) I simply have no choice but to work hard, which is a benefit.

Do you have a car at the moment?

Yeah but it's pretty crap. I know as a rule spending money on a car is a poor financial investment, but I'm going to anyways, so it's more just the decision to do so now or to wait a year

Happy 2014! Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buy the car. Reward yourself if you can afford it. Saving is so overrated if you are confident in yourself and your career progression. Of course don't spend all your income but you should also live nicely.

Agree kinda, but if you are even remotely risk intolerant (and it sounds like you are), def worth having a 6 month emergency fund. Yet another important life lesson poker taught me .

Dont you plan on moving to US within the foreseeable future? Why mortgage a house?

Oii, how it feels to be deluded sheep?

+1

Re: car. Get one. You'll be so happy.

Need to buy mum an apartment. Nothing fancy, it's just an investment property which mum will pay rent on till she retires 10-15 years and then can live in rent free after that. Compulsory but win/win option given she doesn't own a home and is not every going to have the funds to buy one. Will be a very stress free investment though with a reliable tenant locked up for 15 years

I don't know how much I updated this last year, but it was pretty fantastic. I turned my visiting position into a tenure-track position (turns out that being a Physics professor is just as much fun as I thought it'd be!) and, somehow, managed to end the year as the department chair, just having been in charge of hiring the entire rest of the department. Whee! We also bought a fairy-tale-level amazing house. 10 acres, 1.5 miles from campus. Here's the limestone seep by our stream this afternoon:



Cheers!

Nice 2013 and all the best in 2014

That's awesome Poin. Where in the states are you? That's insane to get 10 acres 1.5 miles from work, that's should be almost impossible for anyone with a real job.

WP

very nice poin.

fryke, one other thing you didn't mention is the credit boost you get for future loans by successfully handling a different kind of credit. demonstrating your credit worthiness can prove to be quite valuable when you eventually take out a mortgage. it will shave a bit off your interest rate, which will save you a ton down the line.

that said, i'm pretty minimalist when it comes to transportation, but i also enjoy money in ways that others would deem frivolous, such as how some might view a 30k vehicle. you should ultimately be happy so long as you can do so responsibly.

to say the least

Sick Poin!!! Congrats!

ahem you live in manhattan

I'm in Indiana. In fact, one of the huge selling points of my college is the quality of life. I don't think there's any way I'd be able to afford this house/property basically anywhere else, especially if I want the time to actually enjoy it. That said, I don't think there are many houses like mine in town.

Speaking of which, we're right on 70, so it's easy to drop by if you're driving through the midwest for some reason.

Wow, I randomly check in once a year and the thread looks like we're getting the band back together.

On this end, I'm hopelessly addicted to COD Ghosts on PS4. I've played 195 hours so far with no end in the forseeable future.

As a random aside, my post to a friend's wall after he asked for a motivational birthday quote:

"Happy Birthday man. As we begin 2014, and reflect on 2013, we realize that, as with all years, 2013 had its highs and lows. Many people will tell you to focus on the positive, and to those people you say "Mind your effing business. When they write the book on 2013 it'll have the face you're looking squarely on the cover and your sappy delusion will be nothing more than a microscopic footnote, overlooked and forgotten in the annals of Eric. Sell you bs elsewhere. We're all stocked up here."

Happy new year!

lol whattup dudes?

Life Update:

Finished my first semester of medical school. Not setting any records but I'm passing and improving with every test as I'm figuring out how to study. Had some pretty funny splits at first. I was in the top 10% in the practical part of anatomy exams (basically they 'tag' a structure on a body you say what it is) but just barely passing on the written at first. Finally figured out how to do that book learnin and I'm a few points above average now. Goal is to get myself in the top 10-20% eventually.

I'm in New Orleans and the wife is still in Chicago. We're currently deciding between selling and renting our condo in Chicago out. It's a 3br/1.5ba on the lakefront in Chicago. It's hard to figure what it's worth, but I'd guess in the 210k range and we owe about 160k. On one hand it'd be nice to just sell it and take the lump payment. On the other our condo does a good job managing renters and I could probably come out in the black before considering I'm paying off the mortgage.

Wife should be moving down to New Orleans this summer. Her dissertation has been accepted but she has to finish what is called an internship. She'll be Dr. Ikewife in Child Clinical Psych in June. Her parents decided to freaking buy a house in New Orleans in exchange for us renting it from them and taking care of the property. It works out good for both of us. They get what's basically a guaranteed passive income stream while we get a nice break on rent. Still kind of shocked they did that but hey I'm loving it.

The best part of this year was definitely getting into medical school. I have a purpose for everyday that I didn't really have before. Can't wait to get the wife down here with me.

My wife and I just bought a house in North Georgia about 15 minutes south of Chattanooga. It has a decent sized fenced in backyard which our two pups have been enjoying a ton. I've been with my company for a year now (web dev) and am loving it. Wife is working for a local animal hospital and she loves that. I've been playing a lot of Dota 2 and Hearthstone along with a decent amount of flag football.

Here's a pic of the kids:

Will write a long post abt my 2013 and the start of 2014 in a week or so, can't yet. 2013 is the worst year ever even thought I got married.

2013: Left Ladbrokes poker as my job became untenable (hello six line managers in nine months, not to mention three major reorganisations). Consulted for next nine months. Not being paid regularly was annoying. Got verbal offer from a US firm going stand-alone in the regulated poker market, but visa problems. Helped build some of the systems for Unibet's forthcoming stand alone client. Took full time job at Unibet.

Not married. Do not own a stream or a dog. Played a lot of path of exile. Considering doing something about getting slightly fat.