Financial tracking

[Rumline]

Makes sense. I'm kind of in this weird place now where I'm making more than I've ever made, but yet I know I can't approach it like that. I know that if I do enter into "I have plenty of money!" land, I'll very soon have not plenty of money.

I'd like to combine a stricter budget with minimizing, not to simply save for the sake of saving -- that can instill a miserly attitude. But for the sake of saving for harder times, etc. Hopefully, between both minimizing and stricter budgeting, the leaner times would be seen as an adventure in prior planning rather than a nail biter.

Awesome, that's an exciting place to be in life. If approaching things from a preparedness mentality helps you adhere to your plans, go for it. The confidence that it will give you, knowing you can quit that job if you want or hit a speedbump and not be destitute next week or even in several months, is a wonderful feeling.

I don't want to sound like a YNAB evangelist (I know, "too late!") but I really believe in it because like I said it changed my life. Their philosophy is worth checking out even if you don't use their software. Check it out here: https://www.youneedabudget.com/method/

And if you do decide to use their software, in addition to the official YNAB webinars, Reddit is a good resource for learning how other people use it: https://www.reddit.com/r/ynab/

[Irving]

Cav, you are a prime candidate for jumping into the early retirement movement. Mrmoneymustache is the most popular, but there are many different blogs, including a military one.

[Grant H.]

No church membership is required of which I'm aware (though my wife handled all the paperwork). We're Catholic and I'm fairly sure this healthshare is some non-denominational outfit, not associated with any particular denomination.

http://www.chministries.org/faqs.aspx
http://www.chministries.org/howitworks.aspx

I'm not eligible for CHM because I use dip (apparently being a fatass who eats horribly is not as bad as the devil's wintergreen delight, but I digress -- stupid Calvinist influence!). I'm "covered" for Obamacare purposes via the VA, being med retired.

We have CHM, and it works for us. After 2015 for me, we have upped our coverage to the gold plan.

We only use doctors when it's catastrophic, and likely when we start having kids, so it is a good fit. As has been said, it's not good for the "OMG, I sneezed... Going to the doctor" crowd.


As for budgeting, we use a system of my own creation that is based on Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey), the envelope system, and general logic.

Instead of dealing with cash for the envelope system, I modified it by creating a series of free bank accounts at Chase.
1: Checking - Operational for groceries and general expenses
2: Checking - Operational for Utilities and mortgage
3: Checking - Discretionary for Me
4: Checking - Discretionary for Her
5: Savings - Savings account
6: Savings - Insurance, taxes
7: Savings - Maintenance - House, vehicles

When I log in to online banking, I see all the accounts, and can move funds in/out of each account as necessary without any fee's/hassle.

Being a contractor, and a sometimes delinquent personal billing machine, I can't really use a normal budget since I don't have a consistent paycheck. I make good money, but the swings in monthly income make me have to average my expenses across months.

[CS1983]

We have CHM, and it works for us. After 2015 for me, we have upped our coverage to the gold plan.

We only use doctors when it's catastrophic, and likely when we start having kids, so it is a good fit. As has been said, it's not good for the "OMG, I sneezed... Going to the doctor" crowd.


As for budgeting, we use a system of my own creation that is based on Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey), the envelope system, and general logic.

Instead of dealing with cash for the envelope system, I modified it by creating a series of free bank accounts at Chase.
1: Checking - Operational for groceries and general expenses
2: Checking - Operational for Utilities and mortgage
3: Checking - Discretionary for Me
4: Checking - Discretionary for Her
5: Savings - Savings account
6: Savings - Insurance, taxes
7: Savings - Maintenance - House, vehicles

When I log in to online banking, I see all the accounts, and can move funds in/out of each account as necessary without any fee's/hassle.

Being a contractor, and a sometimes delinquent personal billing machine, I can't really use a normal budget since I don't have a consistent paycheck. I make good money, but the swings in monthly income make me have to average my expenses across months.

Grant,

We have the Gold plan+Brother's Keeper (the kicker required for BK is negligible and I highly recommend it if you don't have it). When our 1st son was born, the self-pay rate at the hospital was a final bill of $4000, and CHM covered everything involved. He was also covered under my wife's coverage for all the well-baby visits, etc. Once that window closed we added him to the plan. When our next one comes, it will cap us out at the $450 per month, per family for Gold plan.

If you have any questions about things relating to getting pay plans set up with the docs, hospital, etc. so CHM can pre-cut the check, please let me know -- my wife is good to go on navigating that.

At my last job I literally laughed at HR when they told me the rates for the health insurance because of the cost vs coverage comparison of it and CHM -- CHM being much more sensible. The key for us has been to simply save that extra money for when the sniffles happen and it doesn't meet the onus of the incident deductible. I'd have to go back and look at average healthcare costs for us vs what it would have been under insurance, but I'm 99% sure we saved money with CHM.

[Rumline]

Is that CHM plan considered a "high deductible" plan or is it otherwise eligible for having a Health Savings Account?

[BushMasterBoy]

Try to think in pictures and not numbers and words. The more you own, the more you have to take care of.

[Irving]

Is that CHM plan considered a "high deductible" plan or is it otherwise eligible for having a Health Savings Account?

This is my question as well. Will you be penalized for not having health insurance of the toe the government wants you to have?

[Wulf202]

This is my question as well. Will you be penalized for not having health insurance of the toe the government wants you to have?

according to the faq page it gets you out of the obamacare penalty

[CS1983]

Is that CHM plan considered a "high deductible" plan or is it otherwise eligible for having a Health Savings Account?

I don't know what all that means. I'd contact them for anything particular.

This is my question as well. Will you be penalized for not having health insurance of the toe the government wants you to have?

It meets the onus for MarxistCare.

[Irving]

Self-employed business owners! What do you use for a 401K, RothIRA, IRA, whatever? I completely neglected setting one up last year and there's not time better than present. Please lend ideas on what you use for pre-tax retirement accounts.

Edit: My aim is to set-up an index fund for this, but I don't know what I can and can't do. If it's just as simple as setting up a retirement account through Vanguard, then that's what I'll do.