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I do a Cash Flow Planning worksheet before the month starts. I make a plan for each check that comes in.
The checks are: 1st paycheck, Rent from First Tenant, Rent from Second Tenant, Child Support, 2nd paycheck
I pay bills first using Online Bill pay to push the payment, so that the amount gets taken out of my account immediately, then savings, everything leftover is money for eating out etc... also, i've got 8% going into retirement accounts pre-tax so I don't feel bad about blowing whats leftover on movies, restaurants, fico scores LOL.
@namvet wrote:
@TheBronxBomber wrote:
I have read many messages about app approvals and denials, but I would like to know how people are managing their credit lines. I checked my credit today and my available credit is 100%. I find myself using just two credit cards; Amex Platinum and Amex Delta Reserve and I immediately pay them off. Because of how I managed my credit when I was younger, I'm totally afraid of allowing my charges to spiral out of control. See, I'm a recovering shopaholic. How are you managing your credit?Very very carefully!
+1,000,000
I created a budget for my expenses, and figured out how my poor battered paycheck would cover them. I use plastic to pay for them, and I really don't spend more because I'm using plastic. (A study showed that many people do buy more if they're using plastic than cash, but many people does not mean the same as everyone.)
So anyway, the money is already there, ready to pay off the bill.
You say that you're a recovering shopaholic, good for you! (The recovering part, that is. ) People who use shopping for emotional needs are going to be more vulnerable to running up debt than those of us who would rather have our toenails pulled out than go to the mall. When my kids were younger and wanted to go to the mall, I called it "mauling," because I hated it so much. It's easy for us, because pretty much all we do is buy groceries and gas, pay the light bill and cable bill, and maybe go bat-wild on a sausage biscuit at the company cafeteria. And this doesn't mean that I don't have plenty of vices and temptations, because I do. Shopping just isn't one of them.
(Lindt extra dark chocolate truffle balls are, though. Good Lord. Also Mavis Staples CD's, and anything bossa nova.)
@TheBronxBomber wrote:
I have read many messages about app approvals and denials, but I would like to know how people are managing their credit lines. I checked my credit today and my available credit is 100%. I find myself using just two credit cards; Amex Platinum and Amex Delta Reserve and I immediately pay them off. Because of how I managed my credit when I was younger, I'm totally afraid of allowing my charges to spiral out of control. See, I'm a recovering shopaholic. How are you managing your credit?
I used to heavily use my CC's, now that i'm in the garden and wanting better scores i've become very frugal on spending and hawkeye my statement closing dates so I can always have $0 balances report from here except 1 account.
Also I would recommend a program called YNAB (you need a budget). Very nice program to track finances.
For me, managing my tradelines is mostly a budgetting exercise and I run everything through my cards which allows for easy transaction tracking later.
I'm not very sophisticated in my analysis, nor do I have a particularly complicated financial life, but I just wrote out a quick 12 month plan in Excel with repeating income vs. expenses tracked against my aggregate checking balances... and then just put in a 1K slush fund per month to cover food / entertainment / random silly stuff. I spot check that occasionally with my checking account balances, if something's off I go figure it out.
As a reminder system, I put all the due dates I have into Google calendar and configured it to send me email notifications three days ahead of time to go pay whatever it is. Finally I do an end of month expenditure analysis (USAA's little spending tool which I adore), and see where things worked and where they didn't.
It's not pretty, and I've been over-the-top with checking my accounts lately, but it's functional and is working for me currently (and hopefully it's resilient enough when I go wandering off on some other distraction, work, dating, chasing a mortgage with a butterfly net). Think that's the ultimate key much like a workout or diet plan, find what works for you and stick with that.
My simple answer is, I keep track of what I spend on each card I use that month and PIF every card before the statement date, with the exception of one card I allow to report a very small balance, keeping me at 1% util each and every month.
I never charge more than I can afford to PIF, it's that simple for me.
And I almost always overpay by rounding up what my balance is, if I owe AmEx 771.50, I'll pay 775, I do that on all my CC's that allow overpayment's.
Quicken to keep track of transactions, investments, etc.
Mint.com for monthly budgeting because I can access it from my phone to see what I have left to spend.
I have all the cards on PIF autopay, except BofA Visa, I can't figure out for the life of me how to do autopay on that website.