2013-08-13, 08:39 AM
You should always just straight up save 10-20% of your paycheck. Even if it's worthless, it's a dicipline that will run you out in the long run. Doing more than that isn't that smart because you'll end up transfering back which your bank will probably eventually fine you for.
As for your car scenario, you're probably going to be looking at something around 20k, 25 being absolute max but hardly encouraged. You'll need a 3-4k downpayment (minimum for most dealers is 2k to 18-20k range), where you're looking at probably a monthly 250-350 payment. You should always want to pay off your loans but car's are kind of an exception, it's nice to pay off but you can use it as leverage for an exchange for a new car.
You could also look at low credit cards, you should use it as a method of management rather than "ready later cash". I originally used them to kind of graph out how much I spent on something like groceries or gas. But for you, it should be kind of emergency pay off. You buy dinner, you're 8 bucks short, you use your credit card and pay it off next weeks check or something. For the type of purchases you're making, managing this shouldn't be difficult. Especially if it's low, worse case is you're looking 300-500 deep, you stop spending and focus on it for a month, it's gone, and most credit cards offer monthly payments which are fractions yet keep your interest down.
As for your car scenario, you're probably going to be looking at something around 20k, 25 being absolute max but hardly encouraged. You'll need a 3-4k downpayment (minimum for most dealers is 2k to 18-20k range), where you're looking at probably a monthly 250-350 payment. You should always want to pay off your loans but car's are kind of an exception, it's nice to pay off but you can use it as leverage for an exchange for a new car.
You could also look at low credit cards, you should use it as a method of management rather than "ready later cash". I originally used them to kind of graph out how much I spent on something like groceries or gas. But for you, it should be kind of emergency pay off. You buy dinner, you're 8 bucks short, you use your credit card and pay it off next weeks check or something. For the type of purchases you're making, managing this shouldn't be difficult. Especially if it's low, worse case is you're looking 300-500 deep, you stop spending and focus on it for a month, it's gone, and most credit cards offer monthly payments which are fractions yet keep your interest down.