Dicey,
Thank you for the tips I will follow those. I have set up auto-pay to go straight from my checking account to the credit card. And was annoyed when I found out the fastest auto-pay setting is to pay the balance 15 days after the statement comes out (15 days before the balance is due), but still why cant it be the next day. Called Customer service and I could not get a good answer. Would you know why?
The small loan is a private loan that I needed to fill in my financial needs last semester. It was a discover loan which advertised a low interest dependent on credit, and my mom is the cosigner. (I am not sure the state of her credit, but it probably isn't too hot). Now that I have a job and income this should not be a problem in the future for an amount like that.
Lol, we have a credit card that won't pull until something like three days before the bill is due. The CC is from our primary bank, so it's not like they need much time to move the money, but it drives us nuts. As long as you pay the balance in full every month without fail, it does not matter. I don't why your bank does this, but I can assure that the system is rigged to maximize their chances of extracting more money from your pocket. Oh, and please know it is a myth that keeping a running balance will improve your credit score. Pay that motherfucker off every month or do not use it!
Because this is MMM and we're not afraid of using real numbers, I'll give you an example of something that happened just today. These are actual numbers, but I would appreciate if nobody quotes them, please. We bank with a major bank. Oh hell, it's Chase Bank. Why should I protect them?
We have:
1 rental property mortgage with them
1 savings account " "
2 checking accounts " "
3 credit cards " "
We also flip houses from time to time, which means we often have huge cash reserves between projects.They are constantly trying to glom onto that money. We finally had to threaten to close all our accounts to get them to stop bugging us to become Private Clients and "invest" with them. Fuck, no! BTW, all of our investments are elsewhere. They have no idea what our net worth is. Anyway, today I checked our account balances on line. There was a $25.00 monthly service charge! When i clicked on it, the explanation was this: "In order to avoid a $25.00 monthy service fee, you must maintain an average balance of $75,000. Last month, your balances averaged $73,200. Therefore, we have levied a $25.00 fee. WTF?
We've had this bank for over five years and have never incurred a fee. We're at the end of a year long flip project, and we've spent most of the budget, so our bank balance is as low as it's ever been since opening our account. The house will go on the market in a couple of weeks. When escrow closes, we will be parking several hundred thousand back in the bank until we do our next project.
I marched into the bank and asked to speak to a manager. I was told I'd have to wait at least ten minutes. I did not react to this gracefully. I gave the teller a super short synopsis and my phone number. I added that I expected the fee to be waived by close of business today. Several hours later, I got a call from the new branch manager. Thank Dog it went to voicemail. He said he would waive the fee, but wants to talk to me about investment opportunities. Fuck, no!
My point in telling this tale is twofold. 1. Every bank everywhere always wants to get into your pocket. 2. This MMM stuff really works. You're doing brilliantly well for your age. Save as much as you can as early as you can. Don't be afraid to start investing right away. Don't keep too much money in cash or CD's, invest it instead. Study the jlcollinsnh stock series. Take out as few student loans as possible. Keep building your credit little by little, there's lots of stuff here about how to do that. Don't buy stupid shit. Don't pay bank fees. Live like a starving student as long as you can. Each of these steps will help carry you to your goals sooner than you ever thought possible. Even if you are never a huge wage earner. Even if you live in a HCOLA. I shared those numbers with you, because following these steps is how we got there, and you will, too.