Comments on: Implementing PAYGO Rules For Personal Finances

By: Carnival of Personal Finance #148

Carnival of Personal Finance #148 — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 08:03:21 +0000

[...] Dad writes about Implementing PAYGO Rules for Personal Finance. Now if everyone would [...]

By: Matthew @ LifeOfAnInvestor

Matthew @ LifeOfAnInvestor — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:52:56 +0000

One thing to be careful of is assuming that because you received a raise, you have more money to spend. Most people receive raises which possibly keep up with inflation; some lately have likely even received less. Many of your monthly expenses may actually have gone up during that time period. It may be good to set aside a certain percentage of your income (rather than a fixed dollar amount) for monthly expenses such as these and then regularly review these expenses as prices go up.

By: Vacation Pay for Unused Vacation Time? Plus A Suze Orman Event

Vacation Pay for Unused Vacation Time? Plus A Suze Orman Event — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:04:25 +0000

[...] Frugal Dad: Implementing PAYGO Rules For Personal Finances [...]

By: Mike DiMarzio

Mike DiMarzio — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:52:08 +0000

Excellent post. I got a subscription offer today for Business Week. I decided not to do it after reading about the paygo plan and saved 30 dollars in the process.

By: jan

jan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:49:08 +0000

There are lots of things that I can forgo – but I think writers should be the last people to let their local newspapers go. Yes, bloggers make tons of money off of ads- but the reality is that we need people to be paid to get out there and get the news. I am sorry that it seems to be a common thing for blog writers to not care about their newspaper counterparts. No, I am not a writer, but I do appreciate that someone looks for and reports to me the local news (or national or international).
yes, I like PAYGO- but I think we have to be aware of the “buy local think global”

By: The Biz of Life

The Biz of Life — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:37:18 +0000

I dunno….. PAYGO isn’t working very well in the Senate. It is all for show, and obvious no one intends to abide it. Can it work for individuals? Yes, if they follow rules to the letter. But if they adopt the habits of the Senate they’ll be in bankruptcy court.

By: almost there

almost there — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:40:06 +0000

Just paid the last tuition payment for our child yesterday under our paygo plan. In order to do this we had only one child based on our income and realized that if we took out student loans it would be years to pay off. He went to a state school in town and lived at home the first 3 years. He paid for books and we paid tuition. Now he will graduate without any loans for either of us.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:06:31 +0000

Implementing PAYGO style rules is an interesting spin on managing personal finance. Thank you for the idea.

It is so easy to nickel and dime your way into overspending, and I know that my husband and I have been guilty of that in the past.

I admire a neighbor of ours and the way he and his wife manage their money. The only debt they have is the mortgage and the wife’s car, which is leased. He rides a CanAm Spyder to work, and he paid for it outright. (This is a $20K motorcycle) He’d been looking at getting one, and just like everything else he and his wife buy, he saved up the money for it and bought it with cash.

The thing is they don’t live an austere life. They have nice TVs and computers, and all of that stuff…they just don’t buy anything until they’ve saved up the money for it.

This is the way my husband and I are trying to be going forward. I only wish I had realized how important it is to save money and to stay out of debt as much as possible earlier in life.

By: Frugal Dad

Frugal Dad — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:23:44 +0000

@Lisa: That’s incredible! I thought I remembered you mentioning building your home before. I’d love to buy some land and do something similar, though I’m afraid my lack of home building skills might hamper us. I suppose I could get smart on it!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:13:27 +0000

We did this. We are the PAYGO home builders. We built a log home, very similar to the one in your picture, ourselves from scratch using the PAYGO method. We bought our first home as a fixer-upper, did extensive remodeling and sold it at enough of a profit to buy some land and put up a barn that we parked a 5th wheel in to live in while we built our log home. We’ve been here almost 10 years now, and have added on a little at a time to the original 3000 sq. ft. — now we have a sunroom, attached garage and a bonus room over the garage. It is immensely satisfying to sit in our home and know every little detail was done with our own hands, by us — a true handmade original. Bonus is when something needs fixing, we know right where to go to find the source of the problem.

The Log Home Builders of North America — http://www.loghomebuilders.org/ is where we went to learn the craft of log home building and they featured us as one of their “homes of the month” several years ago. I am ready to do this again, and we may be building another home within the next few years.

I kind of chuckle when people say they are “building” their house. Most likely they are “having a house built.” There is nothing quite so satisfying as getting in there, rolling up your sleeves and doing it yourself and avoiding a mortgage in the process.