








Sources: USA Today, TG Daily

Comments     Threshold


RE: $$$?
By aliasfox on 3/12/2012 2:45:48 PM , Rating: 2
If it's worth it to you, you can afford to buy it.

On $60k a year, I rented a $1400/month apartment and was paying down a new car at $600/month (4yr financing). Most months I was able to put about $1k into the car (paid it off in 25 months instead of 48), and I was still able to save money.

If you can't come up with $500 out of a $50k salary (for anything, not just an iPad), *and* you're single/no kids, you might want to sit down and see if you're over-extending yourself on things that don't add value.

- How much are you paying for your cell phone? A family plan, per person, can be about $50/person assuming you have parents/siblings you can split with. $100/month for one line, regardless of phone, always seemed ridiculous to me. ($50/month savings, $600/yr)

- How much are you paying for cable? Depending on where you are, $30-60/month can get you broadband service, do you really need the 800 channels of crap that's on TV that's costing you an extra $40/month? ($40/month savings, $480/yr)

- What's the deductible on your car? Going from a $500 deductible to a $1k deductible can save you $200 (or more) every six months. ($200/six months, $400/yr)

- How much do you spend drinking? $6/beer adds up. Cut out one beer a weekend, and you're saving about $25/month ($300/yr)

- Is your AC running at 72F when you're out of the house in the summer? Turn it up to 80F (or off) when you're gone, you can save $50-100/month for the 3-4 months where you need it ($200/yr, let's call it).

There, I just found $1980 (post tax) out of a lot of peoples' budgets. That's nearly a domestic vacation for two (one week of hotels and flights), a nice gaming rig, a sweet laptop, or four iPads. Or an additional $2k that you can put into savings.

