- Put it in my savings account for my trip to Japan next September, or
- Pay off my 18TB HDD (900 bucks) and get rid of all the upcoming installments ($100/month), or
- Other
Either way, my monthly balance stays the same, I think. I’m really bad with money. 💀
You were making ends meet with the debt before. Put it towards your future: buy another 18tb hardrive. Spend the last 100$ on drugs.
I suspect paying off the installment loan is your best bet, unless it a 0% apr loan, or there are penalties for early repayment. If that is the case, your best bet is to put the $1k in a 12 month certificate of deposit (a CD), which will get you a higher interest rate and remove a lot of the temptation to spend it early.
Pay off debt
Not a fun answer but it’s the most responsible one
Nah, I agree. The euphoria that comes with not having a debt is unparalleled. And responsible, yes. 😝
Whatever debt you pay off, continue “making payments” in the same amounts (to your savings account).
You guys have savings?!?
I have a water bottle that I put all of my spare change. 🤷♂️
But seriously, most banks (that I’m aware of) let you open a savings account for as little as $5 (minimum balance) with no extra fees. If you never withdrawal from it and drop a few spare bucks here and there, you may find yourself with “savings” too.
That’s a great way of reframing it, cognitively! 🤣 Nice!!!
Counterpoint: have you tried not having debt, while also having cocaine?
Always pay off debt, the interest adds up
… but beware of any early repayment fees. Some companies really want all that interest whether you pay it as interest or not.
Good point
What to do, what to do? One
$300$1000 hookerbot or3001000 $1 hookerbots?Naive calculus tells me they should order 31 $32 bots.
Less naive strategy suggests ordering three $333 bots, pick the best of the three and give the other two the night off.
Debt first but redirect the payments straight into your savings (possibly slightly lower to make it easier).
And treat yourself to something small (like $50 or so), as a reward for doing the sensible thing with most of it.
And then have a brilliant time in Japan 😁
Now THIS is a person who knows how to LIVE LIFE. NOICE. 😁 Thanks! 😊
Ha, I only noticed afterwards that someone else basically said the same thing. Still though 😁
Use it as the seed money to get one of those bank accounts that give you $250-500 after 90 days. Some do come with some strings attached like setting up a direct deposit.
Close the account sometime after you no longer want it. Rinse and repeat a few times a year.
That’s potentially a 50% return on investment, better than any other return you will likely get.
I did it a few times back 10+ years ago and It helped to fund a trip for me.
Compare debt and savings. High debt should be paid off, otherwise pack your savings more. Boring but this was unexpected money anyways.
Boring is my middle name, so keep it coming! 😁 Thanks! 😊 I’ll pay off the debt.
Good luck!
If the savings yield less % than the installments pay in %, pay off the hard drive. Otherwise… don’t? I dunno seems like a math question
Bad at money, bad at math, GREAT at linguistics… 🤓
There is a $100 difference/leftover: the disk is 900, the refund is 1000. And if I’m putting aside 100 per month anyway for savings, then it feels like I should pay off the drive. 🤔
The advice above is correct. If the rate payment is without extra cost, you got a loan at zero percent interest. Even if your money is just in a savings account, the payment loses in value each month at you pay infinitesimally less every month in terms of what you can buy with that. If you put the money into savings, assuming broad market index funds (etfs), that’s about 7 percent you earn on that per year while you pay off the rates. Well just 8/12 of that, but still…
I’m debt free and i prefer it that way, but I also know i pay a big price for that over thirty years.
You probably should, debt is only worth having if you are certain you can pay it and it’s below the inflation value. I financed a phone that I could pay because at 0% interest, the value of the monthly payment is less today than it was the month I bought it.
Moneys. Math.
Inflation devalues debt relative to most growth assets tbh
Your take isn’t quite right. Debt is only worth having when the long term payments are less than the long term value. Value is not just money, but don’t lose sight of money. Dept is automatically paid off when you die, which is sometimes a consideration though only rarely. However in between the question is what could you do with the money going to payments instead.
Buying a house - most of your payment would go into rent anyway and you have to live someplace. As a general rule of thumb if you will live in the same place for at least 7 years buying is better, but YMMV. When the house is paid off you live there rent free.
Buying something for your business - check with an accountant, but you should be able to make enough money with it to pay it off and make a nice income.
Buying collectable art. I’m not against it, but it is common for art values to collapse as what is “in” changes. It is also common for tastes to change. Thus not a thing even if you can afford the payments.
The problem is the math is correct on paper. However in the real world people who do the math tend to not translate correctly to the real world - they see the math and they don’t save anything while also keeping the loan. People who hate debt are more likely to pay it off, and then put something into savings so they don’t have to get more debt later.
Lesson: hate debt.
Ok:
- Pay off the 900 bucks
- Set up a savings account and a standing order for $100 a month from your current account into your savings account
- Don’t touch the savings account. If Next september is 2027 - you’ll have $1200 and started a saving habit
Sic plan. This is exactly what I was considering! 😊 I think I could even “lock down” the account so that I cannot withdraw from it until a certain time has passed or until I reach a certain amount of savings. But that feels a bit scary. 🫣
Easy, which one has the highest interest rate. If you pay off your hdd now, do you save on loan interest? Then that 1000 is worth more because it’s 1000+ the Interest you now won’t have to pay. Same for savings. My savings rate is ~3.6% APY, so 1000 after a year is 1036, not much extra, but that’s a meal or two.
Or Yolo it into the stock market, and potentially make 20% ($200) on it by next year.
It depends what you think the future holds.
Boring answer is: can you put it in a Roth IRA or other post-tax advantaged account? That’s for if you think the world will be around when you retire.
If you think the price of ram is gonna double again, buy a 64 GB kit of DDR5 now and sell it on Craigslist next year
Or if you believe that memories now are worth more than memories in the future, just spend it on things that make you happy. This is free money, Noone can force you to be responsible
I wanted to make a joke/silly comment, but your last paragraph was so heartfelt I… No, no, here it goes:
That’s for if you think the world will be around when you retire. Only real answers, please?
Joke done. Thanks for all the great insights, as I literally have zero skill points in finances. 🤑
Drugs, I recommend drugs.
Or worse, get a new hobby
I’m so fed up with synthetic THC. 🤮 I want real weed, but I’m a probation and parole officer and it wouldn’t reflect too well on my… Everything? If I got caught when I’m simultaneously encouraging my clients to get OFF of drugs 🤣 also, I hate to vape/smoke alone, so, there’s that 😭💔
I’m going to study electricity during my upcoming vacation, so, who knows, maybe I could take up soldering?
You can just drink, it’s actually encouraged by society!
I know… But I hate how alc makes me feel 😒
Personally I would pay off the drive but that’s because I hate having debt and would never have financed a hard drive in the first place 😅
I really needed to do a full backup 😭 but/and/also, I agree! I’m leaning toward paying off the drive!
Mhmm, 18TB HDD 🤤
Completely none of my business, but what does someone use a hard drive that big for? Does it come with insurance or a warranty? It seems like it would really suck if that broke.
To answer your question and add onto the pile, I would say pay off debt unless the savings interest rate is better than the debt interest rate (it usually never is).
Porn
Thanks for your input, and what an AWESOME sprite to have as profile pic! Team Gen 2 ✊😁🩷
The 18TBs I needed for a full backup of my torrenting drives (four 4TB SSDs). I absolutely agree on the risks with it being so large, so I’m not going to be running stuff on it. In fact, once I’ve done a backup, I turn off (spin down, really) the drive so it that doesn’t wear at all. It just sits there, at the bottom of my chassi, waiting to be awakened once a month. Is that sad? 🤣
