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flexagonOn the nonlinear evaluation of money:
If you've got a dollar and you spend twenty-nine cents on a loaf of bread, you've got seventy-one cents left. but if you've got seventeen grand and you spend twenty-nine cents on a loaf of bread, you've still got seventeen grand. There's a math lesson for you.
Yep, personal finance has been on my mind lately, and not just because of the economic wibbly-wobbly on Wall Street. I've been trying lately to help a friend work through some stuff, and my own situation crosses my mind from time to time. I learned recently about a ratio where people compare the amount of their mortgage to their annual income; I'm not sure what this is called, but apparently 3:1 or 4:1 is a pretty normal ratio. Apparently we are underhoused, because ours is about 1:1 these days. Interesting. (I think we started at around 2:1, but since then we've paid down some of the balance and gotten pay increases). Would any homeowners on this thread care to share their ratio?
Kiva.org, my favorite source of microfinance endorphins, is also up to some new antics -- two new things. They have "lending teams" now, which allow you to count your loans toward a larger total. (I just joined "Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious", who seem to be going up against "Kiva Christians" but are not winning yet. I'd like to note that I see this as a rather friendly competition though: effort from both sides is a great thing.)
The other new feature, more important, is that payments made on loans are now immediately available for reloan. I'm sure you're thinking "big deal": most payments made on loans of $25 or even $100 are only a few dollars, not enough to make a new loan. But when you have 20+ loans out at the time, as I did, with some of them almost paid back... well, it freed up $800 of Kiva credit. I was too busy to reloan right away, and so now I have $900 of credit and Kiva's out of entrepreneurs because of a surge of traffic. Zowie. Oh wait, some cattle folks from Azerbaijan just showed up, but I don't really like those... anyway, I'll be able to nudge the needle on the Atheists team all by myself if I ever get to see a good batch again.
If you've got a dollar and you spend twenty-nine cents on a loaf of bread, you've got seventy-one cents left. but if you've got seventeen grand and you spend twenty-nine cents on a loaf of bread, you've still got seventeen grand. There's a math lesson for you.
~Steve Martin
Yep, personal finance has been on my mind lately, and not just because of the economic wibbly-wobbly on Wall Street. I've been trying lately to help a friend work through some stuff, and my own situation crosses my mind from time to time. I learned recently about a ratio where people compare the amount of their mortgage to their annual income; I'm not sure what this is called, but apparently 3:1 or 4:1 is a pretty normal ratio. Apparently we are underhoused, because ours is about 1:1 these days. Interesting. (I think we started at around 2:1, but since then we've paid down some of the balance and gotten pay increases). Would any homeowners on this thread care to share their ratio?
Kiva.org, my favorite source of microfinance endorphins, is also up to some new antics -- two new things. They have "lending teams" now, which allow you to count your loans toward a larger total. (I just joined "Atheists, Agnostics, Skeptics, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists and the Non-Religious", who seem to be going up against "Kiva Christians" but are not winning yet. I'd like to note that I see this as a rather friendly competition though: effort from both sides is a great thing.)
The other new feature, more important, is that payments made on loans are now immediately available for reloan. I'm sure you're thinking "big deal": most payments made on loans of $25 or even $100 are only a few dollars, not enough to make a new loan. But when you have 20+ loans out at the time, as I did, with some of them almost paid back... well, it freed up $800 of Kiva credit. I was too busy to reloan right away, and so now I have $900 of credit and Kiva's out of entrepreneurs because of a surge of traffic. Zowie. Oh wait, some cattle folks from Azerbaijan just showed up, but I don't really like those... anyway, I'll be able to nudge the needle on the Atheists team all by myself if I ever get to see a good batch again.
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Date: 2008-10-04 10:05 pm (UTC)The next time we get a house, I want an entrance way, but that's ok for now.
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Date: 2008-10-05 02:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-05 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-05 04:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-10-06 02:50 am (UTC)Percentage of income's another interesting number. I think I remember 30% as a rule of thumb for affordable / normal housing cost... I'm at about 20% now, but that means it's a lot higher for the half of the year I'm doing 401(k) contributions.