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I'm considering buying some items which, for my financial situation, is a big purchase. Ps3, 1080p tv (24''), and fallout 3. I played that game for minutes and we connected.
I've budgeted out everything I possibly could for the entire year and still have just shy of $3000 unallocated if I take my full loan. I figure I'd pay back whatever my highest interest student loan is because I'm getting a lower rate this year.
BUUUT I really want to get something nice. I've gotten a lot more hours than expected so I'll even have more money than I planned on. Originally I was going to get a computer but I don't like the direction Blizzards taking sc2. I will eventually use the tv I get for games, computer, and cable.
TL is a sobering and sometimes depressing place when it comes to decision making. Should I get this? What tv should I get? I love games but I've gone my entire life without a console or a nice tv (or computer for that matter). I'm gonna sit on it a while and look for good deals on tvs/ps3's so theres some time for some mind-changin'.
 
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My opinions I humbly offer to you:
1. I too, was going to purchase a PC for SC2 but I can tell it wouldn't be my cup of tea.
2. I would advise you not to make a purchase but to use that money to invest in yourself (certificates/additional classes/hone skills/develop hobbies)
3. TV = Sharp or LG (for LCD I don't know about LEDs or 3D TVs)
4. Don't get a console (I've owned a few and always had fun for the first 6 months and regretted horribly over time)
5. Get a nice piece of furniture. Seriously. It does a lot more than you think.
6. I don't know if you drink or not but if you do, save a few hundred and stock liquor (some quality stuff not budget beer)
GL.
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im gonna tell you straight up here
why would you buy all that useless shit when you cant afford it?
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I agree with lazz, I disagree with ThePurist on telling you what you like best.
Think about that car you're gonna buy down the road or how affordable a house is gonna be. Perhaps investment in certain studies makes sense. There's plenty of things to spend money on, which take a lot more saving.
Of course there's the option of spending very economically on gaming. Like, HD television is not all that much better than the old one. Sure it is clearly and visibly better and perhaps you don't want to go back, but for the money involved? The old tv suits me just fine, although that's also some personal preference.
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Get a bigger tv than a 24" for sure. I have a 46" Sharp that I got for around $700 last year and I love it. Even if it wasn't in HD it would still beat the holy hell out of everything else. Playing the 360/PS3 on it is an absolute joy, and watching DVDs on it is pretty nice.
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I'd say just go for a computer rather than a console or "bad-ass" LCD TV.
I once had a good old PS 2 before which sucked ass after 8 months of playing games on it. So wasn't worth the investment and that LCD isn't worth the hype. You have to get channels/stations that runs on 1080 for you to have the full potential (as I heard)
But a computer is always nice to have around, you can check TL.net with it, you can play SC BW since you don't like SC 2, you can download games for free ( I hope you don't get caught) and the best part about it, if you use some of the spare money from the loan to invest on the FOREX or what have you.
really, trust me on this, If I were to turn back time and got back to College I would definitely use 80 percent of my allowance on some small company stocks rather than using all that shit on beer, dating in casual diners and shit that didn't meant shit afterwards.
I suggest learning some stuff in stocks before entering it if ever :D
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On June 22 2010 18:09 Licmyobelisk wrote:
really, trust me on this, If I were to turn back time and got back to College I would definitely use 80 percent of my allowance on some small company stocks rather than using all that shit on beer, dating in casual diners and shit that didn't meant shit afterwards.
So you have plenty of dough to blow in your midlife crisis? 
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On June 22 2010 18:15 Badjas wrote:Show nested quote +On June 22 2010 18:09 Licmyobelisk wrote:
really, trust me on this, If I were to turn back time and got back to College I would definitely use 80 percent of my allowance on some small company stocks rather than using all that shit on beer, dating in casual diners and shit that didn't meant shit afterwards. So you have plenty of dough to blow in your midlife crisis?
hahaha good point 
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On June 22 2010 18:15 Badjas wrote:Show nested quote +On June 22 2010 18:09 Licmyobelisk wrote:
really, trust me on this, If I were to turn back time and got back to College I would definitely use 80 percent of my allowance on some small company stocks rather than using all that shit on beer, dating in casual diners and shit that didn't meant shit afterwards. So you have plenty of dough to blow in your midlife crisis?
He does have a pretty good point.
Lotus later > big screen tv now
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please don't buy those things when you clearly don't afford them.
and 24'' tv isn't worth of money at all.
And no don't buy computer either. computers have so short lifetimes. If you really need to spend money, then spend it on something that you need
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Don't take loans to buy entertainment items.
Buy Fallout 3 for PC. There, I just saved you money on buying a PS3 and a big screen TV. You're welcome.
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Hopefully you're not buying a PS3 just for Fallout 3 as Fallout 3 is the weakest on PS3 out of the 3 (PC, Xbox 360, PS3). It has a lot more bugs and graphical hitches on the PS3 than on the other two.
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don't buy this you'll regret it later
try to take out loans only for a house and MAYBE a car (even then start out with a cheap car and try to pay as much as possible on future cars via a cheque from money in your bank account)
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Deposit into a ROTH IRA fund.
Edit: Also, you're not going to notice a difference between 1080p and 720p at such a small screen. Unless you're doubling it as a monitor it's not worth it.
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On June 22 2010 17:59 lazz wrote:
im gonna tell you straight up here
why would you buy all that useless shit when you cant afford it?
I CAN buy it, I'm just deliberating. ends up I'm gonna have an extra $1000 on top of everything else.
On June 22 2010 18:09 Licmyobelisk wrote:
I suggest learning some stuff in stocks before entering it if ever :D
I've always wondered about it. Where do I get started?
On June 22 2010 18:08 So no fek wrote:
Get a bigger tv than a 24" for sure. I have a 46" Sharp that I got for around $700 last year and I love it. Even if it wasn't in HD it would still beat the holy hell out of everything else. Playing the 360/PS3 on it is an absolute joy, and watching DVDs on it is pretty nice.
I feel like I would but with money I've found deferring to experience is generally the best choice.
On June 22 2010 19:38 Sadistx wrote:
Don't take loans to buy entertainment items.
Buy Fallout 3 for PC. There, I just saved you money on buying a PS3 and a big screen TV. You're welcome.
I'm taking a loan out for school and I'm covered. This is leftover $$ from that and my summer job. I also don't have a computer which can run fallout 3.
On June 22 2010 22:03 Zapperkhan wrote:
Deposit into a ROTH IRA fund.
Edit: Also, you're not going to notice a difference between 1080p and 720p at such a small screen. Unless you're doubling it as a monitor it's not worth it.
Hehe, we'll see about that.
I would be but if I do choose to do this I'm gonna get something larger.
thanks for the input.
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Just remember that after a few months or even weeks of having these new items they wont be as exciting or fun anymore and just become normal everyday things
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Fallout 3 was/is cracked (free for PC).
You can always buy a large HD monitor and use that for your (future) PC and console.
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On June 22 2010 17:59 lazz wrote:
im gonna tell you straight up here
why would you buy all that useless shit when you cant afford it?
This
Consumer debt is what _kills_ young people. Dont start shitty habits like this. Buy a small tv, buy a slightly not as up to date computer, shit like that.
On June 23 2010 16:06 zOula... wrote:
Just remember that after a few months or even weeks of having these new items they wont be as exciting or fun anymore and just become normal everyday things
For some reason I'm all hot and bothered about the OP. Maybe it's just because this is such a common thing and leads to a lifetime problem of being a junk collector.
just dont. If you want to blow some dough, spend a more than normal on a night out, get some experience. I mean, the experience of playing fallout on a 40 inch monitor as opposed to a 18 inch is..... well, not a great story for your kids >_<
- I dont mean for this to be a mothering sort of post, but just hoping to get you to second guess what is awesome. It's not wrong to think having a high end PC is awesome, but really think about it if having a big powerful machine is going to be worthwhile, or just something your peer group would think is bitchin (extension of peen)
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Buy one thing at a time, then work your way up.
Don't just buy everything at once.
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On June 24 2010 00:15 ella_guru wrote:
- I dont mean for this to be a mothering sort of post, but just hoping to get you to second guess what is awesome. It's not wrong to think having a high end PC is awesome, but really think about it if having a big powerful machine is going to be worthwhile, or just something your peer group would think is bitchin (extension of peen)
it would be for me, my self-esteem and my entertainment. and you're much more nicely worded than other posts in this thread. thanks for the input! :D
On June 24 2010 02:07 FraCuS wrote:
Buy one thing at a time, then work your way up.
Don't just buy everything at once.
yeah. I decided that I'm not going to use loan money or my job $$ on it, but save up through it selling stuff online/odd jobs. keeping it all in this little pot i have in my room & wait for a good deal somewhere.
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By now I'm really confused by what you are gonna do, but I'll go ahead and rephrase what a lot of people already wrote.
Don't take a loan or money you don't entirely have to buy something really unnecessary, when looking at the big picture. As my grandpa would say, you don't buy things you don't have the money for. Of course that is a little over the top and slightly outdated, but is still true for small items (such as TVs, computers, expensive furniture etc., NOT e.g. houses). It becomes a bad habit really fast and can get you into a lot of trouble really fast, as those things get old fast, for which you need new items and more money. Especially with the economy this bad, you want to be extra careful.
Also when you say you want to spend it, because you want to treat yourself with something nice, which is totally acceptable and cool (you don't need anyones approval of course, just my POV) and you buy it for self-esteem (this really confuses me btw), don't you think you can yourself something equally as fun for something affordable? Have a great experience with friends or peers, work on your personality, weaknesses/strengths or, to be a little more shallow, your outward appearance? I read you're a lifeguard in your other blog so you are indeed probably in good shape, but I'm just throwing it out there, anyway.
Anyways, I hope you reconsider ALL your options/long-term effects (somebody mentioned, that those things get old and kinda everyday things fast, which judging from my experience is exactly what happens) and if you come to the conclusion, that NOTHING in the world is equally as nice as a new entertainment set, then go ahead. Nobody should be stopping you then.
Also I use too many parentheses.
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On June 24 2010 09:55 KurtistheTurtle wrote:Show nested quote +On June 24 2010 02:07 FraCuS wrote:
Buy one thing at a time, then work your way up.
Don't just buy everything at once. yeah. I decided that I'm not going to use loan money or my job $$ on it, but save up through it selling stuff online/odd jobs. keeping it all in this little pot i have in my room & wait for a good deal somewhere.
That's good thinking
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ps3 = 300 = probably not worth it if you have debt. No Go.
TV...why would you get a 1080p at 24 inches? thats too small for you to even notice the difference. Anyways, wait for black friday in a couple months and pick up a nice TV for really cheap. No Go
fallout 3 is only like 20$ or you can torrent it for pc, worth it!
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I don't know how you budget things...
Anyway, I save a portion of the paycheck first. Some goes to emergency fund, some goes to IRA, some goes to 401k. I calculate average expenditure, and everything else is free spending money. If I have excess I dump it into emergency fund.
If it's a huge expenditure I usually don't like dropping it all at once. I'll probably save a little bit every month towards it. For example, one time I wanted $400 sushi, so I saved up $50 a month, that way I wouldn't be in the hole all at once.
I also tend to buy a lot of stupid stuff. For example, I bought a $260 rice cooker because I wanted to see it was worth it. But I don't really care because I already took care of my savings and it satisfied my curiosity. Sure that $260 could've been in some of the down payment of a car, or towards something actually useful, but oh well. It's my money and I already covered what I need to cover.
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my budget covers room & board, tuition, groceries, eating out/vending, books, other school fees, fraternal fees, miscellaneous expenses, & emergency fund/checking account buffer for month/6 month/1 year. I know my spending habits to a tee because I've always been really frugal. I've never splurged on any big purchases for myself ($100+ luxury item) so I kind of feel like its time I do something now that I have a job with a lot of hours.
@kainzero I talked to my parents about it and I think taking out portions of my paycheck along with the miscellaneous income is a reasonable way to go about doing things like this. I'm wholly against using loan $$, rather put it back into the highest interest loan I have right now since I feel like that will save me more $$ than putting it into the stock market.
I'm kind of amazed at the amounts some people take out for school.
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this is why we go into recession. cuz idiots like to buy stuff that they can't afford right away.
I see this all the time in university. Kids would go take student loan, and blow any extra money. Or they will just pay the minimum on their credit cards to get by the month, raking up debt. Do you know what it means to be in debt? These kids graduate with 30-40k in debt! Let's say you start off with 40k a year. After tax, its about 25k? You need a place to live and expenses so say you have 10k left. Its going to take you 4-5 years to pay off that debt. That means youll start to get out of debt when you are 27-28. That puts you so far behind the rest of the world.
Save your money and pay off your debt first before blowing it on things that wont help you. Or like the guy above said, invest in yourself.
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I bought a ps3, played it for about an hour...
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Seriously listen to decaf. Save your money and buy a little bit larger tv where you will actually be able to notice the difference in picture. There really isn't much difference in quality of tv's of any brand when they are 25'' and below.
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If you called Suze Orman and asker her this she would be like "are you serious? gtfo."
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To hell with these people and all their bad advice. Money's for spending. What if the nuclear apocalypse happened tomorrow? You'd have no use for that extra cash, and would never truly know if the connection you had with Fallout 3 was legit, or just a brief spark.
And also, wtf 24" TV? Dude, if you don't get at least 48", you're cheating yourself.
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On June 25 2010 02:12 MrBitter wrote:
To hell with these people and all their bad advice. Money's for spending. What if the nuclear apocalypse happened tomorrow? You'd have no use for that extra cash, and would never truly know if the connection you had with Fallout 3 was legit, or just a brief spark.
And also, wtf 24" TV? Dude, if you don't get at least 48", you're cheating yourself.
Extra cash? lol
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I've been intensely thinking about this, reading, researching and talking to everybody I know who is somewhat intelligent about it. The biggest naysayers, thankyou for pounding into my head that I don't have the $$. You're completely right. I'm going to buy a TV...eventually. I'll take a miniscule amount of my paycheck out and stash it away and wait for a good deal. But this is really to make me feel like I'm rewarding myself while not actually rewarding myself lol.
I'm going to start a roth ira, break up a mutual fund I have and reinvest it into some more lucrative areas (once I figure out what they are) and, for now, dip my foot into the stock market and familiarize myself with it while I study accounting & finance. I'm going to pay close attention to how taxing works & start researching it so I can set myself up.
I've also decided to learn how to start a website where I can generate income, even if its scant amounts. I feel like the experience is worth far more than the $$.
I'm picking up as many extra hours at the pool as I can so that I can have an extra $100-200 on top of what I already planned in my budget. My goal? Have enough assets and income to cover my consolidated student loan payments when I graduate. I figure the worst thing I can do is cut my apple tree down for wood before it gives me apples worth the same amount, if you know what I mean.
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break up that mutual fund after it gets up again, of course
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On June 25 2010 02:12 MrBitter wrote:
To hell with these people and all their bad advice. Money's for spending. What if the nuclear apocalypse happened tomorrow? You'd have no use for that extra cash, and would never truly know if the connection you had with Fallout 3 was legit, or just a brief spark.
And also, wtf 24" TV? Dude, if you don't get at least 48", you're cheating yourself.
Also, in case of nuclear apocalypse tomorrow, play Fallout asap for education purposes. And do the wasteland survival guide first! Drinking from toilets is good for you!
Do you watch much TV? If there's just a couple of things you watch then you may as well download them and get a snazzy computer. For the price of a full HD tv and console, you can build a very decent machine, and ~22'' monitors are cheap as chips nowadays. Buying a computer is much more versatile than a console and tv. With a console and tv, you can play (some) games and watch whatever tv you have available. With a PC, you can do both of those (and imo gaming on PC is much better than on console, plus there are more titles, and if Blizz gets SC2 to an acceptable level you can play it), plus it makes everyday things (work, email etc) so much better.
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I have a money question as well. I know nothing about different kinds of retirement funds, savings funds, etc and was looking for advice (I know, I could just google it or whatever, but there seem to be a lot of knowledgeable people here and I figured I could get good advice). If I want to save about 1000$ every year from my summer job and put it into a savings/retirement account of some sort, where should I put it? I want to put it into an account that would gain as much interest as possible over time (I would not ever be withdrawing money from this account). Sorry for kind of derailing this thread, disregard this post if it's too off topic
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On June 22 2010 22:03 Zapperkhan wrote:
Deposit into a ROTH IRA fund.
Good job taking that advice. Almost everyone I talk to over 30 regrets not starting a Roth earlier.
Still, you should stock up the bar or treat yourself to something or keep it in a liquid fun fund for those party nights.
To the guy above me, Stocks are your friend if you're young. You can afford to take on quite a bit of risk and the returns from stocks over time are too good to turn down. Plus I would imagine you'll get a great deal of bang for your buck around now. Even if the economy dips again, you're what... 40-50 years from retirement? You'll more than likely get a huuge boon, barring the destruction of the United States or somesuch unpredictable catastrophe. Index funds > Managed money from what I've read.
I'm sure someone more knowledgeable can give you more specific advice.
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EPT
