Reddit finance flowchart

[Anonymous]

Do any of you use the Reddit personal finance flowchart? My question is about personal spending on extras. Where does it fit in?

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Managing finances is always a question of extra spending versus responsible saving. I mean a lot of it… That’s what it comes down to. Needs vs. wants. Once all the bills are paid, then what?

My husband and I have been following the Reddit flow chart for personal finance. It’s helping us be more responsible about our saving and investing.

But we’ve gotten a little unrealistic about spending on extras. Unrealistic on the low side. He and I both are committed to spending less, especially on kids, who have everything they need. And on whom we have probably overspent in the past.

I want to know if you’re looking at the Reddit flow chart where you start to make allowances for more fun, clothing your teens actually want, a little vanity and spoiling yourself. The fun stuff in life.

Where should that fit in, in the big scheme of things?

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If you don’t know the flowchart, it gets linked to heavily. Almost any PF question on Reddit, someone will link to it.

[Anonymous]

No I haven’t seen the chart but just set a reasonable number per month.

[Anonymous]

Here it is—https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics/

[Anonymous]

Link:https://i.ibb.co/spSmjXKr/u0oc-DRI-2.png

The version hosted on Imgur is pretty small - here's a full sized version hosted elsewhere

[Anonymous]

Where are you on the flowchart, OP?

Personally I'd get down to the maxing out HSA, saving 15% etc - and from there you can balance extra fun money against helping kids with college, retiring early, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you on the flowchart, OP?

Personally I'd get down to the maxing out HSA, saving 15% etc - and from there you can balance extra fun money against helping kids with college, retiring early, etc

are you suggesting someone on an earlier step cannot have fun until they are entirely debt free? What if that process, even responsibly done, takes 2 years or more?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are you on the flowchart, OP?

Personally I'd get down to the maxing out HSA, saving 15% etc - and from there you can balance extra fun money against helping kids with college, retiring early, etc

On the green section because of student loans. But we have made progress on retirement savings too. Own a house. Have a $6 heloc balance too, because of a couple of projects (1 wanted, 1 needed). The $6k is for the one needed. We already paid off the 1 wanted.

[Anonymous]

I would say you haven't "probably overspent." You have definitely overspent. You took a HELOC for a want. Even if that one's paid off, there wouldn't be as much or any on the needed one if you hadn't taken on debt for the wanted project. Also how much was the needed repair and why wasn't there savings for it?

I would put wants after the HELOC is gone. I mean you can have a little fun before that, but I think the point of needing to follow a chart like this at all at this point (meaning you still have debt when you're old enough to have teenagers) is to correct the overspending tendencies that caused the debt. It's not supposed to be painless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would say you haven't "probably overspent." You have definitely overspent. You took a HELOC for a want. Even if that one's paid off, there wouldn't be as much or any on the needed one if you hadn't taken on debt for the wanted project. Also how much was the needed repair and why wasn't there savings for it?

I would put wants after the HELOC is gone. I mean you can have a little fun before that, but I think the point of needing to follow a chart like this at all at this point (meaning you still have debt when you're old enough to have teenagers) is to correct the overspending tendencies that caused the debt. It's not supposed to be painless.

By the way, I think I'm being a bit strict because of some of your phrasing but I may be reading some entitlement into "clothing your teens actually want, a little vanity and spoiling yourself." I do think it would be okay to have a certain small budget per month for these things, but on the other hand you don't want to get back out of control, which I'm reading as your natural tendency.

But it's very good that you are separating needs and wants in your mind. And don't be so strict that you rebel, which it sounds like you want to. So in that case a reasonable budget and planning spending on the wants would be preferable to staying on track and then wasting a bunch of money one day when you can't take it anymore.