What to do with my earnings..
By katsmeow1213
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
United States
October 25, 2015 6:50am CST
It looks like I will reach payout this month after all, yippee!
Now I need to decide what to do with my earnings.
Should I leave it alone until I have enough to make a small payment on one of my back debts that I'm trying to hard to pay off?
Or should I just split it up among my savings accounts?
I have 2 savings accounts at the moment, and will open a 3rd this Friday when I get paid.
The first is your typical emergency/future savings. The second I opened for extra spending... mostly because this time of year gets really expensive with Marching Band, the kids need food money every week, I need $20 to see their shows, there are spirit wear orders coming home that we rarely partake in because of the expense, and all sorts of other things so I thought if I started saving now i might have some extra by this time next year so we don't have to be so frugal about it.
The next one I plan to open will be a Christmas savings to start saving up for next Christmas.
So I could put my earnings into my savings, $5 into the spending account, $5 into the Christmas, and whatever change is left over can go into my main savings.
That's pretty much been my plan all along... but at the same time the sooner I pay off these debts the sooner I'll have more money to put towards savings, so I just don't know.
What do you do with your earnings?
16 people like this
19 responses
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
25 Oct 15
Well it's only $10... it won't buy much these days. What would you spend half of that on?
1 person likes this
@KristenH (33385)
• Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
25 Oct 15
@katsmeow1213 Half I would spend it on a special treat for myself--the other half will be deposited in my bank. But of course, I want it to be a bit over before I get paid out next month.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
25 Oct 15
Oh no, I never let any money just sit on the internet. Mylot does everything automatically, and as far as I know my settings should still be saved from last time so that it gets deposited into my Paypal account... but now that you mention it I should go double check on that. But I will withdraw it to one of my bank accounts as soon as it hits Paypal, I won't even let it just sit there because you never know.
@yukimori (10145)
• United States
25 Oct 15
@boiboing myLot is actually one of the few sites that I trust enough to carry over a balance for a few months after I reach minimum.
They have a history of never paying late, and even though they gave extremely short notice when they switched to a non-paying model in 2013, they did lower the minimum payment amount and issue payments to most members who had at least $5 in their account.
@yukimori (10145)
• United States
25 Oct 15
I'd put it all toward the emergency fund.
Based on what you said below, you're running extremely low in that account. You need to get that balance up to where it should be ASAP, or things are probably going to be more stressful than they need to be if Murphy shows up and you need to take care of something.
Once your emergency fund is fully funded, then focus on building up the balances in the other accounts. But it doesn't make sense to earmark those funds for future purchases when you don't have the safety net in place. At this point it's likely that you'll have to borrow from those balances or take on more debt to cover emergency expenses.
Personally, I wouldn't open a third savings account. I would keep the emergency fund and use the other one for the Christmas savings, because you can withdraw a lump sum to cover your Christmas spending. For the extra spending account, open a new checking account instead. It makes more sense to me because you're planning to spend out of it regularly from the sound of it; savings accounts are limited to 6 withdrawals per month per federal regulations, so you'll have extra fees for every withdrawal that exceeds that number. Plus you'll have the option of getting checks to use for school-related expenses if you want.
As far as the old debts go... I'd forget about them for the moment. Once you have the emergency fund built up, tackle any current accounts. Then move on to the old accounts. If you follow the snowball method, it'll build momentum as you go.
1 person likes this
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
25 Oct 15
@yukimori I kind of already work like that. I never keep change in my checking account. I round everything to the nearest $5 mark and put any change into the main savings.
1 person likes this
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
25 Oct 15
What you've said is that typical advice one often gets when they research debt on the internet. I've seen the same thing over and over. It doesn't quite work for my situation though.
I'm going to keep following the path I'm on.. I think it's a pretty good one. It's definitely better than it was 6 months ago when I didn't even have a savings account, had a few thousands dollars more in debt, no good credit what so ever. Now I have good credit, less debt, and 3 savings accounts (one at another institution that we're not using, but not much in there), and the next account I will open will actually be a 1 year CD with a high rate that you can add to anytime you want.. that's what I'll be using for my Christmas fund.
I don't much care that I'm starting small... you gotta start somewhere.
1 person likes this
@yukimori (10145)
• United States
25 Oct 15
@katsmeow1213 That's a really good point. Not every method works perfectly for everyone who tries it, so you have to go with what works for you.
It sounds like you're making progress, and that's really what it's all about, isn't it?
You might look into Acorns. It's a small-scale investment account that lets you round up purchases to the nearest dollar and deposit that amount to your account. They charge a small monthly fee, but you can have it waived if you sign up with a .edu email address.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
25 Oct 15
The debts I'm working on are not interest bearing. We do have student loans which are accruing interest, but I'm only making minimum payments on that right now because I want to clear up the other debts first as they're really hurting my credit score. Once they're paid off then I can focus on the student loans.
2 people like this
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
25 Oct 15
@yukimori We spoke to a credit counselor a few months back when we were trying to get an auto loan. This is what she told us to do to get better credit.
@yukimori (10145)
• United States
25 Oct 15
@katsmeow1213 The damage to the credit score is already done. Paying off the old debts will ONLY affect it if you can get them to do a delete for payment, where they remove the report. Otherwise, they'll continue to be reported, just with the account marked paid. The delinquency will still show up until the account drops off your report.
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
29 Oct 15
I can get some money too except i tried to get into my paypal and i started it years ago back in Gather.com (2005) and don't remember my password, then they asked my other questions and I knew one right off my head but the other I have no idea. I haven't figured out how to get a real person but i did see a connect so I will try to that tomorrow. Paypal won't be any good for me If I can't send it to my bank... I owe my sister for the reservations on next years camping trip.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
29 Oct 15
When I first started my Paypal account I was trying to start an at home web design business, but it never really took off. Later I tried to change the Paypal account to a personal one instead of a business one, but Paypal wouldn't let me. So the name on the Paypal account is the business name but that business doesn't exist anymore. I should probably delete the account and start over.
1 person likes this
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
29 Oct 15
@PainsOnSlate Yeah, that's the problem, I only have the 1 e-mail address I use.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
29 Oct 15
@katsmeow1213 If your email is the same I wouldn't delete until your sure you can get back on. I only have one email so if i tried to make another they probably wouldn't let me.
@Blondie2222 (28611)
• United States
25 Oct 15
I put what I can in savings but sometimes something happens with my car so I have to dig into it. I'm just going to use my earnings for christmas shopping and then I will start saving again after that.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
25 Oct 15
We have gone through that. I have only recently started on my savings, but I got it just over the $100 mark and had to take it all out to put towards replacing my van. Then a month later we had to replace my husband's car. Now my regular savings only has $50 and I'm trying hard to get it over $100 again so it at least starts earning some interest.
@marguicha (223297)
• Chile
29 Oct 15
I have several things in which I have to spend money even before I save a cent. I am grabbing every cent I see around to use this weekend to give some money to a couple of young men who will move my mother´s bed to my house. After that (and before) I will have to be on a strickt budget to make up for ir.
@kevin1877uk (36988)
•
25 Oct 15
well do on your earning, my goes towards bills at the moment, maybe another month I will buy something for me.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
26 Oct 15
I hope you're able to come up with something nice to spend it on when you're able.
@tecchigurl (672)
• Philippines
7 Nov 15
Most of my salary goes to my monthly payments. Some goes to my savings and the rest to my food expenses. I always make sure I have money that goes to my savings account.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
26 Oct 15
Great, good luck with your ebook.
1 person likes this
@cahaya1983 (11116)
• Malaysia
25 Oct 15
I'm saving it for my book shopping spree at the end of the year, unless I see that I don't have a choice but to spend it on necessities. No fixed plan here.
@cahaya1983 (11116)
• Malaysia
26 Oct 15
@katsmeow1213 Yup! There's going to be a huge, huge, huge book sale here at the end of the year. It's an annual thing. They slash the prices up to 80%, even 90% for some. 
1 person likes this
@Sheilamarie78 (2586)
• Canada
26 Oct 15
I would just choose one place to put each $10 payment. After all, it's not a lot of money. Paying down debt is a good idea.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
26 Oct 15
Yeah, but $10 isn't much towards paying down debts either. I usually do $5 a week towards my savings accounts, so I could split $10 up between 2 of them.
@mrtoffee (1522)
•
26 Oct 15
If you can afford to put your mylot earning into savings do that, that way it will grow over time.
@rosekiss (30414)
• Eugene, Oregon
25 Oct 15
I just leave mine in my paypal until I have what i think I would need, then I put it on my paypal debit card, or transfer it to my bank account. At one time, I had almost $100 in my paypal, and I used it to pay a bill or two that I needed to pay. I really don't want to use it for bills, but if I come up short in my bank account, then I will use my paypal money;
@mndremstate (37)
• Roseville, Minnesota
26 Oct 15
I would definately save your payouts for an investment.That may be a good idea:)
