Need advice....

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-14-2003
Need advice....
5
Thu, 01-19-2006 - 2:40pm

Okay this has been a point of contention in our household...And I appreciate thoughtful insight from our wonderful group....

Background: My husband does receive commission pay but sometimes the pay out schedule lags-- meaning that this month he was paid for Novembers commission.. this has to do with the commission payout schedule and the auditing. The company is going to streamline some things and now that he received his new promotion he is on a different payout so this should get better... But looking at his old payout schedule he would sometimes have months with NO payout....

I've played with a budgeting spreadsheet I was sent and made it our own... I only budgetted off of his salary and the commissions will be going to savings/debt... this is where the difference of opinion starts:

I think that most of the commissions if not all should go to savings and the little debt we have... We want to buy a house and need to save a downpayment, we have a baby coming in June, we would like new bedroom furniture, although the Honda will be paid off this month, we will need to save up for another car for "one day." I want to have an emergency fund of savings until the debt is paid off (shouldn't take long) and then have 3 months of his salary in the savings account....

Brandon thinks that only say 60% of the money should go to savings and the rest should be fun money... with no name... now I know that alot of financial guru's out there say that you should name your money and decide where it goes before we get there...

So Brandon asked me how much of the money should be fun money? I told him that maybe we should decide on a percentage but given our goals it would be a smaller percentage.... what do you ladies suggest?

Any advice? My parents can't give any advice-- they just filed bankruptcy and Brandon's mom is always juggling bills and having to have her lights turned back on.... So I came to our "other" family :)

Stephanie

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2005
Thu, 01-19-2006 - 10:30pm

I think coming up with a percentage is a great idea. However, it really depends (in my opinion) on how much these actual commission payouts are.

If he only gets about $100/month, then I would say 60/40 is okay. But if he is getting $1,000 sometimes.... Um, $400 "spending" money seems excessive to me! Especially with a baby on the way - unless you are spending a lot of it on "necessary" baby items to stock up ahead of time (diapers, wipes, bottles, baby food, etc.).

Can you give us an estimate as to what you are thinking you will get on the average per month?

~Aravis~

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 10-14-2003
Thu, 01-19-2006 - 10:59pm

Well his payout for his Feb check is $4050 before taxes which are around 18%... so $3321.00 minus tithe 10% gross = $2916...

I think we are going to do 5% each.. His for DVD's, video games, etc and mine for scrapbooking, shopping, sewing, books, etc :)

Now I'm trying to decide how to split up the rest... The $1000 for the ER fund is coming out this check along with the Honda payoff. So we are thinking Baby fund, Bedroom Furniture fund, house, and debt.. Obviously once one of the categories is filled we would have to divide that amount into the remaining catagories... Any ideas?

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2005
Thu, 01-19-2006 - 11:11pm

Maybe it would be better to work on one thing at a time....

1)Baby fund
2)debt
3)house
4)Bedroom Furniture fund

Set a $-amount for each of these, and work from there. If you only want to have $2,000 in the baby fund, that will be easy to mark off rather quickly, right? Then it is available for you now, as that baby is on his/her way!!! Then maybe go to the debt. Depending on the total amount of your debt, you might have to have this as a side category. Like, if you owe a total of $10,000, pay $1,000 at a time to that, while working on the next category (house).

~Aravis~

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-05-2004
Fri, 01-20-2006 - 10:39am

I would budget a small percentage for fun, such as movies or meals out, saving up for a large purchase you and Dh might desire, etc...and the rest to savings. :-D

Good Luck!

pat :-D

Avatar for endomagazine
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-09-2004
Fri, 01-20-2006 - 10:51am

Hello,

Budgeting out a percentage for fun money (and maybe keeping it in a separate account?) would be a good way to handle it. 5% for each of you sounds about right. If there's a large expense (new computer, new card, bedroom furniture) that the small "fun money" doesn't cover, then you save incrementally for it.

As others have suggested, I would put money toward the baby fund first. There is a definitely deadline for the baby arriving. =) Then, I would suggest paying off debt (not house, but other debt). Once you've paid off your debt, you'll have *extra* money that used to go toward debt that you can divide up into fun money, house payments, furniture fund, etc.

Sincerely,
Lindsey Schocke

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Sincerely,
Lindsey Schocke

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