Post Your Wins

[ua_guy]

We've had Macs since 1994. No virus worries at all.

Also a mac user. For most home users, the risk of getting viruses, malware, etc is lower with a Mac (OS) than with a PC/Windows. But that doesn't mean macs aren't vulnerable, and that there are no worries, especially as popularity of OS increases.

DS I'd recommend you at least install something free as a baseline protection. If you view or keep personal financial data, family photos, etc on your computer, it might be a good idea. Heck, I've gotten hits from this site sometimes for malware and other threats.

[SueInBoston]

I made 1k for 8 hours of data entry work over 2 days I used to do data entry for a chiropractor. She is very, very disorganized, never plan and everything is always last minute fire drill. I've declined her work in the last couple years because I didn't want the madness. She is filling for Covid small business loans and needed all her financials entered into Quicken (but she uses Quicken like excel...lol) so she begged me to help her out and offered $1k so I took it.

[amastewa93]

We've had Macs since 1994. No virus worries at all.

Unfortunately, that's no longer true. My MacBook had a Malware bug that downloaded itself (without me knowing). It made the entire screen go black until I had it taken in and completely scrubbed. Hackers and virus engineers finally found a way into Mac

[disneysteve]

My wife has been sewing small zippered pouches that folks use for things like carrying their ID or credit cards or keys or whatever when they're out walking or doing something where they don't want to carry their full purse or wallet. When COVID came along, people started advertising them as a way to carry your mask and/or gloves. A friend said she wanted to buy 6 of them for herself and her family. We went over to see them last night and brought a box full of the pouches for her to choose from. She liked them even more in person and ended up buying 16 of them. They're only $5 each (and we gave her a 10% discount for buying so many) but that's still $72 in her pocket that she didn't have.

Also, the same friend has a marketing background and offered to help my wife sell her wares online (something I've been pushing her to do for years). She helped a friend set up an online "party" for the jewelry she makes and the woman sold a ton of stuff. So we need to get together things she has to sell, get good photos and descriptions of everything, and then our friend will handle actually organizing it all. We shall see what happens.

[scfr]

We bought my mom's old Prius earlier this year. It had suffered from neglect and had a lot of things wrong with it that we (mostly DH) have been fixing one at a time. This week he went to a junk yard and got a small piece of roof molding that was missing. It was one of those DIY places where you remove whatever part you need yourself. It cost him $4 and some time.

[veronak]

For June I paid $700 towards my student loans and saved 45% of my income, feeling great!

[scfr]

Second, I finally broke down and found a place to replace the battery on my phone...which is fantastic! I've got a Google Pixel from 2016 that has been a great phone, still in excellent condition & works perfectly, except that its battery was toast -- wouldn't last more than 2-3 minutes off of a charge cord or backup battery, and even then would sometimes spike a power draw for a processing-intensive function (esp. taking photos) & shut down. I've been trying to hold out for them to come out with their Pixel 4a.... but its release keeps getting delayed (originally planned for Apr/May I think), and is now rumored to be delayed as late as October. So with that news, I gave up waiting, and started looking to replace the phone with something used/cheap ($50-$60) to hold me over for a few months. But while searching, I saw an ad for battery replacement, and found a place nearby that was Google certified for repairs. Ended up costing ~$80, but it's like having an almost-new phone again! This phone could now probably last me easily for another 1-2 years if desired (we'll see when I actually decide to replace it). Plus I get to keep the phone I've really enjoyed & don't have to re-load all of my contacts, apps, etc. to something new. Overall, it's a win in my book!

DH just did the same (got the battery in his phone replaced) - $55 for a "almost-like-new" phone.

[kork13]

2 wins:
First, we closed on the sale of our previous house yesterday!!! It took a while to sell thanks to COVID (we listed literally days before all of the restrictions started piling up in our state), so we had to have some patience while the RE market ground almost to a halt. But it's done, sold, and we're flush with cash (ahead of buying our next home in cash!). Honestly, it feels pretty uncomfortable to have over $300k sitting in our savings account... But it's only for a few weeks (closing on our next home 8 July), so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Big win today, following up from this one: We just closed our next house, and we own the ~$300k home free & clear!!! The 100% cash purchase of the house was seriously easy, not to mention cheap (for transaction costs, at least)! Our closing costs were less than $1k, compared to the $5k-$7k closing costs we would have incurred by using a mortgage. Just saving that $4k-$6k was a win in and of itself! We're simply thrilled, and can't wait to actually move up there in the next ~2 weeks. That's the funny thing -- we actually bought this house sight unseen. Some of our family thinks we're crazy to do that.... But our realtor did some very detailed video walk-throughs with us, and I was surprised by how comfortable I've felt with the process of buying at arm's length.

In any case, this is a really big step for us. We're 34 y/o, and having no mortgage will allow us to really kick our savings/investing into high gear. Our planned budget has us saving/investing over 50% of our good income. This wasn't the plan 6 (or even 3) months ago... But we're both really excited for the opportunities that it's going to open up for us.

[bjl584]

Big win today, following up from this one: We just closed our next house, and we own the ~$300k home free & clear!!! The 100% cash purchase of the house was seriously easy, not to mention cheap (for transaction costs, at least)! Our closing costs were less than $1k, compared to the $5k-$7k closing costs we would have incurred by using a mortgage. Just saving that $4k-$6k was a win in and of itself! We're simply thrilled, and can't wait to actually move up there in the next ~2 weeks. That's the funny thing -- we actually bought this house sight unseen. Some of our family thinks we're crazy to do that.... But our realtor did some very detailed video walk-throughs with us, and I was surprised by how comfortable I've felt with the process of buying at arm's length.

In any case, this is a really big step for us. We're 34 y/o, and having no mortgage will allow us to really kick our savings/investing into high gear. Our planned budget has us saving/investing over 50% of our good income. This wasn't the plan 6 (or even 3) months ago... But we're both really excited for the opportunities that it's going to open up for us.

Big win.

Congrats!

[james.hendrickson]

Big win today, following up from this one: We just closed our next house, and we own the ~$300k home free & clear!!! The 100% cash purchase of the house was seriously easy, not to mention cheap (for transaction costs, at least)! Our closing costs were less than $1k, compared to the $5k-$7k closing costs we would have incurred by using a mortgage. Just saving that $4k-$6k was a win in and of itself! We're simply thrilled, and can't wait to actually move up there in the next ~2 weeks. That's the funny thing -- we actually bought this house sight unseen. Some of our family thinks we're crazy to do that.... But our realtor did some very detailed video walk-throughs with us, and I was surprised by how comfortable I've felt with the process of buying at arm's length.

In any case, this is a really big step for us. We're 34 y/o, and having no mortgage will allow us to really kick our savings/investing into high gear. Our planned budget has us saving/investing over 50% of our good income. This wasn't the plan 6 (or even 3) months ago... But we're both really excited for the opportunities that it's going to open up for us.

Actually, thats is pretty sweet - nice job Kork.

[kork13]

I just put in the last orders to max out our Roth IRAs for this year. Normally I have our Roth IRAs on autopilot to buy in 2x monthly & max it throughout the year, but when COVID hit & the markets crashed, I decided to take advantage of the low share prices & switched to weekly contributions at a tripled contribution rate. The last month's contributions have mostly been at previous share prices, but I'm fine with it -- I still got a good $6k or so of deeply discounted shares between our 2 IRAs. Now that it's maxed for 2020, I went in & readjusted the auto-investment to go back to our normal 2x monthly routine starting next January.

I also put in the first (small...~$600) orders to start rebuilding our taxable investments after using basically all of our previous investments to buy our next house. It was tough selling everything off, especially the sale of the last ~$40k back in early June... but we're glad we did it. Now we can slowly start to rebuild, and keep moving our plans forward!

[Like2Plan]

I decided to spruce up one of our bedrooms a little bit, so I researched the best paint options online and I bought a gallon of paint. I was pleased with the results. The paint was really thick and it didn't splatter much at all while applying it. The paint dried really fast and I didn't notice much of a paint smell while applying it. I think I could get away with just one coat of paint, but I think I'm going to do another coat. (Pretty cheap entertainment. )

[QuarterMillionMan]

Decided to pay off my 2018 Dodge Journey loan early (5 year term).

[disneysteve]

I got an email from Ally today saying I earned a $51 bonus from their last promotion. Totally free money as I didn't do anything I wasn't doing anyway. Gotta love that.

[kork13]

I got an email from Ally today saying I earned a $51 bonus from their last promotion. Totally free money as I didn't do anything I wasn't doing anyway. Gotta love that.

Same -- $228 for me. I should also have another $500 account opening bonus coming in early August from Citi, back from when we sold my wife's previous car, and used the opportunity to get the extra bonus cash.