I usually immediately come home and transfer what I just charged into a different account from our primary checking etc; then when the bill comes, I pay it.

but I'll probably also do the weekly thing too lol. I hate cc debt after all the crap we've been through.

Inquiries?

I'm sure it's been answered, but I can't go through 10 pages lol. The answer is you pay stuff off too fast! That's pretty much it in a nut shell.

Anyone else ever hear of this cat?

There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there about building good credit.

When I was 20 I was looking into getting a credit card and was told to keep 35-45% balance at all times.

This thread seems to imply that you should keep as little as possible on your card/pay it off in full every month.

I've also been told you don't even build any credit with a credit card.

I don't know what to believe...

My credit score went way up using this approach, although I am sure some sort of car/student loan with revolving balance is important to grow your credit score as well. The keeping 35% balance sounds like something credit lobbyist would sell, its complete bs imo unless you have no other form of revolving balance. Hope that made sense.

It's a personal preference. With your mortgage rate right at inflation, I wouldn't feel like you need to pay that off. Same goes with the car, no need to pay it off early. Some people just don't feel comfortable holding debt, however.

I would make sure your company match is met in 401(k), then max out a Roth IRA for both you and your wife, max out your 401(k), then put whatever remaining in index funds, in that order.

That's exactly what I thought. They want you to be paying interest every month or they don't make anything off of you..

I'm going to go back to paying my card off in full every month to see how that works out.

Can you do Roth catch up all at once? Also would you suggest hiring a financial adviser, or use a site like Vanguard and do all this yourself. I read on these topics all the time but at the end of the day I get total paralysis by analysis, so I turn to CP, where everyone has their financial phd's.

I agree with all of this as well. You make quite a bit of money so no reason you shouldn't be maxing our your 401k and contribuiting the max to your Roth but if you can't do both, make sure you contribute enough to your 401k to get the highest match from your company as you can. Then contribute rest of money earmarked for retirement into a Roth. Calculate what you think you'll need in retirement per month, how long you might live in retirement and determine if you savings amount will meet your needs. There are many online calculators to help you with this.

If you feel like you are going to be into mostly low cost mutual funds or ETFs with investing, I'd just manage that yourself and re-balance maybe twice a year to keep within whatever risk you are comfortable with. If you plan to mix in quite a bit of individual stocks or make quite a bit of moves, a financial planner might be an option but I'm not sold that they get you ahead since you have to pay them a percentage of what you are making. If you plan to work quite a bit longer I'd manage much of that myself and get a financial planner later is your feel uncomfortable with how large your assets become over time.

Sorry missed this but no, only 1k extra per year into Roth as catch up and must be put in before the due date of your tax return.

Because Chiefs

"Retirement". Lulz. Good one.

It's what I'm working for.
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Semi retirement is where it's at...