• wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
    174·
    10 hours ago

    A few problems with this, off the top of my head:

    1. They’re presumably not even engaged yet, and yet they’re sharing a checking account?

    2. Who the fuck would spend $15k on an engagement ring?

    3. Why the fuck would you have $15k sitting in checking?

    4. What dumbass ran up a 5-digit bill on an LLM API?

    • neomachino@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      8·
      9 hours ago

      1. My now wife and I had a shared checking account before we were engaged. We lived together and had shared bills, so we would both just put what we could into the shared account and pay the rent and utilities from there.

      2. My wife’s ring is moissanite and cost like $900 at the time, she still pretty consistently gets compliments on it. I spent what I “saved” by avoiding a diamond on a down payment on a house back when that wasn’t 100k.

      3. I didn’t have a savings account until my wife and I fully combined our finances. My checking was my savings. I’m not a big spender so it was never a problem.

      4. I got nothing here.

      • ozymandias117@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        8 hours ago

        To help with 4)

        Pricing models changed last month, and what was $500 is now like $15,000

        There has been a lot of news of people hit with unexpected bills larger than that

        • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
          1·
          7 hours ago

          That fucking sucks and I would say I hope they sue, but honestly they’re kinda dumbasses and I find it hard to sympathize with dumbasses. I hope they all cancel their accounts though and finally burst this AI bubble, since this was the endgame all along.

          Also, laws are so bullshit that any lawsuits would just get dismissed with “shoulda read the terms and conditions” nonsense…

      • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
        1·
        7 hours ago

        Fair enough, I guess there are exceptions to every rule. I’m not here to judge people’s life choices, but honestly you’d have to at least be pretty confident you’ll spend the rest of your life with someone in order for sharing a bank account to be even remotely a good idea. Seems to have worked out for you and your wife though, so that’s nice.

        You were smart to save money on the ring. It’s crazy that that’s even viewed as a “cheap option”, even though it’s nearly $1000. But yeah, spending what could be a down payment on a house or a college fund for future children on a ring is a stupid societal norm that should be relegated to the past.

        But seriously though, read up on moneymarket savings accounts (at least), as well as certified deposits and mutual funds (if you haven’t already).

        Briefly:
        • A moneymarket account functions like a savings account, but typically has a minimum deposit and a higher yield (maybe 1-2% APY). Often the yield increases by tiers based on how much is in your account.
        • A CD has a slightly higher yield but it’s illiquid for a set period if time. You might find them offering 2-4% APY, with the agreement that you won’t touch the deposit until the time expires. If you withdraw early you typically lose any interest gained. But they might mature in 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, etc., and you can stagger them.
          • (Say you make a new CD every three months, well once they start maturing you have one maturing every three months. You can roll them into a new one if you don’t need the money right away, and keep it going indefinitely, but the illiquidity isn’t as big of a problem cause every few months you have a chance to withdraw)
        • A mutual fund is basically like buying stocks, except instead of buying a share at a company, you buy a share of a fund managed by a professional who buys and sells on the stock market. As such, it’s higher risk than CDs and money market account, but lower risk than actual stocks (because it’s managed by people who know what they’re doing and it’s their job to monitor positions). It’s also more liquid than a CD, there’s typically no long-term commitment. The yields can vary widely (as can anything on the stock market), but typically they’re less volatile than individual stocks, meaning they’re a bit more stable. A well-managed mutual fund can deliver between 5-10% APY fairly consistently. Some might even have specific criteria for their investments, like if you want one that only invests in certified B corporations with good ESG scores (ethical standards, basically).

        Basically, if you have more in savings than you need on hand for recurring expenses, emergencies, and specific things you’re saving up for, you should find some higher-yield account types to put the rest in based on your needs and risk tolerance. But even your emergency savings could probably be in a moneymarket savings account because it probably meets the threshold for a somewhat higher yield.

        It’s not so much about accidentally spending too much, it’s more that checking accounts and regular savings accounts yield a fraction of a percentage as interest, which when adjusted for inflation means you’re actually losing money with it just sitting there.

    • regdog@lemmy.world
      1·
      44 minutes ago

      I get really annoyed when people call their purchase an “investment”. People are calling buying a ring, a truck, or a TV an investement, like that would justify the purchase.

      No wonder Americans are constantly broke.

      • Akasazh@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        9 hours ago

        No its quite simliarly shitty. It’s just that you may care less. Though out of experience the richest people tend to be the stringiest folks around, out of habit trying to get everything for free.

  • Starik@lemmy.world
    48·
    2 days ago

    They already share a checking account. Seems like marriage is just a formality at this point.

    • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
      3·
      10 hours ago

      Honestly, if I ever have that much in my checking account, then I won’t have that much in my checking account, because I would move at least 10k into savings or something with higher-yield and less liquidity.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
        1·
        9 hours ago

        There are Money Market and similar accounts which act like checking accounts but have interest rates like high yield savings accounts. They typically have a minimum balance of like $5k or more so if you have a large sum of money flowing through the account each month you can still get the yields but an unexpected pileup of bills out of order doesn’t cause declined transactions

        • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
          1·
          6 hours ago

          Yup, I was thinking along the lines of a money market savings account. They’re perfect for emergency savings funds because there’s no restrictions on withdrawals like with a CD. If you go below the threshold then you don’t get the higher yield, but that only happens in an emergency when you need to draw from it.

          I usually keep enough for my recurring expenses in my checking account, so auto-pay goes through without any overdrafts. I keep a little on top of that for discretionary spending and move the rest to savings.

          That’s why I said I would never have $15K in checking at one time. Just seems like bad money management.

    • coolie4@lemmy.world
      225·
      2 days ago

      $15k, even if you have it, is way too much to leave sitting in a checking account. At the very least invest it in something with high liquidity like the VOO