Comments on: Reader Mailbag: Stevia

By: Maggie

Maggie — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:30:18 +0000

My company gave us ESOP shares about 10 years ago and we had to cash them in after a certain period of time. I rolled my money into an money market fund and left it there for about 3 more years since I was planning to buy a car. The interest I earned more than paid for the taxes I paid when I cashed it in and I was able to purchase a slightly used car for cash! I love my Malibu and could not be happier with the way I purchased it. Be sure to check the requirements of the ESOP plan. I did not know I had to cash it in after a certain time but the company did send out notices telling us when to do that. It’s a nice way to get some extra savings without contributing anything to it.

By: jim

jim — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:14:08 +0000

Matt, They did say that $10k was worth 3 months of expenses so if we do the math from that we might assume that they spend about $3333 a month. Theres various reasons why they may not have more saved at this point. They may have had very large student loans that they put all their excess cash into. They may not have been making $160k for that long. Maybe they had some unemployment in the recent past. WE can only guess about their financial history.

By: matt

matt — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:59:39 +0000

Katie – So why would they be using their roth as a down payment if they no longer have debt and can save all their money? a roth is meant for retirement, not a down payment on a house when you make $160k a year.

By: Katie

Katie — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:58:03 +0000

Matt, she said they were aggressively paying down student loan debt. Not hard to figure out where the money was going.

By: matt

matt — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:16:02 +0000

Q3 – You make $160k a year, but barely have any savings? You should be able to save $50k in a year easily (in addition to roth and 401k contributions) if you manage your expenses. My wife and I make $87k a year and we managed to save 20k in 2010 towards a down payment while fully funding our IRAs and 401k. Unless your rent is $5k a month I’d be interested in hearing where the rest of your money is going.

By: John

John — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:58:58 +0000

Ronda: I would leave the money where it is you get the match, defer taxes and some states you don’t pay state income tax on pensions.

By: Carmen

Carmen — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:56:33 +0000

Trent, I have been using stevia powder for about a year now. I use the pure stevia powder, so a teaspoonful would be WAY overpowering in even a gallon of iced tea! I do find it does not taste like sugar… I haven’t quite gotten used to that. But, when I use in complement with sugar is when I find it works best. Example: cut down sugar in a cookie recipe and supplement with stevia. Add a touch to fruit smoothie to complement the natural sugars in the fruit.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 11:55:57 +0000

What’s wrong with just using sugar?

Just maybe don’t use so much of it. 1 tablespoon of sugar doesn’t make you fat.

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 04:11:51 +0000

I find these sweeteners not very safe. There is always loads of controversy regarding toxicity and carcinogenic potential and if you look closely at the research done you always find big flaws. If not, many studies have shown that people that drink stuff with sweeteners, the organism finds a way to compensate for it. I try using agave nectar. I find it tastes great and studies show it does not promote the dangerous spike in insulin that regular sugar and honey do and it dissolves in cold drinks very well (what honey does not). It’s definitely more caloric than sweeteners but a much safer bet in my opinion.
Cheers!

By: Tegan

Tegan — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:55:06 +0000

As someone who lives 100 minutes (on a good day) away from my partner and all my family and friends, and who commutes 25 minutes to work (a short commute here!), I say: If you can afford either city, just pick the one you like the most. 25 minutes is not a long way to drive to see friends and family, nor is it a very long commute.
For what it’s worth, if I were you, I would choose Victor, it sounds like that’s where your ‘heart’ is. :)

By: jim

jim — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:11:33 +0000

Q6 Rhonda : Don’t roll your 403b plan over. You said it qualifies you for a pension and that if you roll it over you lose the match. Losing your match would not be worth it. And as others have said you probably wouldn’t benefit from paying more taxes today to switch to a Roth. Its fine where it is.

By: Riki

Riki — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 22:25:08 +0000

Sonja — that logic only works while they need childcare. Once all the kids are in school, the childcare expense would go away but the extra mortgage payments would remain.

I think a $200 per month increase in mortgage is pretty big, myself.

By: Sonja

Sonja — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 21:25:06 +0000

Q4 Brad and #17 Jonathan. Jonathan is right – I was thinking 30 year mortgage because I get the impression that you are still a young couple. You say you have frugal habits so you can pay extra principal but also have some breathing room with a lower fixed payment. So for a 30 year mortgage – whatever total $ loan amounts you plug into the mortgage payment calculator- your payment will go up by $100-$200 a month for the extra $20-40K you borrow. How much will half-day childcare cost you? Where I live it would be about $250 a month.

By: Kathy F

Kathy F — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:16:27 +0000

Q7 checking acount bonus. If opening a new bank account, be careful and allow enough time for your initial deposit to clear. I once opened a new account for the $100 bonus, but the bank took 9 business days to make my initial $300 deposit available. A week after I had made the deposit, I made an online bill payment of $14 so I could meet other terms of the agreement, then was shocked when I got a $35 draft overcharge fee. The money had shown up online as being in the account, but I did not notice it was not yet “available”. None of my other checking accounts had that type of feature and I was unaware of the implications. I tried to get the overdraft charge reversed but the bank would not budge.

Apparently for new accounts they can take a while to approve your initial deposit. Customer service would not tell me how much time was required for deposits to clear, so I did not want to keep the bank account. So I just waited a couple of months and after I had gotten the $100 bonus deposited, I closed the account. So I only netted $65 bonus, but I learned a lesson.

I also then read (belatedly) about lots of complaints online about this particular bank (BB&T) playing games with the timing of clearing depositas and applying debits so they could maximize fees. Also many banks have their rules and regulations buried in the web pages. So be careful about minimum requirements to keep it open (BB&T did not have a mininum). But some of the requirements of this bank were not stated in the policies up front. You had to click on many individual pages of frequently asked Q&As to find out all the requirements and fees.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:12:01 +0000

“$20-40K over the life of a mortgage is not going to make much of a difference in your monthly mortgage payment.”

This depends entirely on the amount of the mortgage. Sure, for a mortgage of $290k vs $250k over 30 years the difference in monthly payment would “only” increase maybe 16%. If the difference is between a 120k vs 80k mortgage, especially over 15 years, then the difference in monthly payment could easily be close to 50%. If Brad lives where I think he does (based on the towns mentioned), then a mortgage of this amount is entirely possible.

By: Sonja

Sonja — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:19:51 +0000

Q4 – Brad: Your choice isn’t just about making a good money decision. It’s about making the best decision for your family’s well-being. You say yourself that you both WANT to live in Victor. It sounds like you can afford it, and although you have a commute you will save on child care and property taxes. $20-40K over the life of a mortgage is not going to make much of a difference in your monthly mortgage payment.

You have family and friends in Victor and that means you have a good support system in place there. That is priceless. This will be good for you and your children and will make it easier for them to have a good sense of community. You can make this move and still be frugal and as you progress in your career you will make more money.

To me, the benefit of being frugal is being able to afford what is really important to you. You say you can afford this, so if this is what you want it seems like a no-brainer to me. Enjoy!

By: Jayme

Jayme — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:26:19 +0000

Q2: Be careful of the fees on the balance transfer.

Right now you’ll have that CC bill paid off in 7 months (if you don’t add to it). If you do the balance transfer, the fees might make it so you’re not really paying it off that much sooner.

It might be worth it. Might not.

By: bogart

bogart — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:56:03 +0000

@Q6 I’d definitely leave the money where it is if moving it loses the employer match (though I was similarly situated and was able to move my contributions without losing the employer contributions, which I left where they were). Among other things, it may be that remaining invested in a vested plan that provides a pension also gives you access to group health insurance in retirement (an actual insurance policy provided by your former employer and/or the right to buy in as part of a group with the associated cost savings and legal protections), something worth hanging onto.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:40:22 +0000

Instead of trying to replace Sugar with Stevia, you should be trying to eliminate these types of foods from your diet. Stuff like cookies should only be eaten on occasion, and as long as you limit yourself (which unfortunately most of society does not), a little bit of sugar won’t really be bad for you.

Other than fruit, I rarely eat foods that contain sugar or artificial sweetener.

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:39:12 +0000

I’m sensitive to stevia – eating or drinking items sweetened with it make my throat itch terribly. And can’t abide the taste of artificial sweeteners. I’m of the camp that doesn’t think table sugar (in reasonable quantities) is evil, though of course you should follow medical advice if table sugar causes you problems.