Money, Investing, Job Offers, and You

Finances as a Developer

Who I am

Steven Petryk

Full-stack developer at Teeps

Not a financial professional

High-level topics

  • Cash flow
  • Budgeting and prioritization
  • Why to invest
  • Investment accounts

What is "cash flow"?

  • Monthly income minus expenses
  • Basic metric of wealth accumulation
  • Kept in check using a budget

Thanks Mint  ♥

Building a Budget

  • Month-to-month slice of cash flow
  • Allows for prioritization of expenses
    • Essentials
    • Essential luxuries
    • Investments
    • Non-essentials
  • Separate expenses and goals

Example budget

Pre-tax Income

$3,000

Rent

$500

Utilities

$120

Automotive

$400

Food

$300

Left over

$680

Fun money

$1,000

Savings Priorities

  1. Establish a one-month emergency fund
  2. Pay off high-interest debt
  3. Increase emergency fund to 3-6 months
  4. Pay off medium-interest debt
  5. Short-term goals

Ally Bank currently has the best interest rate.

Ignoring investments, the order should be:

Savings Strategies

  • Use Ally
  • Open a new account for each goal
  • Only save for short-term (<5-year) goals
  • Contribute to accounts based on urgency

Investing

  • It's not hard
  • The only effective way to beat inflation
  • Should be done early and often

Funds vs Accounts

  • A fund is a collection of financial assets.
  • An account is what holds these funds.

I bought $300 of Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Funds and placed them in my Roth IRA account.

Dude. Nobody cares.

Example sentence:

Types of funds

  • Domestic stocks
  • International stocks
  • Bonds 
  • ... hundreds of riskier things

Types of accounts

  • Savings
  • Money market
  • Certificate of deposit
  • IRA
  • 401k
  • Brokerage
  • ... hundreds more

3 important accounts

Roth IRA

401k

Normal brokerage

  • "Tax-free"
  • Capped annual contribution
  • "Tax-advantaged"
  • Capped annual contribution
  • Employer may match
  • Basically no advantage :/

Other limitations apply based on income, marriage status, tax exemptions, etc.

A three-fund portfolio

Domestic stock index funds

International stock index funds

Bond index funds

  • High risk
  • High return
  • High risk
  • Unaffected by domestic stock
  • Low risk
  • Low return
  • Unaffected by stock market

Invest your age in % bonds. 

Final savings hierarchy

Source: reddit.com/r/personalfinance

Ways to learn more

Personal Finance Subreddit

/r/personalfinance

Bogleheads Wiki

bogleheads.org

Vanguard's "Investing and Retirement" Series

vanguard.com

Thank you for attending :) 

Personal Finance

By Steven Petryk

Personal Finance

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