TLDR Version – It costs me $880 per month to be a Type 1 Diabetic in the United States…

You see, I was diagnosed 22 years ago when I was in high school. It’s not as normal to be be diagnosed that old, but it does happen (just not as common). It was hard learning how to “be a diabetic” when I was just learning how to be me. But when you become a diabetic, there is little time to mess around. You learn, you adapt, or you fail. And failure isn’t much of an option in my mind because it can kill you in this instance.

Today, I wanted to share what it costs me just to be a diabetic. I don’t have much of an option. Type 1 diabetes is not like Type 2. My pancreas just no longer works and the drugs available to me is just insulin injections. That is it. I get a choice of just a few insulin brands based on my control and how I manage my diabetes.

Diabetic Supplies List

Let’s first show you what I use on a regular basis to manage my diabetes. This will differ from person to person and really comes down to how much money you have available and what kind of insurance you have.

It’s really sad that to have really good control, you often need to have really good insurance, access to quality foods, and money. If you don’t have these, you rarely can do well as a diabetic and I know that first hand from many that I know. Too many people I have met and talked to have had to forgo insulin just to pay their bills or eat. That is disgusting and unacceptable, no matter what you think.

In a study, 14% of diabetics can’t afford insulin because it costs too much. When the insulin I use debuted back in 1996, it was only $21 per vial. Now it’s around $250 per vial. Let that sink in.

My diabetic supply list includes:

Now, that’s a lot of stuff. One of the worst parts is the amount of plastic waste all of this comes with. Just with every infusion set change which is every 3-5 days, I throw away just so much plastic waste. It’s irritating.

How Much Does Being a Type 1 Diabetic Cost Me?

Let’s break down how much this costs me per month. I’m going to include my insurance because I need this just to keep all the costs down and that’s the sad thing. Even with insurance, I’m still spending so much. My wife and kids are on a different plan for insurance because it ended up being cheaper overall.

Total cost per month is $880!

Yes, you read that right, it costs me $880 per month just to stay healthy and alive. To me, this is non-negotiable. Without these, I wouldn’t have the control I have and be in the health I am. I take care of myself and my body, but I’m always in a battle with diabetes.

I find it completely ridiculous that I have to pay this much just to manage my diabetes. Now, if I didn’t have insurance, the supplies would cost me around $1,200 per month, so I do save with it, but not a huge amount. I’ve done the math before and keep it. It doesn’t benefit me to not have prescription coverage on insurance.

The post How Much It Costs to be Type 1 Diabetic in the US (with Insurance!) appeared first on Wealth Bytes, the content owner.

You will often read about so many different ways to save money each month. I find X ways here, Y ways there, and everything else in between. Who knew there are 50+ ways to save more money. Heck, we have written about these simple ways before as well.

But over the years, I have found the only one solution that works each and every month with out fail, so are you ready to know what it is?

Pay Your Savings Like a Bill

Oh yes, it’s that simple, yet the most effective tools I have found to keep funding savings in some way. Now, when I say savings, this could be an emergency fund, housing fund, college fund, or even investment fund.

No matter what you are saving for, if you force yourself to pay into your savings every month just like you pay a bill, it will change your mindset on the process.

Many push savings aside when they have some extra money, but if you believe you have to pay it just like a bill, it never gets forgotten.

Setup Automatic “Payments” into Savings

One simple trick to automate this is by just setting up an automatic payment into your savings account or whatever account you use for savings goals. Just like an automatic withdrawal from your checking account to pay your water bill or mortgage, you can do the same thing with your savings account.

This will feel weird for the few few times you do it, but it’s very effective and in my experience the only solution that works to save money every month. You can scrounge around for coupons, dig up old coins and push them through the Coinstar machine, find deals when online shopping, etc, but it will never match treating your savings like a bill.

When you “pay your savings bill” it forces your mindset to change to make sure you are paying it. Just like we never want to be late on our normal bills, this is a method I used to force my mind to basically pay myself first.

What do you think about treating your savings like a bill? Would it help you automate your savings more when you don’t want to miss the payment?

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With the government raising rates, inflation at an all-time high, and consumer prices going out of control, it’s really hard to even think about investing and saving for retirement. I mean grocery prices are up about 12% since the start of this year and continue to rise every month it seems.

It’s hard to make ends meet for some, especially those who rent and are seeing massive rent increases.

So, when it comes to investing, should you sell now or wait it out?

This information is purely informational. I am not a financial advisor and do not give out personal investment advice.

The Best Time to Invest is Now

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, right?

The best time to invest is now and I used to laugh about that. I also used to time the market to “buy the dips”, but then realized you never can properly time the dips.

But I do believe that if you are not investing, you have little chance in reaching retirement with the money needed to live comfortably. How much you invest is completely up to you though. You need to weigh your risks and diversify your money.

Important – if you are near retirement, then you should consult with your financial advisor as investing now might cause you to lose more of your upcoming nest egg.

Make sure you have a good emergency fund, can pay all your bills, and then take some of that leftover money per month and invest in the markets.

Should Your Keep Investing In a Down Market?

In my opinion, I would definitely keep investing when the stock market is down. History has shown us over all the decades that the market does return a positive percentage, but we have several big down years. Not everything is up and up like the past few years before this year (2022).

Here is a good graph for you of the S&P 500 and you can see the ups and downs of the market, but historically, it’s returned close to 10% annually.

Even with all the ups and downs, I do think it’s smart to keep investing when the market is down. You can’t win buying high and selling low and it’s extremely important to disconnect your emotions from investing. You invest based on math and keeping your emotions out of it. It’s hard to see your portfolio lose $30,000 in one day like mine did last week, but I keep the course and keep investing. I have faith the market will turn around in a few years and hopefully the money I invest now will grow exponentially.

To keep my life simple, I invest in index funds that track the markets. I rarely do single stocks as I like the diversification the index funds and ETFs give me.

So, in short, I think you should keep investing when the market is down as this is your chance to “buy low” and hopefully when the time is right, you can “sell high” and enjoy the profits.

But personal finance is personal, so you have to do what is within your risk tolerance.

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So we decided to include this one in our money shorts series that quickly answers the question for you.

So, How much House Can Your Afford?

This is a good question as it’s important to understand how much you can spend and should spend on your new home. You never want to overpay for a house and leave you with nothing left for expenses, entertainment, travel, etc.

While every financial situation is different, you will want to follow one simple rule and that is the 28/36 rule.

What is the 28/36 Rule?

This simple rule gives you a guide to not pay more than 28% of your gross monthly income on your home and related expenses (think taxes and insurance, HOA, etc).

Overall, you shouldn’t spend more than 36% of your gross monthly income on your home expenses and all other debts, such as student loans, credit cards, car loans, etc.

Remember this is just a rule, not something that every bank follows, but they do come generally close to it. If you have good credit, then banks will often allow these limits to be higher.

House Affordability Example

OK, let’s show a simple example here for you.

Let’s say you earn $60,000 per year, which means your gross monthly income is $5,000.

To know how much you can spend on a house mortgage with taxes/insurance/HOA included, we just take $5,000 and multiply by 0.28 (which represents the 28% part of the 28/36 rule)

$5,000 x 0.28 = $1,400

So this means you should look for a home that would cost you around $1,400 or less per month.

The amount of house you can afford will vary based on the current interest rates, housing prices, etc, but using this rule at least gives you an idea of where you should start.

If you have a lot of debts you pay per month, then this will change the calculation.

Let’s say you have $750 per month in debt payments you make.

$1,400 + 750 = $2,150

This amount would put you above the 36% part of the rule. It would equal 43% of your gross monthly income, which is probably too high. That means you would need to drop the $1,400 to a lower amount to be safe.

In this case, take your monthly income, then subtract your debt payments.

$5,000 – $750 = $4,250

Then multiply that by 0.28 which would be:

$4,250 x 0.28 = $1,190

So this would meet the 28/36 rule and keep you in a safe spot with your overall housing affordability.

In the end, you need to make sure you are comfortable making the payments for everything you owe. Don’t overextend yourself just to get a bigger house. It won’t be worth it in the end.

If you are a regular saver who puts away money each month, just add that onto your monthly debt amounts as well to give you an even better picture. Treat your savings like a monthly bill so you don’t have to sacrifice that just for a bigger house.

So to answer the question of “How much house can I afford?“, the answer is it depends on the math.

Just do the math using the 28/36 rule and it will give you a good guide.

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Plain and simple, an emergency fund is money you have set aside in case of an emergency. These can range from an unexpected bill, car repair, home repair, medical bill, job loss, etc. The amount of emergencies one considers is personal.

Emergency funds are money typically stored in a savings account that can be accessed at any time to be used to make sure you don’t get into debt with an expected bill. These are very important to make sure you don’t have to use debt to pay off more debt. If you are using either the debt snowball or debt avalanche debt repayment methods, you should have a stocked emergency fund before you start.

Most personal finance experts recommend a minimum of three (3) months of your monthly expenses be stored in a savings account in case of an emergency.

An example of an emergency fund would be:

$2,000 (average monthly expenses) x 3 (months) = $6,000 (stored in savings)

The three months is just a gauge but if you are self-employed, you might want to have six to twelve months. This depends entirely on your level of comfort.

We here at Wealth Bytes recommend between three and six months of monthly expenses stored in an easily accessible savings account. This could be at your bank where your checking account is or one of the many great online savings accounts.

The money should be easily accessible or liquid, meaning you don’t store it in investment accounts, CDs, or places where it can take a long time to get the money or you get a fee for using it.

Emergency Fund FAQ

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When I was in over $75,000 of debt, the debt avalanche is what I used to get out. It takes emotion and psychology out of the equation and just focuses on math. This method will not work for everyone. Using this method ending up saving me nearly $6,000 in interest payments based on paying down debts over four years.

The general idea of the Debt Avalanche is to focus on the math over the course of your debt repayment.

List Your Debts by Interest Rate from Largest to Smallest

Using a spreadsheet or piece of paper, write down all of your debts in order of the interest rate you pay from highest to lowest. Do not pay attention to the balance owed on the debts. Only the interest rate.

Here is an example of some debts listed using the Debt Avalanche method.

Pay Minimum Payments on All Debts

This is important. No matter what you do, you HAVE to pay the minimum payments on all your debts. This is important as it ensures you do not go into collections or charged fees by your bank.

You will end up paying more money on top of the first debt listed in the example above (credit card 2).

Pay More Money Toward the Highest Interest Debt

After making sure you pay the minimum monthly payments on all your debt, you will focus on paying down the first debt listed to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Depending on the balance owed, this could take a while, but it could save you a lot of money over the course of paying down the debt.

If you can add an extra $50-$100 to that first debt per month, it will go right do the balance. You will consistently pay more on the first debt until it’s paid off.

Combine First Debt Payments to Next Debt

Once you pay off the first (and highest interest rate), you will take all the money you paid toward that debt (minimum and extra) and add that as an extra payment on top of the second debt.

In the example table above, if you were paying an extra $100/month on top of the minimum monthly payment ($60), then you would pay $160 extra per month on top of the minimum payment of the second debt (credit card 3 in example above)

If the extra you’ve paid on your debt was not the same each month, you will at least want to pay the minimum payment you had on the first debt as an extra on the second.

Keep Paying Extra and Adding in Previous Debt Payments

As you keep paying down debts in your list, you will add in the previous debt payments and the extra you paid each month to wipe our the debts.

If you go through the example above and are paying on the last debt listed (car payment), you’d be paying an extra $305 on top of the minimum payment for the car loan. This includes the minimum payments for the previous three debts and the extra you were adding ($100).

The goal of this is to not only pay down your debts, but also save you the most money in the form of high interest payments.

This method can be hard for some due to the long path of payments depending on how your debts are setup. If you are an emotional person and need to see quick wins, the debt avalanche might not be the best fit. You’d probably try the Debt Snowball.

If you want to save more money and wipe out those high interest debts, then the Debt Avalanche can be a great method.

Either way, just do something. Just pay off your debt!

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The concept is pretty simple and easy for anyone to do. The reason this one is so popular is because it keeps your motivation going while paying down debt. Since money is so emotional for people, this is a big factor.

The Debt Snowball is purely an psychological/emotional method compared to the Debt Avalanche, but it works for many because of this simple fact. Emotions often get us into debt, but can also get us out of debt!

List Your Debts by Balance from Smallest to Largest

Write down (or use a spreadsheet) all your debts in order from the smallest balance to the largest. Do not pay attention to interest rate or even minimum monthly payment. Only balance due.

Here is a simple example to use:

Pay Minimum Payments on All Debts

This is important because you don’t want to default on the loan or go into collections. That will destroy your credit rating and cause more stress. Pay the minimum monthly payments on all your balances besides the first one (Credit Card 1 in above table). You will be paying more on this one.

Pay Any Extra Money on the Smallest Balance Debt

I know this is the hard task, but you need to pay off this debt first and as fast as you can. You will make at least the minimum monthly payment ($45 in example table below), but you also want to add on anything extra you have on this first listed debt.

If you have an extra $50 to pay toward that debt, you will do it. You will attack this small debt with any extra money you have. Try to keep the extra money payments as consistent as possible.

Related: 101 ways to earn extra money to pay down your debts

Roll the First Debt’s Payments to the Next Debt

Once you pay off the first (and smallest debt), you will take not only the minimum monthly payment you were making on it, but also all the extra you were paying and add it onto the next debt on the list.

So if your minimum monthly payment on the first debt was $45 and you were adding $50 on top to pay it off faster, you will add $95 on top of the next debt’s minimum monthly payment to get that debt paid off.

Rinse, Repeat, Roll your Snowball

The power of this method is simple. You roll over your paid off debt’s payments into the next available debt until they are all paid off. As your debts are paid off, the available money you have to pay towards them grows. Effectively creating a snowball that grows bigger as you roll down the debt mountain.

Reap the Debt Payoff Rewards

Hopefully as your debt snowball grows, you will see the end of your debt mountain. If you are able to pay off all of the debts in the above example, you would have $1,065 in extra money you can use to save for an well deserved vacation or start investing.

No matter what method you use to pay down debt, the key is that you are at least trying to do it. Fight your debt with a giant debt snowball!

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