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BossRighteous posted:If they aren't in debt and have retirement funded this lifestyle sounds pretty fuckin' killer. Are they in some sort of trouble you didn't mention? I'm going off of what my boyfriend says here but according to him they claim to have next to nothing saved and no, they don't have retirement funds of any kind. They also lament from time to time that they can't just pay for their kids' college tuition and that they're going to be in debt for the rest of their lives because of it. Except that it seems pretty clear to me that they COULD and they just don't. But they've also alluded to the college loan debt being tiny compared to the rest of their debt, so. I also excluded some other expenses (they pay for two older relatives to live in retirement homes, for example, his dad spends a TON of money on clothes, and they have gardeners come out once a week even though they barely have a yard, and his mom spends ~$600 a month on drugs off the top of my head). They're also constantly complaining that they don't make enough/have enough to do xyz and then they go ahead and do it anyway (example: taking a three week trip to Europe last summer, where they proclaimed Paris "dirty and gross"). They must honestly pay 50% of their kids' cost of living. All three kids also have their credit card numbers (and don't have their own cards) and sort of charge whatever they want. I'm pretty sure they only stopped paying their other daughter's total rent this year, now they do like half or something. Also I'm pretty sure I overestimated their income. It's probably more like 80-90k a year now that I think about it. It's hard to pin down how much his dad makes since he sort of does as much work as he wants to. I'm also basing some of my assumptions off of the things they have taught him or encourage him to do. For example, they told him not to bother paying off any more of his college loans than absolutely necessary because "debt is a good thing and everyone should have SOME debt". They're still paying for his mom's graduate degree from 15ish years ago. Oh and they're trying to talk him into buying a bigger TV because now that he has a job that pays a whopping 12 bucks an hour he can totally afford it. Silly Hippie fucked around with this message at 22:09 on Jul 10, 2013 |
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Jul 10, 2013 22:02
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BossRighteous posted:If they aren't in debt and have retirement funded this lifestyle sounds pretty fuckin' killer. Are they in some sort of trouble you didn't mention?
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Jul 10, 2013 22:10
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Cicero posted:I doubt that kind of lifestyle is sustainable even on 100-120k/yer. That's a ton of spending right there, I'd have a hard time believing they're not in debt, or at the very least, a hard time believing they're covering their retirement. The 100-120k/yr is a guess-timate though. It's hard to know how much people make. $80-$90k combined for two educated full grown working adults is not exactly "making good salaries" as she first described it though. I would bet they have a mortgage, car payments and the student loan payments that she mentioned but that they're paying the minimums and able to afford the loan payments so they may not feel stressed month to month, yet still may not really be saving Silly Hippie" posted:and his mom spends ~$600 a month on drugs off the top of my head) Um. HooKars fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Jul 10, 2013 |
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Jul 10, 2013 22:17
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HooKars posted:The 100-120k/yr is a guess-timate though. It's hard to know how much people make. $80-$90k combined for two educated full grown working adults is not exactly "making good salaries" as she first described it though. They have the mortgage which I'm guessing is insane (very desirable neighborhood, massive house), car payments for four cars, (maybe five? I am not sure if they own one of his older sister's cars), and their insurance (wild guess that the one sister's premium is probably pretty high since she has wrecked three cars this year!), and yeah just an insane amount of stuff. Oh and I was reading off a couple of these things to him to ask if they were right and he pointed out they own a cabin somewhere in Colorado too. Welp. And 60k a year really isn't bad for this area at all (my parents probably make 30ish each at their crap government jobs and still live quite comfortably), but yeah if you want to live in a place like theirs... I don't know. You'd probably want to be making twice as much I'd imagine. edit: Drugs=weed but yeah "um" is right, I don't even know how she smokes that much weed but I have watched her withdraw the money. This might explain the eating out expenses now that I think about it. Actually the more I type all this out the more it becomes hilariously soap opera-y like that thread where the guy's wife turned out to be spending hundreds of dollars a month on vitamins and "gifts". double edit: I almost forgot the 650/month they're spending on rent for an old apartment that my boyfriend left to move in with me. Three months ago. One month left on the lease! Pretty sure they could have just spent the lease breaking fee or whatever and maybe the next month's rent to get out of it - also if this sounds like a dumb choice on his part it was, but his roommates were so filthy that there were actual loving rats in that place and I would've done the same thing in his place. But I would have told management I was leaving and paid the drat fee. Silly Hippie fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Jul 10, 2013 |
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Jul 10, 2013 22:21
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I wonder if there is something to be said about just saying 'fuckit' once you are deep enough and not even try and live in a manageable way. Dead people don't have to pay off credit cards  These people sound like the financial equivalent of the 550-lb guy with no intention of stopping eating so much. EDIT: Also, when you said $600/mo on drugs, I was thinking expensive liquor, pills, or blow. That much a month in weed is... heroic, to say the least. EDIT 2: Are they also literally the 550-lb guy (/ woman)? I couldn't eat out that much and not look like poo poo. Delta-Wye fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Jul 10, 2013 |
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Jul 10, 2013 22:38
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Nothing is comparable to the zuarg threads. The first one was partly sad but funny and the second one was a magic ride through a magic retards land of stupidity and failure. That and wonderhangers, black mold' and a pool table.
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Jul 10, 2013 22:42
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Silly Hippie posted:Living the high life My wife and I make a combined $80k or so a year, live in rural NC and I couldn't even loving FATHOM that kind of lifestyle. We spend too much money, but we don't do half of that. They have to be MASSIVELY in debt to live like that. quote:Nothing is comparable to the zuarg threads. The first one was partly sad but funny and the second one was a magic ride through a magic retards land of stupidity and failure. That and wonderhangers, black mold' and a pool table.]
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Jul 10, 2013 22:48
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Delta-Wye posted:I wonder if there is something to be said about just saying 'fuckit' once you are deep enough and not even try and live in a manageable way. Dead people don't have to pay off credit cards Yeah, his mom was a hippie back in the day. She's seriously a very cool woman and I hope they aren't that much in over their heads but I can't imagine how they're not. They're both skinny. I have NO IDEA how this is possible. His mom jogs and hikes but I've never seen his dad do much more than walk to the other side of the house. UCS Hellmaker posted:Nothing is comparable to the zuarg threads. The first one was partly sad but funny and the second one was a magic ride through a magic retards land of stupidity and failure. That and wonderhangers, black mold' and a pool table. Yes! That's the guy. Apparently I missed the second thread though - wonderhangers?? How much money could you conceivably spend on those? I have a set from last Christmas when my grandfather thought it would be hilarious to buy every single family member hangers, and only hangers, and I can't even loving understand how it's practical or sane at all to have to unhook half your shirts from the other half just to get to the one you want 
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Jul 10, 2013 22:52
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Silly Hippie posted:Yes! That's the guy. Apparently I missed the second thread though - wonderhangers?? How much money could you conceivably spend on those? What is wrong with you? Wonderhangers are amazing! I also have this special juice that I bought as part of a multi-level marketing and if you're very lucky then you can purchase my special juice. Oh, have you seen these monogrammed chocolates? They're adorable! I'm so glad I bought several pounds worth for a relative's birthday party! Speaking of which, should I throw money into a college fund for my sister-in-law's kid or pay off my own student loans? Ha ha, lookit how dumb you are. I can do both! What's that? What about my own child? Dunno, she'll have to fend for herself I guess. Oh Zaurgthread, I miss you so. I wonder what happened to them. It's been a year or so since the thread closed, I'm curious if they managed to pay down some more debt or if Zaurg ended up dying under a pile of spreadsheets. Last we heard, he was working on a new kid so that may have also changed things.
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Jul 10, 2013 23:02
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Oh, the tragedy of Zaurg. You know, his debt level wasn't even that awful - hardly ideal, but could be paid off in a reasonable amount of time given their income. What was horrifying was the inertia, the additional debt he was always considering taking on, and the fact that the debt they had accumulated was on such mundane bullshit. MLM juice and the hangers and candles, splurges on mall clothes, sports tickets, attending other peoples' weddings at some chain hotel, going to Sea World. Just the most boring crap instead of either stuff you really needed or stuff you could look back on and say "yeah, that vacation in Peru was so amazing that the debt was worth it."And I think the wife spent 50k on a degree from some for-profit online school. And they were both content to let the perfectly decent condo sink into neglect because it wasn't a new house, so gently caress it...we'll let it get so bad that we practically HAVE to move. And then we expect that we can be landlords for some poor sap who'll pay us 1k/month to live with our moldy bathroom.
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Jul 10, 2013 23:25
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Delta-Wye posted:I wonder if there is something to be said about just saying 'fuckit' once you are deep enough and not even try and live in a manageable way. Dead people don't have to pay off credit cards It almost seems like that -- they've already assumed there wont be any inheritable assets for the kids so why not finance the kids' lifestyles as much as possible now and when they die, the debts of the kids die with them (not with the student loans but for things like the credit cards -- the kids just have their parents credit card numbers but not any kind of piggy backed account that might make them jointly liable upon the parents death)
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Jul 10, 2013 23:45
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CuddleChunks posted:Oh, have you seen these monogrammed chocolates? They're adorable! I'm so glad I bought several pounds worth for a relative's birthday party! True story: someone I know spent hundreds of dollars on personalized M&Ms for her wedding. In an event that was already hilariously over the top (a $2000 groom's cake; not even the drat wedding cake!), that struck me as some particularly poor decision making. I remember at the end of the night they were pushing bags of the things on everyone while they left. Just looked it up and 10 lbs of the little bastards cost $250. Or for the low low price of $405.99 you can get 144 M&M filled business cards  . I think I read that Zaurg thread when I was 18 or so. I remember it horrifying me into learning about budgeting so I guess some good came out of it? Remember how he paid for a hotel room for after a friend's wedding which, it was later revealed, was like an hour away from his house? That was amazing. e: WOW. Whoever recommended The Queen of Versailles, thank you. Holy mother of god, a 90,000 square foot house. I lost it at the stuffed dogs. Everyone watch this. It is beautiful. Silly Hippie fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Jul 11, 2013 |
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Jul 10, 2013 23:47
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Jul 11, 2013 02:29
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Silly Hippie posted:
I just started watching that documentary. The "Queen" takes a huge black limo to McDonalds (with only her in it) and holy crap that 100 million dollar house. Now she is complaining about having to take a commercial plane.
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Jul 11, 2013 04:41
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Silly Hippie posted:True story: someone I know spent hundreds of dollars on personalized M&Ms for her wedding. In an event that was already hilariously over the top (a $2000 groom's cake; not even the drat wedding cake!), that struck me as some particularly poor decision making. I remember at the end of the night they were pushing bags of the things on everyone while they left. Just looked it up and 10 lbs of the little bastards cost $250. Or for the low low price of $405.99 you can get 144 M&M filled business cards In all fairness, that was $205 well spent for my wedding. Those things went like hotcakes. I didn't even have any to keep for myself. We gave them away as favors in little boxes from walmart that we put ribbon on using glue dots. Our table decorations were all handmade by my wife and I and we splurged on the favors.
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Jul 11, 2013 13:16
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Silly Hippie posted:weddings Blows my mind, man. You know there's got to be diminishing returns on those over-the-top weddings. Someone in the funding chain has to be thinking "that cake was cool, but it wasn't $2,000 cool." I know someone putting together a stupid-expensive wedding by most anyone's standards, especially since one of them is currently (and chronically) unemployed and the other isn't doing much better. It's going to cost more than my entire college degree did, and knowing these people, it's really all just to impress other people. Silly Hippie posted:e: WOW. Whoever recommended The Queen of Versailles, thank you. Holy mother of god, a 90,000 square foot house. I lost it at the stuffed dogs. Everyone watch this. It is beautiful. I have complex feelings about that documentary. The mom is such an interesting person to me. She was an engineer at IBM way back in the day, and left her high dollar technical career to strike out on her own and have a successful career in modeling and pageants. Now she's essentially retired from responsibility, and lives in a house with dog poop on the floor. It's weird how much money she spends to desperately avoid looking like you'd expect a woman her age would. The Filipino maid living in the 5'x8' shack outside that used to be the twins' playhouse was so much  when they had such a huge house. How could you do that to a human being, much less one who essentially raised your children for the last 14 years?And then at the end, where the guy is blaming the banks loaning him cheap money for his business problems.
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Jul 11, 2013 17:22
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canyoneer posted:Blows my mind, man. You know there's got to be diminishing returns on those over-the-top weddings. Someone in the funding chain has to be thinking "that cake was cool, but it wasn't $2,000 cool." Incredibly poor wedding/money choices could be a thread in and of itself. The cake was a replica of the groom's college football field. It lit up. (They divorced in less than a year). And yeah, by the end of the movie I was surprised at how moving it was. I never thought I would feel sorry for someone saying they just don't know what to do to save their failing business while they sit in front of their personal life-sized lion statue but there you are. It was an excellent look at how things just pile on and on - the dog poo poo everywhere, the pets dying because no one even remembers they're there, "we need to save money" followed immediately by the woman buying cartfuls of toys, half of which are duplicates, at Walmart. To me the most telling scene is when the maids and nannies are unloading all the Christmas gifts from the car, and one of them picks up a small boy's bike and asks who it's for - because she knows, and even the audience knows at this point that none of the boys in the family are that small. And yes, the nanny answers, it's for the youngest son and yes it's way too small for him. And then they carry it through the garage where you see probably twenty bikes of every size piled up in the corner, likely forgotten. (As for the nanny, she has a room of her own - they show it earlier in the film. She just asked to have that playhouse in addition, as a retreat. She wanted an actual, individual "house" that desperately. The scene where she's talking about her father who wanted a house his whole life and never got one, contrasted with the 90,000 foot mansion, is like the perfect encapsulation of the American dream and its failures). Anyway yeah, totally fitting with the spirit of this thread - these are the quintessential "bad with money" people. It's easy to see how half the people mentioned here would probably do similar things if they happened to come into millions/billions of dollars. Silly Hippie fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Jul 11, 2013 |
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Jul 11, 2013 20:29
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Ugh, speaking of living beyond your means my parents met a very nice couple while doing their daily walks at the local track. This couple has a couple kids, just like my parents, and are very very Californian in their outlook. They take it easy, laugh a lot and are good company. I think the lady works in real estate and the gent plays in a touring cover band along with real estate stuff. Their kids are very well provided for as far as material things go and between the private schools, computers, new cars and stuff these kids have a pretty easy time. There's the root of the problem - these nice folks don't have the money to sustain the lifestyle they are trying to live. The cost for these private schools is outrageous and instead of getting the kids involved with buying a car they just get one handed on down. New? Well duh, that way you can add more car payments onto the several other vehicles they already have. Who has time to make dinner? Everyone in the family *does* have time to hit up Starbucks (especially the daughter on her way to school). Computer problems? Better buy a brand new one to keep competitive. These poor dorks have never really understood that the huge outlaying of cash that's going on has basically bankrupted them. It's coming and is going to lead to a ton of heartache and disappointment, not to mention the horror of telling their kids "no" when they ask for something. Again, these are friends of my parents and having met them they are really really nice people. It's just... money doesn't mean the same thing it does to people who scrimp and save against future possibilities. For them it's always party time and just go out and throw it on the credit card. Basically, they are true patriots and it's these darn naysayers who want us to *save* and live within our means that are the real menace!  God bless Murrica.
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Jul 11, 2013 21:59
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canyoneer posted:Blows my mind, man. You know there's got to be diminishing returns on those over-the-top weddings. Someone in the funding chain has to be thinking "that cake was cool, but it wasn't $2,000 cool."
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Jul 12, 2013 04:14
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Acquilae posted:You haven't seen stupid-expensive weddings like the way Indians do them; we don't have the bride and groom in a limo...they drive off in a brand new [insert luxury car] that both parents bought in addition to the other stupid-expensive gifts the attendants all buy them. One of my of my relatives a few years ago covered every flight ticket to New York and hotel booking for their son's wedding and I'm very certain that the entire bill reached almost 8 figures. If you are dropping eight figures on a wedding you probably aren't worried about the bill.
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Jul 12, 2013 04:57
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My sister and her live-in boyfriend unfortunately fit the bill for this thread. They live in a mobile home, that's paid off. Their only bills are utilities, lot rent, and gasoline. Between the both of them, they could easily afford to rent a much nicer townhouse or to buy a modest house. They're trying to save for a downpayment but... Just estimating here, they both earn probably $30-35k. So together that's a decent amount of money, considering they don't really have any major expenses. However, my sister owns more than 1000 DVDs. She buys at least a few every week. If we assume she somehow averages $5 per movie, that's easily $60+ a month on DVDs. Chances are the average is much higher than $5 each, as new releases are typically close to $20. I've pointed out to her that she could have the max Netflix account for like $20 per month, she nods and says she'll look into it, only to buy more DVDs. They also pay for cable or satellite, whichever. My sister has a 6 year old son from a previous relationship. Our mother ends up watching him, on average, 4 days per week and he spends the night with my mom at least one of those days. This frees up a lot of saved money for my sister, as she doesn't even pay my mom gas money for driving her kid around. That'd be fine if she used that money to save for her downpayment on a house, but instead she and her boyfriend go out every single weekend, at least one if not both nights. Even if they each have 2 drinks per night, that's easily $40 per weekend wasted at bars that could be used to get out of that trailer park. Added up, it's another $180ish per month. Rounding down, that's an extra $250 a month she could be saving. But the frivolous spending doesn't stop there. She likes to buy Starbucks coffees, goes tanning at tanning booths, spending $100+/each on 2 tickets to a Kenny Chesney concert, and offered to pay for my mom's ticket, who turned her down. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say she shouldn't have fun or be able to go out with friends. How I found out she buys so many DVDs? I knew all along she has a lot of movies, but my mom was at my house last week. We got to talking about my sister and she told me that my sister was having "3 more movies delivered (that day)" to my moms house. Why? Because she doesn't trust her trailer park neighbors to not steal the package from her doorstep while she's at work. Her son can't play freely outside because it's a shady old trailer park, full of trailer park stereotypes. That is why it bothers me that she is wasting all this money on movies she's never going to watch and on drinking at bars. Want to drink with your friends? Buy a case of beer for about the price of 3 drinks at a bar and invite them over/go to their house. Save money and meet the same end. Need to see that new movie? Go to Red box for $1.50 or get netflix and burn the DVDs onto your own discs if you must. In summary, her spending on worthless poo poo is preventing her from moving out of the trailer park. At the same time, it's that same spending that would probably send her back to a trailer park if they managed to buy a house, without fully changing some of her habits. johnny sack fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Jul 12, 2013 |
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Jul 12, 2013 15:55
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johnny sack posted:My sister and her live-in boyfriend unfortunately fit the bill for this thread. They live in a mobile home, that's paid off. Their only bills are utilities, lot rent, and gasoline. Between the both of them, they could easily afford to rent a much nicer townhouse or to buy a modest house. They're trying to save for a downpayment but... The worst thing about stories like this is that you can sort of see how doing some of these things makes sense. If you live in an area with bad internet or TV reception, spending $60 a month on movies or a couple of bucks every few weeks to go out to a bar and watch the football is probably not too bad a plan. Then you realise that in context it makes no sense and you wonder what they're thinking. I recently heard about an acquaintance from university. He used to always complain about being broke, and how he owed so much money on his car (he owed something to the tune of AUD$10,000, which is huge when you're earning <$10k per annum), then he'd go and do something dumb. For example, he once blew an entire pay packet on remote controlled cars then we got to spend the next two weeks hearing about how he was behind on his car payments. He also wanted to move to Japan and ~learn Japanese~ and live there in happiness and animes forever. Four years later, nothing has changed! He's still in the same place he was previously (though hopefully he paid off that car) and still thinks moving to Japan will solve all his problems. 
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Jul 12, 2013 16:25
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Last week my brother-in-law had to borrow $80 from his dad for gas. I was in the room when he literally just called his dad up and told him that he needed money. Less than 5 months ago, we were all sitting around chatting and he was bragging about his $9,000 tax return. Him and his girlfriend have one lovely car between the two of them, his parents have to help them with rent (it's an EXTREMELY low cost-of-living area) and his mother babysits their baby daughter FOR FREE and drives 10 miles each way to pick her up and take her back home. They can't even be bothered to bring her to grandma's house themselves, probably because "gas is expensive" or whatever. Their financial decisions boggle my mind. How do you blow through money like that.
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Jul 12, 2013 18:11
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Anecdotally I think the idea that a lot of "career" grad students get into bad debt because they come from upper crust backgrounds or want to keep up with peers is pretty valid. A little E/N but here goes: Around 7-8 years ago I dated a PhD candidate for a long while who admitted to me before we broke up that between student loans and other debt she was probably $115,000 in the hole. I know, "Pshew!" Right?  The worst part? Like only $35-40k of that was student debt, since she had a full scholarship for undergrad. The rest was store cards (Saks, Macys etc.), credit cards, auto loan etc. On a $1100 a month stipend. She always claimed she was handling everything herself but I always suspected her mom and dad (who weren't rich at all) were helping her out. They had to have been. I think it stemmed from the fact that she had a lot of super-wealthy friends from her undergrad days who she wanted to keep up with. I was dragged to a couple of their weddings which were borderline ridiculous in their extravagance. She was always complaining about money and how her friends would say they felt sorry for her because she was so poor. Rather than skipping that bachelorette weekend in Napa or wherever because she was broke, she'd just go anyway and charge it. Her rationalization was always "But my credit is really good!!" I honestly felt bad for her when she'd go on these trips and feel like a fifth wheel because she couldn't afford most of the excursions/tasting rooms/spas/whatever they were going to. When I saw the movie Bridesmaids I wanted to call her and tell her she should sue Kristen Wiig because she ripped her off.
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Jul 12, 2013 20:45
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I don't understand how people of moderate income levels can afford all the stupid destination bachelor/bachelorette parties people go on.
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Jul 12, 2013 21:09
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Jesus I'm a part of a bachelorette party and we're budgeting like $120 each for a nice evening, and that's making sure the bride to be doesn't have to pay for anything. Things like destination parties like that need to be planned a year in advance, which to me is kind of pointless.
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Jul 12, 2013 21:30
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gvibes posted:I don't understand how people of moderate income levels can afford all the stupid destination bachelor/bachelorette parties people go on. If you are bad with money and can't resist peer pressure, the worst situation I can think of is to have a group of fancy-pants friends who do these types of things. The first one who gets married will do something expensive, then all of the rest of the group has to follow suit so they don't look bad. And of course everyone has to go to everyone else's stupid destination wedding/bachelorette. Otherwise people might talk you know. It's a cycle. (or a spiral) I used to work with a guy who was going through it. He and his wife both got their MBAs at a top-5 school, but took out loans to do it. (They met in school) They were both so drat broke due to renting in a top neighborhood, student loans, car leases and otherwise keeping up with their peers they couldn't afford childcare for their baby. They had to leave him with his wife's parents who lived 50 miles away for 4 days a week. He basically only saw his kid Thursday night through Sunday night so he and his wife could drive nice cars, have the right zip code and pretend to be wealthy. Last time I talked to him they were getting ready to go up to Bar Harbour so his wife could be a bridesmaid (one of 8) in some ridiculous wedding. They're only 30 so I'm sure they have plenty of these things left to go to. What the gently caress.
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Jul 12, 2013 21:39
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I've never understood destination weddings or destination bachelor/ette parties (wtf, I've not heard of these - do they go elsewhere to some tropical locale to have a party and then come back for the wedding?). What's wrong with reserving a party room at a cool restaurant in town and then having a nice wedding that's in a place that's accessible/affordable to all your guests? My family is friends with some pretty well-off folks, and at the son's wedding, the biggest extravagance was an absurd abundance of high-end booze (bought wholesale at Costco as to avoid the caterer's markup), complete with a portable bar that followed the wedding guests around. But no extravagant destination bachelorette parties or poo poo like that, because what's the point other than to spend money? For content, my college-age sister was on the fast track to being horrible with money until my parents cut her off. The deal was that they'd supply her with a credit card billed to them so that she could buy books and food. Sister quickly racked up a four-figure balance of eating out and clothes shopping, so my parents took their names and address off the card and told her to have fun paying it off. Sister came to me wondering how on earth she was hemorrhaging so much money. So I demonstrated with a calculator how all those frivolous 'extra' purchases really added up. Going out to lunch all the time is one thing, but do you REALLY need the Nantucket Nectar and the side of guacamole? Because just ordering those extras on top of the food you're already ordering adds up to an extra $70 or so bucks a month. Her eyes kind of went wide with I showed her the math. I don't think she even realized how fast it all added up. Out of all of us siblings, she's always been the worst with money. Back in high school, she did a bunch of summer temp work, and earned herself a $900 paycheck. She gleefully comes up to me and asks what she should do with it. I suggested putting most of it in savings and keeping $100 or so in cash to have fun with, and she was like, 'No, I mean I want to spend all of it! What should I buy??' Hopefully $5k in credit card debt from Abercrombie and Nantucket Nectar will set her straight before it's too late. I have my own credit card debt to pay off, but at least it was from a period of chronic underemployment when I had incredibly limited cash flow (food and other necessities) and not blowing money on junk. Doing better, so not adding to it anymore or using the card, but still not well enough to make meaningful progress on bringing that balance down.  I'm considering doing a balance transfer to a new card where I can get a period of reduced/zero APR, but again, don't have enough money up front to bring it down significantly during that period, and I'm wary of getting hosed by an even higher APR when that grace period goes away.Another story is of a former housemate. He wasn't bad with money in the same way as most of these stories. He didn't have a credit card and believed that credit cards were a super bad thing. He also didn't have a savings account and refused to do online banking. He thought he was super good and conservative with money, but his real problem was that he had a really poor grasp on value and the cost of things. At one point, he was out of work, but refused to seek unemployment compensation because he was still technically employed at his two jobs that were no longer giving him hours. He literally had no money to his name and couldn't make rent. His relatives bailed him out for a few months, but due to him (and apparently everyone else in his family) not doing online banking, he never got the money in time to pay rent, so he ate the $100 late fee several months in a row. He also did all his grocery shopping at the corner CVS. Other roommates and I sat him down and told him that he couldn't afford to shop there (huge markup over supermarket prices) and that he needed to buck up and walk the extra half mile to the grocery store and buy cheap, basic things like potatoes, rice, and beans instead of frozen dinners (he was unemployed, so it wasn't like he didn't have time to cook). 'But.. the CVS is RIGHT THERE!'. Yeah, and you're paying out the rear end for the convenience of it being right there. Later on (when he wasn't in dire straits), he proudly told me about this awesome bargain he'd found for breakfast (at CVS...) - a single-serving packet of pancake mix and a pint of milk. And it was only $4! I told him I could buy two dozen eggs for the same price, and not only have a more fulfilling breakfast, but a more fulfilling breakfast for two weeks. He just... never learned cost/value comparisons. Yeah, four bucks is not a lot of money, but spending that four bucks on supplies for one carb-filled breakfast is a terrible value, especially when you have a low income. Then a couple years down the road when we left the house, I helped him move into his new studio (which was a good deal cheaper than the horribly overpriced closet-sized bedroom in the old house) and asked him what he thought of living on his own. He said he was excited, but bummed because it had significantly delayed his plans to buy himself a new computer to replace his failing laptop. I was like, $50 for the moving van is messing you up that badly? Nope. He'd bought himself about a thousand bucks worth of Ikea furniture and housewares after abandoning his bedroom furniture in the old house. I mean, I totally don't blame him for getting a new bed (his old mattress was disgusting and must have been 40 years old), but he had a perfectly good dresser, bookcase, desk, plus a whole bunch of other poo poo we ended up selling to the new tenants that he totally could have nabbed. For free. Even if he didn't want to take all his old stuff, he could have gotten stuff on Craigslist for way cheaper than a new matching Ikea set. When I mentioned these alternatives, he reacted like he hadn't even considered them. I guess the redeeming factor is that he bought all this stuff outright with cash, and I don't think he'll ever be a victim of debt problems (beyond paying down his student loans for a profoundly useless degree) and excessive spending due to him being terrified of credit cards and his reserved nature, but still, I'm kinda worried for the guy.
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Jul 12, 2013 23:42
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Just wanted to thank this thread for recommending Queen of Versailles. Incredible film. It was weird hating that woman and sort of pitying/admiring her in some way at the same time
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Jul 12, 2013 23:44
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Authentic You posted:I've never understood destination weddings or destination bachelor/ette parties (wtf, I've not heard of these - do they go elsewhere to some tropical locale to have a party and then come back for the wedding?).
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Jul 13, 2013 00:00
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oxsnard posted:Just wanted to thank this thread for recommending Queen of Versailles. Incredible film. It was weird hating that woman and sort of pitying/admiring her in some way at the same time I felt the same way about both her and the husband, with the way he was trying to keep it all afloat when everyone was telling him to just let it go. And the crazy thing is, it sounds like it worked: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?play=1&video=30001752694 Ok, end of movie derail.
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Jul 13, 2013 00:08
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oxsnard posted:Just wanted to thank this thread for recommending Queen of Versailles. Incredible film. It was weird hating that woman and sort of pitying/admiring her in some way at the same time I have never flip-flopped as much as I have between utter disgust/disdain and slight pity when watching that. Of course it has a "happy ending" in that the family is rich again  so who knows, maybe in 20 years we'll get to see "Children of Versailles".Edit: To stay on topic, this thread is also the most sad on SA apart from maybe the drug threads in TCC. Seeing people being unable to control themselves or even understand what they're doing is just sad. If you play the game without knowing the rules, how can you possibly hope to win? OGS-Remix fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Jul 13, 2013 |
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Jul 13, 2013 00:25
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Authentic You posted:I've never understood destination weddings or destination bachelor/ette parties (wtf, I've not heard of these - do they go elsewhere to some tropical locale to have a party and then come back for the wedding?). What's wrong with reserving a party room at a cool restaurant in town and then having a nice wedding that's in a place that's accessible/affordable to all your guests? A lot of time destination weddings are actually financed by the guests -- like if you have X amount of guests show up, your wedding is completely paid for in terms of food/flowers/dj/etc. it can actually be really affordable for the couple themselves. And other times it serves as a way to keep the wedding to small. And for a lot of people, it's a place that's meaningful for the couple themselves. They cant help it that it's not a super duper convenient place for one or both families. I would love to have a destination bachelorette personally. I only have a few close girl friends though and we all want to travel and want to travel together but have a hard time arranging our schedules. I feel like a destination bachelorette would be a good way to get everyone together. I dont see how it's any different than a vacation with friends or how it's not just a guy equivalent to Vegas. there are some realllly affordable deals for mexico and the caribbean now a days
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Jul 13, 2013 04:03
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A co-worker was complaining about our employer when she said "That's why I liked my last employer, they would work with me whenever I got a raise so I would not enter a higher tax bracket". When I told her that her employer was screwing her out of more money she looked at me like I was retarded and then explained to me the difference between being taxed 15 and 25% of my income. I started to explain marginal tax rates to her but I could tell it wasn't sinking in. This is the same person who told me that she would never believe that tobacco causes cancer because the cancer comes from the additives the government puts in the cigarettes. The sad thing is the tax thing is common sense for most people. The same goes for saving for retirement. My parents always saved a lot of their income in their 401ks but my mom told me that after the recession she freaked out about how much she "lost" in her 401k so she moved everything to bonds. Thankfully when I talked to my dad about this he just sighed and said he was never able to convince my mom that the dollar amount of her 401k didn't matter and that he hadn't touched his. A lot of people are like my mom though, they're great at saving money but they kill their savings after a bust which we're supposed to expect every decade or so. edit: Honestly the smartest person I know with money is my brother. He bought a trailer, a used truck and a lawnmower. He earns enough to pay the bills and buy the things he wants, which doesn't take very long He doesn't have kids and is one of those people who's going to be good looking his whole life so he'll just have a different girlfriend take care of him every 5 years or so. When he hits his 40s or 50s he'll probably inherit enough to get him through another decade or longer since his lifestyle is so inexpensive. If he runs out of money and is too old to work when he's 70 I doubt he will care. Retired at 26, I hope he doesn't screw it up. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 06:10 on Jul 13, 2013 |
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Jul 13, 2013 05:34
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I'm amazed at how many people don't understand the tax brackets...I have heard many intelligent people be relieved that their raise didn't push them into a higher bracket, thinking they clear more at the lower salary  And when you explain marginal rates, they think you are retarded and tell you stories about how they/their friends got screwed by making more money. And I work at a University, where almost everyone has a degree, many have a master's...
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Jul 13, 2013 12:30
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ntd posted:I'm amazed at how many people don't understand the tax brackets...I have heard many intelligent people be relieved that their raise didn't push them into a higher bracket, thinking they clear more at the lower salary There's actually something to this, although not with marginal taxes. Certain assistance programs cap out at a set income, so if you're depending in them and get a small raise, you end up with less money overall as you can't count on that aid money anymore.
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Jul 13, 2013 12:57
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You would be pleased/shocked/disinterested/whatever to know that this works for professionals to. There's this guy responsible for a $80 billion balance sheet. One of its revenue streams is a $300m per annum royalty that was growing at around 2% pa and was essentially a AAA rated risk. The guy wants to securitise the $300m pa royalty and hires an investment bank to provide advice. The investment bank says I think its worth $1.5 billion here's a cheque, we'll structure and package it ourselves. The guy was borrowing money at 4% pa. The guy says OK. I said dude wtf $300m / 4% is $7.5 billion - and that assumes zero growth. If you do this you will burn your shareholders by over $5 billion. The guys said we trust our investment bank, they are advising us. I said they are not your advisor they are your fking counterparty dude. They are taking it on their own balance sheet not even packaging it for their investors. That's how badly you're getting fked here. Guy says don't worry there are no probity issues here. I said you've gone down to a ford dealership and paid the guy $5 grand to tell you whether or not you need a new car and if so which one to buy. Then you've bought a Taurus for $150K because he said it was a great deal. Conversation repeated with the guy's board who killed the deal. Haven't heard from the guy since. Hypation fucked around with this message at 13:02 on Jul 13, 2013 |
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Jul 13, 2013 12:59
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ntd posted:And when you explain marginal rates, they think you are retarded and tell you stories about how they/their friends got screwed by making more money. And I work at a University, where almost everyone has a degree, many have a master's... There are a few edge cases where you can, in fact, be screwed by making more money, and if you're working in a university I wouldn't be surprised if someone (or someone's parents) has/have been. Usually they involve the cutoffs for large tax deductions or credits, and a lot of those have to do with tuition. Right around $52,000 and $80,000 there are a couple booby-traps where making an extra $1 can cost you, depending on your exact tax situation, and there's one at $80,000 where that buck that can cost you $1000 or more. e: I'm slightly wrong here! The buck can cost you $500+state taxes, not $1000+state taxes. Thanks to Admiral101 for the correction. I doubt it's very common, though, and I think anyone who got hit would specify that it was a weird case. e: beaten by Volmarias. Didn't even thing about the other aid programs. Cassius Belli fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Jul 14, 2013 |
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Jul 13, 2013 13:34
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I have coworkers who do not understand marginal tax rates, and think that too much overtime in a month will end up at a 50% total tax rate. As you can infer, they also dont know that everything is counted per year and not per month.
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Jul 13, 2013 14:21
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ntd posted:I'm amazed at how many people don't understand the tax brackets...I have heard many intelligent people be relieved that their raise didn't push them into a higher bracket, thinking they clear more at the lower salary Well, there's always the AMT...
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Jul 13, 2013 15:02
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