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Kate Hate posted:My mom is a huge fan of Rent-A-Center/Colortyme/Aaron's/all stupid rent to own bullshit stores. I try to tell her that she could just save the drat monthly payments she would make on a couch or whatever and go out and buy one, but she still keeps going back. I've never been to one of those stores before and I don't see the appeal. I guess I don't have that "but I want it NOWWWW" trait that their customers have. I don't konw what it's like in the USA, but here in Australia, every major furniture store will have a "36/48 MONTHS, NO DEPOSIT, INTEREST FREE!" sorta deal. They're tricky, you have to know EXACTLY what you're getting into to make the most of it, but I don't know why you would even consider renting poo poo when you can do a interest free deal. My Fiance and I used one to get the basic furnishings when we first moved out of home ages ago and in the end it only cost us about $50 more than RRP over a year in account fees and gave us the ability to get the stuff now without having to lay down thousands in cash.
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Aug 22, 2013 03:27
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If you have no or terrible credit you can't qualify for those sales. So people go to rent a center.
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Aug 22, 2013 03:58
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grack posted:I had a client who went to a local furniture store and instead of paying upfront (which he could have afforded easily) they conned him in to signing up for a store credit card and putting it all on that for *reasons*. A few years ago, when we bought a couch, we signed up for the credit card since the salesperson was willing to waive the delivery cost if we did it (since he got a bonus). We put the deposit on the card, then immediately paid all of it off and haven't thought about it since. The problem comes when these get issued to people who would have trouble actually paying, which is actually exactly what the card issuer is counting on, since it means that they get to charge usurious rates. This is not a coincidence.
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Aug 22, 2013 04:44
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Volmarias posted:The problem comes when these get issued to people who would have trouble actually paying, which is actually exactly what the card issuer is counting on, since it means that they get to charge usurious rates. This is not a coincidence. Oh I know, but it was still shocking to see in person.
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Aug 22, 2013 04:51
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monsieur fatso posted:My maternal grandfather passed away when I was 3 in 1989, but I've been told this story by my mom and uncle. I guess my grandmother thought he had lots of money stored away. He owned his own business after all.
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Aug 22, 2013 05:43
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A friend of mine decided to buy a ridiculous truck that he ended up financing over 50k to buy. After about 6 months of spending $1200 on his payment, gas and insurance he realized this was probably not the best idea and that he should get rid of it. He sure did...about 18 months later. He sold it just under a year ago and still owes another 8k before he's out from under that mess. This is the same guy who proudly proclaimed that he didn't want a card from his wife for father's day so his family could save a few dollars. The week prior to this he bought $120 shoes, a $350 office chair and 2 new smartphones. Way to save that $3, dumbass.
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Aug 22, 2013 06:59
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I've had a lifetime of crappy financial decisions. Junior year in college, I "needed" a $4500 PowerBook 540c. No money or job, so mom cosigned a loan. Top of the line, 33MHz 68k processor, 12MB of RAM, 500MB HD, 640x480 active matrix. Obsolete immediately, as everything went PowerPC after that. No AppleCare, and after a year and three weeks the backlight died. I could only use it in a dark room or with a towel over my head. Senior year, I got a gift of $1200 cash, so I bought a used school bus. The engine broke immediately: another $4500 loan to rebuild it. The transmission died, so I borrowed $2k from mom. This beast cost $10 an HOUR to drive (in 1996 prices). I had nowhere to park it after college, so I paid to keep it in storage for TEN YEARS before I finally scrapped it. My young bride and I quickly acquired $20k in credit card debt. If one person got a new toy, the other needed something just as good or better, and while we're doing that, might as well get more stuff. For example, I installed a 6-CD changer in her car for her birthday. She was so happy, she treated us to a new TV, DVD player, and 5.1 surround system (1998 prices). That's right, we spent money as a reward to ourselves for spending money. All on credit cards. We had a huge VHS library (which we had upgraded to widescreen VHS a month prior), and now everything needed to be on DVD, which were $40 a pop back then. Combined, we made $80k in a very cheap city, but we were living hand-to-mouth and buying furniture 12 months same as cash. We both needed those fancy new iMacs, so more loans, because we didn't have $1800 to buy one outright. We paid way more than we should have for two cars because we had no money down. We scraped together $5k to buy a house with 3% down. Took on a boarder to help with mortgage. A year later, my wife got a job across the country, so she moved first, and the apartment she rented (despite my protests) was a lovely 2-bedroom for $2k/month. But it included DSL! Finally divorced her, sold the house, paid off the credit cards. (Side note on that: in the divorce she forced us to liquidate our $8k in AAPL stock, which was bought at 18 and sold at 16, long before it split multiple times. Motherfucker.) Got a good job, but spent all my cash on travel, toys, and drugs. More credit card debt. I finally got smart and found a cheap place in a communal household, paid off the cards, and put half of my income into savings. Everything's good, right? Nope. A few months after I "got smart," I mouthed off one too many times at work and was fired, the very week of the 2008 economic meltdown. Rather than get a job, I borrowed $3k from mom and dicked around for a few years. Every now and again I'd get some kind of windfall (win a poker tourney, work for the census, etc) so I could catch up on back rent, but I rarely had more than a few hundred to my name. And when I went a while without winning a poker tournament, I'd cash out more of my IRA and 401ks. At some point along the line my car was impounded due to not paying parking tickets or registration. My landlords got tired of me being perpetually late on rent and stinking up the house with pot smoke, so they kicked me out. I packed up, moved to a cheap city, got a job, and got my poo poo together. Reconnected with an old flame, who introduced me to YNAB. I got three months ahead on budget by living ultra frugally. We paid for our $10k wedding in cash, but that took us back to square one. We paid for our delayed 3-week $10k honeymoon ahead of time. We paid back mom, settled the last of my 401k tax penalty, paid off her car. We've gotten more than a month ahead on the budget (in a high cost of living area, but her job makes it worth it), and we have concrete savings goals for the next year and beyond (saving for a baby, in addition to 25% of income dedicated to long-term and/or emergency, forever). Our next car will be purchased with cash. I wish I had learned how to budget when I was 20. My aunt tried to tell me, she gave me a book for graduation, but I ignored it. Mom clearly was an enabler. It wasn't until I started using YNAB that it all made sense. I had used spreadsheets, but I never learned to spend to the budget rather than the bank account. We're not yet poster children, but now that we've been lurking on here and reading up on Zaurg and Cornholio and the like, the scales have fallen from our eyes. It's just so much fun to see the savings go up up up. Even with the honeymoon and clearing out lingering debts (now finished), every month except for one has seen a $1k increase in our net worth, and we're projected to do much better than that through the end of the year. Thanks, BFC! I might finally get my poo poo together one of these days.
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Aug 22, 2013 13:24
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Why did you buy a school bus?
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Aug 22, 2013 13:41
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Old Fart posted:(Side note on that: in the divorce she forced us to liquidate our $8k in AAPL stock, which was bought at 18 and sold at 16, long before it split multiple times. Motherfucker.)  Looking at this mornings stock price I wouldn't even now how to cope with that.
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Aug 22, 2013 13:49
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HelloIAmYourHeart posted:Why did you buy a school bus? Because it was quirky and weird, just like me! DEMAG posted:
I weep a little here and there, pour a 40 on the curb, but nothing I can do about it. It's long in the past. Better to focus on what I can do in the present and future. I'm pretty sure I would have pissed it away regardless.
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Aug 22, 2013 13:58
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Old Fart posted:Senior year, I got a gift of $1200 cash, so I bought a used school bus. Are we talking normal Blue Bird full length school bus? Or a short bus? Because I've seen people buy weird poo poo on an impulse, but a school bus wasn't one of them until now. Congrats on getting everything else together though. CitizenKain fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Aug 22, 2013 |
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Aug 22, 2013 16:44
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Old Fart posted:Because it was quirky and weird, just like me! Unless my math is completely off, that stake would be worth north of $1 million today if you sold when I think you did.
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Aug 22, 2013 17:39
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tiananman posted:Unless my math is completely off, that stake would be worth north of $1 million today if you sold when I think you did. And he'd have used it to secure $4 million in debt
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Aug 22, 2013 17:49
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My father was always terrible with money. He kept four or five maxed out credit cards at a time, and was constantly in debt. When I started college, he promised to help me with tuition, but he flaked on me. When he flaked, I decided to take matters into my own hands and file as a dependent under my drug addict, live off the government mom, so that I could get Pell Grants. My dad, on the other hand, decided to game the system and continued to file me as a dependent. He filed on his taxes that he was helping me with tuition. Oh yeah, and he filed me as a dependent long after I got married and started filing on my own. Now the IRS is garnishing his wages and I graduated with only $10,000 of debt, which I easily paid off. Congrats, dad! We also had a neighbor that constantly spent her husband's entire paycheck on horribly made costumes for her LARP group and then proceeded to live without electricity for several months.
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Aug 22, 2013 18:32
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I dunno guys, I'd buy a school bus too 
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Aug 22, 2013 18:47
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I would never set out to buy a school bus but if a guy walked up to me and offered me a schoolbus for $1200 I'd have a hard time saying no.
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Aug 22, 2013 18:53
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Jeffrey posted:I would never set out to buy a school bus but if a guy walked up to me and offered me a schoolbus for $1200 I'd have a hard time saying no. What a logistical nightmare. If a guy walked up to me and offered me $1200 to take a schoolbus from him, I'd probably still say no.
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Aug 22, 2013 19:56
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Volmarias posted:What a logistical nightmare. If a guy walked up to me and offered me $1200 to take a schoolbus from him, I'd probably still say no. I wouldn't actually now because I live in NYC where it would probably cost over $1200/month to park, but when I was in socal? Maybe.
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Aug 22, 2013 20:05
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If you bought a bus you could always bury it in the back yard (if you have access to one), which is what some people who live near my parents did. The end sticks out so they can use the back door to get inside. Most of my coworkers live paycheck to paycheck. We're a nonprofit that operates on grant funding, so sometimes things don't flow smoothly (like say, if the state decides to sit on our reimbursements for a couple weeks which happens occassionally). They are aware this happens, yet each time it sets off a flurry of panic because nobody has any sort of emergency fund, backup savings, or even credit as a last resort to fall back on. It blows my mind, because this year we've had to reapply for some funding that we had the past 5 years, and we still don't know if we'll get another round of it. Everyone has known this was going to happen for well over a year, it was made very clear that our funding amounts were uncertain this year, and worst-case scenario we'd be dealing with some really severe budget cuts. Has anyone (besides me) been avoiding extra expenses, putting away a little extra just in case, etc.? Not at all. The other day a coworker asked my boss if we were going to get bonuses at Christmas because she really needed it (meaning she has already spent money assuming she'll have a bonus). My boss works two jobs and his wife is a nurse, combined they make well over $100,000/year and yet he is constantly strapped for cash because he's paying off THREE houses (lives in one, his mother and grandmother live in another, and his MIL lives in the third) and his wife and kids act like he's made of money and spend it constantly. One of my coworkers, a lady in her mid 40s with 2 kids and a husband with a failing business, also works 2 jobs. She makes around $40k with us, I estimate probably another $20k with her side job. For this area, that's quite a bit. She is working herself to the bone to pay for every little thing her kids might want. Cheerleading camp, private golf lessons, beauty pageants, cars, expensive phones, etc. Whatever is left just gets sucked into her husband's business. She drove a worn out minivan with no brakes for months because she couldn't bring herself to spend money to ensure her own safety rather than on some frivilous activity her kids wanted to do. Retirement isn't even in the cards. She'll probably have to work until she drops dead, because even once the kids are out on their own I don't see her cutting them off, or her husband will figure out some way to piss away more money. 
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Aug 22, 2013 21:56
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Everything Burrito posted:If you bought a bus you could always bury it in the back yard (if you have access to one), which is what some people who live near my parents did. The end sticks out so they can use the back door to get inside. ...What do they do inside of their buried school bus?
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Aug 22, 2013 22:49
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That's a dangerous question there son.
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Aug 22, 2013 22:54
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naughty_penguin posted:...What do they do inside of their buried school bus? Bury more school buses  Some people in my family are very automotively stupid. One family member is selling her sedan to upgrade to a minivan, as her family size is increasing. This is a good idea. The better idea would have been to just go for the minivan 9 months ago when she bought that car. This is what everyone told her. But she was insistent back then that new minivans were too expensive, they couldn't afford one, and that there's no used market for minivans because everyone buys them and drives them into the ground. Uhh, you know how rental car places sell their cars at about 24 months or 40,000 miles? Minivans make up a large part of rental fleets. Also, your best friend is a resale sales manager for an enormous rental car company and can hook you up like crazy (which is what eventually happened) Her better and more affordable idea than a 2 year old used minivan? A brand-new, $28,000 Honda Pilot. Thankfully, they couldn't qualify for that loan and they didn't get one. She's thrilled to be getting a 5% interest rate (on a 7 year car loan) for that year-old van they just bought. Why? Because the loan on the car she's getting rid of is at a 16% interest rate  How bad does your credit have to be to get credit card-esque interest rates on a car?
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Aug 22, 2013 23:59
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16% APR on a car loan is sub 600 credit score territory.
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Aug 23, 2013 00:47
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Buying an ex-rental is a terrible idea. That in itself is a bad with money story.
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Aug 23, 2013 00:51
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skipdogg posted:16% APR on a car loan is sub 600 credit score territory. Is there a good guide regarding credit scores around for us who dont live in the US and find the whole idea confusing? My bank look at my income and current assets and then decide to give me more money.
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Aug 23, 2013 00:52
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Sudden Infant Def Syndrome posted:Buying an ex-rental is a terrible idea. That in itself is a bad with money story. Not necessarily, though you probably do need to be at least a little lucky about the vehicle's history. My parents (who, I do have to admit, aren't very good with money) bought an ex-rental Dodge Grand Caravan about 5 years ago which has been very solid so far (I think they have only had to do one repair on it that wasn't just regular maintenance and that cost them only a few hundred dollars). Though specifically if you're looking for a minivan right now you can buy a brand new Grand Caravan for $20k with 5-year 0% financing so gambling on a used rental probably isn't worth the savings at the moment. taremva posted:Is there a good guide regarding credit scores around for us who dont live in the US and find the whole idea confusing? You can read credit scores in the US here. Credit scores are basically an attempt to summarize your creditworthiness in a single number. It's used because it's less expensive to look at a single number instead of going through an entire credit history, especially in the early stages of lending. The main credit score people talk about is the FICO score which is used when applying for mortgages and credit cards (there are others that aren't as widely used). As mentioned in the Wikipedia article the FICO score ranges from 300 to 850 with 60% of Americans falling in the 650 - 799 range with a bias towards lower scores. Generally a credit score below 600 is bad (expect high rates and low limits if you can get approved) and a credit score below 500 is terrible (good luck getting credit from anybody besides a payday lender or buy here-pay here car lot, and even they may turn you down). Mr.Radar fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 01:23
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Why did you spend 10k on a wedding?
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Aug 23, 2013 02:39
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TLG James posted:Why did you spend 10k on a wedding? That's actually not too bad as far as weddings go  I have two friends getting married next month, and they average to about 15k each. They are not rich people by any meaning of the word. Pretty sure one spent as much on her dress as she spent on her car.
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Aug 23, 2013 02:42
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Sudden Infant Def Syndrome posted:Buying an ex-rental is a terrible idea. That in itself is a bad with money story. Only if you believe the Seinfeld stand-up sketch is reflective of reality. When rental cars are retired, they are either sold to people directly from the rental company or sold in lots that end up at normal car dealerships' used car lots. Many people end up purchasing one and have no idea.
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Aug 23, 2013 02:45
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FrozenVent posted:That's actually not too bad as far as weddings go  God, the amount people spend on their weddings shocks and horrifies me. My husband and I got courthouse married, it cost about $90 and I spent about $100 on my dress. I also bought my own ring for $800 (heirloom diamond, new setting). Tell me all your wedding finance horror stories.
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Aug 23, 2013 04:10
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I don't want to get into it on here and it's nothing compared to some of the stories you can find online, but let's just say your entire wedding wouldn't pay for a "decent" wedding dress. Apparently spending 1/3 to 1/2 of the couple's combined gross income on the wedding and honeymoon, while talking about buying a house and having kids, is entirely normal. I don't get it because I'm a guy and single I guess? But seriously, if you're going to take out a personal loan...
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Aug 23, 2013 04:21
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We spent around $35,000 for our wedding and I would gladly pay double that if I can recreate the experience. It was awesome. We paid everything in cash. That's the biggest splurge we made so far and we don't regret it.
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Aug 23, 2013 04:25
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Spending a lot of money on a wedding isn't necessarily bad. Spend what you can budget and which wont leave you in crippling debt for years.
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Aug 23, 2013 04:48
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TLG James posted:Why did you spend 10k on a wedding? Well, it wasn't just the wedding. Dress was like $600, ring was moissanite, and ceremony was at the courthouse. Reception cake and flowers were a few grand, photographer was $1500, lodging for a week was another grand (she lived in one city, I in another, and the ceremony was in my "home town"), plus flights and rental car, we took people to a baseball game instead of rehearsal dinner, took a couple small trips, and then another $1500 on moving me and my stuff to her city in another country. Adds up in a hurry.
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Aug 23, 2013 06:11
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canyoneer posted:
I recently bought a used Pilot (for much less than $28k), and it's not a bad mini-van alternative - especially if you want 4wd. It seats 7 with the 3rd row up.
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Aug 23, 2013 10:12
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Old Fart posted:Well, it wasn't just the wedding. Dress was like $600, ring was moissanite, and ceremony was at the courthouse. Reception cake and flowers were a few grand, photographer was $1500, lodging for a week was another grand (she lived in one city, I in another, and the ceremony was in my "home town"), plus flights and rental car, we took people to a baseball game instead of rehearsal dinner, took a couple small trips, and then another $1500 on moving me and my stuff to her city in another country. Adds up in a hurry. $10,000 seems pretty decent to me. We're doing a very simple ceremony+reception at the same place, and that alone is near $10,000 for 80 guests minimum. You can EASILY add in a dress at $1,500, a $1,500 photographer and $1000 in rings. Weddings are loving expensive poo poo.
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Aug 23, 2013 10:44
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edit: eh nm. A co-worker (who is always complaining about money and taxes) just financed a new car and a mortgage. The house is about an hour away from work. Another thing I've noticed is that the people I've met who complain about federal income taxes (In the United States of all places) regularly are really bad with money. There are definitely some people that have legit reasons to complain about taxes (especially local taxes) but every median-upper income person I've met that complains about federal income tax are big/wasteful spenders. The reason they start complaining about taxes is because they're constantly living paycheck to paycheck so they're more likely to think "Gee I would have so much more money right now if it wasn't for taxes". Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 13:45
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Sudden Infant Def Syndrome posted:Buying an ex-rental is a terrible idea. That in itself is a bad with money story. My '01 Grand Am I bought used as a rental at 36,000. Drove it 274,000. At that point the only major work done to the car was, new fuel pump and filter, 2 brake master cylinders, drivers window motor, and an AC compressor. All the work done by me. I got rid of it when a small oil leak developed, probably from a bad gasket. But it was old and I didn't feel like putting in the time to fix it. If you know about cars, rentals can be a real steal.
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Aug 23, 2013 14:28
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Sudden Infant Def Syndrome posted:Buying an ex-rental is a terrible idea. That in itself is a bad with money story. At the risk of tempting fate, I've driven a former rental for the last three years and it's been very nearly perfect. e: To elaborate, rear wheel bearing started to let go, which is apparently common in the Yaris. $600 to fix. That's the only thing I've had to do so far. ex2: On wedding chat. A big difference in the price for a lot of people is the number of guests. My would-be SIL is getting $10k from their dad toward their wedding, but it's mostly going to pay for the extended family that he insists on inviting. They live pretty modestly, so I'd guess the whole affair won't break $20k. Dragyn fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Aug 23, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2013 14:33
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I'm so glad my fiance just wants a justice of the peace thing with our parents there. I plan to spend big on the honeymoon though 
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Aug 23, 2013 16:23
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