|
I still don't understand how it is logistically possible to take fourteen vacations in one year, nevermind financially. Was there ever an explanation for those?
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 07:27
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 15:15 |
|
|
Haifisch posted:I know we're still focusing on the Macbook and tuyop's past poor buying decisions, but what about this? Is there an actual savings fund set aside for this, or is it going to turn into another "oops, we suddenly need money for this, looks like we need to rack up more debt/reduce savings" thing when the time comes? How much do you expect to spend on this? Have you done any research into how much a trip to Cuba will realistically cost? Do you think you've learned from your past vacation mistakes? He's mentioned they had saved for a Christmas trip but then they moved. So he should have some funds earmarked for a vacation, not sure how much though its less than $3000. I haven't seen him price it out aside from saying that flight from Halifax to Cuba are around $350. Hopefully he's not just using that number without looking into what it would cost from Edmonton. At least now they have some time to build up the account if need be. are therevany additional costs aside from the plane. Does doing Cuba vs home mean you'll need to pay for accommodation? Food? Will you guys want to do any activities that cost money? I don't think one trip to see family at a time that's hopefully cheaper than the holiday season means he's going to slip back into taking 14 vacations but he needs to be sure he's taking into account all costs when budgeting. He seems to be consistently lowballing the MBA price despite those having a pretty fixed price, vacations are more unsure, with much more room to lie to yourself as to the costs and what amount saved you should be targeting. HooKars fucked around with this message at 12:27 on Aug 23, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 12:23
|
|
|
For what it's worth, Cuba is probably one of the cheapest southern destination for Canadians.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 12:45
|
|
|
HooKars posted:He seems to be consistently lowballing the MBA price despite those having a pretty fixed price, vacations are more unsure, with much more room to lie to yourself as to the costs and what amount saved you should be targeting. There's also the tacked on price of business school of essentially mandatory drinking and/or meet and greet networking sessions. From what I gather this is a fairly large part of the overall cost and probably the only actually vocationally important part of an MBA degree.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 18:05
|
|
|
Dusseldorf posted:There's also the tacked on price of business school of essentially mandatory drinking and/or meet and greet networking sessions. From what I gather this is a fairly large part of the overall cost and probably the only actually vocationally important part of an MBA degree. I was talking about the MacBook Air, not a business degree. He's not going to business school, he's gonna be a teacher
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 18:10
|
|
|
Dusseldorf posted:There's also the tacked on price of business school of essentially mandatory drinking and/or meet and greet networking sessions. From what I gather this is a fairly large part of the overall cost and probably the only actually vocationally important part of an MBA degree. He meant a MacBook Air, not a Master in Business Administration. Not sure which is the best investment for tuyop.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 18:10
|
|
|
He would certainly be lowballing an MBA (both kinds) at $1200. Just one a lot more than the other.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 18:14
|
|
|
Oh, this all makes more sense now. I was thinking an MBA really would be a bad call at this venture.
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 18:15
|
|
|
Dusseldorf posted:Oh, this all makes more sense now. I was thinking an MBA really would be a bad call at this venture. I do agree that $1200 is a massive lowball for either MBA! I was looking at just shy of $1300 for a refurbished MBA with only 128gb, but with apple care and no sales tax. I get why extended warranties are dumb, but with expensive laptops I take a different position. Mostly only because I've seen so many laptops - Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Apple - fail shortly after the normal warranty. Some of those were total losses, some of those were no big deal. All depended on extended care. IMO a MBA is a 5yr asset, and thus extending your guaranteed life span of said asset at approx 10% purchase price makes a lot of sense to me. That said, *I* buy cheap used laptops as a poor student, and I could buy 6 of them for what an MBA costs. But drat, I really want an MBA. Maybe after I graduate, and build a house. Then I'll need a pair of docks and 24"s for both home and work because a 13" screen is lolsmall... $3-4k later woot!
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2013 19:07
|
|
|
tuyop posted:I already spent that money years ago. The only thing to do now is to spend as little as possible until it's paid back. This will only last a few years or so, I'll survive. I'm in the process of catching up on this ridiculous thread. This is something I felt needed quoting again.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 02:40
|
|
|
Okay, sorry for bringing up the past, I'm still on October '12. I'm confused, and I need some clarification. When you got transferred, you said you just needed to wait a few weeks and you'd get free room and board from the army, but that signing a lease would make you ineligible. You said it was too good a deal to pass up. Then suddenly you signed a lease. What happened? And why did nobody call you out on this? I feel like I missed something here. I know this is all old news, I'm just having difficulty wrapping my head around this. And I'm a guy who has spent his life being ridiculously bad with money. (And regarding all this talk about cold 16C winters... don't you own awesome wool socks? I agree that high quality wool socks are the tits. Wear 'em!) Old Fart fucked around with this message at 11:38 on Aug 24, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 03:55
|
|
|
It was 16C when I woke up this morning; are you sure you don't mean -16C? -16C is wool socks and boots weather.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 04:38
|
|
|
I was still on the space heater discussion from last October. I agree that 16 is entirely livable, and that southern Ontario is a far cry from the arctic. I'm up to the roommate search, and I'm still confused why nobody called him out for passing on FREE RENT FOR NINE MONTHS.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 04:51
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:Resale value is irrelevant (Resale value for electronics, wtf?) as well, since it's not like he can write off depreciation, and there's a fair chance the laptop will get destroyed.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 05:13
|
|
|
Caught up to February of this year, when you were quitting the job in order to take out student loans. Tuyop, I've been a financial fuckup for over two decades. I'm not judging. I see a lot of me (and my enabling ex-wife) in you. I think it's great you've been making steady progress on paying it down. But as of February, at least, your attitude hasn't changed much. (Side note: what happened to Toeshoes' $500 debt when she first joined? How did that balloon to $2k while in the middle of aggressively paying down your debt?) BTW, I'm glad you're using YNAB, that's basically the envelope method in digital form. It helped me transform the way I think about budget, and I wish I had learned those lessons at your age. You're an idealist. I get it. I was, too. And I poo-poo'd boring old dudes like me who laughed at me and told me that one day I'd learn. But one of your problems is that your idealism often operates in stark contrast to reality and pragmatism. EVERYBODY's 20s suck. You've already borrowed from your future with your $50k of "fun" debt. Now you need to pay that back. Working a crap job for a year or two to pay down your debt is something YOU created for YOURSELF. Nobody foisted this upon you. Nobody held a gun to your head to make you buy that car. This is all on you. You don't get to celebrate taking a chunk out of it. You already celebrated. That's what got you here in the first place. You don't get to reward yourself for spending money by spending more money. (The ex and I were experts at rationalizing that one, hoo boy.) You know what's a gently caress-ton more awesome than your 20s? Your 30s. The raging hormones of your 20s will have subsided, and you'll have some perspective and wisdom to do smarter things. You'll be better looking. You know what can be even better than your 30s? Your 40s. You'll have spent the previous 15 years wisely investing (while ALSO having fun), and you'll get to truly experience freedom. A friend of mine took multiple cross-country bicycle trips around the USA in his 40th year, while running his own business, owning a home, and raising two beautiful children in one of the most expensive cities in the country. He was able to do that because he has discipline. Another friend of mine RETIRED AT AGE 40. He now volunteers on passion projects, has plenty of time for recreational activities, and takes trips to Peru and Japan and everywhere else. He has amazing discipline. You lack discipline. And hey, so do I. That's why I'm 40 and broke as gently caress. Don't be like me. Be like those guys. FWIW, here are some of the hair-brained "if only..." schemes my ex and I came up with in order to get out of our crippling debt (and we were pulling in almost $100k combined, yet couldn't afford... well, anything, really): Living in a motor home. Buying property in Humboldt and growing basil. Joining the peace corp. Moving to a remote location and building a tiny house. My wife was depressed, but if only THIS thing or THAT thing would happen, then it would all be better. Sound familiar? These are very similar to your schemes and excuses. You're not the first person to be down this exact road. It's not you vs the world. We would get very excited about these things for a week or two, then get very depressed when we couldn't figure out a way to make it happen. And why couldn't we just pick up and do what we wanted? Because we had CRIPPLING DEBT. You want to be free? Truly free? For the next 60 years of your life? Suck it up for a year or two and stop making huge life-altering impulse decisions. You hem and haw over iPhones and microwaves, but then you go and quit your "incredibly stable" job on a whim. The job that was your entire backup plan for income and retirement. You don't even discuss it on here first, you just come in and announce "well, it's done." Nobody is saying you can't have what you want. What people are doing is SCREAMING at you that your impulsiveness is PREVENTING you from doing what you want. And so the cycle of depression and manic episodes repeats over and over and over and over again. This attitude is reflected in your "bad luck" which has sadly been reinforced by people on here. You're not unlucky, you're unobservant and impulsive. How do I know this? Because I'm exactly the same way. I'm constantly bumping into things or breaking stuff because I move before I think. When I take a moment to be aware of my surroundings, suddenly my "accidents" stop happening. Your car drifting into a lake wasn't something that happened to you; it's something YOU CAUSED. Your bike wheels bending almost immediately wasn't just dumb luck; you drove it poorly. Your back window didn't shatter "somehow"... it was because you mis-packed your car and put a lot of force on a tiny pressure point. That's just physics. EVERYBODY has issue with cable and telecom companies, that's just how it is. When things got confused further because you mistyped your corrected address, that was on YOU. Your snowtire debacle? I don't even own a car and I know the difference between real and nominal measurements (and you're in for a big surprise if you try to build a house). You didn't get stuck with a weird mafia-connected slumlord; you impulsively signed a lease when free rent was a week away. You seemed legitimately surprised that your paychecks were screwed up despite having years of experience that should have prepared you. (edited out lovely bits) You don't think. You just act, and then when it all goes tits-up, you shrug it off to bad luck and say "Who knew?" LOTS OF PEOPLE. I don't blame you for not knowing everything in the world, but every day is a chance for you to be one of the lucky 10,000 that learns something for the first time. But you don't learn. Every time something comes up, you argue and get defensive and wave away the chance of a "worst case" scenario. You accuse others of being hyperbolic. Then when that exact thing happens, you shrug with, "oh well, you were right." But do you listen the next time? Nope. You argue and distort and insult. You try to get credit for saving $50 on a phone, but then make the same huge crippling life-altering decisions again and again and again. You feel like it's different because it's a different item or situation, but it's really the same thing over and over and over again. You want to be respected as an adult? Then stop acting like a child. Right now. You DON'T deserve nice things because you haven't EARNED them. You're not a beautiful snowflake. You borrowed against yourself. Once you pay the piper, then you can truly start to LIVE. e: Sorry if that seems a bit harsh. I think I and others get frustrated because you have so much advantage, intelligence, ability, and potential. That's a blessing and a curse. Please, right this course. The sad truth is that your upbringing and schooling failed you in this way. It's okay to recognize and forgive this. My mother actually apologized for not teaching me about money and enabling my early irresponsibility. Everybody here wants to see you soar. Old Fart fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Aug 24, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 11:38
|
|
|
Old Fart posted:You know what's a gently caress-ton more awesome than your 20s? Your 30s. Yeah, you're not kidding about that - my 20s was an unmitigated clusterfuck of stupid. Like, to a degree that makes Tuyop look like a sane and rational human being. I'm 33 this year, and in the last 5 years I've gone from posting a BFC 'gently caress I'm broke and in stupid amounts of debt and unemployed' thread to reasonably stable, and the wife and I making well over six figures, and the ability to fund a multi-year emergency fund (I'm self-employed and year-to-year is variable, so it makes sense to have a huge fund for this.), AND, for the first time this year, fully fund a retirement account and STILL have a pile of money leftover for stuff. And yeah, the reason this thread amuses the hell out of me is that every crazy thing Tyuop says is something I've said at some point - though, sometime in the next 5 or 10 years I really DO plan the small house in the country thing - though somewhere more like Oregon or Washington state where the weather is pleasant and not murderously cold. As for his injury... I don't know that it was "avoidable" exactly. He fell down in the woods carrying a ton of stuff, and hurt himself. It's not like he was running around doing hand flips or something.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 14:27
|
|
|
cstine posted:As for his injury... I don't know that it was "avoidable" exactly. He fell down in the woods carrying a ton of stuff, and hurt himself. It's not like he was running around doing hand flips or something. While almost all accidents are preventable in hindsight, it happened and that can't be changed. Blaming tuyop for getting injured - which I'm sure he does enough of already - is a really, really lovely thing to do.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 14:39
|
|
|
cstine posted:I'm 33 this year, and in the last 5 years I've gone from posting a BFC 'gently caress I'm broke and in stupid amounts of debt and unemployed' thread to reasonably stable, and the wife and I making well over six figures, and the ability to fund a multi-year emergency fund (I'm self-employed and year-to-year is variable, so it makes sense to have a huge fund for this.), AND, for the first time this year, fully fund a retirement account and STILL have a pile of money leftover for stuff. That's awesome, congrats! We're quickly on that pace. We really only "go sober" this past year, and the results have been tremendous. So I'm yelling at myself here, too.  cstine posted:As for his injury... I don't know that it was "avoidable" exactly. He fell down in the woods carrying a ton of stuff, and hurt himself. It's not like he was running around doing hand flips or something. Yeah, it's a touchy subject, but I recall him saying he pushed on after an initial injury? I'll just say that I once broke my toe walking up stairs. I cracked open my skull walking down stairs. I smashed my face walking into a stop sign. That could just as easily been "hit by a car" because I simply wasn't paying attention to the right things. Regardless, sorry if it made me a poo poo. That's not my intent. Old Fart fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Aug 24, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 14:39
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:While almost all accidents are preventable in hindsight, it happened and that can't be changed. Blaming tuyop for getting injured - which I'm sure he does enough of already - is a really, really lovely thing to do. Woah woah, I'm not blaming him for ANYTHING. I was just correcting Old Fart's comment about him hurting his back packing his car, or something along those lines. Old Fart posted:I cracked open my skull walking down stairs. Okay, how in the world did you do that?
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 15:36
|
|
|
cstine posted:I was just correcting Old Fart's comment about him hurting his back packing his car, or something along those lines.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 19:59
|
|
|
foxatee posted:He was talking about when tuyop shattered his back windshield when he packed his car. Oh. So he was. I read good. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 21:17
|
|
|
No, I was also being a dick about the injury. I edited it out after being called out on it. It was too much.
|
|
#
?
Aug 24, 2013 22:22
|
|
|
Shine on you crazy diamond
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 14:59
|
|
|
Before I go into detail and clarify some stuff, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone. Toeshoes and I just had a pretty loving incredible wedding/weekend. We both worked hard to get things organized but it was nothing compared to the effort that our friends and family put in to make everything as beautiful and... basically perfect as possible. It was like this incredible pyramid of love and joy where people who I've never really met since I was a very young child all came together to handle logistics and plug in the missing parts of the event with their own time and skills. Even the justice of the peace (who "remarried" us) was an old family friend and changed her weekend plans because my original JP had to cancel - and refused to accept payment except for a donation to a charity! Everything from bakers to caterers and decorators were all people I know and who just wanted to help because they love toeshoes and me. We're incredibly fortunate to have had interesting lives with these great people. And this all extends to everyone in this thread as well. We can bicker all day about the particulars and attitudes that I'm failing to embody, but the fact is that without all of the collective time and emotion and free advice and expertise that all of you have given us, our lives would be much worse. Thank you so much.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 19:52
|
|
|
Now, regarding the injury, because that's probably one of the more significant things that has happened to me in the last few years: I have a problem - and it's much better now, but I still feel it - where I have a terrible lack of a sense of "enough". So, I could never take a vacation that was crazy enough, or have a workload at school that was challenging enough, or whatever, and I was always worried that I would die and not have done enough impressive things or been happy with my life somehow. So whenever it came time to put in work, I tried to put in more. If I could stay awake a little longer in the field, I would take an extra shift so someone else could get some sleep. If I could drink a little less water that day, I could take some extra ammo for the machine gunner, or maybe carry the rocket launcher. It was all because I never felt like I'd done enough, and especially like I wasn't impressive enough. It was entirely external and I was always miserable. So one day I guess I did get enough and I fell in a hole the wrong way while carrying 150 pounds on a night patrol and it permanently damaged my spine. Fortunately, because of that I was forced to get a much better conception of enough, and that small privation and the changes in my life that it helped to bring about have paradoxically made me much happier and successful than I otherwise would have been.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 20:01
|
|
|
1) Congratulations! 2) I think this was brought up a long time ago, but did you ever speak to anyone about possible depression? That 'enough' problem sounds like a symptom to me.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 20:05
|
|
|
/\/\ Yeah, I was diagnosed with Bipolar 2 like last December, IIRC. Things have been much better since around that time, though. And the rent thing is complicated. Basically I was only allowed to be in Ontario because it wasn't costing my unit anything. According to regulations, I was supposed to get free rent and all that, but if I claimed it, I would just be brought back to Gagetown and separated from toeshoes again. So I decided to just eat the cost. The other alternative was hospitalization and 24/7 supervision in Gagetown because I was a bit messed up. Now that I'm out of the army, I can submit a grievance for that money - which is about 18k - and see what happens, but the whole thing makes me a little sick and ashamed somehow so I don't know if I should go that route. tuyop fucked around with this message at 20:11 on Aug 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 20:06
|
|
|
While I know that feeling - I've spent about 16 months unemployed over the past five years where I didn't claim EI - is your shame really worth 18k? What do you care what the CF thinks of you at this point?
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 20:11
|
|
|
FrozenVent posted:While I know that feeling - I've spent about 16 months unemployed over the past five years where I didn't claim EI - is your shame really worth 18k? What do you care what the CF thinks of you at this point? It's not about them, it's about me. I feel like I was done a very big favor and caused a lot of stress for people I really have a lot of respect for, and it feels like a kind of betrayal to get all litigious about it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 20:15
|
|
|
I'm going to semi play Devil's Advocate and semi get clarification on this subject. You had the *option* to receive free rent, but that required you to be in Gagetown (hospitalized and supervised?). You had the alternative option to be in Ontario, with no financial support. You picked B. The value of the rent in that period is approximately $18k, and you could possibly now file a grievance to receive it? I'm not sure that that'd pass muster, unless I'm missing information.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 20:19
|
|
|
Me in Reverse posted:I'm going to semi play Devil's Advocate and semi get clarification on this subject. The options were: A. Live and pay rent and food in Fredericton and face forced hospitalization and an extended period of supervision. B. Live and pay rent and food in Ontario with my wife and receive a normal course of treatment. C. Try to get free rent and food in Ontario, fail and instead get A. Now, since I wasn't given C and opted for B, I can retroactively claim the benefits I was kept for receiving through a "redress of grievance" with the military ombudsman. The total value of those benefits is about $18 000. Edit: For clarification: The cost of A and B was about equal except for quality of life concerns, where B was MUCH better. The grievance is only an option because C was not really legit according to any regulations.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 20:25
|
|
|
tuyop posted:The options were: I'm having a slightly slow day - but the grievance for $18k is for what, exactly? I'm lost how a choice you made kept you from something - that said, if you can get your hands on a substantial windfall like that without ending up in whatever passes for FPMITA prison in Canada, I'm not sure it's a *bad* idea.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2013 23:00
|
|
|
Are you actually going to be hurting anyone by doing this? I need you to think about that. It is difference between you being an honorable person and a person that can (and should) go gently caress themselves thoroughly with a rusty pineapple. For now, I'll just assume (because it's you) that it is a matter of pride. You've got a family now, put away your pride and try to claim the benefits. You need to stop stroking your no-jokes large ego, because it's not just you anymore. Here is a quick cheat-sheet: Is this going to have actual consequences? Yes, decline it. No, accept it. If you are confused as to what actual consequences are I will gladly go into detail, but I've learned that you generally just ignore what I say, so I try not to waste as much time typing as I usually would.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 03:41
|
|
|
It's important to like who you are.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 04:23
|
|
|
It's like this: In the Canadian Forces, when you're attached posted, you get X benefits. In my case, I was attached posted, but did not receive any benefits. The decision was to allow the attached posting on the condition that I not claim the benefits. That decision isn't backed up by any reference. The X in my case equals about $18000. The major (only?) cost would be that I'd feel like I was betraying all the people down the line who helped me when I really needed it by bending the rules and exposing themselves to exactly this kind of risk. It won't cost THEM 18k, but it will reach them somehow because they made a decision that cost their unit that much money. And yeah, I'm not willing to do that. If I wanted money and didn't care about morality I'd just go into finance or something.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 06:52
|
|
|
tuyop posted:It's like this: Offer each of them a cut.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 07:10
|
|
|
tuyop posted:It's like this: Glad you gave some more clarification: in this case, don't take it. Cicero posted:It's important to like who you are.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 11:10
|
|
|
Congratulations!
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 11:16
|
|
|
Old Fart posted:Caught up to February of this year, when you were quitting the job in order to take out student loans. Oh, and I don't mean to be snarky, but read on. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 13:41
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 15:15 |
|
|
tuyop posted:It's like this: Yeah, you've got the right idea there: personally I don't think $18,000 is enough to ignore the fact you'll feel like poo poo afterwards.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2013 13:47
|
|