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I was just talking tonight with a friend about Mason, a guy who is proof that good financial skills are not inherited by default. Mason's father passed away in the late 90s, and he was in his early 30s when his mother followed in 2005. She left her only child a small but fairly nice (and fully-paid-off) house and about $125,000 in various savings and investments. Mason was close to his mother, and he took her death hard. He had an understanding employer, and they gave him a month's leave (some paid, some unpaid) to settle her affairs. He wasn't feeling up to returning at the end of that, so they let him extend it with his vacation time. By the time he ran out of that, he had decided to take a year off to figure out what direction he wanted for his life, so he handed in his resignation. He had, after all, a paid-off house and plenty of money. It turns out that he mostly wanted to spend his life playing Warhammer. He spent the year painting little metal army guys and staging pretend battles with them. Some of his friends tried to get him working again, but his skills (Helpdesk support and entry-level IT) were mediocre at best, and his year's absence counted against him. He did get a job eventually, but quit after a month because it was "messing up his work-life balance" (read: they actually expected him to include work in that balance). His car died in early 2007. It had been coming for a while. He'd sold his mother's car rather than trade up into it, so he bought a new one, somewhere in that Camry/Altima price class. His friends reminded him that his inheritance was not nearly enough for a guy in his (now mid-) 30s to retire, even with a paid-off house to live in, and he said he'd start looking for a job by the end of the year... but then the recession hit. Even highly-qualified people with continuous work histories were out of luck. Mason shrugged - what was he going to do? - and decided to wait it out. He did at least start selling some of his Warhammer figures and custom-painting them for other players, but he wasn't really good enough to command top-tier prices, and he sent most of his profits right back to Games Workshop. It slowed the bleeding a little, at least. By 2010 Mason's money was starting to run thin. He got a roommate. I think at this point his cash flow wouldn't have been too bad, except for the Warhammer. He was convinced he could get better prices for his paint-ups if people knew him, so he hit up every tournament he could. The last I'd heard from him was in 2012, when he admitted he needed a day job to at least prop up his dream of being a pro Warhammer painter. With more time out of the industry than in and his tech skills rusty, though, even his friends couldn't convince anyone to give him a serious interview. The gossip mill says he re-mortgaged the house, so he started from a really good shot at permanent financial stability and wound up starting his 40s as a man with a lost decade, no employable skills worth mentioning, and a savings account doing a long, slow spiral around the drain.
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Feb 12, 2014 07:16
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For gently caress's sake, that's depressing. 
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Feb 12, 2014 13:36
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Yond Cassius posted:I was just talking tonight with a friend about Mason, a guy who is proof that good financial skills are not inherited by default. This sounds like a seriously mentally ill man.
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Feb 12, 2014 13:37
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tuyop posted:This sounds like a seriously mentally ill man. I was about to say, he seemed actually pretty finacially with it...he made a small nest egg last a decade. A person with bad finacial skills would have blown that in a few years if not sooner. It just seems like the death of his mother hosed him up.
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Feb 12, 2014 14:51
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LorneReams posted:I was about to say, he seemed actually pretty finacially with it...he made a small nest egg last a decade. Expenses are a lot lower when you don't have rent or a mortgage - but yeah, Mason's not really "terrible with money" so much as he is "bad at life trajectory". People closer to him than I am tell me that it's basically a combination of grief, bad luck, and the inertia of not having to work for so long. 2006 might have been too early for him, but he was at least entertaining the idea of getting back to work near the end of 2007. He couldn't possibly have timed it worse, though, and he gave up after a month or two. By the time he started looking in earnest it was too late for him. He could probably take a little training and get an entry level position somewhere, but... 
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Feb 12, 2014 18:31
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I suppose one of the things that could help him is volunteering, using the tech skills he knows and learning new ones along the way. I survived a 6 month stint during the Recession on UI, and spent some of my time doing Technical Writing and Editing for an Open Source blogging platform (Dreamwidth). When I finally did get a job again, they said that that's one of the reasons why I got the gig; I was passionate enough about the software industry to spend some time volunteering, which most people wouldn't do.
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Feb 12, 2014 23:48
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From reddit:reddit posted:I avoid thinking about it. I should be crippled by debt but I've been ignoring it for the past 15 years or so. I stayed in grad school to defer paying undergrad. Now I have about $300k in defaulted student loan debt, a credit score of 500 and no idea what to do next. Ten different companies control my student loans. I don't have credit to consolidate into one. They want $4000 a month in payments for the next 20 years. My rent is $2000 a month. I'm almost 40 and a single income, single mom. I don't know how to start. Help. http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/1xz5kr/drowning_in_debt_help/ More in the comments.
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Feb 15, 2014 18:12
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That woman spends $20k on a live in au pair who has to have her own bedroom. 
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Feb 15, 2014 19:02
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Gophermaster posted:From reddit: How the hell do you rack up to 300k debt that is not a mortgage in the first place? I mean, who agrees to provide such a loan? Is there no consumer protection?
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Feb 15, 2014 19:04
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It says she ignored it for 15 years. I imagine a large part of that is interest.
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Feb 15, 2014 19:15
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From what I've read, if you default on a student loan you can tack on an extra 50% to the balance as a penalty or something.quote:I live in Chicago. I just started a good job--I'm making $120k. But I was out of work from Sept to Jan and spent all my savings. I'm finally out of panic mode. I have a high interest car loan, $450 a month on a 2012 Camry, plus $150 a month for insurance. Child care expenses are about 20k a year. We have an au pair who lives with us because of my work and travel schedule and she has to have her own bedroom. So a three bedroom in a safe, walkable area of Chicago ranges $2000-$5000. My rent is comparatively low. Plus monthly utilities ($200), gas($100), groceries($300), internet($30), cell phone($100). I feel like I'm missing something. Bills just keep coming in and I pay them (except for student loans, as mentioned) and then whatever is left goes to savings. No investments. No retirement.
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Feb 15, 2014 19:27
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Am I crazy or does 20k seem like an INSANELY cheap au-pair? Live-in, practically 24 hour care?
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Feb 15, 2014 20:49
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She has two Bachelors, two masters and a PHD. gently caress that I would just emigrate and never come back. E. Au pair can be cheap. Dont forget she's housing and feeding them. Double edit: It's me i'm bad with money. I have $NZ 30,000 in student loans that are interest free (5% otherwise) as long as I am in Nz but I am spending 20+ grand of my savings and 9+ months backpacking. Saros fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Feb 15, 2014 |
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Feb 15, 2014 20:53
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Saros posted:She has two Bachelors, two masters and a PHD. gently caress that I would just emigrate and never come back. If it's interest-free is there any real cost to not paying them off ASAP? The market can return like 5-20% in a year in an index fund, it would be pretty dumb to pay anything but the minimum payments when you could be investing the debt repayment money instead. Seriously, my only concern with an interest-free loan would be making sure that my parents or spouse wouldn't be nailed with the debt somehow if I died. Just get a cheap life insurance policy for now and enjoy your trip.
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Feb 15, 2014 21:56
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:Am I crazy or does 20k seem like an INSANELY cheap au-pair? Live-in, practically 24 hour care? it's always possible "human trafficking" is on the list of her bad mistakes, many people severely underpay/mistreat foreign nannies and regulators are starting to act: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/vancouver-man-sentenced-to-18-months-in-prison-for-human-trafficking/article14867909/
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Feb 15, 2014 23:36
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Harry posted:From what I've read, if you default on a student loan you can tack on an extra 50% to the balance as a penalty or something. It was an extra 30% penalty each time when I was out of work long enough to go into default. If I just pay the minimum, I'll be over 60 by the time they're paid off. They're currently in deferment because I'm working on bachelors #3, which my employer is paying for.
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Feb 15, 2014 23:43
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My family is not that bad with money but they are bad with real estate. My grandfather on my mom's side was a true communist (this is in Europe) and he and his sisters gave most of the land they owned to the communist party and to some people who didn't have any. He and his wife died in the war and his sister adopted my mom. Many years later she gifted my mom a house (the last peace of property that was left) but she said that she had never formally adopted her and that she instead only had had a custody of her. If you're not receiving the house from your parent, you have to pay a significant tax. After grandpa's sister died, my mom discovered that she was actually formally adopted so she shouldn't have paid the tax. My father straight up refused when his aunt who was childless offered to leave him her house. He was young and proud and earning well.  Several years ago he still had bits and pieces of some potentially valuable land that was shared with his distant family. The family started some legal squatting actions as he hasn't been to this land in decades, but a reasonable legal response would've stopped them. He didn't manage to do it because he found the process too stressful and exhausting. My mom asked him to authorize her to lead the legal process but he didn't trust her and preferred to surrender the case.
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Feb 16, 2014 00:33
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Huttan posted:It was an extra 30% penalty each time when I was out of work long enough to go into default. If I just pay the minimum, I'll be over 60 by the time they're paid off. They're currently in deferment because I'm working on bachelors #3, which my employer is paying for. It's good you don't have to pay for it but how did you gently caress up badly enough to get 3 bachelors degrees?
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Feb 16, 2014 00:39
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Huttan posted:It was an extra 30% penalty each time when I was out of work long enough to go into default. If I just pay the minimum, I'll be over 60 by the time they're paid off. They're currently in deferment because I'm working on bachelors #3, which my employer is paying for. Seriously? I'm getting my second one now, which is only two years including a year of practicums for a professional certification and I'm going mad from all the loving ignorant undergrads in my seminars. How have you not just burned the university to the ground yet?
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Feb 16, 2014 00:41
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tuyop posted:If it's interest-free is there any real cost to not paying them off ASAP? The market can return like 5-20% in a year in an index fund, it would be pretty dumb to pay anything but the minimum payments when you could be investing the debt repayment money instead. Nah its all on me, our student loans are govt issued the gimmick being they are only interest free while you are resident in Nz and they garnish 12% of your pay over about 19k per annum straight onto your loan. If you are overseas you are paying interest which is lovely especially on such a decent chunk of money.
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Feb 16, 2014 05:42
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seacat posted:It's good you don't have to pay for it but how did you gently caress up badly enough to get 3 bachelors degrees?  My first was in engineering (at the normal age for going to college, no loans or financial aid there). I never got a job as a real engineer. The second one was in my 30s and that degree was basically "shits and giggles" as well as pre-reqs for a masters in computer science (I ended up dropping out of that mostly due to the dot com crash in 2000 and Microsoft hiring all the good professors away). Currently, I am a programmer, in my 50s, but with rampant age discrimination in IT, my exit plan was some alternative career with a high barrier to entry and less age discrimination (so degree #3 will be accounting). Accountants lacking a CPA get pushed out the door in their 40s and 50s. Accountants with a CPA work until they want to retire.
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Feb 16, 2014 05:47
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Wow, you did some hard work there. How come you didn't get an engy job?
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Feb 16, 2014 12:07
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On another forum:quote:My husband & I recently thought about buying a house/condo since we are going to start trying for a baby in the fall of 2014 (to have the baby in the summer of 2015). We applied for a loan through our bank and discovered that we can only use my credit. (Apparently his credit is bad because of his parents putting stuff in his name when he was 18-20 b/c he didn't know any better & they have bad credit. Its about $3,000 in debt. I am against paying it off because he didn't do it so why should we have to pay for their mistakes? The charges will fall off ("the 7 year rule" I am heard about) in the fall of 2015.)  She goes on to compare two houses she likes and says "I am not sure about the school district but from the looks of the kids getting off the bus, it was not good." I can't figure out what she could possibly mean other than "I saw black kids". Oh and also the two houses are wood paneling/70s carpet in a good school district vs updated cabinets but "bad" school district. It sounds like the appearance of the walls is equally important to the education of her child(ren). Damn Bananas fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Feb 16, 2014 |
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Feb 16, 2014 15:01
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If you have debt that goes into collections and you ignore the collection notices and do not contact them in any way or admit that the debt is yours, and if you don't give a gently caress about your credit score, and if no one ever really comes after you for the money (so, no one tries to sue you) the debt will in fact "go away" eventually. But you will have a ruined credit score to show for it. My husband and I are dealing with this right now, from a $6,000 ER visit he had a few years back. I have talked to many, many people about this debt. No one is contacting us about this debt which went into collections years ago, and literally the only thing I have been told, from EVERYONE I have asked, is DO NOT DO ANYTHING WITH THIS DEBT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LEAVE IT ALONE. So we're just waiting until 2017 until it "goes away". What's crazy is we have the money to pay it off now and I get the same answer - don't contact the collection agencies. Let it drop off your report. Don't pay them anything. I have been told that contacting the collection agencies to pay off the debt will open up a big can of worms. Right now no one is contacting us and haven't in 2+ years so there you go. I am not in any way advocating that people do this, and I'm sure circumstances are different for everyone (what kind of debt it is, what collection agency it goes to, how long its been, if they're trying to contact you, etc). I'm just saying, it can in fact "go away" but it is NOT the road you want to go down IF AT ALL POSSIBLE.
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Feb 16, 2014 16:47
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drat Bananas: She is actually kind-of right. 7 years is the credit reporting limit. The debt still exists after 7 years but in the majority of US states there's gently caress all they can do about it due to the statute of limitations for debt collections being >= 7 years only in Montana, Iowa, West Virginia, Wyoming, and maybe Kentucky and Virginia. My parents racked up $60,000 of debt in the mid-90s for expensive furniture and poo poo and went off the radar and never repaid it. They are in the clear now because the SOL is long expired so they get to keep their stuff they bought. razz is correct. For example, if she were to pay off the $6,000 ER bill today it would open up a new "paid in full" tradeline on her husband's credit report which will last for 7 more years. Paid in full with a CA isn't really much better than unpaid except in very specific conditions (e.g. we're trying to buy a house and we have a combined 1600 credit score but we have this $20 collections debt from a dvd we forgot about in 2007 if we just pay it off can we get the mortgage) sort of thing. Most of that belongs in the debt collection thread though so here's some content  One of my coworkers is a 47 year old forklift driver (makes 15 bucks an hour or so) with a kid from a previous marriage. We spent a couple weekends ago tuning up his truck which was a 99 Chevy with 140K miles. During this I discovered he has no retirement savings of any sort and is pretty much going to work until he dies. Really nice guy too, blue collar all the way, loves his daughter, he's helped me haul poo poo in that truck quite a few times What he does have is a pretty decent credit score. So Monday he pulls up in a brand new Silverado TX edition that he financed off the lot with a $500 down payment. On a $46,000 truck with all the options. His excuse is that he needs a car to give to his 15-year old when she gets her license in a year.
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Feb 16, 2014 17:30
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drat, when I was 15 my parents gave me a car too... their 9 year old Dodge Intrepid that I gave my mom $1,000 for. I thought I was hot poo poo, and I had the "nicest" car of all my friends in high school!
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Feb 16, 2014 19:01
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I got a pretty good laugh at this from /r/investing http://www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/1y0aer/i_am_about_to_invest_20k_into_a_company_that/ quote:I'm relatively new to this so I would like to seek out some advice. This company has already gotten the necessary people, agreements, and hardware needed to launch. What they are lacking is that extra bit of money (around $20k) for that final push. Another comment of his: quote:I will be getting equity for the investment. 1% equity for every $2000 quote:You really need to look at their business model and how they plan to value their company at at least $200,000. quote:It is already valued at $200k Harry fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Feb 16, 2014 |
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Feb 16, 2014 19:06
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Where can I invest in this company? Do I just send them a check?
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Feb 16, 2014 19:15
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razz posted:drat, when I was 15 my parents gave me a car too... their 9 year old Dodge Intrepid that I gave my mom $1,000 for. I thought I was hot poo poo, and I had the "nicest" car of all my friends in high school! My dad bought me a $300 Mazda protege that I had to fix and repay the purchase price. Then I drove it into a boulder, broke the alternator, and parked it into a lake. It froze after being pulled out and every part of the engine was destroyed. When the salvage dudes came to get it, they found another car of the exact same make and model and year but a different colour parked at another gas station of the same chain and salvaged that one. They had torn it apart by the time the owner noticed. That car wouldn't go down alone. 
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Feb 16, 2014 19:17
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Good god, Tuyop, your locomotive bad luck is contagious  Get your wife a helmet.
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Feb 16, 2014 21:08
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tuyop posted:My dad bought me a $300 Mazda protege that I had to fix and repay the purchase price.
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Feb 16, 2014 22:31
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MAKE NO BABBYS posted:Am I crazy or does 20k seem like an INSANELY cheap au-pair? Live-in, practically 24 hour care? They also don't provide 24 hour care (or they shouldn't). I think they basically have agreements where they provide care during business hours, and get nights and weekends free. I think a number take night classes, for instance. Also, keep in mind that it's 20k+free housing+free food. Maybe transportation too. For, a 20 year old looking for a year in a different country, it's not the worst deal in the world.
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Feb 16, 2014 23:04
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gvibes posted:A friend is going through this, and that's around what they go for. Maybe a bit more than that. How much poop do I have to clean up? Because that sounds like an awesome FI-friendly travel scheme.
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Feb 17, 2014 00:56
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tuyop posted:How much poop do I have to clean up? Because that sounds like an awesome FI-friendly travel scheme.
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Feb 17, 2014 01:12
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For a thread about people that have hosed up their lives, dropping out of learning something useful or progressing in any sort of career to piss away a few years of your 20s as a nanny isn't the hottest idea. If you go and have fun (??) and then come back and get on it, yeah ok, but if you're 26 still with no idea about anything besides cleaning up after kids you're in for a fun life. Some people have no desires beyond breeding and home ownership so if you go the gym at lot in your nanny time and latch onto someone who did do something with their life while you're still cute, you could dodge having to really work at all.
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Feb 17, 2014 01:17
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No Wave posted:You're allowed to bring home all the poop you can carry (bring your own bucket)
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Feb 17, 2014 01:17
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Tony Montana posted:Some people have no desires beyond breeding and home ownership so if you go the gym at lot in your nanny time and latch onto someone who did do something with their life while you're still cute, you could dodge having to really work at all.
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Feb 17, 2014 01:51
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cowofwar posted:Maybe they could meet a winner like you if you weren't so insufferable. Nice one!
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Feb 17, 2014 02:49
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razz posted:If you have debt that goes into collections and you ignore the collection notices and do not contact them in any way or admit that the debt is yours, and if you don't give a gently caress about your credit score, and if no one ever really comes after you for the money (so, no one tries to sue you) the debt will in fact "go away" eventually. But you will have a ruined credit score to show for it. Ah, it didn't occur to me to think of it that way. I have heard about creditors basically giving up (prolly from BFC somewhere) but I thought she had heard about the 7-year credit-score-reporting thing and gotten confused that it meant all debt simply has an expiration date as a matter of industry standard. That would be nice, wouldn't it? I still maintain that she is bad with money because of her assumption that raising a baby requires home ownership despite only qualifying for peanuts right now while her husband's credit score is in the shitter, instead of just waiting a couple years to save up and let the score recover and get an acceptable house in a decent neighborhood. 
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Feb 17, 2014 03:22
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drat Bananas posted:Ah, it didn't occur to me to think of it that way. I have heard about creditors basically giving up (prolly from BFC somewhere) but I thought she had heard about the 7-year credit-score-reporting thing and gotten confused that it meant all debt simply has an expiration date as a matter of industry standard. That would be nice, wouldn't it?
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