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Leviathan Song posted:As long as he got the one with the briggs and stratton motor and does basic maintenance, it'll probably last him a life time. The expensive lawn mowers mostly just have more things to break and parts that are harder to find. Normally I would agree, but Wal Mart mowers are just truly horribly built.
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May 25, 2014 13:38
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Another gem from r/personalfinance:quote:Question about Motorcycle loan while in between jobs.
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May 25, 2014 14:10
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Mr.Radar posted:Another gem from r/personalfinance:  Financing a new motorcycle is especially bad compared to a car. In addition to depreciation, new riders are very likely to drop (or worse) their bike early on*, causing them to be even further underwater on the thing's value. On the one hand, at least it's the guy's second bike and it sounds like he's been riding a while. On the other of course is 100k of student loan debt. *this is one reason why the two motorcycles I've owned have been ~20 year old dual-sport (on and off road) bikes; they've long ago hit the bottom their depreciation curve, and have already suffered enough drops/spills that one more probably isn't going to seriously impact their resale value. Mine's been knocked over by the wind a few times, plus a lowside on some black ice back in January. Condition/resale value isn't really noticeably different than when I bought it, have only had to replace a $15 turn signal.
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May 25, 2014 14:42
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I've seen a lot of posts here on how you should just buy a used beater or get something at a discount price, etc. That leads me to someone I believe is relatively bad with money: My father in law. I MAY have posted about him, I forget so here it is again. Now we don't have any contact with him right now for other reasons, but when we did..man.... He would always cut corners on things and then boast about what a great deal he got. He'd go to yard sales and buy electronics from folks...that would inevitably break in 5 months. Same with recreational vehicles. He drove across the entire country to Atlanta from Kansas to pick up a used RV from the early 90s. Of course it breaks down on the way back home and has consistently had problems since then. For the amount of time and money he put into it he probably could have gotten a decent RV from a used lot that wouldn't have any problems with it. But hey! He only paid like $800 for it. What a deal! Same for electronics. He would go to a place that sold off brand electronic goods and accessories and was never able to hold up for more than a year. But he talked the sales person down and saved $30! He also did it for Jetski's. He's eye one on a corner lot and go haggle with them. Wow! A jetski for only $75! What a STEAL! Except that it consistently left him, me and other family members stranded in the middle of the lake as the engine died over and over and required extensive repairs which I'm sure cost over $400. You could get a decent working jetski for that and NOT have to worry about them. In his attempts to be good with money it made him much, much worse with money.
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May 25, 2014 15:03
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FrozenVent posted:Yeah, no poo poo. My job involves a lot of convincing people that I know what I'm talking about more than they do and holy poo poo does a decent suit make a difference. It won't make up for not actually knowing dick, but it gets you those first few minutes of attention with people who wouldn't give you the time of day otherwise. People are weird like that, you can't change it, exploit it. Likewise, pop on a reflective vest and hard hat, and suddenly you can step into the middle of the road, direct traffic, and people will just do whatever you tell them! 
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May 25, 2014 15:16
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A kid I new in high school has a dad who was pretty bad with money. His dad was a pharmacist and worked 2 of those jobs so they could have nice things and live on a lake and his mom also worked. They were pulling down some serious cash (about $200k per year 12 years ago). For some reason he refused to pay more than $2000 for a car. They had 4 drivers at home. He owned 8 $2000 cars and would have them all registered and switch the insurance to whichever ones were working. He would fix the others for $500 or $1000 and they would break again and again, just switching that insurance around. His wife would get stranded all the time with a broke down car. It was crazy. Another guy we knew lived on the lake and bought a new rinker speed boat. I guess he didn't know you had to remove the drain plugs and winterize the engine. He bought a new motor at the beginning of year two of ownership.
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May 25, 2014 15:56
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spwrozek posted:A kid I new in high school has a dad who was pretty bad with money. His dad was a pharmacist and worked 2 of those jobs so they could have nice things and live on a lake and his mom also worked. They were pulling down some serious cash (about $200k per year 12 years ago). Sounds more bad with cars than bad with money. It's pretty easy to get a reliable 2000 dollar car if you know what you're doing.
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May 25, 2014 16:14
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Mr.Radar posted:Another gem from r/personalfinance:
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May 25, 2014 16:36
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kissekatt posted:To be fair, there's no way he could have known that he would be graduating in two months. Just reading his post I certainly wouldn't have expected it.
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May 25, 2014 16:46
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Haifisch posted:And there's no way he could have expected it might take a while to ship a bike from Europe to the US! Who would have known that it wouldn't be there in, like, a week? That's about how long it takes to ship something from Europe to the East Coast though? What's hilarious is that he thought he needed two bikes. While in grad school.
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May 25, 2014 16:47
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spwrozek posted:Another guy we knew lived on the lake and bought a new rinker speed boat. I guess he didn't know you had to remove the drain plugs and winterize the engine. He bought a new motor at the beginning of year two of ownership. Pure gold. Hell, I'm pretty sure that you can just take it to a marina boat shop and pay someone to winterize it for a hundred bucks without even knowing what it needs done to it.
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May 25, 2014 18:34
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I feel like I belong in this thread. I have a perfectly fine car from work and I sold my personal car, a 7 year old Camry. I bought a Miata for a little more than half the sale price. But my god do I love having a convertible. I have so much fun just tooling around with the top down. But I should have done something more responsible :/
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May 25, 2014 21:58
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Nocheez posted:I feel like I belong in this thread. I have a perfectly fine car from work and I sold my personal car, a 7 year old Camry. I bought a Miata for a little more than half the sale price. There. A reason not to get a beater Corolla
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May 25, 2014 22:05
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I usually sleep in the back of my Mazda 3 when I'm traveling, it's easy enough to lower the seats and put all the cargo in the front seat and just stretch out and I just have to pay 10 bucks at a truck stop or gym for a shower in the morning. Much cheaper than a $70 motel room, or even $30. Lowness 72 posted:There. A reason not to get a beater Corolla
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May 25, 2014 22:14
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I lease a smart fortwo, which apparently means I belong in this thread.
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May 25, 2014 22:24
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The whole 'proving a point about beater Corollas' thing is a bit of a dead heron - I've got toy cars for fun/investments but I don't need anything else for my daily driver so I didn't spend money I didn't need to. Also, a Corolla doesn't have to be a 'beater' - it's possible to keep them in pretty good nick. Nothing shameful about having a tidy car that's cheap to run.
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May 25, 2014 22:31
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Zhentar posted:I lease a smart fortwo, which apparently means I belong in this thread. Do you live anywhere near snow? I'm wondering how it performs in poo poo weather.
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May 25, 2014 23:44
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Nocheez posted:I feel like I belong in this thread. I have a perfectly fine car from work and I sold my personal car, a 7 year old Camry. I bought a Miata for a little more than half the sale price. tuyop posted:I usually sleep in the back of my Mazda 3 when I'm traveling, it's easy enough to lower the seats and put all the cargo in the front seat and just stretch out and I just have to pay 10 bucks at a truck stop or gym for a shower in the morning. Much cheaper than a $70 motel room, or even $30. I got a Miata recently and I miss sleeping in my car during lunch.
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May 26, 2014 00:34
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EugeneJ posted:Do you live anywhere near snow? I'm wondering how it performs in poo poo weather. I do. I got stuck at the bottom of my driveway three times last winter. It's not awful (I have a long, fairly steep driveway) but it's not good either. I am definitely going to get snow tires for it next winter.
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May 26, 2014 03:29
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Zhentar posted:I do. I got stuck at the bottom of my driveway three times last winter. It's not awful (I have a long, fairly steep driveway) but it's not good either. I am definitely going to get snow tires for it next winter. Do you use premium gas in it? I read somewhere that the engine only takes premium fuel, but I'm not sure if that's true. What's your yearly insurance premium like? Does the lease require high limits for liability/collision?
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May 26, 2014 03:47
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EugeneJ posted:Do you live anywhere near snow? I'm wondering how it performs in poo poo weather. My sister has had one for years in a place that it can snow from October till April. She is also bad with money. I tried to get her to get a Hyundai accent for cheaper than the smart costs.
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May 26, 2014 03:53
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EugeneJ posted:Do you use premium gas in it? I read somewhere that the engine only takes premium fuel, but I'm not sure if that's true. I have an awesome thread for you http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3213538&pagenumber=185&perpage=40
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May 26, 2014 06:27
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I know a guy in his early 30s who works in software engineering and always confused me about why he struggled to have any money. He has a computer science degree from a state school and a good skill set, but somehow is always short on cash and considers his student loan payments to be a massive burden. This was confusing to me as while he lives in Seattle his living expenses are extremely low (tons of roommates, older car) so I thought having steady employment in a software engineering company would provide more than enough money to address state school loans and day to day expenses. But over the years I have been able to piece together enough information that I think the root problem is hopeless naivety and immaturity. He has a strong lack of discernment so any half-baked scheme or idea that crosses into his vision is embraced wholeheartedly. This includes completing a worthless ITT Technical Institute degree before going onto state school (likely explaining his inability to address loans), being a fan of every terrible conspiracy theory that has ever existed (freeman on the land, orange juice cures cancer, he was a Ron Paul delegate, thinks police can't pull you over because you are a traveler... etc), and being a member of a terrible megachurch that likely sucked up 10% of every dollar. Additionally he seems to jump around a lot from job to job, leaving positions for weak reasons without anything else lined up. This means weeks of unemployment (I don't think he has any savings) and then a new entry level position with zero seniority. He told me his current plan is to join the Air Force Reserve to help pay down those pesky loans which would likely mean leaving the new software job he just got and moving to the middle of nowhere. I would think that if he were joining the military purely for the money, that a better plan would be to stick with a job and pick up side programming gigs(this is Seattle).
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May 26, 2014 17:37
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Mojo Threepwood posted:He told me his current plan is to join the Air Force Reserve Tell him good luck with that. The USAF is trying to downsize by about 25,000 people and a bunch of reserve units are being inactivated. It hasn't quite hit FYGM-mode yet, but units are trying to look after their people as best they can so unless he's related to some commander by blood I don't think he'll get in anytime soon
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May 26, 2014 18:54
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A buddy of mine walked into one of those private career colleges when he was fresh out of highschool. He told me that within 5 minutes of meeting the recruiter they were trying to get him to sign paperwork to take out a $15K line of credit so he could prepay for two years of education. Thankfully he didn't go for it.
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May 26, 2014 21:33
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Mojo Threepwood posted:I know a guy in his early 30s who works in software engineering and always confused me about why he struggled to have any money. He has a computer science degree from a state school and a good skill set, but somehow is always short on cash and considers his student loan payments to be a massive burden. This was confusing to me as while he lives in Seattle his living expenses are extremely low (tons of roommates, older car) so I thought having steady employment in a software engineering company would provide more than enough money to address state school loans and day to day expenses. Oh Man I feel like we must know the same people. I can never believe software engineers that get caught up in the Mars Hill bullshit cult.
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May 27, 2014 00:34
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Mojo Threepwood posted:I know a guy in his early 30s who works in software engineering and always confused me about why he struggled to have any money. He has a computer science degree from a state school and a good skill set, but somehow is always short on cash and considers his student loan payments to be a massive burden. This was confusing to me as while he lives in Seattle his living expenses are extremely low (tons of roommates, older car) so I thought having steady employment in a software engineering company would provide more than enough money to address state school loans and day to day expenses. It really just sounds like your friend is a moron, which does make him bad at money, careers and life in general. Yes, there are plenty of software engineers with degrees that are also morons. I've worked with some.
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May 27, 2014 04:25
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RommelMcDonald posted:A buddy of mine walked into one of those private career colleges when he was fresh out of highschool. Haha, well this guy talked about how being in the Airforce Reserve is a family tradition, that he had an appointment scheduled with a recruiter, and that he thinks he may be moving soon. So yeah, like 99% chance he never mentions it again. Tigntink posted:Oh Man I feel like we must know the same people. I can never believe software engineers that get caught up in the Mars Hill bullshit cult. Oh yeah, I have put a lot of thought into why engineers get caught up in exploitative religious groups. For Mars Hill I think a big part of it is the prefabricated social groups. Once you are plugged into a "small group" you have an instant social network that is very hard for lonely introverts to walk away from when the church leadership gets kooky. Although Mars Hill is getting close to capsizing, a lot of long time attendees gave up after the pastor was caught spending $200k in church funds to hire a company to buy enough copies of his book to make himself a "New York Times Bestselling author" to stoke his ego and let him charge more for speaking engagements. It's not just that church and engineers, that apocalyptic church that took out billboards claiming the world would end (the Bible guarantees it!) was founded by a civil engineer and had a lot of professionals believing his nonsense.
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May 27, 2014 05:14
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Butt Wizard posted:The whole 'proving a point about beater Corollas' thing is a bit of a dead heron - I've got toy cars for fun/investments but I don't need anything else for my daily driver so I didn't spend money I didn't need to. Also, a Corolla doesn't have to be a 'beater' - it's possible to keep them in pretty good nick. Nothing shameful about having a tidy car that's cheap to run. Can you tell me about the cars you have for investments?
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May 27, 2014 16:07
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jeffsleepy posted:Can you tell me about the cars you have for investments? What, you've never heard of an investment vehicle? 
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May 27, 2014 16:29
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Folly posted:What, you've never heard of an investment vehicle? Beautiful 
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May 27, 2014 16:59
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Butt Wizard posted:Unless there's something unique or interesting about the car you're after, I'm not sure why anyone would buy anything other than a Corolla or whatever is the cheapest thing to run/most reliable thing you can get hold of in your area. I drove a Jetta with manual windows and no bells and whistles for eleven years. When it was time to change vehicles and I had more money, I bought a nicer (used) car instead of a Jetta/Corolla/Focus since the cost (at least the upfront cost) was essentially the same. I can bear the slightly greater expense over time. People spend money on nice cars for the same reason they don't eat bagged lentils for every lunch or live in a Tumbleweed home to save money.
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May 27, 2014 21:39
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Depending upon your town, it may also be because the amenities inside the car are there to keep your sanity. A lot of people around the DC area have 1.5+ hour commutes each way, and if you spend that much of your life in your car, perhaps sitting in a really bare bones vehicle is a Bad Idea.
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May 27, 2014 23:00
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necrobobsledder posted:Depending upon your town, it may also be because the amenities inside the car are there to keep your sanity. A lot of people around the DC area have 1.5+ hour commutes each way, and if you spend that much of your life in your car, perhaps sitting in a really bare bones vehicle is a Bad Idea. Someone please kill me if my commute is causing me mental anguish and the best solution I can come up with is "buy a more expensive car"
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May 28, 2014 00:16
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necrobobsledder posted:Depending upon your town, it may also be because the amenities inside the car are there to keep your sanity. A lot of people around the DC area have 1.5+ hour commutes each way, and if you spend that much of your life in your car, perhaps sitting in a really bare bones vehicle is a Bad Idea.
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May 28, 2014 00:30
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A good stereo, bluetooth, comfortable/leather interior, highly adjustable drivers seat, heated/cooled seats, sunroof/convertible, etc. There's nothing inherently wrong with spending money on a nice car, as long as you aren't being irresponsible in doing so. If you are well budgeted and have the disposable income then it's no better or worse than the million other ways people spend their disposable income. But if you're out buying a brand new 40k+ car on a 50k/year salary every 3 years and rolling the negative equity of your last vehicle into the loan on your new vehicle... then yeah you're bad with money.
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May 28, 2014 00:38
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No Wave posted:"Amenities"? Like what? Oh, wait, this is the bad with money thread. Yeah, leather. Leather everything.
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May 28, 2014 01:00
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moana posted:Like a good audiobook you rent from the library. Why would paying for a nice interior be bad with money if you can afford it?
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May 28, 2014 01:03
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Because this thread has turned from stories of people legitimately/hilariously bad with money to "I don't agree with your discretionary consumption". Beans and rice all day every day or gtfo.
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May 28, 2014 01:06
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moana posted:Like a good audiobook you rent from the library. Goons, we're going full circle back to that Altima story. Here's a story about someone bad with money: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/18/vince-young-money-broke-problems_n_1894884.html quote:Six years after entering the NFL as the third player taken in the draft, Vince Young finds himself without a team and with just a fraction of the money he received from a contract that guaranteed him $26 million... LLCoolJD fucked around with this message at 01:15 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 01:10
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