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sativa dreams posted:I'm not in college anymore so beer and food is not a handsome reward for using up an entire weekend day unfortunately. Then don't go, but don't call on your friends when you need that kind of help. It's that simple. I'm hoping to move fairly soon, and I'm probably going to ask friends to help. poo poo, as soon as I make it known I'm moving, people will volunteer. They're all out of college, too 
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Jul 18, 2014 17:40
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I once had my work pay for movers to move some stuff two hours drive away. They managed to lose the bottom half of my bed and then proceeded to not tell me and thus not deliver all my other stuff while they looked for it (a few days). When I finally rang up and asked where my stuff was they advised me while delivering it that they lost half my bed. So yer, movers suck.
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Jul 18, 2014 17:57
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This is relevant to this thread's interest: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2010/12/07/Down-and-Out-on-250000-a-Year Just... I don't know where to start.
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Jul 18, 2014 17:58
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Cross country movers are a scam. I wouldn't use one unless I had an employer paying for it as part of a relocation package. If I had no choice, I'd just go into the arrangement assuming I was going to be suing them when it was over. Good local movers are, as said above, worth their weight in gold. The problem is finding them. I think I used my last favor-from-friends move loading into my current house. If I move again, I'm going to have to pay somebody.
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Jul 18, 2014 18:05
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Folly posted:Cross country movers are a scam. I wouldn't use one unless I had an employer paying for it as part of a relocation package. If I had no choice, I'd just go into the arrangement assuming I was going to be suing them when it was over. Good local movers are, as said above, worth their weight in gold. The problem is finding them. I'm not sure what other option you have to move cross-country besides owning(or renting?) your own truck, or getting new furniture. I didn't want to hire them, but my new company was willing to pay for movers, but was not willing to pay for new furniture.
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Jul 18, 2014 18:09
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Jeffrey posted:I'm not sure what other option you have to move cross-country besides owning(or renting?) your own truck, or getting new furniture. I didn't want to hire them, but my new company was willing to pay for movers, but was not willing to pay for new furniture. You could get friends to help you load up a U-Haul, and pay guys to help you unload. That way the schedule is set and you at least know stuff is packed safely.
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Jul 18, 2014 18:13
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Nail Rat posted:You could get friends to help you load up a U-Haul, and pay guys to help you unload. That way the schedule is set and you at least know stuff is packed safely. Yeah those are separate parts, they bill separately for loading the truck and doing the move. The case for paying them to pack and load the truck is much worse. (I did end up paying for them to pack up my poo poo since it was really short notice for me to rally friends on a weekday, but it was reimbursed anyway. The only things broken were some computer chair wheels.)
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Jul 18, 2014 18:15
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My long distance moves have been me renting a Penske truck, hiring loaders at one place, and unloaders at the other, and I just drive the truck myself. I'm doing this in a few more weeks, driving a Penske truck to Florida, towing my car. Not thrilled about towing my car, but no other option. One of the moving companies 'Mango Moving' that I researched in FL (I found them on Craigslist and they had pretty good prices on their website). It was too good to be true, glad it wasn't me. But they burned a lady really bad who was trying to save a few bucks. I've booked unloaders in FL with a reputable company now. It's not worth the risk of saving a few bucks through Craigslist. The lady's experience: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Mango-Moving-Christopher-Kuhnast/Tampa-Florida-33584/Mango-Moving-Christopher-Kuhnast-Load-Unload-Experts-Reliable-Moving-Mango-Moving-Labor-1139268 posted:If I can save even one person from being taken advantage of, it is worth the time it takes me to write this.... I am very VERY busy, but I surely do not want anyone else to be taken advantage of like I was.
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Jul 18, 2014 18:16
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FrozenVent posted:This is relevant to this thread's interest: Ah yes the "I'm not rich because I don't have any money after I spend it all" article that pops up when the rich are facing a 2% marginal tax increase.
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Jul 18, 2014 18:20
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FrozenVent posted:This is relevant to this thread's interest: Ahahahaha, their assumptions are straight up hosed. In their calculations they stipulate over $1100 per month on food in addition to $5000 for lunches at work over the year. They assume that both adults in the family are getting a $10 lunch, every. Single. Day. This, in addition to $3000/year for family/holiday gifts, $2400 per year in eating out (which might be reasonable, if it wasn't in addition to a previously stipulated $25/week for takeout), a $700 monthly utility bill, and a $2000 monthly mortgage. Well no loving wonder they're 2 grand in the red at the end of the year.
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Jul 18, 2014 18:46
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Not a Children posted:Ahahahaha, their assumptions are straight up hosed. In their calculations they stipulate over $1100 per month on food in addition to $5000 for lunches at work over the year. They assume that both adults in the family are getting a $10 lunch, every. Single. Day. This, in addition to $3000/year for family/holiday gifts, $2400 per year in eating out (which might be reasonable, if it wasn't in addition to a previously stipulated $25/week for takeout), a $700 monthly utility bill, and a $2000 monthly mortgage. Well no loving wonder they're 2 grand in the red at the end of the year. Our reactions aren't the normal ones in the middle class though. Most middle class Americans will read that article and nod solemnly and say "thanks Obama"
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Jul 18, 2014 18:54
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GanjamonII posted:Helping your friends out is its own reward, or should be, and they will return the favor sometime. Exactly. I love helping people move; for me, the pay is the sense of community and the good deed, not the food.
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Jul 18, 2014 18:54
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Whoever wrote that article really needs a life coach to help them understand how expensive things are supposed to be, apparently. Oh wait then there would be a life coach category. * $100 per week for a maid * Parking is somehow never free for these people, despite their $2-$3k per month mortgage * $3k per year in car insurance * $600 per month for a single car payment * $500 per month in gas, implying 3000 miles driven per month * $1860 per month in food * $440 per month gas and electric (I live in a 3500 square foot house in Vegas with a pool and I hit $440 like once a year, when the temperature range is 85-118 all month long)
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Jul 18, 2014 19:06
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Wow. That article. Poor people living in $3000 a month homes, having retirement savings, full insurance, and a huge budget for entertainment,health, education, and vacation. And you want me to "Abloo bloo taxes" for them? gently caress you.FrozenVent posted:This is relevant to this thread's interest:
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Jul 18, 2014 19:06
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Not a Children posted:and a $2000 monthly mortgage. It's a $3,000 monthly mortgage. "Mr and Mrs Jones" took out a $560k loan at 5% on a $700k lovely mcmansion that's too big to clean themselves, and costs a mint to heat/cool because it's built like poo poo. Looks like they're driving a $30k cars (cheaper than I expected, given everything else). Both SUVs, probably, since they're getting fuel mileage in the teens. Zhentar fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 19:10
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Droo posted:* Parking is somehow never free for these people, despite their $2-$3k per month mortgage They're paying to park one car in a parking ramp downtown every work day. The parking number actually stands out as surprisingly reasonable among the others. Droo posted:* $500 per month in gas, implying 3000 miles driven per month They probably just used the national average, which would be 2246 miles a month for two drivers. Zhentar fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 19:16
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As an insurance professional, I can say for auto insurance they are either getting tickets once a year or are driving $50,000 vehicles at all times. That is pretty high for auto and even home insurance.
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Jul 18, 2014 19:28
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Not a Children posted:Facts. My ex recently used one to move all her stuff from Maryland to Texas. Well, unfortunately, she didn't do much research. They told her that it would be there by the time she arrived, in 5 days. Now they're saying it won't be there for another 3 weeks, leaving her with no clothes, no furniture, and no kitchenware until they get there. I'm sure they're also going to tack on some fees when they do get there (storage, unloading, whatever BS) and strong arm her into signing it just to be done with it. Guaranteed they will hold her stuff as a ransom when they get there - if you're moving into an apartment complex, they'll block the entry to the complex to force your hand. It's unfortunately a common practice. Also, they like to hire homeless people off the street to do the actual moving. When it happened to me, I said let me go in and get my chequebook, came back out with a fake cheque from an old account all filled out. They would call me about 20 times a day trying to harangue me about my bounced cheque, so I got Mr. Number and blocked them. What are a bunch of shady dudes halfway across the country going to do? Sue me? The company declared bankruptcy about a month later and reformed as a new company (a common practice when these moving companies get sued in small claims), that then went bankrupt about 2 months later and reformed as yet another company. All in all, I got my poo poo, learned about Mr. Number, and pissed some rear end in a top hat off - a good month!
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Jul 18, 2014 19:40
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pathetic little tramp posted:Guaranteed they will hold her stuff as a ransom when they get there - if you're moving into an apartment complex, they'll block the entry to the complex to force your hand. It's unfortunately a common practice. Ugh, what a loving racket. The thing that really upsets me is that my ex is a total pushover when it comes to things like that, so I can already see them gouging her when the time comes. Maybe I can coach her up to calling the police if they try to pull any of that bullshit.
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Jul 18, 2014 19:57
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Not a Children posted:Ahahahaha, their assumptions are straight up hosed. In their calculations they stipulate over $1100 per month on food in addition to $5000 for lunches at work over the year. They assume that both adults in the family are getting a $10 lunch, every. Single. Day. This, in addition to $3000/year for family/holiday gifts, $2400 per year in eating out (which might be reasonable, if it wasn't in addition to a previously stipulated $25/week for takeout), a $700 monthly utility bill, and a $2000 monthly mortgage. Well no loving wonder they're 2 grand in the red at the end of the year. It's just a dumbass anti-tax puff piece. I'm certain there's plenty of people out there that spend like these theoretical idiots, but that's all they really are, idiots. They need a tax cut so they can throw away more money on bullshit! $3k/year investment income for people that are putting away $33k/year into their 401k. Ok.
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Jul 18, 2014 19:57
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Droo posted:Whoever wrote that article really needs a life coach to help them understand how expensive things are supposed to be, apparently. Oh wait then there would be a life coach category. $1860 for food? These....these are hypothetical people, right? Nobody's really wasting that much food, right?  Seriously, what do you want to bet the author just multiplied her budget by X to guess what rich people spend money on?
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Jul 18, 2014 20:09
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$100-$200 of that is "household supplies", leaving about $1,000/month on groceries, which isn't particularly unreasonable for a family of four (particularly in the higher COLA areas).
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Jul 18, 2014 20:36
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Barry posted:It's just a dumbass anti-tax puff piece. I'm certain there's plenty of people out there that spend like these theoretical idiots, but that's all they really are, idiots. They need a tax cut so they can throw away more money on bullshit! If anything it's convincing me that these people need to pay more in taxes.
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Jul 18, 2014 20:43
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Zhentar posted:They're paying to park one car in a parking ramp downtown every work day. The parking number actually stands out as surprisingly reasonable among the others. The Naperville one is total bullshit. The only way to spend ~$300/month is to park in the loop. Nobody that lives in Naperville drives to work in the loop. Everyone takes the Metra. Well, I'm sure there are some outliers, but it's gotta be 99.9%+ e: I suppose it's possible that they might carpool, but then there's no way they're racking up as much mileage as claimed. Bleh. Barry fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 20:55
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Those articles are never written about real people and real finances. It is always padded in ways to make them seem poor or richer in order to facilitate spin.
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Jul 18, 2014 20:57
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By SA standards I'm somewhere to the right of Goldwater, but that article is pretty eye rolling. *Three* separate categories for eating at restaurants? (two $10 lunches/workday, $25 takeout/week, and $50/week in "leisure/eating out") $41k in college and retirement savings/year? $23k in child care, "after school activities" ($2000/kid??), and "family trip"? $8k in Gas/year (including taxes calculated separately)? Let me get out my little violin. eta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKzAPYow_0E paperchaseguy fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Jul 18, 2014 |
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Jul 18, 2014 21:23
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Doesn't seem too unreasonable for NYC. Food is really expensive here and it's common for people to out every meal.
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Jul 18, 2014 22:21
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Lowness 72 posted:Doesn't seem too unreasonable for NYC. Food is really expensive here and it's common for people to out every meal.
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Jul 18, 2014 22:54
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Lowness 72 posted:Doesn't seem too unreasonable for NYC. Food is really expensive here and it's common for people to out every meal. Sure, but none of those "budgets" are for NYC.
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Jul 18, 2014 23:06
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paperchaseguy posted:$23k in child care, "after school activities" ($2000/kid??) One kid is a toddler, the other is in school. One kid goes to a nice higher end daycare (not one of those places where poor people might go, ugh), and they need to send the school kid to after school activities because both parents are working 45 hours a week with hour long commutes trying to keep up their lifestyle and make sure everyone sees how successful and not poor they are. The most unrealistic part is where they put money in savings instead of trying to install a pool or something just like their neighbors did.
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Jul 18, 2014 23:13
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Zhentar posted:One kid is a toddler, the other is in school. One kid goes to a nice higher end daycare (not one of those places where poor people might go, ugh), and they need to send the school kid to after school activities because both parents are working 45 hours a week with hour long commutes trying to keep up their lifestyle and make sure everyone sees how successful and not poor they are. Life lesson I learnt after making too much money, it's not how much money you make, it's how much you spend. My parents met a man who was making 300k a year who lost his job having no idea how he was doing to cope now. People get comfortable with their spending and take things for granted (needs vs wants).
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Jul 18, 2014 23:20
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sativa dreams posted:I'm not in college anymore so beer and food is not a handsome reward for using up an entire weekend day unfortunately. In that case just learn to say no. "Sorry, I'm busy" and just leave it at that.
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Jul 19, 2014 03:31
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That housing cost/tax fluff article was awesome. Wow...sativa dreams posted:Anyways, can we get back to people being bad with money? My pet peeve lately: people who make great money, have tons of useless consumer crap, are able to afford the purchase of a home, and yet still ask their friends and subordinates to help them move. Pay a goddamn mover, you are not in college anymore. I guess that is not so much being bad with money as it is being a cheap mofo though. OT, but always use Penske. I've driven a lot of Uhauls and they scare the poo poo out of me. The Penske I drove 250mi's over Christmas break for my folks, it was great. It did have a motor issue, but it didn't go all over the place, unlike EVERY frigging Uhaul I ever drove before! The reps apologize all over the place when they pulled it around the parking lot when we returned it, there was def something wrong with the motor, but the lack of power never scared me, unlike the Uhaul steering slop... sativa dreams posted:I'm not in college anymore so beer and food is not a handsome reward for using up an entire weekend day unfortunately. Not a Children posted:Facts. My ex recently used one to move all her stuff from Maryland to Texas. Well, unfortunately, she didn't do much research. They told her that it would be there by the time she arrived, in 5 days. Now they're saying it won't be there for another 3 weeks, leaving her with no clothes, no furniture, and no kitchenware until they get there. I'm sure they're also going to tack on some fees when they do get there (storage, unloading, whatever BS) and strong arm her into signing it just to be done with it. The worst part? Federal law (the Carmack amendment) protects movers who do stuff like this from lawsuits; they're only liable for actual damage to the property. The most she could hope for is to sue for anything not included in the original agreed upon price, which would probably not be worthwhile in the first place. So yeah, there's a lot to be said for recruiting some buddies to throw stuff in a U-haul rather than hiring a moving company.
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Jul 19, 2014 06:55
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Wow, this thread is full of goons who love helping people move. I've probably done it a dozen times, and not once has everything been packed up and ready to go when I got to the house or apartment. I don't personally have fun jamming all their dusty computer cables into their hamper and taking their cardboard Ikea crap apart, but they're friends/family and I want to help.
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Jul 19, 2014 08:11
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I am the bad one with money, and I'm going to be making a "Help me make a loving budget" thread in a couple weeks. I'm not as bad as a lot of people (no debt whatsoever right now), luckily. I've done 3 trips to Afghanistan to contract: '10, '12, and this year. The first two were for ~18 months each, this time was supposed to be about the same but the contract got pulled. In 2010 I started off making 120k/yr, bumped up to 135k for the last couple months. The ~18 months of the 2012-13 trip I was making 210k pre-tax, so call it around 300k for the whole thing. After the tax exemption I banked quite a bit- probably close to 250, I haven't done the full math on it. And I have NOTHING. No house, no car, no possessions, barely any savings, no higher education, and the employable skills I do have are borderline at best because it's such a different culture. Aside from a couple nice watches and suits the money just disappeared into the ether. I started reading The Millionaire Fastlane recently and it's staggering how spot-on the poor path is for me with the appearance of wealth bullshit.
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Jul 19, 2014 11:10
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cowofwar posted:Those articles are never written about real people and real finances. It is always padded in ways to make them seem poor or richer in order to facilitate spin. Are you sure about that? http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/2b2msl/18295300_in_debt_no_mortgage_paid_off_5000_last/ 200k earner, 182k in debt, stay at home wife who REFUSES STOP ASKING!!! to cut their $230/mo cable because she needs TV to watch her children.
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Jul 19, 2014 12:31
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To be fair, reddit guy's debt is almost entirely from his school loans and he has 5 kids. He's been very reasonable in his responses and has already acknowledged that he'll be reducing his discretionary expenses drastically. So a success story? The moral of the story to me is that it's very easy to blow up your finances when you're a single (even if it's high) income earner with a family if you don't have a budget.
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Jul 19, 2014 12:51
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Here's another one from D&D, this one has specific real life examples - http://www.torontolife.com/informer/features/2012/02/15/almost-rich/ The dude spending 12k/year on clothes makes me feel better about buying a new suit once in a while, for sure.
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Jul 19, 2014 14:01
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xie posted:Are you sure about that? http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/2b2msl/18295300_in_debt_no_mortgage_paid_off_5000_last/ Reddit went way overboard on the importance of cutting the cable bill there. Cutting any of his expenses would be a better use of his effort.
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Jul 19, 2014 15:43
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Whoa with that house in Minnesota that was a lemon and stuff..I notice that he keeps having inspectors come out and check his work and OK it with the city. Why didn't that have to be done before the property was sold, by law?
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Jul 19, 2014 18:13
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