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Felter Chesthard posted:Or a golden retriever? Loved that movie. I wish they had cast someone other than Demi "The Brick" Moore for that one role though.
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Oct 12, 2014 00:38
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A short but weird one from r/personalfinance.http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/2ixwh3/can_my_work_legally_give_me_a_vehicle_in_lieu_of/ posted:Can my work legally give me a vehicle in lieu of owed pay? (Canada) (self.personalfinance) submitted 11 hours ago by thecoldguy
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Oct 12, 2014 00:52
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Haifisch posted:A short but weird one from r/personalfinance. It's not a bad deal for him if the stars are aligned, but we all know how this one goes.
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Oct 12, 2014 01:24
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A younger guy I work with belongs in this thread. He takes home roughly $30K. Single with a steady girlfriend both in their early 20s. I wanted to tell a few stories about the things he says. Fortunately he hasn't followed through with most of his ideas, but he has potential to really screw himself. I'll refer to him as Dave. First story. Dave gets a temporary overseas assignment. These assignments pay some bonus money so they are highly desirable. Especially in his career field since they don't appear very often. He gets very excited when he learns he's going. Dave – I'm finally going to buy my dream car with the money I'm going to make. Everybody in the office – Don't buy a car you idiot you're going overseas for months. Naturally he goes to several banks and they all advise him not to get the car. I don't know what kind of car he was looking at but it was worth more than his yearly salary. He buys it anyway. It's his dream car after all. A few weeks later the overseas assignment gets cancelled. Dave is very upset and is now threatening to quit. He is fed up with work and starts talking about his future. Dave – I'm just tired of being treated so poorly. I'm not satisfied here anymore. I keep getting screwed (referring to losing his assignment and few other minor issues) Everybody else in the office – We deal with this poo poo all the time. You are not special. Don't quit this job because a few things didn't go your way. He hasn't quit yet, but he has some interesting future ideas. Dave's girlfriend is going to the local university. Dave tells us she just got accepted to a prestigious law school. She's going to make $120K when she graduates. She wants to work at Disney. When they make her a partner all her law school debt will be handled by Disney. He's going to quit his job, marry her, and follow her to law school. I see absolutely no flaws in his plan. Next story. Dave talks about the stock market. I was walking out of the office one day when I hear Dave talking to somebody else. "I'm thinking about getting into the stock market!" I turn around and tell him, "Stay right there, we need to talk." Me – Why do you want to get into stocks? Dave – I heard it's a great way to make money. Did you see Wolf on Wall Street? Me – No I have not seen it, do you know what a stock is? Dave – Yes, it's partial ownership of a company Me – Do you know what a mutual fund is? Dave – No Me – Do you know what a brokerage is? Dave – No Me – Do you know what a dividend is? Dave - No Me – Ok, how do you plan to make money in the stock market? Dave – You just have to buy low and sell before the top. Like, sell before it gets to the top. It's safer that way. Me – How do you know where the tops and bottoms are? Dave - ...? I showed him the GTAT stock that crashed recently. Me - It lost all it's value in 2 hours. Some people lost everything they had. Dave - So it's a good time to buy! Me - No, they went bankrupt. Ok, so Dave is young with big ideas and no clue. This was my favorite conversation: Dave – I'm really passionate about money. I want to make a lot of it. Me – Do you know what compound interest is? Dave – No Me – You say you are passionate about money but you don't know what compound interest is. Dave – No, but I'm going to get a Business Admin degree one day and learn all about it. Me – Here let me show you what compound interest is. So I taught him how to calculate compound interest. How it can work for you and how it can work against you. Next he told me his goal. Dave – I want to have 1 million dollars by the time I turn 36 (I have no idea how he picked this age). Me – How exactly are you going to do that? Dave – Have you ever seen that show Shark Tank? Some of these guys make a ton of money with a stupid idea. I know I could come up with a stupid idea like that and make bank. Me – Let me show you what it would take to have $1 Million in 13 years. How much do you have saved right now? Dave - $1,000 We do the calculations. Starting with $1000 growing at 5% he would need to contribute about $5,000 every month to reach his goal. That's $60,000 per year. That's twice what he makes. Dave – Right now I save about $100 a month. But when my girl gets paid $120K that's totally doable. Me – Yes, but after taxes she'll take home about $90K. After your savings plan that's $30K. Dave – So it's possible! Me – Sure, if you can convince your hotshot Disney lawyer wife to save that much. Good luck with that considering you just bought your dream car and have negative net worth because of it. I'm sure she'll gladly live on a teacher's salary with law school debt to support your idea. Dave – But it is possible! So I might have convinced him to actually try to get a cool million when I was trying to show him how absurd it is. Oh well. Next story. Dave wants a Visa Black Card. Another one of my coworkers has a Visa Black card. He shows it off every few days because he's got a small dick or something. Dave is very interested. Dave – I'm going to get one. I was so excited when I got the application in the mail. Me – I threw it out immediately. Why would you need that thing? Dave – I can't believe you threw it out. IT'S MADE OF METAL! Me – Why do you need a card like that? Dave – My friend had a really good idea. You max the card out buying gift cards. Then you pay off the card. Then you transfer the gift cards to your PayPal. You get to keep the money and get all the rewards. Me – That's a bad idea don't do that. He tried to convince me it was a foolproof plan. I tried to convince him otherwise. For all I know he's maxing out his visa black card right now. That's all I have for Dave. I'm trying to mentor him a bit. It's tough because he is so optimistic. He's going to make a million dollars, get a business admin degree, become an entrepreneur, marry a Disney Lawyer, and max out a visa black card all while driving his sweet new dream car. Good luck Dave.
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Oct 12, 2014 01:44
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I once overheard a guy in a bar say this to his girlfriend/wife: "I just got the black card. We ain't white trash no mo’!" Basically, Dave.
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Oct 12, 2014 01:50
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MrKatharsis posted:I once overheard a guy in a bar say this to his girlfriend/wife: "I just got the black card. We ain't white trash no mo’!" I want to believe he said that ironically, because that's hilarious.
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Oct 12, 2014 01:54
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manic mike posted:Dave – I'm going to get one. I was so excited when I got the application in the mail. It took me a minute to figure out what his idea with this was, and I still don't understand how he plans on actually coming out ahead from that  Does he plan on selling the gift cards 1:1 somehow?
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Oct 12, 2014 01:56
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Volmarias posted:It took me a minute to figure out what his idea with this was, and I still don't understand how he plans on actually coming out ahead from that But given paypal's tendency to shut down accounts if it catches any whiff of suspicious activity, it's more likely to end with money trapped in a frozen paypal account. And even if everything worked perfectly, it's too much hassle for too little reward.
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Oct 12, 2014 02:17
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Haifisch posted:I think his idea is buy prepaid visa gift cards(or prepaid debit cards)->somehow transfer them to paypal->free rewards! Which might work, if he found gift cards he could buy and use without having fees skimmed off the top. Along with a way to get them onto paypal or a real bank account(again, without fees applying). I can't be reading this right. He was going to max out a +$5000 limit credit card in an attempt to scam reward points and hinge his financial future on PayPal accepting thousands of dollars in gift cards?
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Oct 12, 2014 02:33
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The Door Frame posted:I can't be reading this right. He was going to max out a +$5000 limit credit card in an attempt to scam reward points and hinge his financial future on PayPal accepting thousands of dollars in gift cards? Yep. That's the idea
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Oct 12, 2014 02:46
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Most places don't accept credit for prepaid cards, some won't even do debit.
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Oct 12, 2014 02:54
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The Door Frame posted:I can't be reading this right. He was going to max out a +$5000 limit credit card in an attempt to scam reward points and hinge his financial future on PayPal accepting thousands of dollars in gift cards? Hey it works for money launderers, and Bitcoiners, they seem like smart people. MAKE NO BABBYS posted:Most places don't accept credit for prepaid cards, some won't even do debit. This was also the flaw I saw in the plan, the companies offering the gift cards aren't dumb and know how it could be defrauded.
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Oct 12, 2014 02:55
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Rick Rickshaw posted:I want to believe he said that ironically, because that's hilarious.
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Oct 12, 2014 03:25
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Co-worker: Can you believe Rent-A-Center? They sent someone to my house because I didn't pay my bill! The guy there knows I don't get paid until next week! Me: That's their job. Co-worker: But they should know better! I couldn't find Steve when I was over there. He knows my situation! Co-worker 2: Steve was fired. Co-worker: For what? Co-worker 2: Not getting enough people to pay their bills. Co-worker: I didn't know that could happen. Well I'll have to find someone over there like Steve that knows what they're doing! Me: 
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Oct 12, 2014 03:29
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manic mike posted:Dave – I can't believe you threw it out. IT'S MADE OF METAL! I had to look at the web page for the black visa as I'm not familiar with it. The web page goes out of the way to conceal the details of the card. It's designed to impress the simple minded. Stainless steel card, VIP airport lounge, rewards, etc. An annual fee of $495, high interest rate and the worse rewards program add up to a card that is for people who are bad at math. I guess it's just a status symbol for people who believe building up unsustainable debt is having money. It does remind me of the 80's where people would wave around their gold cards thinking they were awesome. I even saw that with some graduate engineers in the 90's. e: although if you do travel a lot I've found travel insurance can cost about as much as a bottom end credit card with travel insurance included.
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Oct 12, 2014 07:23
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Devian666 posted:I guess it's just a status symbol for people who believe building up unsustainable debt is having money. That's basically it, people think they're getting a special card from the banks because the banks think they're "someone".
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Oct 12, 2014 09:06
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Haifisch posted:A short but weird one from r/personalfinance. I saw that as well. Only one person in the thread had mentioned "yeah, your company's going bankrupt. That's likely going to be deemed a fraudulent conveyance by the trustee and subsequently be retracted, leaving you as an unsecured creditor, and therefore hosed."
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Oct 12, 2014 14:42
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manic mike posted:[Dave story] Give him about 3 months, and he'll be sending you Facebook message/emails about this new business he's starting that's totally not a MLM scheme. Rudager posted:That's basically it, people think they're getting a special card from the banks because the banks think they're "someone".  ".
melon cat fucked around with this message at 15:08 on Oct 12, 2014 |
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Oct 12, 2014 15:04
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melon cat posted:AMEX customers are the worst with this. Despite how uncompetitive their rewards programs and interest rates usually are (compared to other credit cards in the market), their cardholders are the most smug people I've ever met because, "I'm an American Express MEMBER. Depends on which card they have for different reasons. AMEX card I have for business has the sole purpose of putting purchases on for airline miles and getting me into sky clubs during travel periods. Wouldn't mind getting the platinum card for the Centurion Lounge, but its 2,500 a year  But yea, noone is special for what card they have unless its that 50k per year card that gets you plane rental perks.
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Oct 12, 2014 15:20
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quote:Kevin is a 27-year-old Vancouver resident who makes about $50,000 a year as a graphics designer and has $520,000 worth of debt — an amount he feels quite at peace with. 
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Oct 12, 2014 15:41
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melon cat posted:AMEX customers are the worst with this. Despite how uncompetitive their rewards programs and interest rates usually are (compared to other credit cards in the market), their cardholders are the most smug people I've ever met because, "I'm an American Express MEMBER. When I was working a lovely retail job, I applied for an Amex on whim because I needed a second credit card (my Visa's limit was too low and I was maxing it out every month despite paying it in full). I was surprised that people kept making a big deal about how I managed to get approved for the card, though thinking back on it, I was the only person working there who wasn't living paycheck to paycheck. I was also the only employee smart enough to not touch the poop and not get the company credit card because of it's absurd 25% APR. BUT 36 MONTHS NO INTEREST! The rewards on it come out better than my Visa if I spent over 5 grand a year, but otherwise I guess I'm kinda sorta bad with money that I don't do more research into credit card rewards to get better rewards, since I almost always pay the balance in full. Anybody who ever worked in retail and had to push store credit cards can attest to this, though. It's really easy to get customers to sign up if you promise discounts and no interest financing, but holy poo poo part of me broke every time my customer's application was denied. You actually have to go out of your way and try to get denied for those cards. If your credit is so bad that without getting this store card you can't afford your purchase, you probably shouldn't be buying a complete home entertainment center with a 50" TV. Especially when you don't finish off paying that bill in 36 months and you get slammed with the entire interest accrual for that 36 months in one bill.
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Oct 12, 2014 15:41
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melon cat posted:AMEX customers are the worst with this. Despite how uncompetitive their rewards programs and interest rates usually are (compared to other credit cards in the market), their cardholders are the most smug people I've ever met because, "I'm an American Express MEMBER. I got their blue cash card ages ago, and it's kind of hilarious how they tried to make it look fancier than your average card. Translucent plastic, shiny blue square in the middle, and now a chip! (For the zero places that have upgraded their credit card processors to care about chips) It's not made of metal, but I can see more simple-minded people being impressed by it anyway. quote:“From an investment perspective, I consider good debt to be real estate or education. Bad debt would be any other consumer debt. Car debt is an inevitable debt that is neither good nor bad,” Mr. Heath says. Haifisch fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Oct 12, 2014 |
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Oct 12, 2014 15:51
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Haifisch posted:Don't forget how few places take it compared to other card processors. Most major chains will accept Amex, but you're at the mercy of fate if you're at a smaller chain or independently owned place. Yup, I have the same card. It's really difficult to read the numbers and name off the front, too. It's led to a lot of awkward moments with my best friend when we're splitting a bill unevenly at a restaurant and we we confuse the hell out of the waiter because the cards are identical and difficult to read the names off of. It's become a race to see who can pull out their credit card faster, and the loser has to use a different card. Saves on the hassle that way.
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Oct 12, 2014 15:58
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Haifisch posted:I got their blue cash card ages ago, and it's kind of hilarious how they tried to make it look fancier than your average card. Translucent plastic, shiny blue square in the middle, and now a chip! (For the zero places that have upgraded their credit card processors to care about chips) It's not made of metal, but I can see more simple-minded people being impressed by it anyway. And to top it off, most retailers won't accept AMEX because they charge a stupidly-high merchant fee compared to the other credit card providers. Another lesson I've learned while managing client accounts (which involved mortgage applications): when someone says they make "about" $x, there's a very high likelihood that they're lying. "About $50,000" is more like $40,000 before tax. But for some reason they include their benefits, perks, and other imaginary numbers with their salary "calculation". melon cat fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Oct 12, 2014 |
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Oct 12, 2014 16:03
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I like my Costco Amex. Decent rewards program, costs nothing over the Costco executive membership fee, and the customer service is amazing.
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Oct 12, 2014 16:13
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Also it makes you a better person than all those Visa plebs.
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Oct 12, 2014 16:46
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They only take Amex in store, so if you want rewards from those purchases you don't have the option. Only 1% in that case, but that's still a free 1%.
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Oct 12, 2014 16:54
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Propaniac posted:Have you ever pointed out to him that if he spends all his money, he won't have any money left? We've tried. Also he updated his Facebook recently, about a day after he was complaining about being broke: "Massage Sunday, I'm thinking tattoo and or tattoos at some point Monday through Wednesday." legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Oct 12, 2014 |
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Oct 12, 2014 16:56
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legsarerequired posted:We've tried. Nah, it's fine though. A friend of a friend's cousin is in school to learn how to do tattoos and he's totally going to get it done cheap. Tattoos are one of those things were you absolutely should put the extra money in.
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Oct 12, 2014 17:09
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VideoTapir posted:Also it makes you a better person than all those Visa plebs.
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Oct 12, 2014 17:30
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The Fidelity Amex IS a good rewards card though (2% cash back, no annual fee).
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Oct 12, 2014 17:42
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dietcokefiend posted:Depends on which card they have for different reasons. AMEX card I have for business has the sole purpose of putting purchases on for airline miles and getting me into sky clubs during travel periods. Wouldn't mind getting the platinum card for the Centurion Lounge, but its 2,500 a year The platinum card is $500 a year  And here, because I love you, get the first year free: (MODEDIT No referral links here, please and thank you) (It's the same as the regular Platinum, benefits-wise, plus the free waived first year and bonus miles if you put more than 20K a year on it.) Somebody fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Oct 12, 2014 |
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Oct 12, 2014 18:40
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All this talk of 'exclusive' credit cards reminded me of the Centurion card from AMEX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centurion_Card). I still stand by my philosophy that if a big company comes to you with an 'exclusive deal' when you're a regular consumer, you're getting fleeced.
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Oct 12, 2014 19:07
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Haifisch posted:Translucent plastic, shiny blue square in the middle, and now a chip! (For the zero places that have upgraded their credit card processors to care about chips) Unless, you know, you travel internationally at all. Having a non-chip-and-pin card anywhere in Europe is a bitch.
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Oct 12, 2014 19:14
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Bisty Q. posted:The platinum card is $500 a year Ahh I was thinking of the Centurion card above. Gold cards we have now are 175/150 a year, for access to the Centurion Lounge twice a year it wasn't really worth it. Now if they start popping up in more areas perhaps  Amex and Gogo yearly subscription are the tools that make life worth living when you are on the road once or twice a month with lots of flight.
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Oct 12, 2014 19:22
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melon cat posted:Yeah, that's all AMEX really is- an illusion of exclusivity with fancy packaging. High-end, difficult-to-get credit cards do exist, but they don't openly market them. And they sure as hell won't hawk them at your local department store/Costco like AMEX does. You really hate AMEX huh? I like AMEX (ones issued by amex, not just any card with the amex logo) for a few reasons. They have plenty of no-fee cards these days, with average rewards. I don't revolve so APR doesn't matter to me. But the big thing for me is that AMEX has insanely good customer service, and they have a reputation of nearly always siding with the consumer in chargeback situations. I have better rewards cards for everyday purchases, but I use my amex for stuff that looks a little shady. The high merchant fees mean nothing to me, since I don't pay them. Also, for people concerned with their credit score, Amex is the only company that backdates new cards, so if you got your first amex in 1988, you can get another one today and it will show up on your credit report as being open since 1988, giving you a big boost to your average age of accounts.
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Oct 12, 2014 20:56
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AmEx cards can have decent rewards too... Blue Cash Preferred gets you 6% back on groceries. If you're buying $300/month in groceries, and nothing else, even with the annual fee it works out to be >3%. Nothing to sneeze at there.
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Oct 12, 2014 20:59
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Devian666 posted:I had to look at the web page for the black visa as I'm not familiar with it. The web page goes out of the way to conceal the details of the card. It's designed to impress the simple minded. Stainless steel card, VIP airport lounge, rewards, etc. An annual fee of $495, high interest rate and the worse rewards program add up to a card that is for people who are bad at math. I guess it's just a status symbol for people who believe building up unsustainable debt is having money. If you mean people shouldn't get them to impress, I agree, because no one is impressed by my metal credit cards. But they aren't just for people bad with money. I have an airline card that costs me $395 a year (-$60 I get credited annually with qualifying top status on the airline). It's not to impress anyone, that card has major travel insurance and perks and it costs less than the annual lounge membership I would pay for anyhow to help me deal with travel interruptions and just generally keep me sane.
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Oct 12, 2014 21:17
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My wife's Delta AmEx gets her a free checked bag for every ticket purchased through it. We fly probably twice a year, so that saves us about $400. AmEx's aren't as exclusive as they once were, but they're still good deals. You get an extra year of product warranties and free rental car insurance also.
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Oct 12, 2014 21:49
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Aristotle Animes posted:If you mean people shouldn't get them to impress, I agree, because no one is impressed by my metal credit cards. But they aren't just for people bad with money. I have an airline card that costs me $395 a year (-$60 I get credited annually with qualifying top status on the airline). It's not to impress anyone, that card has major travel insurance and perks and it costs less than the annual lounge membership I would pay for anyhow to help me deal with travel interruptions and just generally keep me sane. The Black Visa is particularly back. There are AMEX cards which are just there to give an elite feeling more than anything but they have some useful cards. I'm actually looking at getting an AMEX card but it's a balance between an airports card the same as what you use, or just getting a platinum edge card which in New Zealand gives 3% at supermarkets, 1% everywhere else and a free domestic flight annually. It's not that every card is bad, but people need to do the math that their card is worthwhile.
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Oct 13, 2014 00:35
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