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Krispy Kareem posted: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. Magic Underwear posted: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.  Simply put, when compared side-by-side with other Visa and MC credit cards in the market, they just aren't that competitive. And add on the fact that Amex isn't widely-accepted by merchants and you'll begin to question how useful the card is. Heck, I have the Costco Amex, and since Costco Canada is dropping Amex, I'll be joining the thousands of cardholders who will be dropping the card at the end of the year. It's just really silly that Amex puts on this facade of being an "exclusive" card, despite the fact they're just as "exclusive" as any card that you apply for at any department store. melon cat fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Oct 13, 2014 |
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Oct 13, 2014 01:42
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Some of you should probably check out the credit card rewards thread. Good info on many cards and if their perks are worthwhile.
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Oct 13, 2014 02:22
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New Zealand as a nation is bad with money. Not the Government so much but the people. The baby boomers were sold on a good standard of living and social security for retirement. This actually worked perfectly well into the 80's as my Grandparents were living well enough, had a freehold house and money invested to supplement the Government pension. Basic living costs have escalated a lot with privatisation of the power network and huge inflation on food costs. There's a few other details I'm skipping over but now we have a lot of retired baby boombers who receive a pension and have a freehold house but they are in a cashflow deficit. The thing I don't get is that noone has told them they could get a reverse mortgage to stop themselves from living like poo poo and contemplating suicide. Of course in New Zealand fashion they complain to the media instead of seeking financial advice. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/10608401/Pensioners-struggling-in-debt The 401k style retirement fund only started in New Zealand about 7 years ago.
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Oct 13, 2014 02:29
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We were going so well before credit card chat. I'll do my best to help. Friend of mine has three kids, wife is in her last semester at school and doesn't currently work. He is frequently buying gaming figurines and scifi toys (like sonic screwdriver level of uselessness). They got a WiiU when it came out and have a pile of those figurines for whatever game it is that uses them. He once commented that he was glad it was payday because he needed cough medicine. He works a service industry job with pooled tips, paid weekly in cash. More you work, more you get from the pool. Last week he woke up early to go to work twelve hours before his shift to pick up the tips (they would have been there later, but I guess he needed the cash). He went back home and couldn't get back to sleep, so when he went back to work for his shift, he signed up to get sent home early because he was too tired to work. But that's not atypical; he generally goes home early every shift, and frequently asks for unpaid days off.
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Oct 13, 2014 04:48
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Amex, Blue, the cheap one or whatever isn't bad. No Fees, 3% cash back for grocery stores. You can also buy Amazon gift cards with it, and get 3% off. I have so many drat credit cards, because the ones I get, all eventually change their rewards so they aren't nearly as good. I'm looking at you Citi Forward! I do have a dumb/bad people story about myself. I had no idea that cash advances were so loving ridiculous off a credit card. I'm in a foreign country, and I wanted to use my Visa or whatever instead of my debit card, so I did, and I got hit with a 10 dollar fee for cash advanced from an ATM. drat that was dumb, on top of the foreign currency fee, which I expected. Then I missed a credit card payment for the first time in my life, apparently on the one account I never set auto pay on.
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Oct 13, 2014 05:38
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Devian666 posted:The thing I don't get is that noone has told them they could get a reverse mortgage to stop themselves from living like poo poo and contemplating suicide. Of course in New Zealand fashion they complain to the media instead of seeking financial advice. Reverse mortgages are the kind of poo poo we don't need. Means test super until a certain age and bump it to a level that people can actually live on.
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Oct 13, 2014 06:45
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Bisty Q. posted:And here, because I love you, get the first year free: (MODEDIT No referral links here, please and thank you) That wasn't a referral link  . Click here then click Apply Now. I just took out the middleman.
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Oct 13, 2014 06:55
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Butt Wizard posted:Reverse mortgages are the kind of poo poo we don't need. Means test super until a certain age and bump it to a level that people can actually live on. quote:The couple should, by rights, be sitting pretty. They both set themselves up with assets. They worked hard. And if life hadn't rippled the way it did, they would be fine. Also it sounds like all they have to pay for rent is property tax (or the NZ equivalent?) of $1790.15. So after rent, they have to cover everything else with a little over 25k. That doesn't sound 'unlivable' to me. I felt skeptical reading that article because it even tried to tug your heartstrings by repeatedly mentioning that the farmer guy's dad was a war hero. Maybe that'd be relevant if it was said war hero that the article was actually about, but it wasn't. Cicero fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Oct 13, 2014 |
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Oct 13, 2014 07:08
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Cicero posted:It sounds like they're getting like $27.5k (converted to USD) a year, and that's not counting deductions for advance payments and a debt they have that comes out automatically. That's not a level a couple can live on? They mention mortage payments as well in the article. I've only visited both NZ and the USA, but NZ was crazy more expensive too so 27.5k USD wouldn't go anywhere near as far in NZ as it would in the states. But yeah, the way it goes on about how his father was a war hero, that's a bit much. Rudager fucked around with this message at 07:47 on Oct 13, 2014 |
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Oct 13, 2014 07:44
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Rudager posted:They mention mortage payments as well in the article. quote:I've only visited both NZ and the USA, but NZ was crazy more expensive too so 27.5k USD wouldn't go anywhere near as far in NZ as it would in the states. Although I have to say the way they've just pegged the payments as a percentage of average income seems clever. quote:Superannuation is adjusted annually in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to keep up with inflation, according to the Ministry of Social Development. Rates are increased annually, so the married rate continues to equal 66 per cent of the average net wage.
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Oct 13, 2014 07:59
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Devian666 posted: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. That's 3 points and 1 point per dollar which equates to 0.01875% and 0.00625% at their best points:$ ratio of 160k:$1k. At $149/year if you would have used a domestic flight every year anyway then it would be positive or neutral but don't rely on the rewards scheme to sway you.
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Oct 13, 2014 09:27
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Cicero posted:Oh, missed that. Well in that case, I have zero clue what they mean by "They both set themselves up with assets." Ok, where are their assets? I missed the mortgage repayments as well. No chance of a reverse mortgage in that case. The cost of actual living versus the consumer price index has gone up a lot. Food prices are crazy here. In part because we export high value agricultural products we get high local prices. Very different from the days of sheep farming subsidies and dirt cheap food. Although note that basic living expenses are increasing faster than the rate that pension is increasing. If rates (property tax) and electricity is going up 11% and your pension goes up 2-3% there will be issues if your budget is close to break even. Electricity prices are very high. Ever since the electric companies were broken into lines and retail there's an 8% profit margin on delivery and on the retail company selling you the power. Not unusual to pay $0.20+ USD per kilowatt hour. Most other products are imported and because the country is a small market we don't get the benefits of bulk purchasing. The other problem that retired couple have is that our housing is extremely expensive. Up there with the most expensive in the world. Their $270k NZD house will be small and run down if they are in a larger city. They probably would be better off selling the house and moving into a Council or Housing New Zealand property (but the waiting lists tend to be long). Does the economy suck in New Zealand? Yeah a bit but at the moment there is still 0.5% GDP growth when we should be doing a lot worse. What is really going on is that the Government is deliberately loving over everyone collecting social welfare to save a few million dollars per year. They know the CPI indexing ends up paying beneficiaries less money in real terms as it's not correctly weighted to the actual cost of living. To be honest they would be better off going to university and collecting student loans to prop up their living costs. They could collect a bunch of degrees and the student loan would be written off when they die. door.jar posted:That's 3 points and 1 point per dollar which equates to 0.01875% and 0.00625% at their best points:$ ratio of 160k:$1k. At $149/year if you would have used a domestic flight every year anyway then it would be positive or neutral but don't rely on the rewards scheme to sway you. I tend to fly around the country quite a bit with my work, and I'm likely to fly around the country a lot more with the contracts I've got coming up. The flight makes it fee neutral. The rewards points aren't great but it's better that my current credit card rewards scheme so those two aspects make it an improvement over my current card. The travel insurance is a big bonus for me though. My flight to China this year is going to cost me $142 for insurance so free travel insurance works out well for me. e: Also I calculated which card would give the most rewards return for my annual spending. Devian666 fucked around with this message at 09:54 on Oct 13, 2014 |
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Oct 13, 2014 09:41
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Bisty Q. posted:That wasn't a referral link Oh, good, sorry and thanks for the update. They do have a referral program and I leapt to conclusions.
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Oct 13, 2014 12:45
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Devian666 posted:reverse mortgage If there is someone agitating for legislation of some sort concerning reverse mortgages as a way to solve your kiwi-boomer mortgage problem, you should rise up collectively and lynch that motherfucker.
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Oct 13, 2014 12:53
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One of my econ professors used to call the CPI the "completely pointless indicator", because the formula and "basket" is gamed so much that it's a less than honest year to year comparison.
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Oct 13, 2014 18:28
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Aristotle Animes posted:If there is someone agitating for legislation of some sort concerning reverse mortgages as a way to solve your kiwi-boomer mortgage problem, you should rise up collectively and lynch that motherfucker. Not legislation and any reform of financial legislation is not on the cards. Some banks and financial institutions are marketing reverse mortgages but not heavily. People won't get them if they can get Government assistance. Given that the baby boomers were promised pensions if they worked and paid taxes.
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Oct 13, 2014 20:04
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I just found out that my roommate, days after his rent check bounced, spent hundreds of dollars on pot brownies from a dealer. EDIT: Very glad I only have to worry about this for another month or so.
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Oct 14, 2014 01:12
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Devian666 posted:New Zealand as a nation is bad with money. Not the Government so much but the people. The baby boomers were sold on a good standard of living and social security for retirement. This actually worked perfectly well into the 80's as my Grandparents were living well enough, had a freehold house and money invested to supplement the Government pension. Basic living costs have escalated a lot with privatisation of the power network and huge inflation on food costs. There's a few other details I'm skipping over but now we have a lot of retired baby boombers who receive a pension and have a freehold house but they are in a cashflow deficit. The thing I don't get is that noone has told them they could get a reverse mortgage to stop themselves from living like poo poo and contemplating suicide. Of course in New Zealand fashion they complain to the media instead of seeking financial advice. First time I've heard of reverse mortgage. Wouldnt this classify as bad with money though?
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Oct 14, 2014 01:37
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Suspicious Lump posted:First time I've heard of reverse mortgage. Wouldnt this classify as bad with money though? I believe in the majority of cases this would be bad with money as you are borrowing against a house until you die. Initially it would be tolerable but with increased borrowing and compounding interest it would eat away the equity in a house quickly unless carefully budgeted. Like everything there's the choice of cut spending or increase revenue. Being retired and mostly unable to work increasing revenue is unlikely to happen. Cutting expenses would be a good idea. One thing I missed in the article is that they are still paying a mortgage (so reverse mortgage isn't even an option anyway). They'd need to adjust the mortgage to be interest only, maybe rent the house and rent a cheaper place, or just sell the house and find a cheap rental. As I said New Zealand is a nation bad with money and that's primarily the fault of social welfare promises that were unsustainable. The environment for the baby boomers created a live paycheque to paycheque mentality when they could have made a fortune investing or could have had savings.
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Oct 14, 2014 01:49
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legsarerequired posted:I just found out that my roommate, days after his rent check bounced, spent hundreds of dollars on pot brownies from a dealer. ... What did he do, buy a cooler full? Don't brownies go bad?
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Oct 14, 2014 08:08
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Horking Delight posted:... Brownies shouldn't cost hundreds as the whole idea is to make them out of lovely left over leaf. You can make them out of buds but that is pricey and I don't believe would be the best usage. Will they go bad? They won't exist for long enough to go bad. He probably turns up at the dealers house bragging about how much money he has so the dealer finds something with a spontaneously high profit margin. Sounds like the roomate genuinely has a drug problem. He doesn't budget his drug spending and he has no idea what price he should be paying, a major drug problem.
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Oct 14, 2014 08:33
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Uh, yeah. You can go to a dispensary here and buy edibles with ridiculously high levels of THC very inexpensively... Like, a square of brownie or banana bread that will have you too high to function for 2-3 days for between $4-10. I know not everyone has access to dispensaries but I'm curious as to whether he bought a ridiculous amount or just really, really got ripped off. Going broke buying edibles, drat son.
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Oct 14, 2014 16:20
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As a part of my series of posts on how bad New Zealanders are with money the following article has some interesting statistics. It's written to encourage the reader to pay off horrible debts and reduce overall debt. It's in-line with BFC thinking. http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/10615804/Personal-finance-Break-free-from-debt 1 in 4 New Zealanders are debt free, 43% have debt on credit cards and 1 in 3 have a mortgage. So 3/4 have debt and only 1/3 have a mortgage. It's not good.
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Oct 14, 2014 19:49
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Devian666 posted:As a part of my series of posts on how bad New Zealanders are with money the following article has some interesting statistics. It's written to encourage the reader to pay off horrible debts and reduce overall debt. It's in-line with BFC thinking. Canada and Australia also have problems similar to this. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-19/canada-household-debt-ratio-posts-2nd-drop-on-slowing-mortgages.html Wow you guys are only at 150%. Pffft. amateurs 164% bitches.
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Oct 14, 2014 20:24
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Well, apparently they cost half as much as I thought they did, but he still paid a three-digit number. AND he just showed me a new kilt he bought, along with a Captain America shield, and he informed me that a Captain America hoodie will be arriving for him in the mail soon.Devian666 posted:Will they go bad? They won't exist for long enough to go bad. Yep, he ate four of them within a few days of picking them up. And he's picking up six more pans' worth tonight. quote:Sounds like the roomate genuinely has a drug problem. He doesn't budget his drug spending and he has no idea what price he should be paying, a major drug problem. He claims that buying edibles instead of weed will help him quit smoking cigarettes, thus saving him money in the long-term. Multiple people have had this discussion with him about his spending several times. In general, I feel like he tends to dive headfirst into different trends. A few years ago, he was hardcore pagan. Now he's hardcore atheist. He was going to put a pool in our backyard of our apartment that we're renting, but now he's changed his mind because he's going to buy a townhome. Actually, he's going to buy a ton of memorabilia and DVDs instead. He was drinking tons of liquor as soon as he woke up, then he was inhaling tons of whippits, now it's weed edibles. I've talked to him about this, because sometimes he has done things that aren't worth the risk. For example, we both have prescriptions for the same brand of anxiety medication, so I've looked up information on interactions between my medicine and recreational drugs. When I tried to discourage him from using a certain substance that is widely agreed to be fatal when mixed with his medicine, his only response was "Doctors are always over-cautious" or "I'll just skip my medication that day." At least I don't have to step over those empty canisters anymore... EDIT: If I am allowed to name specific prices for his items, I can do so. TCC doesn't allow any discussion of prices and weed is illegal in my state, so I didn't name any here. legsarerequired fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Oct 14, 2014 |
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Oct 14, 2014 23:02
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legsarerequired posted:Well, apparently they cost half as much as I thought they did, but he still paid a three-digit number. AND he just showed me a new kilt he bought, along with a Captain America shield, and he informed me that a Captain America hoodie will be arriving for him in the mail soon. He sounds manic bi-polar.
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Oct 15, 2014 00:41
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Ah sorry, didn't realize the price thing, never post in TCC. Legal here, if that makes a difference. Your roommate sounds hosed up.
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Oct 15, 2014 01:43
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legsarerequired posted:EDIT: If I am allowed to name specific prices for his items, I can do so. TCC doesn't allow any discussion of prices and weed is illegal in my state, so I didn't name any here. Discussing the prices of legal things at stores that sell legal things is fine by me 
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Oct 15, 2014 01:49
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Magic Underwear posted: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. Also their accidental damage purchase protection stuff rocks. I had a particularly unlucky streak where my wife & I destroyed two Nexus 5s & a Nexus 7. Submitted claims for all, money refunded no questions asked (no receipts, no pictures, etc.) - all I had to do was say "I broke this & you'll see the purchase on my statement on X/XX/XX"
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Oct 15, 2014 01:59
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legsarerequired posted:Well, apparently they cost half as much as I thought they did, but he still paid a three-digit number. AND he just showed me a new kilt he bought, along with a Captain America shield, and he informed me that a Captain America hoodie will be arriving for him in the mail soon. I guess my big question is why do you continue to live with a 36 year old manic loser dipshit who'll probably blow all the rent money on drugs and toys? Edit: My bad, I thought you owned the house in question. Not your problem! Not a Children fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Oct 15, 2014 |
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Oct 15, 2014 13:54
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Not a Children posted:I guess my big question is why do you continue to live with a 36 year old manic loser dipshit who'll probably blow all the rent money on drugs and toys? We knew he liked to drink and collect toys, but we had no idea that he was so BAD with budgeting. He also told us multiple times that he would save tons of money by moving in here. And I mean, if he was making rent on time at his expensive solo apartment, it followed that he would easily do so at our cheaper place that was also much closer to his job. Unfortunately, he seems to be blowing the savings on additional toys. He posted another picture on Facebook of a 4-foot beanbag that he bought this week, and another couple of kilts arrived in the mail. And after he cashed out his 401k, he stopped trimming his own beard and started going to a barber shop for that service, which apparently he hasn't stopped doing judging by some pictures he's posted on Facebook... I saw that beanbag and I wanted to shake him and yell at him to wake up, but I've tried already and I get the sense that it just annoys him. At 26, I'm the youngest person in this apartment and I feel like living with people who are 5-10 years older than me and struggling with debt has taught me a lot about the importance of financial planning. When the lease is up in December, I'm actually moving in with my parents for six months to save up and pay off $4000 worth of credit card debt that I racked up from travel and stupid over-spending.
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Oct 16, 2014 14:22
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legsarerequired posted:At 26, I'm the youngest person in this apartment and I feel like living with people who are 5-10 years older than me and struggling with debt has taught me a lot about the importance of financial planning. When the lease is up in December, I'm actually moving in with my parents for six months to save up and pay off $4000 worth of credit card debt that I racked up from travel and stupid over-spending. At least you've figured this out early enough in your life. Save up for travel and discretionary spending instead of borrowing. Just use your terrible roommate as a reminder of what it's like to see someone spending so much on crap that they won't have enough money for retirement, and is going backwards at an unsustainable rate.
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Oct 17, 2014 01:30
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Devian666 posted:At least you've figured this out early enough in your life. Save up for travel and discretionary spending instead of borrowing. Just use your terrible roommate as a reminder of what it's like to see someone spending so much on crap that they won't have enough money for retirement, and is going backwards at an unsustainable rate. It's scary how tough it is to save for retirement if you start late. After divorcing my dad, my mom pretty much started over financially. She shoveled everything she could into her 401k and 20 years later has $200k in the account. Which would last her like 4 years if not for social security and a pension. So no matter how hard you try, if you start late you're kind of hosed.
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Oct 17, 2014 15:31
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What is she spending $50k/year on?
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Oct 17, 2014 15:48
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i like nice words
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Anne Whateley posted:What is she spending $50k/year on? Expenses? I sometimes wonder if everyone here is splitting rent on a single-wide and eating mini-ravioli's they found while dumpster diving.
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Oct 17, 2014 16:15
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Krispy Kareem posted:Expenses? Is she in NYC or SF or something? You can live in a two bedroom apartment in a decent area in Chicago with fancy meals (that you cook yourself) everyday, plenty of alcohol, full featured cable subscription and unlimited 4g plan, fast food for lunch everyday, nice sit-down restaurant meals out twice a month, and a monthly concert for less than $50k/yr (after taxes).
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Oct 17, 2014 16:21
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baquerd posted:Is she in NYC or SF or something? You can live in a two bedroom apartment in a decent area in Chicago with fancy meals (that you cook yourself) everyday, plenty of alcohol, full featured cable subscription and unlimited 4g plan, fast food for lunch everyday, nice sit-down restaurant meals out twice a month, and a monthly concert for less than $50k/yr (after taxes). If her 200k is in a 401k account it's before taxes. You can definitely do that in NYC as well if it's after taxes but yeah.
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Oct 17, 2014 16:23
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So I have a question. I'm going to be renovating a house and buying an assload of construction stuff. $12,000 in cabinets/countertops, sheetrock, paint, wood flooring, carpet, lights, insulation... Is getting a card with some kind of cash back a dumb idea for this basically one-time expense? We will be paying off the card with cash immediately, just trying to get some cash back or miles or something.
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Oct 17, 2014 16:24
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baquerd posted:Is she in NYC or SF or something? You can live in a two bedroom apartment in a decent area in Chicago with fancy meals (that you cook yourself) everyday, plenty of alcohol, full featured cable subscription and unlimited 4g plan, fast food for lunch everyday, nice sit-down restaurant meals out twice a month, and a monthly concert for less than $50k/yr (after taxes). Eh, maybe she could get by on less. She budgets 50k a year, which will last her forever as long as her investments beat inflation. She has mooching children (myself included - although I at least pay her back). So that may impact her finances.
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Oct 17, 2014 16:25
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Spermy Smurf posted:So I have a question. I'm going to be renovating a house and buying an assload of construction stuff. $12,000 in cabinets/countertops, sheetrock, paint, wood flooring, carpet, lights, insulation... Is getting a card with some kind of cash back a dumb idea for this basically one-time expense? We will be paying off the card with cash immediately, just trying to get some cash back or miles or something. Find cards with sign up bonuses that require you to spend X. Even if you don't get rewards, you do on most of them, the sign up bonus will drastically exceed the money/miles you'd get from buying everything on a single card.
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Oct 17, 2014 16:33
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