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renting -->  <-- buyingBarry posted:Here's a great place to argue renting/buying until you're blue in the face: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3131399
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Dec 10, 2014 12:10
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Wickerman posted:My parents bought a kirby when I was just a few years old and even now my mother still owns and uses it. I got tricked by the canvassing girls into thinking a carpet cleaning service was going to come by for a demonstration, and not a Kirby salesman. In fact, I was actually vacuuming when they rang my doorbell. An hour later a Kirby guy shows up and I just rolled my eyes and let him in. I knew they weren't worth it based on what I'd read, but had no idea how expensive they actually were. The thing had a billion adjustment levers he had to mess with for each change in surface, and it took everything I had not to laugh at him when he said I could even reverse the flow and use to paint my fence.  Picked up dust and dog hair like s loving champ though.The guy was a local student and totally understood I neither had the money not the interest at the time, so he prepared me toward the end by saying he appreciated I let him give the full pitch, which earns him more money, and that when I respectfully decline the offer, a managerial sales guy would also stop by to attempt the hard close, and that I should be ready for that. Crisis averted, and the next year I asked my parents for s nice Hoover Windtunnel for my birthday; I couldn't justify the cost of a Dyson similar to theirs back then, but I think now I could. These days I'm much more willing to tell people they are not welcome in my house, and to please leave (tapping the sign in the door about solicitors and religiously or politically motivated visitors). 
SpelledBackwards fucked around with this message at 12:43 on Dec 10, 2014 |
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Dec 10, 2014 12:41
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Jastiger posted:Bad with homeownership.chat: just had our first kirby guy. $2100 for a kirby for only $86 a month for 3 years?! Sign. Me. Up. I worked it out last night: at that price, I could genuinely buy a perfectly decent cleaner, use it until it is full, throw it away and buy a new one and still be better off, financially.
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Dec 10, 2014 13:00
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SpelledBackwards posted:I knew they weren't worth it based on what I'd read, but had no idea how expensive they actually were. No vacuum cleaner is worth $2K+ unless you're prepping your summer mansion for a spread in House Beautiful. That said, Kirbys (at least the old ones, I've heard mixed reviews in the last few of years) are actually pretty drat fantastic. If I were going to spend a brain-cancerously large amount of money on a vacuum cleaner, it would probably be a Kirby.
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Dec 10, 2014 13:05
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Switchback posted:You know what's bad with money? Central air. Hey let's cool a massive amount of air that I'm not even using right now. And then pay thousands to replace it. The answer is mini splits. They have em all over Europe. Not sure why they are not more popular in the USA.
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Dec 10, 2014 13:53
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Jastiger posted:Bad with homeownership.chat: just had our first kirby guy. $2100 for a kirby for only $86 a month for 3 years?! Sign. Me. Up. I went out with these guys to watch them sell once, as I was in a call center at the time and literally anything sounded better. The guy in your living room pays about $800-900 for the Vacuum. If you have "A" credit or pay cash, anything above that he keeps. If you have the "B" credit he gets $50 and a "THANKS" from the Boss. The boss pays about $250-300 for each one and I assume is the one actually carrying the "note" on these when sold on credit. Can you imagine having your Vacuum repossessed?!?! So they probably cost $100 to the distributor, and $30 to make. I'm guessing roughly here. These guys are usually driven 2-3 hours from home (so you can't ditch!) as a group, leaving before sun-up. Work until dark, and then driven home. And its all commission. The day I shadowed their "best" salesman, not only did he sell none, not a single person in their group sold any. roadhead fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Dec 10, 2014 |
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Dec 10, 2014 15:22
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Jastiger posted:Bad with homeownership.chat: just had our first kirby guy. $2100 for a kirby for only $86 a month for 3 years?! Sign. Me. Up. 27% APR. You'd be better off putting that on a credit card.
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Dec 10, 2014 15:52
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I remember reading some dude on reddit (who seems to know what he's talking about) talk about Kirbys. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1pe2bd Basically, they're priced like a top tier brand (Riccar, Miele) but perform like a budget brand from a department store. If anything needs to be sold door to door in a high pressure environment, it is not worth buying.
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Dec 10, 2014 16:55
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Kirby's tend to get good to great reviews by CR, but get knocked heavily by the price which is 4 to 5 times the price of one that performs just as well or maybe just under. It's like 4 times the price of a Dyson and the Dyson scored like 1 point higher.
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Dec 10, 2014 17:04
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Yeah it was like 8pm and he ended up standing in our entry area for almost 20 minutes before his boss came and picked him up. I felt bad, he was essentially stranded and didn't get to do his whole pitch so I chatted him up. Just a sad deal all around. Once his boss came he couldn't be out of there fast enough. He said "oh yeah, we cut the payments down for you so its cheaper and you don't have to worry about that months bill!" I know he's trained to do that, but I'm not convinced the young guy actually got what he was pitching there. It's downright immoral to charge someone that much and not explain the interest and financing. I mean yeah 800 for the vacuum and 2100 for the cost is great margin for him
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Dec 10, 2014 17:22
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Leroy Diplowski posted:The answer is mini splits. They have em all over Europe. Not sure why they are not more popular in the USA. I think the main reasons are probably that they're (relatively) expensive, and that pretty much everyone already has forced air ductwork. Also, central A/C really isn't particularly expensive if your house doesn't leak like a sieve with lovely insulation.
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Dec 10, 2014 18:15
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At that mark up you dont need to sell many to make a livable wage. But if you can sell them you can get a better sales job anyway. Cold call sales has to be better than door to door and someone who does well at that can probably walk into a "real" not totally lovely sales job fairly easily.
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Dec 10, 2014 18:26
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Lmao, you'd have thought they could have afforded better copywriting. Yeah, spot the irony in this paragraph: IT'S ALL ABOUT THE DETAILS. In Luxury Everything Must Be Perfect. It took over two years of research to find the right packaging which make Kors truly a product like nothing you have seen before. There's at least one typo/tense/plural error in almost every paragraph on that link. I'd understand if it was a foreign website, but the contact info lists Beverly Hills as their business address. Kors Vodka its shear prefection now hand over moneys.
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Dec 10, 2014 23:38
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LloydDobler posted:Yeah, spot the irony in this paragraph: Have you seen that SNL skit? Moët et Chaaaaandeeeeeen...anniversaries!
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Dec 11, 2014 00:04
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Guys, the cute cheerleader from high school has fallen on hard times and could really use your help.her GoFundMe.com page posted:My name is redacted and I am 34 years old. I am a new single mom and am having trouble getting into the work force! Funds are tight and I really want to continue selling real estate! I was licensed in Alabama and Georgia and went inactive after I found out my daughter was on the way. I am currently living with my parents and am ready to make a home for my little girl! She is 3 months old now. There are a lot of expenses in reactivating my license and I would greatly appreciate your help! I'll also add that the school we attended is a nationally-known prep school where tuition currently runs five figures. And it's not a boarding school. She also has a graphic design degree from a decent state university. But if she can just get this one break she knows she will be successful!
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Dec 11, 2014 03:00
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Cast_No_Shadow posted:At that mark up you dont need to sell many to make a livable wage.
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Dec 11, 2014 03:08
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Easychair Bootson posted:Guys, the cute cheerleader from high school has fallen on hard times and could really use your help. Then they spend a lot of money getting their brokerage license, fancy business cards, and they might even lease a new shiny car because they need it "for business reasons". Then at the 3-month mark it dawns on them- real estate is hard. It's very competitive, it's difficult to get a critical mass of clients who give you enough referral business for you to sustain a regular income, pretty much everyone knows a person who's an agent, and if you're not flipping houses you're not eating. So they quit real estate and move into Vemma/Amway and start bugging their family and friends to buy their MLM super-juices. melon cat fucked around with this message at 03:23 on Dec 11, 2014 |
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Dec 11, 2014 03:15
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Easychair Bootson posted:Guys, the cute cheerleader from high school has fallen on hard times and could really use your help.
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Dec 11, 2014 05:38
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Giving money to 99% of crowdfunding is bad with money. It's devolved into upper class begging.
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Dec 11, 2014 14:29
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This showed up on my fb feed. Young woman in NYC doesn't want to hustle for material things. She wants to travel the world and work abroad. And she's not about to delay her dream for a few months while she saves up enough for a plane ticket.http://travelwithk8.wordpress.com/2014/12/05/how-i-afford-to-travel-and-you-make-not-like-what-im-going-to-say/ posted:I may just be a master budgeter but I’m pretty positive this tactic can work for anyone who is as ambitious and money savvy as me. She then goes on to describe how she saved up $10k while working in Australia and used the money to travel to Thailand. No mention of paying off the credit cards apart from the minimum balance.
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Dec 11, 2014 15:16
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Yeah I look forward to the update when she's 40, not hot anymore, has to declare bankruptcy, can't get credit cards, and doesn't have a spouse to take care of her because she's always travelling,
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Dec 11, 2014 15:34
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Scenty posted:Portland is crazy right now. I wish we could afford to live close in (just to rent not buy even), to rent the kind of place we have now we are in Beaverton/Tigard area, which I know I know people love to poo poo on, but the commute isn't bad for the price we pay vs what we get in return. We sold a house in Beaverton a few months ago and the market prices are still going up, drat it!
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Dec 11, 2014 16:06
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Easychair Bootson posted:
This seems like a cool idea actually. I could see getting the card, buying the tickets on the card, getting all those sweet miles for it, and then transfering to a 0% card (I get a few 18 month offers every now and then) and then just paying the balance / 12 or 18 every month.
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Dec 11, 2014 16:12
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LorneReams posted:This seems like a cool idea actually. I could see getting the card, buying the tickets on the card, getting all those sweet miles for it, and then transfering to a 0% card (I get a few 18 month offers every now and then) and then just paying the balance / 12 or 18 every month. Except the balance transfer incurs a 3% fee.
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Dec 11, 2014 17:02
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Well, she did specifically say that her card allowed free balance transfers. She's only paying the minimums on it, though, so she's gonna have a hell of a lot of interest when the 0% term ends.
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Dec 11, 2014 17:09
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How can you pay your loans on a credit card? I'd pay mine off tomorrow if I could. That's the hitch in the plan.
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Dec 11, 2014 17:23
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Not a Children posted:She's only paying the minimums on it, though, so she's gonna have a hell of a lot of interest when the 0% term ends.
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Dec 11, 2014 17:30
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Actually I don't think she has her loans attached to her CC at all. That's just entry level churning. She opened the card and got all of the bonuses then used it for her ticket home. The minimum payment and the student loans are just deducting from her bank account so she doesn't have to worry while she travels.
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Dec 11, 2014 17:44
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Tyro posted:Except the balance transfer incurs a 3% fee. Not on the offers I'm getting.
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Dec 11, 2014 17:51
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Wow, I haven't looked at those offers in years, I just throw them in the trash. I stand corrected. I guess enough people fail to pay them off that the companies can make it all back on average from those folks.
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Dec 11, 2014 18:07
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xie posted:How can you pay your loans on a credit card? I'd pay mine off tomorrow if I could. That's the hitch in the plan. I don't think you can because then the process would become: transfer student loan balance to many different credit cards then file bankruptcy.
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Dec 11, 2014 18:11
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Sex Weirdo posted:I don't think you can because then the process would become: transfer student loan balance to many different credit cards then file bankruptcy. You can get somewhat there with CC cash advances. IANAL and this may be fraud if you are planning a BK.
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Dec 11, 2014 18:12
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LorneReams posted:You can get somewhat there with CC cash advances. That's actually a not-uncommon thing for travelers in Southeast Asia (where she is/was) in areas where ATM penetration is low/nonexistent. Never tried it in the States. Obviously there are fees, usually 1-3%.
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Dec 11, 2014 18:18
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xie posted:Actually I don't think she has her loans attached to her CC at all. That's just entry level churning. She opened the card and got all of the bonuses then used it for her ticket home. The minimum payment and the student loans are just deducting from her bank account so she doesn't have to worry while she travels. I hate to bag on her too much because I think international travel while you're young is a great thing. It's mostly that her answer to the realization that people live beyond their means is to become part of that same culture, and then thinking that she's "A GENIUS" and a "master budgeter" for realizing that you can use credit cards to spend money that you don't have.
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Dec 11, 2014 18:27
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Am I bad with money because I don't care about using those little tricks and workarounds with balance transfers and multiple credit cards and all that poo poo and just pay my debt down slowly but surely by using the snowball method? Because I see a ton of people thinking they're hot poo poo for bouncing debt around from card to card like they're circus fire torch jugglers and all I can think of is "What happens if there's a month where you forget to make a minimum payment? Or you accidentally pay the wrong one?" and everything collapses. I guess I'm the good with money one right now because, even though it might take longer and I might incur a few hundred more in interest, I'm properly budgeting for my debt and paying it off in $250 chunks (for the only non-car and non-student debt I have). I actually have no consumer debt right now other than my car note, and my student loans are only $46,000 total. I was going to pay above the minimum on them for the next four years, then cash out my RSUs from Amazon and pay the remaining balance with the capital gains from my vested RSUs - again, assuming that my job is somewhat secure and stable and nothing catastrophic happens that my buffer can't handle. It's a slower method, but in my opinion it's a much more financially stable plan than transferring balances and racking up fees for transfers. Edit: I just realized the absurdity of saying that I "only" have $46,000 in student debt. That's loving batshit crazy.
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Dec 11, 2014 18:32
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I think you should probably cash out vested portions of your RSUs as soon as you become eligible for long term capital gains. After that you can choose to pay back loans or invest in something broader. You might play a little game where you try to do it on a low income year, but that doesn't seem worth it to me. Just like it's a bad idea for me to randomly bet on Amazon and buy a bunch of Amazon stock, it's an even worse idea for you who might lose a bunch of money on your investments AND your job if Amazon does poorly. The whole shtick of companies trying to get employees to hold their stock seems like a trap to me.
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Dec 11, 2014 18:50
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No reason to wait for LTCG treatment. RSU vesting is taxed as ordinary income so you might as well sell them right away.
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Dec 11, 2014 19:07
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Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:I think you should probably cash out vested portions of your RSUs as soon as you become eligible for long term capital gains. After that you can choose to pay back loans or invest in something broader. You might play a little game where you try to do it on a low income year, but that doesn't seem worth it to me. Just like it's a bad idea for me to randomly bet on Amazon and buy a bunch of Amazon stock, it's an even worse idea for you who might lose a bunch of money on your investments AND your job if Amazon does poorly. The whole shtick of companies trying to get employees to hold their stock seems like a trap to me. It's not advantageous to me to cash out my vested portions until year three anyway, because only 5% of my total vest the first year, and the second year another 15% vest. The third and fourth years, I get 40% each year vesting, and at the end of my third year I could cash out 60% of my total and have a decent chunk of cash on hand (after the capital gains tax of course  ) to pay down student debt.SlapActionJackson posted:No reason to wait for LTCG treatment. RSU vesting is taxed as ordinary income so you might as well sell them right away. Is it taxed at my ordinary tax bracket, or is it closer to the bonus tax which is a ludicrous 40%?
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Dec 11, 2014 19:10
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SlapActionJackson posted:No reason to wait for LTCG treatment. RSU vesting is taxed as ordinary income so you might as well sell them right away. Oh I learned something today. Which year is the income in, the grant year or the vesting year? It makes perfect sense for the principle value but not for gains after that.
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Dec 11, 2014 19:17
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HonorableTB posted:Is it taxed at my ordinary tax bracket, or is it closer to the bonus tax which is a ludicrous 40%? There's no such thing as "bonus tax". Paychecks with large bonuses have a higher withholding rate applied because of the rules on calculating withholding, but the tax owed is just your ordinary marginal rate. Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:Oh I learned something today. Which year is the income in, the grant year or the vesting year? It makes perfect sense for the principle value but not for gains after that. Vesting year. And yes, any change in value after the vesting is treated as capital gains, not income.
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Dec 11, 2014 19:23
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