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Co-Worker lives 45 minutes away from our office and drives two giant SUV/Trucks. His diesel maybe gets 15 MPG. He does this for years. Always talks about getting a little beater (though for some reason he looks at new cars?) but never does. Finds a house closer to work, and moves there. Without first selling his house that is now an hour away from where he moved to. Of course he can't just sell the house "as-is" but has to carry it for a while to do renovations. Also this isn't just a normal SFH house in a sub-division, its a large piece of property with room for dozens of animals to be boarded, lots of pasture, etc. Its been 3 months or so that he "has to sell his house" because he's "going broke fast" - but no real improvement in the state of the property in regards to selling it. I ask every week if he's gonna "finish up moving this weekend" and there is always some social engagement that is taking priority. At least his commute is shorter now.
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Feb 27, 2015 17:02
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DrBouvenstein, 50% of the content of your post is excuses. They might even be valid excuses, I'm not saying they're not, but it doesn't matter - no one cares. I can't find anything in that post where you made a concrete plan and followed through. Currently, you have a job that pays enough, but by your own admission you fell into it. It seems like you're just floating along; what happens when the tide changes? You must be a smart enough guy, you got a BME degree, but smart only goes so far. You need more grit.
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Feb 27, 2015 17:07
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District Selectman posted:DrBouvenstein, 50% of the content of your post is excuses. They might even be valid excuses, I'm not saying they're not, but it doesn't matter - no one cares. I can't find anything in that post where you made a concrete plan and followed through. Well that was most of my point, for nearly ten years I was a stupid moron without any real plan. I'd say I have most of a plan now. The money I'm putting into the savings account is something I'd like to use for a house down payment in 1-2 years, depending on factors such as: Will my GF and I get married by then? Will the amount we save be enough (if I don't up the amount I'm setting aside, I know it won't be on its own, but combined with her's it could be.) What's the housing market like here? What are our jobs/career prospects looking like? Etc... As far as my career, it might have been a misnomer to say I "fell" into it. I was referred by a friend who used to work here. I was initially hired to do software QA, which I knew was dead-end, so I worked hard at it, learned a lot about SDLC, networking, etc... and they transferred me to a network support position. I enjoy this more than I ever enjoyed the biomed stuff, though again, that was simple tech work, not actual engineering. But there's virtually no BME jobs where I live, and I have no plans to move elsewhere, so trying to finish my grad degree to get into that isn't on my radar. I'm pretty much focused on their path at the moment.
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Feb 27, 2015 17:18
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dreesemonkey posted:I have another friend who could be wealthy, but ends up spending most of his money. I was just talking with this friend of mine, on a whim they found a small piece of land they might like to buy and are now talking to builders to possibly build a home. Mercifully they're very early in the process and I'm hoping/assuming they may be surprised when they figure out how much it is to build. He was complaining that they would have to put 10k down on a land loan (wiping out all his liquid assets) when if he got a construction loan he could put that same $10k down and then they'd have a house being built for them or whatever. Save your money, guys 
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Feb 27, 2015 17:53
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Haifisch posted:If you buy anything other than a plain white pair of $20 sneakers with barely-adequate support, you're bad with money. My office just instituted Fly Kicks Friday. I need to invest in shoe equity or else I'll be seen as not a team player!
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Feb 27, 2015 17:54
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MJBuddy posted:My county has like 30 different tax rates, and my part of it has 5. I have a solid estimate but man it can vary by the block. Rate doesn't matter. You'll have the actual amount of tax due for the prior year on your county site.
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Feb 27, 2015 18:47
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It came from...D&D?Pohl posted:If he actually makes a sale his bonus is going to be something crazy like $80 grand. No, he has no idea about the SS cap. What he does is bitch that the government taxes his bonus at 50%. He is a great guy and I love him but I want to punch him in the face. He could possibly clear almost $200K this year and he is mad that he feels poor and has credit card debt. He is getting married soon and his wife to be makes a modest income, but she probably makes enough to pay the bills. I'm just
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Feb 27, 2015 19:23
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, because it doesn't make sense and I can't tell him that he is doing great without a lecture from him about how he is being torn down. 
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Inverse Icarus posted:Bad with money: I got a vinyl cutter in early February, and I've been making a bunch of stickers and tshirts to sell to friends casually for a while to see if this is something I could do for beer money. It's been going well so far. I still haven't paid for the cutter yet, but the little spreadsheet I've made for costs/sales is slowly getting closer and closer to breaking even. Cloks posted:Tell your manager you expected it was less and you'd like to be compensated for your time? Managed to turn this around. Today we did our big software demo to senior management, and the whole team wore the shirts I made. Other managers were impressed and started talking to me about ordering shirts for their team. After hearing me tell them it would be $12 a shirt from now on and how much time I spent doing it, my manager told me he'd pay that if I wrote up an invoice. Just made $250 after materials for about 4 hours of work, and I've got some leads on future jobs. /humblebrag I guess https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5betFZRICVg
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Feb 27, 2015 21:42
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A MMM approved side venture.
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Feb 27, 2015 21:47
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dreesemonkey posted:I was just talking with this friend of mine, on a whim they found a small piece of land they might like to buy and are now talking to builders to possibly build a home. Mercifully they're very early in the process and I'm hoping/assuming they may be surprised when they figure out how much it is to build. He was complaining that they would have to put 10k down on a land loan (wiping out all his liquid assets) when if he got a construction loan he could put that same $10k down and then they'd have a house being built for them or whatever. This obsession with buying houses seems to date back 40 or so years when it actually made a lot of sense and was affordable. The following documentary covers a lot of the changes since then (it also shows the UK is bad with money). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n06WlUJScTg Baby boomers did well buying houses during liberalisation and made a lot of money as a result. Thing is a lot of people could afford a house, these days not so much. One of the things in the documentary points out that the ability to purchase a house makes the difference between the well off and the poor. It's not quite accurate the divide in wealth or affluence is whether or not people invest their money. Buying a house or truck then losing it because you can't afford the payments of course makes you worse off. Something that a guy with only $10k for a house deposit doesn't understand.
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Feb 27, 2015 22:40
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I'm still in the red a few hundred for the whole thing for now with all the tools/materials I bought, but the cutter has officially paid for itself with this. If I can convince one of those managers to pull the trigger on a shirt for their teams I'll be in the black. Meanwhile I'm hucking decals for macbooks to all my friends. I'll probably formalize this as a business with a website sometime in the next few months. Bad with money: My dad's new wife wanted to have fresh herbs for cooking. Some pots on the windowsill, you'd imagine. Nope.  This image pretty much blew my mind. First, that system is $130 on amazon. Secondly, it's not growing BASIL. Thirdly, it looks like the seeds come in loving k-cups. My dad says "you can buy cups without seeds and add your own." Perhaps most frustrating of all, It is literally on the windowsill.
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Feb 27, 2015 22:51
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good with money: grow and sell weed with it
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Feb 27, 2015 23:01
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Inverse Icarus posted:I'm still in the red a few hundred for the whole thing for now with all the tools/materials I bought, but the cutter has officially paid for itself with this. If I can convince one of those managers to pull the trigger on a shirt for their teams I'll be in the black. That is hilarious. If only someone could figure out a solar-powered plant grower, they'd be rich!
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Feb 27, 2015 23:19
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canyoneer posted:That is hilarious. If only someone could figure out a solar-powered plant grower, they'd be rich! http://www.ehow.com/how_5893213_design-solar-powered-grow-room.html
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Feb 27, 2015 23:21
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Inverse Icarus posted:I'm still in the red a few hundred for the whole thing for now with all the tools/materials I bought, but the cutter has officially paid for itself with this. If I can convince one of those managers to pull the trigger on a shirt for their teams I'll be in the black. My wife has been trying to grow plants (not weed) for a while, but it both gets too cold to keep them outside, and on most windowsills they eventually get murdered by our cats. In our new place we have an extra room, so she decided she wanted a heater like that. Thankfully, the one she got does not look anything like that (not fancy), and she paid like, $30-40 on Craigslist.
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Feb 28, 2015 12:00
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Plus if you use it as an incubator to grow food from seed it pays for itself and becomes officially good with money!
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Feb 28, 2015 12:08
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Pew just released a sobering report on how hosed the average American family is financially. http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/2015/01/the-precarious-state-of-family-balance-sheets My favorite: top quintile of families have on average 52 days of liquid savings.
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Feb 28, 2015 16:27
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Mercury Ballistic posted:My favorite: top quintile of families have on average 52 days of liquid savings. There's no way that can be true... and sure enough that report redefines "liquid savings" as cash and equivalents held in nonretirement accounts. Which is a considerably more narrow definition than what liquid assets usually means.
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Feb 28, 2015 17:50
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SlapActionJackson posted:There's no way that can be true... and sure enough that report redefines "liquid savings" as cash and equivalents held in nonretirement accounts. Which is a considerably more narrow definition than what liquid assets usually means. Fair enough and good point. Since BFC preach a 6-9 month emergency fund I figured this was noteworthy.
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Feb 28, 2015 18:01
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Mercury Ballistic posted:Fair enough and good point. Since BFC preach a 6-9 month emergency fund I figured this was noteworthy. What's wrong with not using an emergency fund and just drawing on investment portfolio in times if emergency?
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Feb 28, 2015 18:07
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Mantle posted:What's wrong with not using an emergency fund and just drawing on investment portfolio in times if emergency? If (when) the economy goes south again, you can lose your job and a large chunk of your portfolio at the same time.
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Feb 28, 2015 18:15
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Mantle posted:What's wrong with not using an emergency fund and just drawing on investment portfolio in times if emergency? Maybe nothing I suppose but to be honest I don't feel very qualified to speculate much on that debate. I feel a mix is safe but it probably depends on your style of investing. I just wanted to mention the report from pew as they are a pretty well regarded research entity.
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Feb 28, 2015 18:16
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Mercury Ballistic posted:Fair enough and good point. Since BFC preach a 6-9 month emergency fund I figured this was noteworthy. I agree with you, and I don't see the issue with Pew using only non retirement assets for the purposes of that study
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Feb 28, 2015 18:29
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pig slut lisa posted:I agree with you, and I don't see the issue with Pew using only non retirement assets for the purposes of that study Not all nonretirement assets count, just nonretirement cash. The issue is that it significantly undercounts the assets readily available to that group they could use to weather financial hardship. They also should have called it "cash savings" rather than "liquid savings" to make it more clear what they meant.
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Feb 28, 2015 18:46
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What non-cash non-retirement would you like for them to have included?
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Feb 28, 2015 18:56
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pig slut lisa posted:What non-cash non-retirement would you like for them to have included? All of the liquid ones? E.g. stocks, bonds, mutual funds held in taxable accounts.
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Feb 28, 2015 19:00
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SlapActionJackson posted:Not all nonretirement assets count, just nonretirement cash. The issue is that it significantly undercounts the assets readily available to that group they could use to weather financial hardship. They also should have called it "cash savings" rather than "liquid savings" to make it more clear what they meant. Looking at the study... they do break it down a bit further a little bit down. The "average" family could survive 120 daysish if they drained all their accounts. Cash, retirement, and personal investments. That's still really loving sad though.
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Feb 28, 2015 19:01
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Hey guys, can we stop pretending that surveys done in 2008 and 2009 mean anything? Yeah, when you choose a massive recession as an endpoint, things look bad. Big loving surprise. E: Ah no, only some blurbs are 2009 endpoint. Still a bit silly.
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Feb 28, 2015 19:04
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MJBuddy posted:Hey guys, can we stop pretending that surveys done in 2008 and 2009 mean anything? Once you include retirement and other financial assets, the 2013 number is actually lower than the 2010 one.
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Feb 28, 2015 19:39
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MJBuddy posted:Hey guys, can we stop pretending that surveys done in 2008 and 2009 mean anything? You like to pretend things change but they really only stay the same. 2009 is plenty relevant.
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Feb 28, 2015 19:44
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Series DD Funding posted:Once you include retirement and other financial assets, the 2013 number is actually lower than the 2010 one. They don't have income numbers post-2009 at all, was my point.
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Feb 28, 2015 20:14
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Figure 11 Most Households Are Facing Financial Challenge A 2013 figure where 55% of households are savings limited (having 1 month of money). 47% are income constrained (spending more than they earned) which is likely to just be financially stupid in most of those households. The debt challenged definition is interesting being 8% of households pay 41%+ of their monthly income on debt serving. Of course there is a special category of being in deep poo poo where 3% of households are in all three categories. From the diagram there are about 50% of households that spend too much or have high debt servicing. That's really bad.
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Feb 28, 2015 20:20
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I think recession-era numbers are more revealing than boom-era numbers. When the equity and real estate markets are hot there are a whole lot of paper millionaires. It's when things get deflated that you start to see the reality of the situation. The fact that quote:The "average" family could survive 120 daysish if they drained all their accounts. Cash, retirement, and personal investments. is terrifying. Even if you assume the worst that their retirement portfolio was temporarily knocked down by 50% in the recession that's still well short of a single year of survival on savings if you liquidate everything.
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Feb 28, 2015 20:22
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Here is another Pew brief from a few days back: http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2015/02/americans-financial-security-perceptions-and-reality It has more depressing info such as 10% of persons with income of 100k or more have no savings. This stuff makes me feel terrified about the future.
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Feb 28, 2015 20:42
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Why? The numbers have been stable for at least 30 years now.
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Feb 28, 2015 21:56
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DrBouvenstein posted:
As someone who is in this exact position right now this makes me go  I like BME, but I really wish I had gone pretty much any other engineering degree because I'm having real issues finding a job.
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Mar 1, 2015 02:13
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Series DD Funding posted:Why? The numbers have been stable for at least 30 years now. When a large portion of the population lives check to check, they don't have the leverage that the employment system expects them to have when negotiating benefits and wages. This drives down benefits and wages even when the economy otherwise recovers.
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Mar 1, 2015 02:25
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ranbo das posted:As someone who is in this exact position right now this makes me go I'll be making sure to tell my hypothetical future child not to major in chemistry like I did. Any number of easier majors have better career prospects and don't require you to go to grad school.
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Mar 1, 2015 02:50
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Folly posted:When a large portion of the population lives check to check, they don't have the leverage that the employment system expects them to have when negotiating benefits and wages. This drives down benefits and wages even when the economy otherwise recovers. I think the point is that this has basically always been the case throughout human history, most people simply never accumulate enough wealth and resources to not labor
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Mar 1, 2015 02:54
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Powerlurker posted:I'll be making sure to tell my hypothetical future child not to major in chemistry like I did. Any number of easier majors have better career prospects and don't require you to go to grad school. I hear that. Except I would've gone to a marginally harder degree in ChemE. 30k a year starting with no prospects of major improvement vs 70k starting and tons of room for growth
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Mar 1, 2015 06:07
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