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asur posted:The IRS specifies the way supplemental income, which bonuses are, is withheld. There are two methods, but the more common is to withhold a flat 25%. When filing the bonus just adds to your income and your overall tax burden should be reasonably close to your normal withholding rate. The other way is that employers sometimes add it to your normal paycheck, which messes the bracket up. So lets say you make 2k every two weeks (52k a year) and get a bonus of 1k. If that's added onto your 2k paycheck it looks like your yearly income is 50% higher than it would be otherwise, and probably takes you to another bracket. It all works out at tax time of course.
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Jan 16, 2016 20:27
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swenblack posted:Too bad it's been more than 20 years since our F-15s first won a decisive victory. Fighting goat herders and weddings with drones is BWM. Using fighter jets to fight them would be even worse with money. The way to win is to sell them Toyota Hiluxs and horses with 5 year loans. Then implement the trickle up effect by having return on capital (on the loans) being higher than GDP.
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Jan 16, 2016 20:53
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CombatInformatiker posted:Despite all the evidence to the contrary, you actually believe this?! Obviously it is a comment that provokes much debate and in many ways it is an unanswerable question, but really there are many arguments to be made for the United States as the greatest country in the world which center around global influence and accomplishment, and many arguments to be made for the United States as a middling developed nation, which center around social ills and inequality.
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Jan 16, 2016 21:42
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Or is this merely an empty phrase, like "How are you?"?
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Crossposted from the homebuying thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/418gap/bought_a_house_and_now_im_in_big_trouble_advice/ posted:Hi all, I am a first time poster here, and I really need advice. lol at "saving for a bathroom ventilation fan"
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Jan 16, 2016 23:47
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BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:Obviously it is a comment that provokes much debate and in many ways it is an unanswerable question, but really there are many arguments to be made for the United States as the greatest country in the world which center around global influence and accomplishment, and many arguments to be made for the United States as a middling developed nation, which center around social ills and inequality. The United States is the best county in the world if you are White and middle class or higher. That's not to say we're exclusionary. White and middle class used to mean male land owners but now encompasses both White men and White women. We're not so hot with minorities. But still in the top 10 once you average everything out. USA!!!
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Jan 16, 2016 23:55
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moana posted:Crossposted from the homebuying thread: Hey, don't knock it - I did a $25k gut and renovate on my own $50k house (new $8k roof too!  ) and I forgot to put in a $150 bathroom ventilation fan.  At least the bathroom has a window, so good enough. /frugal
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Jan 17, 2016 01:04
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How the gently caress do you screw up so badly that your entire house becomes ruined by mold in less than a year. No ventilation and an indoor sauna?
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Jan 17, 2016 01:17
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slap me silly posted:How the gently caress do you screw up so badly that your entire house becomes ruined by mold in less than a year. No ventilation and an indoor sauna? I'd guess there's a leaking pipe somewhere soaking water into everything.
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Jan 17, 2016 01:38
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slap me silly posted:How the gently caress do you screw up so badly that your entire house becomes ruined by mold in less than a year. No ventilation and an indoor sauna? Maybe a perma-damp crawl space . A lot of people don't realize you should put down a vapor barrier and open the vents when it starts to warm up. My crawl space was always a pain in the rear end. The only good part of having one was I never had to fish (non electrical) wiring through the walls or the attic. SYSV Fanfic fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Jan 17, 2016 |
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Jan 17, 2016 02:18
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SYSV Fanfic posted:Maybe a perma-damp crawl space. Its gotta be more than that if their closet has soaking wet mold carpeting and mold wallpaper. They should have been in a panic when they noticed mold outside the bathroom. Hell if they'd been living mold free for six months and suddenly there was mold in the bathroom they should have been really suspicious.
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Jan 17, 2016 02:37
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Seriously that was some ignorant poo poo. I clean my house and survey things like the closets and corners regularly just in the course of my regular activities. I noticed immediately when the drywall in my kitchen ceiling dimpled a little (leak from upstairs) and got it fixed the next day for $100. How can you own a house and not know this is happening? 
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Jan 17, 2016 02:52
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How in the hell do alarms not start ringing when you FIRST notice the mold? How do you let it get that bad?!
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Jan 17, 2016 02:52
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Desuwa posted:Its gotta be more than that if their closet has soaking wet mold carpeting and mold wallpaper. They should have been in a panic when they noticed mold outside the bathroom. Hell if they'd been living mold free for six months and suddenly there was mold in the bathroom they should have been really suspicious. They probably didn't buy a $60,000 house because they were good with money. I'd imagine they tried to ignore it and pray that it went away when the weather changed. I bought a $60,000 house because a $45,000 mortgage was much cheaper than rent on a 2 bedroom apartment and it had a new heat pump and roof. None of my neighbors were the best educated. I doubt most of them could have afforded a new roof or any major repair if they didn't have enough equity to borrow against the house. Edit: I blame the "education" system. Instead of learning something useful, everyone in my district is forced to take algebra II. All of the life skills I didn't get from my parents came from boy scouts. Some people legit don't know things like mold = health disaster. SYSV Fanfic fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Jan 17, 2016 |
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Jan 17, 2016 02:55
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In all fairness I did have to fix a 9-year-old roof leak that was causing puddles in the closet when I moved into my house. Price tag $2000, by the way. Come visit us in the Do Never Buy thread!
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Jan 17, 2016 04:07
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What are your thoughts on condos? I've been renting for 5 years and love it, but realize I could be BUILDING EQUITY. I like not having to buy poo poo like a lawn mower/snow blower, and my small apartment doesn't require a lot of furnishing. Also not having to pay property/school taxes is fantastic. Talk me out of buying a condo, goons. EugeneJ fucked around with this message at 04:48 on Jan 17, 2016 |
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Jan 17, 2016 04:45
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Condos suck worst of anything. Read the last page or two. "Building equity" is a thing people tell themselves so they'll feel better about their six figures of debt. Some things you should consider as part of this decision: Interest costs of the mortgage Property tax Homeowner's insurance (more expensive than renter's) HOA fees Maintenance (appliances will break, you will need to paint, etc) Likelihood of special assessments and the amount (the roof may leak) PMI if you don't have 20% down payment The brutality of the housing market which could cause your condo value to plummet amazingly at any time Costs of sale when you need to sell Edit oops, this is what I meant you should read the last page or two of: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3131399 slap me silly fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Jan 17, 2016 |
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Jan 17, 2016 05:16
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EugeneJ posted:What are your thoughts on condos? You think HOA are bullshit? Try owning a condo, where all the busybody do-nothings live only a wall away instead of down the street, and you actually need them to be competent to keep the building and common areas from being condemned.
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Jan 17, 2016 05:16
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EugeneJ posted:What are your thoughts on condos? IDK what city you're in but generally speaking in major cities (ie places where you'd even consider a condo) you'll usually end up in a situation where PITI+Condo fee is quite a bit higher than the rent on an equivalent unit. Do the math on investing the difference and you'll generally find that renting is better in the long run unless you make unrealistic assumptions on appreciation of the unit.*** *Everyone older than you will assume unrealistic price appreciation because they lived through a long era of interest rate decline, which causes prices to go up since monthly mortgage payments are the limiting factor on real estate demand. *Also they will totally fail to understand the math anyway because the only real form of saving they know is home equity. The idea that you could be capable of taking the monthly difference from renting and not blow it on trucks is foreign to them, so they will compare ending up with equity to ending up with 0. *Your spouse and peers will eventually pressure you to buy anyway, these words are all wasted.
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Jan 17, 2016 05:20
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EugeneJ posted:What are your thoughts on condos? Owning a condo is a lifestyle decision, just like owning a house. Basically you get an interior you can paint on with money, and your condo fee takes care of the upkeep to the building. You don't do it because its a sound investment, you do it because you want to be able to make the interior look like whatever you want and you don't want a yard to cut. Others have mentioned the drawbacks, but you want to request the last ten years of condo board meeting minutes and READ EVERY PAGE. You can see how many assessments there have been, how much they were for, termite or bug infestations, how much the increase to the condo fees have been, etc. Request annual financial reports to ensure the reserve has never dipped to the point where buyers can't get mortgages and where the money goes. Above all, make sure you aren't responsible for whatever is in the walls because its almost impossible for someone to inspect that when buying a unit. That's what I would do if for some reason I wanted a condo. Just based off two friends that bought condos and their experiences.
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Jan 17, 2016 11:02
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Hi my name is pig slut lisa and I'm the president of my co-op board and it's literally taken me more than 6 months to get our gutters repaired, with the water damage in one stairwell slightly worsening with every rain, because all the local companies that do multi-family are garbage. Please kill me. Thanks! E: Also half my board is absentee and the other half squabble, I freakin love it pig slut lisa fucked around with this message at 15:00 on Jan 17, 2016 |
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Jan 17, 2016 14:58
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Apparently everybodys favourite cryptocurrency experiment, bitcoin has failed for reals this time. The article is a bit too long to repost here, but the tl;dr is that the problem is now within bitcoin itself, not just the services/companies that sprung up to cash in on it (e.g. Mt Gox). I admit I'm feeling a bit schadenfreude-y about it, because I was at uni studying computer science when bitcoin first came out and there were a lot of nerds who thought they were going to be internet millionaires or something. Also since we can now embed tweets: https://twitter.com/dril/status/384408932061417472 https://twitter.com/dril/status/384411458794057728
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Jan 17, 2016 16:05
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froglet posted:Apparently everybodys favourite cryptocurrency experiment, bitcoin has failed for reals this time. The article is a bit too long to repost here, but the tl;dr is that the problem is now within bitcoin itself, not just the services/companies that sprung up to cash in on it (e.g. Mt Gox). It seems the big problem is that the majority of the network is controlled by few enough people they can collude against the best interests of bitcoin as a whole. To make the network scale to meet current transaction demand, 75% of its participants have to agree to the change. Two people control 50% of the network and don't want to make the change because they stand to lose money. Without the change, you can't reliably transfer between wallets because it takes too long and the transaction may just get dropped from the network OR you pay enough to those two miners you would be better off taking a hit with a credit card fee. The bonus: The community turned against itself and started DDoSing anyone who tried to "vote" for a capacity increase. This is.... entertaining. Edit: The comments are great. On the level of bagdad bob. I haven't read a single one that addresses his technical points. SYSV Fanfic fucked around with this message at 18:48 on Jan 17, 2016 |
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Jan 17, 2016 18:36
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https://twitter.com/shashashasha/status/688734478181732352 Is negative reinforcement good with money?
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Jan 17, 2016 20:16
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SYSV Fanfic posted:It seems the big problem is that the majority of the network is controlled by few enough people they can collude against the best interests of bitcoin as a whole. To make the network scale to meet current transaction demand, 75% of its participants have to agree to the change. Two people control 50% of the network and don't want to make the change because they stand to lose money. Without the change, you can't reliably transfer between wallets because it takes too long and the transaction may just get dropped from the network OR you pay enough to those two miners you would be better off taking a hit with a credit card fee. Looks like I'll have to catch up with what's been going on. Bitcoin hit a really boring phase but if they are undermining nerd confidence in the lovely currency it will accelerate the downhill slide.
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Jan 17, 2016 20:19
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Devian666 posted:Looks like I'll have to catch up with what's been going on. Bitcoin hit a really boring phase but if they are undermining nerd confidence in the lovely currency it will accelerate the downhill slide. There is also the chance that it could be bullshit so someone can buy low and sell on the rebound. It's bitcoin afterall.
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Jan 17, 2016 21:11
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NancyPants posted:You think HOA are bullshit? Try owning a condo, where all the busybody do-nothings live only a wall away instead of down the street, and you actually need them to be competent to keep the building and common areas from being condemned. EugeneJ posted:What are your thoughts on condos? Story time! I have a friend who bought a condo in an older townhouse development here in the Greater Toronto Area. He was attracted to it because it's larger (the newer ones are much smaller, as anyone who bought a newer build can tell you). But it also carried a $900/month condo fee. This covered water, Internet, a local exercise facility, pool, and snow removal. There was a problem, though. He discovered that he has zero say in what Internet package is chosen for his unit. And he never used the gym that he was paying for. And every time he went to the pool it was full of unitholder's "guests" who didn't even live in the neighbourhood, so he never got to use the pool. He also didn't see the point in paid snow removal, since he barely had a lawn. But wait, there's more! Since it was an older townhouse complex, there were roofing issues. It's also a fairly large complex, so this means a lot of roofing maintenance had to be done. All unitholders got a letter in the mail telling them that in addition to their regular maintenance fees, all unitholders had to pay up ~$10,000 by the end of the year so the roofing issue could be remedied. None of this is exaggerated. And yes, while it's an extreme worst-case scenario, it can happen to anyone who is part of a condo ownership. Just know what you're getting into if you DO decide to buy into a condo. melon cat fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Jan 17, 2016 |
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Jan 17, 2016 22:19
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Paying for stuff you don't use and being assessed for roof maintenance are by far emphatically not the extreme worst case scenarios of condo ownership
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Jan 17, 2016 22:24
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The worst condo management disaster I have ever heard of was in a townhouse type place. The siding was recalled, the board got a notice with instructions on how to have it all replaced at the original manufacturer's expense and - well they did nothing, missed the recall deadline, and now the members of the complex are having the maximum hike without a vote every year till the siding is replaced.
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Jan 17, 2016 23:10
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Whoof. I would be suing the board at that point.
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Jan 17, 2016 23:21
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slap me silly posted:Whoof. I would be suing the board at that point. I don't know. The notice was sent probably about 8 years before the siding started to disintegrate. Not sure the look back on that. It was an ex-girlfriend. Her family trust owns the place. Her parents bought it for her after she lost her teaching job because she couldn't function for a few years after ECT. They lived out of town and had a "friend" who was a real estate agent find her somewhere to live. For being a corporate executive and a business professor, you think her dad would have thought blindly trusting a realtor might be a bad idea. I'm sure her trust has more than enough to cover the increases so its not horrible. I think they feel really bad that they moved her 12 times before she was 14 to chase money and status.
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Jan 17, 2016 23:36
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slap me silly posted:Whoof. I would be suing the board at that point. The great part about suing your condo board is suing yourself and your neighbors
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Jan 18, 2016 01:02
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Note: I have never owned a condo or sued anybody
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Jan 18, 2016 01:08
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Once again, I'd like to thank this thread for reinforcing "do never buy." It's hard to fight constant pressure from friends and family sometimes.
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Jan 18, 2016 02:54
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Not a Children posted:Once again, I'd like to thank this thread for reinforcing "do never buy." It's hard to fight constant pressure from friends and family sometimes. Surely they must be right?!
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Jan 18, 2016 02:59
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Well they're the ones selling soooo
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Jan 18, 2016 03:01
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:Every boomer I know tells me to buy a home or condo nearly every time I interact with them. Well also they're almost loving dead and they have no idea about the current world, so do never follow boomers' advice. These are the people who think you should hand your resume to the hiring manager if you want to get a job. Or that a single minimum wage job through summer will pay all of that year's college tuition.
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Jan 18, 2016 03:04
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I had some housechat with a buddy a couple days ago. He was surprised that I'd want to rent for the next decade instead of buying so I tried to break it down for him and explain opportunity costs. The 90K I 'throw away' in rent over 5 years actually comes out ahead after deducting the interest, taxes, maintenance, and insurance I don't have to pay, plus the opportunity cost I could have done with my down payment. Without access to some spreadsheets I had to wag some of the numbers, but he (may be) convinced that rent isn't throwing money away. Also worth mentioning is that we're in the military and can expect to move every few years plus get divorced at least once, and I hear splitting houses is a pain... Bonus BWM: He didn't know how progressive tax brackets work and was kinda bummed out because he recently got promoted. He's all good now though 
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Jan 18, 2016 04:17
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SYSV Fanfic posted:The worst condo management disaster I have ever heard of was in a townhouse type place. The siding was recalled, the board got a notice with instructions on how to have it all replaced at the original manufacturer's expense and - well they did nothing, missed the recall deadline, and now the members of the complex are having the maximum hike without a vote every year till the siding is replaced. There's a group of apartments near me that I see being sold on a deep discount... Because the strata spent so long bickering about maintenance on the building and nothing getting done the foundation now has concrete cancer. Last I heard it will cost $40,000 per unit to fix, maybe more depending on how extensive the damage is. No wonder those apartments are so cheap!
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Jan 18, 2016 04:30
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Not a Children posted:Once again, I'd like to thank this thread for reinforcing "do never buy." It's hard to fight constant pressure from friends and family sometimes. Seriously. Sometimes it feels like everyone is pushing the "you're not a real adult unless you buy a place and get a new car" agenda. It's good to get another perspective.
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Jan 18, 2016 05:09
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Guest2553 posted:I had some housechat with a buddy a couple days ago. He was surprised that I'd want to rent for the next decade instead of buying so I tried to break it down for him and explain opportunity costs. The 90K I 'throw away' in rent over 5 years actually comes out ahead after deducting the interest, taxes, maintenance, and insurance I don't have to pay, plus the opportunity cost I could have done with my down payment. Without access to some spreadsheets I had to wag some of the numbers, but he (may be) convinced that rent isn't throwing money away. Also worth mentioning is that we're in the military and can expect to move every few years plus get divorced at least once, and I hear splitting houses is a pain... So the thing to take away from this is that people who recommend buying houses don't even understand tax. Best not to buy. flynt posted:Seriously. Sometimes it feels like everyone is pushing the "you're not a real adult unless you buy a place and get a new car" agenda. It's good to get another perspective. I don't have a car but I have a house. The whole car and house thing is how baby boomers have ruined the world. If neo-liberalism was rolled back so that interest rates were capped and severe lending restrictions were in place housing, including rent, would be a hell of a lot cheaper. Devian666 fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Jan 18, 2016 |
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Jan 18, 2016 05:11
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