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Barry
Aug 1, 2003

Hardened Criminal
Maybe you guys can take your doomsday prepper fantasies to another thread and post some BWM instead. I'm looking through reddit but nothing juicy so far today.

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Cold on a Cob
Feb 6, 2006

i've seen so much, i'm going blind
and i'm brain dead virtually

College Slice

Barry posted:

Maybe you guys can take your doomsday prepper fantasies to another thread and post some BWM instead. I'm looking through reddit but nothing juicy so far today.

Ok, I'll cross post something - BWM: All of Canada.

http://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/drowning-in-debt-is-the-new-normal-in-canada/

There are some throwaway examples of how much debt Canadians are pickled in, but holy poo poo:

quote:

Let me share a scenario of someone who is self employed, as it highlights how a debt problem can spiral out of control quickly. I met recently with a woman in her 50s who owns her own company that furnishes and decorates high-end businesses, like big law firms. Or at least it did. With big firms shrinking to meet reduced market demands and trimming costs, her business had dried up.

Her accountant brought her to me, and it was clear she had severely mismanaged her business and financial affairs, despite her accountant’s warnings. We see this all the time—small business owners are typically very good at what they do, but very poor at handling day-to-day administration.

Here are some specifics that show how misaligned her lifestyle and business expenses were with the actual cash she was earning:
• Owns a townhouse: mortgage $600,000, estimated value $650,000
• Mortgage payments: $3,600/mo
• CRA lien against house for personal income tax owing: $98,000
• She had previously refinanced her house to help fund her business
• She had a prior bankruptcy 15 yrs ago—discharged
• Leased car: $51,000 owing
• Credit card debt: $75,000
• Business loan (personally guaranteed with a high interest rate): $45,000
• Outstanding debts to suppliers: $80,000
• Business rent owing (seven months behind): $11,000
• Net self-employment income: $3,500 per month, or $42,000 per year

The CRA lien is the big problem here. She can’t sell or refinance her house with the existing lien unless she pays her back taxes, while in the meantime interest charges and penalties pile up.
Although this may seem hopeless, it is actually a straightforward personal bankruptcy scenario: She closes the business, any source deduction or HST owing is included in the personal bankruptcy filing, as are any personally guaranteed business debts. She walks away from her house and cannot be sued for any shortfall due to the creditor protection afforded by her bankruptcy. She will lose her house and business, but that almost certainly would have happened regardless.

I should point out that clients in this type of situation often insist on keeping their house, a reflection of the deep-seated Canadian devotion to home ownership, and it takes long and difficult conversations with family, friends and trusted advisors before they come around to the realization that they have to let go of their home.

Canada is so hosed. I know that's just an example of an extreme situation, but this stat from earlier in the article is the scariest part for me:

quote:

The normalization of excessive debt is reflected in the data that Statistics Canada regularly releases. The household debt-to-income ratio now stands at 169.4, up 23 per cent from a decade ago, and on par with what the U.S. saw at the peak of its housing bubble. Of course, such figures are averages. According to the Bank of Canada, close to half of all high-ratio mortgages originated in Toronto were to borrowers with loan-to-income ratios in excess of 450 per cent.

450 percent. If my math isn't poo poo, that's like 30% GDS, just shy of the 32% "limit". Add in a few car payments and pretend these people don't have lines of credit or student loans or credit cards and you're looking at 37% TDS.

People are borrowing to the loving hilt.

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

Barry posted:

Maybe you guys can take your doomsday prepper fantasies to another thread and post some BWM instead. I'm looking through reddit but nothing juicy so far today.

Ok then I guess i'll tell y'all about my BWM confession: last year I kinda got a bit consumption-addicted and spent much more than I should on frivolous bullshit. Luckily I make enough that I didn't really drive myself into any worse debt than I'm already in (and that's just an almost-paid-off student loan and car and stuff like that) but I definitely wasted a bunch of money. I only bring this up cuz the way I broke the habit was to block access to ebay.com and amazon.com from myself (in my case I edited my hosts file) so I have to do something awkward and inconvenient to get back into it, which gives me a few extra seconds to go "wait no I put that lock there for a reason you loving moron." I can still do it if I need to but just having that initial barrier there has helped a ton.

Ashcans
Jan 2, 2006

Let's do the space-time warp again!

Did you buy that horse lamp?

Jake Mustache
Feb 7, 2017
Ah, a cosigning story where the cosignee is the one getting screwed over.

quote:

A bit of an explanation needed, a family member agreed to help me get a car as I had no established credit and had trouble getting a loan. Found an ideal vehicle listed for right around $10k.

Family member had 2 other vehicles in their name they were making regular payments on, decided the best course of action would be to trade in one that still had money owed on it, bringing the total loan amount to be paid up to nearly $15k. Agreement made between myself and family member for me to pay amount per month equal to what the payment would have been if we got it for the $10k price, about $96/month, with them covering the rest, around $160/month since the price hike was their former vehicle payment I had nothing to do with.

Cut to 6 months later, family member informs me they will no longer be helping me make payments, and the amount I'm responsible for now nearly triples. Would it be in bad taste to ask them to keep helping? Or maybe at a reduced rate since the original price hike was due to their decision to trade in a vehicle they still owed money on? Any help appreciated!

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

Ashcans posted:

Did you buy that horse lamp?

Naw it was mostly frivolous hobby poo poo, either i'd see a cool bullshit thing on ebay (man wouldn't it be great to have an atomic clock i'm gonna buy that surplus atomic clock!!!) or I'd get it in my head that I'm totally gonna build a project and then buy a tool or some things to build it with and then they arrive and I poke at them a bit and decide that i'm not interested anymore or it's too hard and then put them in the closet forever. I've at least managed to repurpose a bit of the stuff in other more practical things and i'm sure i can eventually find a use for most of it but yeah.

Also I got these which, while kinda pointless since i already have ladles, are at least really cute :3:



I just leave them out on my counter so it looks like they're kissing :kimchi:

John Smith
Feb 26, 2015

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

ate all the Oreos posted:

Naw it was mostly frivolous hobby poo poo, either i'd see a cool bullshit thing on ebay (man wouldn't it be great to have an atomic clock i'm gonna buy that surplus atomic clock!!!) or I'd get it in my head that I'm totally gonna build a project and then buy a tool or some things to build it with and then they arrive and I poke at them a bit and decide that i'm not interested anymore or it's too hard and then put them in the closet forever. I've at least managed to repurpose a bit of the stuff in other more practical things and i'm sure i can eventually find a use for most of it but yeah.

Also I got these which, while kinda pointless since i already have ladles, are at least really cute :3:



I just leave them out on my counter so it looks like they're kissing :kimchi:
This is legit useful.

Twerk from Home
Jan 17, 2009

This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.

ate all the Oreos posted:

Naw it was mostly frivolous hobby poo poo, either i'd see a cool bullshit thing on ebay (man wouldn't it be great to have an atomic clock i'm gonna buy that surplus atomic clock!!!) or I'd get it in my head that I'm totally gonna build a project and then buy a tool or some things to build it with and then they arrive and I poke at them a bit and decide that i'm not interested anymore or it's too hard and then put them in the closet forever. I've at least managed to repurpose a bit of the stuff in other more practical things and i'm sure i can eventually find a use for most of it but yeah.

Also I got these which, while kinda pointless since i already have ladles, are at least really cute :3:



I just leave them out on my counter so it looks like they're kissing :kimchi:

This owns, keep posting cool stuff I should buy until it's me that's bad with money.

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

They're called "Nessie Ladles" if you can't find them :v:

Barry
Aug 1, 2003

Hardened Criminal

Jake Mustache posted:

Ah, a cosigning story where the cosignee is the one getting screwed over.

What an absolute rear end in a top hat of a family member. Pretty GWM however to get rid of $5k of debt for ~$700.

If OP wasn't such a pushover they'd just stop paying altogether but I don't see that happening.

Barry
Aug 1, 2003

Hardened Criminal
Double post because this is good stuff: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/679xz4/first_time_homebuyer_considering_8_bedroom_5/

quote:

House: 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, with 4300 square feet of space on 3 levels (ground floor, upstairs, and a finished basement). It was originally built in 1951, but it's had a ton of renovation and expansion work completed. The place looks immaculate inside (at least to my untrained eye). It could honestly house 20 people without feeling cramped.

House Location: Good, but not great. Easy commuting distance to work for both of us. A little higher crime, and the school district's not great (3/10 on Zillow), but we're familiar with the area now and comfortable with it. Maybe 2 miles from a mini downtown with a bunch of great bars / restaurants, live music, etc. It's on a small lot, but everything in this area is similarly small, so that's not a deal breaker. We currently live a few blocks away from that same mini downtown in a 1 bedroom apartment (built in the early 1960s with 750 square feet).

House Price: Asking $750K. Originally asked for $800K back in February, but they've been lowering it ever since. Zestimate suggests $730K is reasonable, so could probably go lower on price. Neighboring houses are mostly in the $500-600K range, so this is pricey for the neighborhood, but it's also in much better condition than everything else there (not to mention, double to triple the size of everything else there). Virtually everything in the neighborhood was built in the early 1950s. Small mostly-original houses go for $500K with 1000-1500 square feet of space. Maybe 5-10% of the houses have major renovations or have been torn down and rebuilt selling for $700K+. If this were blocks from the mini downtown, it'd sell for $2M+ easily, but I think location is driving the price down significantly.

Us: Just my wife and I (and a cat). No kids now. We might have kids in the future, but no chance of having 7+ kids needed to fill up the house. We're both in our early 30s working professional jobs in the area. Combined income is a little over $200K/year, though not a lot of job security for me (my wife has a lot more stability). Financial condition is pretty solid. We've been living below our means for years now, so we've got a lot saved up for a down payment (could do up to $300K if we had to, but we'd probably opt for a 20% down payment regardless of house price). Assuming we both stay employed, mortgage costs are reasonable.

Only Reason Why We're Considering It At All: Everything in the area is pricey. We're also considering a $450K condo (around 1100 square feet) and a $650K townhouse (around 2000 square feet). My thought process: if we have to spend $650K for a modest-sized townhouse, another $100K on top of that is only a 15% increase in cost, but it more than doubles the size of the house and gets us a much nicer place overall. It just seems like the better value. Essentially, the condo is the small bag of popcorn at the movie theater, the townhouse is the medium bag of popcorn, and the huge 8 bedroom house is the jumbo bucket of popcorn covered in butter and cheese for only a dollar more. Admittedly, we only need a small bag of popcorn for our current situation, and maybe a medium bag if we have a few kids down the line. Still though, would it ever make sense to buy the jumbo bucket even if we don't need it?

Overall Thoughts: I feel like an idiot for even considering this place at all, but I can't get it out of my head after touring it in an open house over the weekend. My wife loves the place too. Are we absolutely crazy here? Tell us why we're about to make the dumbest move of our lives.

First time home buyer wants to buy an 8 bedroom, $750k house for just him and his wife.

Not a Children
Oct 9, 2012

Don't need a holster if you never stop shooting.

Yes, spending $750k instead of $650k is just the same as spending an extra buck to get a gently caress-off sized bucket of popcorn

I also like how he doesn't for a moment consider how much it will cost to heat/cool/maintain 4300 sq ft

BarbarianElephant
Feb 12, 2015
The fairy of forgiveness has removed your red text.

Barry posted:

First time home buyer wants to buy an 8 bedroom, $750k house for just him and his wife.

Sounds like they could split it into three spacious apartments and rent out the other two.

brugroffil
Nov 30, 2015


ate all the Oreos posted:

Naw it was mostly frivolous hobby poo poo, either i'd see a cool bullshit thing on ebay (man wouldn't it be great to have an atomic clock i'm gonna buy that surplus atomic clock!!!) or I'd get it in my head that I'm totally gonna build a project and then buy a tool or some things to build it with and then they arrive and I poke at them a bit and decide that i'm not interested anymore or it's too hard and then put them in the closet forever. I've at least managed to repurpose a bit of the stuff in other more practical things and i'm sure i can eventually find a use for most of it but yeah.

Also I got these which, while kinda pointless since i already have ladles, are at least really cute :3:



I just leave them out on my counter so it looks like they're kissing :kimchi:

I have these too!

Cold on a Cob
Feb 6, 2006

i've seen so much, i'm going blind
and i'm brain dead virtually

College Slice
BWM: Seriously loving tempted to buy those goofy ladles.

GWM: Resisting urge so far.

crazypeltast52
May 5, 2010



ate all the Oreos posted:

They're called "Nessie Ladles" if you can't find them :v:

But that's the problem, we can never find Nessie!

BWM: Cryptid ladles that can't be found

OBAMNA PHONE
Aug 7, 2002
8 bedrooms :laffo:

i have a friend who lives out in the burbs in a 4 or 5 bedroom house with his wife and they dont even want kids...i dont get it

Ashcans
Jan 2, 2006

Let's do the space-time warp again!

crazypeltast52 posted:

But that's the problem, we can never find Nessie!

BWM: Cryptid ladles that can't be found

Appropriate, because I am 100% if I bought those ladles my kids would vanish them and I would never see them again. At least not until we're moving house or something and they'd turn up in a pot under a bed.

Leon Trotsky 2012
Aug 27, 2009

YOU CAN TRUST ME!*


*Israeli Government-affiliated poster

BraveUlysses posted:

8 bedrooms :laffo:

i have a friend who lives out in the burbs in a 4 or 5 bedroom house with his wife and they dont even want kids...i dont get it

I have to move in July because my roommate wanted to "get on the property ladder before it's too late" and thinks that once you turn 30 you can't live with roommates anymore.

We all had our own bathrooms and bedrooms and had our rent down to $480 a month (average rent for the area is about 1.3k a month) with utilities split 3-ways. He bought a 4-bedroom house for $420,000 to live in by himself because he "felt weird after I turned 30 and didn't have a house of my own."

Edit: And for bonus BWM points, the 420k house was a foreclosure and needs significant repairs. He's going to try and do all of it himself except for the roof and is estimating another 50k (but I'm guessing he is low-balling this.)

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 18:39 on Apr 24, 2017

Guinness
Sep 15, 2004

The unyielding insistence that every single person should buy a house regardless of circumstances or goals is one of the greatest financial frauds perpetrated on the public. Owning a house can obviously be a very good and very desirable thing, but there's a dogma about the greatness of ownership (and, conversely, the awfulness of anything-but-ownership) that is really toxic and leads to sooo many people making bad financial/life decisions in order to "fit in". People are so conditioned and convinced that owning is the greatest thing ever that you can't even have a rational discussion about the real, objective pros and cons of owning vs. renting with most people.

The number of people who are house-poor and have their entire life beholden to their mortgage that they are one missed pay day away from defaulting on is really depressing and unhealthy.

Subjunctive
Sep 12, 2006

✨sparkle and shine✨

Guinness posted:

The unyielding insistence that every single person should buy a house regardless of circumstances or goals is one of the greatest financial frauds perpetrated on the public.

Yeah, it's up there with "you must get a 4-year degree".

Barry
Aug 1, 2003

Hardened Criminal
Maybe BFC can put together a Nessie Ladle group buy and get a nice bulk discount.

Enfys
Feb 17, 2013

The ocean is calling and I must go

ate all the Oreos posted:

Also I got these which, while kinda pointless since i already have ladles, are at least really cute :3:



I just leave them out on my counter so it looks like they're kissing :kimchi:

For the first time this thread is threatening to make me BWM rather than the opposite :3:

therobit
Aug 19, 2008

I've been tryin' to speak with you for a long time

Barry posted:

Maybe BFC can put together a Nessie Ladle group buy and get a nice bulk discount.

Put me down for 2 sets, or 3 depending on final price.

Facebook Aunt
Oct 4, 2008

wiggle wiggle




BraveUlysses posted:

8 bedrooms :laffo:

i have a friend who lives out in the burbs in a 4 or 5 bedroom house with his wife and they dont even want kids...i dont get it

That way when the midlife crisis hits and they want to quit their jobs and open a Bed and Breakfast, they'll already have the house for it.



Barry posted:

Maybe BFC can put together a Nessie Ladle group buy and get a nice bulk discount.

But why?

https://www.amazon.com/RioRand-Dishwasher-Kitchen-Utensil-Cookware/dp/B00ZBEVROI
https://www.amazon.com/Tailbox-Premium-Colander-Creative-Tableware/dp/B01NGYK3G8

Nail Rat
Dec 29, 2000

You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!!

BraveUlysses posted:

8 bedrooms :laffo:

i have a friend who lives out in the burbs in a 4 or 5 bedroom house with his wife and they dont even want kids...i dont get it

I would love to have 4 bedrooms, but I'd use one as a gym, one as an office, and one as a man cave.

No I don't need this, I just would like it.

Enos Cabell
Nov 3, 2004


Real talk I got those ladles as a gift this past Christmas, and yeah they are cute but they kind of suck as ladles.

Bhodi
Dec 9, 2007

Oh, it's just a cat.
Pillbug
they really are nice, I like the smaller one though. That link got dropped a year or two ago in GWS and drilled a straight hole through everyone's wallets.

EAT FASTER!!!!!!
Sep 21, 2002

Legendary.


:hampants::hampants::hampants:

ate all the Oreos posted:

They're called "Nessie Ladles" if you can't find them :v:

I have not found these to be of particularly good quality ours is very floppy.

John Smith
Feb 26, 2015

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Nail Rat posted:

I would love to have 4 bedrooms, but I'd use one as a gym, one as an office, and one as a man cave.

No I don't need this, I just would like it.
But the more poo poo you have, the more poo poo you need to maintain. Which is tiring, unless you reached the level where you got people to sort that out for you.

Nail Rat
Dec 29, 2000

You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell!!

John Smith posted:

But the more poo poo you have, the more poo poo you need to maintain. Which is tiring, unless you reached the level where you got people to sort that out for you.

I already have most of the stuff that would go in said rooms. It would be about the space.

Which I'd then have to heat and cool and maintain of course which is BWM of course but whatever :colbert:

Ornamented Death
Jan 25, 2006

Pew pew!

I live in a 4BR house with just my wife and dog and no plans for kids, AMA.

Leon Trotsky 2012
Aug 27, 2009

YOU CAN TRUST ME!*


*Israeli Government-affiliated poster

quote:

I [27 M] just found out that my wife [27 F] has been spending some of our savings on League of Legends

I wasn't sure where to post this. But I'm hoping someone who has been in my shoes can advise me here. It's my first time posting anything on this subreddit, so please bare with me.

My wife and I have been together for 7 years or so. Just recently (about 3 weeks ago), my wife convinced me to play a game called League of Legends. She has been playing the game since Feb. of 2016. Just to give those without a background in LoL, new players, such as myself, start with 0 champions (characters) of our own, but instead, are given free champions to try on weekly basis. Users are also able to purchase what's called skins, champions and other items with real cash (pure cosmetic items). Users are also able to obtain these cosmetic items and champions by simply playing the game and receiving a loot at the end of a successful game (which doesn't always happen, even in a successful game). Three weeks in, I wanted to try out different champions, so I asked my wife if I can play on her account. I've began to notice how long it takes, just to save up for an expensive champion, rune pages, etc. I asked her if she had spent any money on her account and she told me that she never did and she got everything from playing the game. But it didn't make sense to me that my wife had so many champions, skins, and other cosmetics within just one year of playing the game.

While on her account, I decided to take a look at her transaction history. Needless to say, she ended up spending about $1300 CAD in total within 1 year of playing. I was infuriated, so I confronted her and asked if I could see her PayPal account, as well as our savings/bank account (She is currently the person looking after our spendings/finances).

In her PayPal account and our joint savings/credit transactions, there were a string of charges for Riot Points (game currency in League of Legends). But I also found out that she's been "donating" money to various streamers on Twitch (which came up to about $500 in total). I was completely speechless and felt so betrayed. What really hurts the most is the fact that she lied to me and spent our money for so long, without me knowing. Before we moved in together, we made a decision to always talk to each other before making "major purchases". While spending a $100+ a month is not really a major purchase, it definitely added up over time.

On the other hand, I can understand why she made these purchases. But then again, I really don't. Our current financial situation isn't so ideal and she's giving away money to random streamers and spending upwards to $100+ a month on a game. Am I overreacting?

She started crying uncontrollably and kept telling me that she didn't think it would add up to so much. I hugged her and comforted her at the end of the night. But it still bothers me that she just lied to me like that.

TL;DR: I found out that my wife has been spending our savings (reserved for medical school/house) on a game called League of Legend and donating money to streamers on Twitch. But worst of all, she lied to me, when asked.

John Smith
Feb 26, 2015

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

Nail Rat posted:

I already have most of the stuff that would go in said rooms. It would be about the space.

Which I'd then have to heat and cool and maintain of course which is BWM of course but whatever :colbert:
Bit of a pack rat there, I see. <nudge nudge> See what I did there?

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:

I have not found these to be of particularly good quality ours is very floppy.

There seems to be a bunch of different manufacturer knock-offs and various sizes, the ones I got are "normal size" and they seem to work fine but yeah the plastic doesn't feel all that sturdy so if you're gonna get one I'd treat it as more of a novelty than anything :shrug:

Barry
Aug 1, 2003

Hardened Criminal

Ornamented Death posted:

I live in a 4BR house with just my wife and dog and no plans for kids, AMA.

How come it's not 8BR, pleb?

Shame Boy
Mar 2, 2010

I live in a 2BR apartment with wife and cat and I consider that downright opulent, gently caress you big house-havers :argh:

Subjunctive
Sep 12, 2006

✨sparkle and shine✨

I wish my house were 1 bedroom smaller, but I loved everything else about it so I went for it.

Cold on a Cob
Feb 6, 2006

i've seen so much, i'm going blind
and i'm brain dead virtually

College Slice

ate all the Oreos posted:

I live in a 2BR apartment with wife and cat and I consider that downright opulent, gently caress you big house-havers :argh:

We could get by with a 1+1 and if we decide to move back to toronto we'll probably have to haha.

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Baja Mofufu
Feb 7, 2004

I was texting a group of my mom friends to ask if anyone had a Coverdell ESA and was satisfied with the brokerage firm (TD Ameritrade is driving me crazy). This is what I got:

BWM Mom posted:

We are not conventional. We just signed up for a cancer insurance plan. We are paying a rider on top of premiums, so that in 20 years, if neither of us gets cancer then we get all that money back. We considered it a win win. We are protected and get cash benefits to help pay for expenses if we get cancer, or we get a lump sum of cash back right when BWM Baby will be in college.

I just asked BWM Dad if he knew of any good ESAs and he said he didn't do enough research to recommend one. Also BWM Uncle works in Financial Aid and said that these types of accounts limit their chances of getting aid. I think he was the one who recommended investing in insurance.

This couple is in their early 30s and no family history of young people having cancer. They're both fairly successful professionals with employer-provided health insurance. BWM Dad even works in banking (of course). One of those cases where someone seems fairly competent and then :aaa:

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