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Airline/Hotel points don't really have caps, and can be worth a lot more than cash back. Just one example of something you could do if that Mint coins thing was still available: sign up for a Southwest credit card. Get 50k bonus points (for meeting the minimum spend) while buying 30k worth of coins. Instantly earn 110k points, which gets you a companion pass. Buy one get one flights for the next two years in addition to your 110k points worth of award flights. Elysium fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Nov 27, 2017 |
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Nov 27, 2017 20:11
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Phanatic posted:SSDI is supplemental income, not healthcare. If you're on SSDI you get *paid*, it's not a reimbursement for expenses you incur. You can be on SSDI and have no medical expenses at all; you can just be disabled and unable to work.
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Nov 27, 2017 21:44
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Trustworthy posted:As a sidenote, ffffffuck anyone who doesn't recognize the tremendous amount of privilege it takes to be "months away from being homeless" in the first place, and that a sizable segment of the population will live their entire lives without knowing that kind of security Could you please elaborate on this a bit more? I'm not trying to troll, or be a prick (check my rap sheet), I just must be one of the individuals who doesn't understand 'the tremendous amount of privilege it takes to be "months away from being homeless"'. I mean, sure, I can understand how medical bills from catastrophic accidents or very dire long-term health conditions could bankrupt you and your family. I know over half of all personal bankruptcies in America are caused by medical bills, but to say a sizable portion of the US population (let's arbitrarily say 40%) is at risk of homelessness within a few weeks or a month seems exaggerated at best, and blatantly untrue at worst. I'm certainly open to changing my opinion, would you be willing to spend a few moments to gather some citations and explain your position in greater detail?
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Nov 27, 2017 22:25
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 I was saving this for the next wedding derail.
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Nov 27, 2017 22:31
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The idea is that many households basically break even with their budgeting. If anything happens outside of that break even budget, they are hosed. A great example would be a car breaking down. No car = potentially losing your job = downwards spiral. Payday loan for fixing car = downward debt spiral. So if you have any room in your budget to absorb that hit and not have it blow apart, you're in decent shape. This is backed by that stat that says something like 60% (I don't remember the percentage but it was pretty high) of households have less than $1000 in savings I think that's what they mean but I might be missing something.
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Nov 27, 2017 22:32
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Cicero posted:Yeah I knew that SSDI was the income bit, I just thought that if the government recognized your disability enough to hand you money every month, you'd definitely be considered disabled enough for Medicare. Which I guess is true but just takes two years which seems really weird?? At this income level, they also might qualify for SSI, which would automatically enroll her in Medicaid.
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Nov 27, 2017 22:33
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Mourne posted:Could you please elaborate on this a bit more? I'm not trying to troll, or be a prick (check my rap sheet), I just must be one of the individuals who doesn't understand 'the tremendous amount of privilege it takes to be "months away from being homeless"'. I mean, sure, I can understand how medical bills from catastrophic accidents or very dire long-term health conditions could bankrupt you and your family. I know over half of all personal bankruptcies in America are caused by medical bills, but to say a sizable portion of the US population (let's arbitrarily say 40%) is at risk of homelessness within a few weeks or a month seems exaggerated at best, and blatantly untrue at worst. https://www.amazon.com/Evicted-Pove...eywords=evicted You might find this book enlightening.
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Nov 27, 2017 22:36
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Zauper posted:At this income level, they also might qualify for SSI, which would automatically enroll her in Medicaid. Yup, and if they qualify for that then she can probably also get on SNAP and TANF. The biggest problem there is those are heavily means tested and you can basically have zero assets (for SSI I think it is like $2,000 total in assets). I am not sure how they determine that, but since they are presumably just dating they might be able to do sufficient shuffling to make it proper.
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Nov 27, 2017 22:37
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yeah, you wasted that one man maybe it could be a perennial
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Nov 27, 2017 22:38
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Lowness 72 posted:The idea is that many households basically break even with their budgeting. If anything happens outside of that break even budget, they are hosed. Here are some links to the surveys: https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2016/09/23/survey-69-of-americans-have-less-than-1000-in-savings-infographic/#28d782981ae6 https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/13/how-much-americans-at-have-in-their-savings-accounts.html I wonder how much lift there is because of the misleading question? I'd answer that I have less than $1000 in my savings account, because I don't have a savings account open. My money is in a checking, or a money market account. Zauper fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Nov 27, 2017 |
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Nov 27, 2017 22:41
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Mourne posted:Could you please elaborate on this a bit more? I'm not trying to troll, or be a prick (check my rap sheet), I just must be one of the individuals who doesn't understand 'the tremendous amount of privilege it takes to be "months away from being homeless"'. I mean, sure, I can understand how medical bills from catastrophic accidents or very dire long-term health conditions could bankrupt you and your family. I know over half of all personal bankruptcies in America are caused by medical bills, but to say a sizable portion of the US population (let's arbitrarily say 40%) is at risk of homelessness within a few weeks or a month seems exaggerated at best, and blatantly untrue at worst. They may be getting at that right now around 57% of Americans have less than $1,000 saved. That would mean losing your job would likely mean not making rent the next month, so managing to have enough to go a few months would seem "privileged". I think that's an exaggeration though because there are tons of people out there with no jobs getting by on just enough various welfare programs to not be homeless. There are over 500,000 homeless people in the US at any given time, while around 83,000 people are considered chronically homeless, which is still a small percentage of the US. I would not consider being just above homelessness privileged, unless we're going to consider being homeless the absolute baseline of economic status and everyone above that is privileged somehow.
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Nov 27, 2017 22:42
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Lowness 72 posted:The idea is that many households basically break even with their budgeting. If anything happens outside of that break even budget, they are hosed. Yeah, but just wait ‘til they’re diamond!
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Nov 27, 2017 22:46
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Raldikuk posted:Yup, and if they qualify for that then she can probably also get on SNAP and TANF. The biggest problem there is those are heavily means tested and you can basically have zero assets (for SSI I think it is like $2,000 total in assets). I am not sure how they determine that, but since they are presumably just dating they might be able to do sufficient shuffling to make it proper. Yep. As a couple, it's $3,000 in total assets (probably the vehicle). The bigger question is the income test. That'll depend on exactly how much his monthly income is, but it looks like it might be just barely under the SSI limit. You can also qualify for both SSI and SSDI, then you'd have the dual eligible combo for Medicare as well, which means no copay and no premium (dual eligible are required to be Medicare enrolled with Medicaid covering premium/copay generally).
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Nov 27, 2017 22:46
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Man it makes me pretty uncomfortable when people buy electronics with money they don't have on-hand. Like it's one thing if the phone company is willing to finance you the phone at 0% and you could pay or not - then the financing is just an issue of convenience - but it doesn't seem to be great to finance stuff you haven't saved for and just want to buy. If you're in the situation where you need to put an Amazon Echo on a payment plan, maybe just don't buy it.
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Nov 27, 2017 22:49
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Buy the echo, what kind of capitalist would you be if you were spending you actually had. Spend the banks money, think about it after
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Nov 27, 2017 22:53
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Risky Bisquick posted:Buy the echo, what kind of capitalist would you be if you were spending you actually had. Spend the banks money, think about it after I'll give you a hint it's not the capitalists buying the stuff they don't need with the money they don't have! 
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Nov 27, 2017 23:02
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Phanatic posted:It's not like the US Mint chose to do this of its own accord. This was the result of legislation passed by Congress to first mint dollar coins that nobody wanted to use, and then once they realized "oh, nobody wants to use these" to then convince people to use them and put them into circulation. So yes, the Mint sold the coins for face value and paid for the shipping. And you could make *way* more than $300. The money people could make was utterly secondary to where the real benefit was: credit card rewards. With the right credit card, every dollar you spent could generate *more* than one frequent flier mile. There are cards that give you a shitload of miles just to sign up, with the caveat that you need to use the card for $x in purchases over the next year. Buying coins at face value and paying the credit card bill with the coins worked for all values of $x. Some people bought *millions* of frequent flier miles this way. OK, so the more I read into this, the more astonished I am. I thought these were collector's coins or something. So let me get this straight -- this was an actual attempt to bring the USA into the twentieth century alongside basically every other country in the world by moving away from one dollar bills. Also, introducing the coins and actually backing up their adoption by withdrawing the notes would save the government $5.5 billion over thirty years. But instead they half-assed it because of bureaucracy and a lack of political will. (And maybe some kind of weird American Exceptionalism?) Oh, and as a side effect they gave grifters an opportunity to make a quick buck off the government in the process.  Your country is BWM.
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Nov 27, 2017 23:02
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There are estimates that 39% of Americans have literally no savings, and that an additional 35% have less than $1000. As of 2016, 12% of Americans had either low or very low food security, which means that they had to rely on coping strategies such as outside assistance to avoid disrupting their eating pattern, or suffered disruptions anyway. 47% of respondents said they would have to borrow or sell things to pay a $400 unexpected bill, rather than having adequate savings One in five Americans struggle to pay for basic necessities, and one in three has trouble making ends meet You can just read this whole report, really, if you can tolerate the despair Now, 'Homelessness' is probably something of an exagerration, simply because many people rely on more than financial supports and if you in the position of living on the street you are more likely to be able to find housing with family, friends, or by downsizing your life to acquire a roof and not be technically homeless (ie, renting a single room).
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Nov 27, 2017 23:08
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Ashcans posted:There are estimates that 39% of Americans have literally no savings, and that an additional 35% have less than $1000. Homelessness, like most issues, is a gradient. The terms house uncertainty, residential instability and housing insecurity all appear in the academic literature. Unsurprisingly, individuals at risk of this phenomenon are 1) underbanked, 2) discriminated against in hiring and other housing, 3) at a disadvantage when it comes to education, 4) at an increased risk of being victims of crime, 5) far less likely to be able to coordinate the receipt of social services. "Where should we send the check, Ms. Jones?" EAT FASTER!!!!!! fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Nov 27, 2017 |
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Nov 27, 2017 23:11
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edit: double post, sorry.
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Nov 27, 2017 23:14
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Ashcans posted:There are estimates that 39% of Americans have literally no savings, and that an additional 35% have less than $1000. I hope it’s not self-posting to say that I feel very lucky not to be in that position now that I know how common that position of instability is.
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Nov 27, 2017 23:23
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Lead out in cuffs posted:
The US dollar is bad with money. In New Zealand the 1c, 2c and 5c coins no longer exist. The 10c is copper coloured. We even shrunk the remaining coins with the $1 and $2 coins being the only large coins. It's strange going to Australia and ending up with a fistful of their giant worthless coins. Currency has to move with the times.
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Nov 27, 2017 23:38
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Lead out in cuffs posted:OK, so the more I read into this, the more astonished I am. I thought these were collector's coins or something. Right up until here. They didn’t say “we’re going to stop printing paper dollars, the coins were just in addition to the notes. But nobody’s going to use the coins when the bills are still around. Also, it would cause difficulties for strip clubs. The penny and the nickel both cost more to mint than they’re worth. If there wasn’t a law against melting them down, you could melt them, sell the resulting metal, and use the money to buy more coins. The US is bad with currency.
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Nov 27, 2017 23:58
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Phanatic posted:Right up until here. They didn’t say “we’re going to stop printing paper dollars, the coins were just in addition to the notes. But nobody’s going to use the coins when the bills are still around. Also, it would cause difficulties for strip clubs. It's actually great for strip clubs because you have to spend 5s.
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Nov 27, 2017 23:59
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Phanatic posted:Right up until here. They didn’t say “we’re going to stop printing paper dollars, the coins were just in addition to the notes. But nobody’s going to use the coins when the bills are still around. Also, it would cause difficulties for strip clubs. How would anyone know if you melted them down
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Nov 27, 2017 23:59
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Phanatic posted:Right up until here. They didn’t say “we’re going to stop printing paper dollars, the coins were just in addition to the notes. But nobody’s going to use the coins when the bills are still around. Also, it would cause difficulties for strip clubs. As of right now, this isn't true. A pound of pennies at 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper is worth about $1.49, but at 2.5 g per penny, a pound of pennies has a face value of $1.81. Nickels are mostly copper; a pound of nickels is worth $3.69, and at 5 g per nickel, a pound of those is worth $4.54 at face value. I agree, pennies and nickels are trash, but they're (for the time being) not worth more as scrap metal. (They probably were recently, though, back when it was worthwhile to raid construction sites for leftover copper wiring.)
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Nov 28, 2017 00:24
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https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/7fxv0m/need_advice_husband_40m_and_i_35f_are/?st=jaitw6ay&sh=3ce2c5c2quote:A little background...5 years ago my husband and I were engaged and debt free. In a short amount of time, we accumulated credit card debt because I switched careers and took a pay cut, we paid for most of our wedding, and we started to rent out my husband's townhome while paying rent in my apartment. The tenant we had rarely paid his rent so we were covering a mortgage, assessments, utilities in two places, and our monthly rent for 16 months. We had to evict the tenant and spend $10,000 gutting the townhome because the tenant made it uninhabitable. "How can we make this cycle stop?" She doesn't really say anything else of interest in the thread, other than "thank you!" to people who make budget suggestions, and to bitch about the one person who had the stones to suggest that maybe she curb the baby-makin till she gets her life under control.
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Nov 28, 2017 00:43
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April posted:https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/7fxv0m/need_advice_husband_40m_and_i_35f_are/?st=jaitw6ay&sh=3ce2c5c2 To be fair this country is desperately inhospitable to people who choose to have children in their prime babymaking ages unless you want to live paycheck to paycheck.
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Nov 28, 2017 00:45
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:To be fair this country is desperately inhospitable to people who choose to have children in their prime babymaking ages unless you want to live paycheck to paycheck. At their income level, it shouldn't be a problem. The fact that they are so broke with a 130k income speaks to a LOT of bad choices. Not to mention, her poor dad, who would probably like to retire at some point, but has to keep subsidizing her "oopsies!"
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Nov 28, 2017 00:49
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CellBlock posted:I agree, pennies and nickels are trash, but they're (for the time being) not worth more as scrap metal. (They probably were recently, though, back when it was worthwhile to raid construction sites for leftover copper wiring.) Yeah, it goes back and forth. Pre-1983 pennies, though, are almost 3g of copper, so at today's spot price one of those pennies is worth more than two cents! Pennies loving suck.
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Nov 28, 2017 00:52
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April posted:At their income level, it shouldn't be a problem. The fact that they are so broke with a 130k income speaks to a LOT of bad choices. Not to mention, her poor dad, who would probably like to retire at some point, but has to keep subsidizing her "oopsies!" Yeah, "financial life-support" although he might prefer having the grandkids while he's still young enough to enjoy some of it so, who knows? Hard to tell.
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Nov 28, 2017 00:52
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Yeah, "financial life-support" although he might prefer having the grandkids while he's still young enough to enjoy some of it so, who knows? Hard to tell. I agree that I may be reading into the situation, but the fact that the dad is calling it a loan & not a gift would seem to indicate that he would like his money back at some point. Also, she never actually posts any budget numbers (which others could use to give her real help) and talks about everything as if it's all just something that happened to her, not that any of it was a result of her/her husband's choices. The whole tone of her posts just rubs me the wrong way.
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Nov 28, 2017 00:58
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April posted:I agree that I may be reading into the situation, but the fact that the dad is calling it a loan & not a gift would seem to indicate that he would like his money back at some point. Also, she never actually posts any budget numbers (which others could use to give her real help) and talks about everything as if it's all just something that happened to her, not that any of it was a result of her/her husband's choices. Oh no, I definitely agree. She is massively bad with money. But some of this is a system problem too!
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Nov 28, 2017 00:59
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April posted:At their income level, it shouldn't be a problem. The fact that they are so broke with a 130k income speaks to a LOT of bad choices. Not to mention, her poor dad, who would probably like to retire at some point, but has to keep subsidizing her "oopsies!" I'm guessing her dad subsidizing her oopsies early in life is what caused them to continue.
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Nov 28, 2017 01:03
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Phanatic posted:Yeah, it goes back and forth. Pre-1983 pennies, though, are almost 3g of copper, so at today's spot price one of those pennies is worth more than two cents! Just get rid of them, like we did in Canada. Worked great.
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Nov 28, 2017 01:07
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"reddit" posted:I returned to graduate school to finish my Master's that I put on hold when I lived over an hour from my job. Teachers need to spend money to make money, so my Master's would result in a decent pay bump. This part is true, and while we don't know if she's paying through the nose for a devry masters or what, moving "up" or "over" on your government pay rubric is an important way to increase your lifetime earnings. Look at page 2 where you add on the Masters degree. It's not life changing amounts of money, but it does add up over a career + pension. Los Angeles Unified School District salary tables for credentialed teachers: https://achieve.lausd.net/cms/lib/CA01000043/Centricity/Domain/280/Salary%20Tables/salary%2017-18/T%20Table.pdf
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Nov 28, 2017 01:10
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H110Hawk posted:This part is true, and while we don't know if she's paying through the nose for a devry masters or what, moving "up" or "over" on your government pay rubric is an important way to increase your lifetime earnings. Look at page 2 where you add on the Masters degree. It's not life changing amounts of money, but it does add up over a career + pension. I agree that the Master's might be a good decision by itself, but getting pregnant over and over, running up credit cards, borrowing from her father, etc. WHILE getting it is pretty bad.
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Nov 28, 2017 01:17
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Found another one.... https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/7fxb3c/i_have_about_25k_in_credit_card_debt_i_need_to/?st=jaivlc6h&sh=a597b904 quote:Hi guys! I have three credit cards that are maxed out due to a combination of circumstances i'm not really willing to get into at the moment. Another one who doesn't want to list any actual budget numbers, and insists that they have to have both cars & their payments.
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Nov 28, 2017 01:22
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April posted:I agree that I may be reading into the situation, but the fact that the dad is calling it a loan & not a gift would seem to indicate that he would like his money back at some point. Also, she never actually posts any budget numbers (which others could use to give her real help) and talks about everything as if it's all just something that happened to her, not that any of it was a result of her/her husband's choices. This can also be a way to skirt tax issues. In this case the IRS would probably still call it a gift since it was interest free, but since the sum is small enough they might not care. But if interest is charged then you can avoid the taxes involved in just gifting money.
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Nov 28, 2017 01:24
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April posted:I agree that the Master's might be a good decision by itself, but getting pregnant over and over, running up credit cards, borrowing from her father, etc. WHILE getting it is pretty bad. uh waiting until your 40s and then popping out retarded babies because your eggs and womb are old and lovely is probably way worse in the grand scheme of things anyway they'll probably be fine. they have a good support network and, most importantly, a decent income, unlike the typical idiots whose stories get posted here and it turns out they're trying to squeeze blood out of a $30k/year stone.
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Nov 28, 2017 01:29
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