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Oh yes I was hoping for this thread! Let me tell you about Braydon. He's an all-around winner. A former male stripper, coke addict, and perpetually-unemployed waiter. He came to live on my couch for "two weeks," because my roommate was a good friend to people who certainly didn't earn it. He stayed for 8 months before I finally lost my temper. He lived with less than $20 to his name all the time. Braydon would only take under-the-table jobs because his wages were garnished for child support. He obviously was not present in his kids lives. In his time on my couch, he was involved in a gang bang with this similarly classy girl we all worked with. She got pregnant, and 3 guys were possible fathers. When baby was born, she put Braydon's name on the birth certificate, locking him into (more) child support liability. However, Braydon and baby mama are both very white, and this baby is unquestionably half-black. But Braydon never disputed his responsibility to this child, so if he ever gets a legitimate job he will have to support this one too. I finally get this leech off my couch, he gets a car, he's doing better with his life. One day he gets a flat tire and puts on the spare (donut- you know, the kind meant for about 50miles). Three months later and he's visiting our apartment. We're looking at his car from the porch and you know what he says? "I think I need a new donut."
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Jun 22, 2013 21:30
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I once lived with these junkies that were super-hippies. They came home one day with like $400 worth of crystals that "generate healing" or "increase virility" or whatever the gently caress. Like, they didn't have proper jobs, they lived on our screen porch for cheap, yet found money to buy loving rocks? Don't you have a heroin addiction to support?
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Aug 5, 2013 15:48
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Trilineatus posted:...But then again maybe the poors are lazy and the American dream lives. I was as good a liberal hippie as the rest of us here. Went to a liberal arts school where we discussed these institutional problems and how it's not their fault! The system! Then I worked offshore, followed by moving across the world. Offshore, you get people from Philippines/Malaysia/wherever that work twice as hard as the white people, they make an order of magnitude less money (literally), and are on a boat away from their families for 11 months out of the year. They have better attitudes than the European assholes on board that bitch about everything, but get equal time off and double salary plus hazard pay. It's all about some perspective... on this planet, if you want to work hard, you can. I have little sympathy for this "but the institution!" card. The American Dream is very much alive, you just aren't entitled to it. It requires a lot of hard work.
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Sep 28, 2013 06:48
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Yeah, I'm not trying to argue that generational poverty isn't incredibly hard to get out of, just that as I get older, the less of a hippie my attitude is. I guess I'm becoming kind of an rear end in a top hat. I listen to a lot of dave ramsey, it's starting to get internalized. Anyway, back on track! So my dad and his brother grew up quite poor, but both were quite smart and managed to get to Cornell. They both graduated as mechanical engineers (my dad just barely). Same footing. My dad ended up much more successful. He took risks, transferred us across the country, worked many different jobs. My uncle stayed in the same place, doing the same job, for his whole life. Even when I was a little kid, I knew it was hard for that part of the family to come to our biannual family meetups because of money. My uncle over the years would throw in snide bible verses about how my dad was greedy and ungenerous to his brother. It took us a long time to realize how messed up that was... my dad wasn't handed anything, and him and Skipper were total equals. Then we find out he's been giving $800/month to his church for the past 30 years. Where they speak in tongues. What a loving whackjob.
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Sep 28, 2013 15:22
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tuyop posted:It doesn't matter how hard those SE Asian workers work, they're still making orders of magnitude less than the Europeans simply because they're SE Asian. There is no American Dream for those folks, there's just endless poverty or a constant limping struggle up to some sort of proto-middle class. The odds are that, regardless of agency, the former is what they'll get. Naw dawg, these guys have live-in maids and nice houses and a good life for their families back home. They are making the sacrifice to provide. But we can't really compare breaking out of poverty from the 3rd world thanks to big oil, and what it's like to grow up in an American ghetto. Like our aussie friend up there said, it's just a totally different realm. It was the biggest culture shock I've gone through. Being the only American around has really shifted my perspective.
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Sep 28, 2013 15:38
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I don't understand the animosity towards inheritance. My grandfather spent all the money he'd saved in the last years of his life on only-the-finest elderly care as he survived 2 brain surgeries, 3 heart attacks, and being an overall alcoholic rear end in a top hat. He lived a decade longer than he needed to, and the money spent on it would have done a lot better for the world if it had gone to his grandkids who've started their own families.
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Nov 27, 2013 18:40
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razz posted:..have mandated paid time off like EVERY other first world country Careful about these assertions, I live in one of the firstest world countries on earth and we have no mandated PTO or minimum wage, and quality of life here in Singapore is still remarkably high.
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Dec 2, 2013 21:10
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Fun fact! It's cheaper to eat out in Singapore than to cook at home. People just don't really cook. Most homes don't have ovens. Vegetables are loving expensive because almost nothing is actually grown here. I saw an organic red pepper once for over $9, shipped in from israel. It makes sense with the philosophy of specialized labor. It's much more efficient to leave dumpling making to the professionals, rather than spend hours doing it myself to have them come out all lovely. Now that I've been here a while, it seems so weird that cooking at home would be cheaper (on the macro scale anyway). I still do cook, but it's for fun or vegetables, not economics- it's like $3.50 for a meal from a food stall. And they never gently caress up their rice.
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Dec 17, 2013 08:18
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People who sign up for multi-level marketing schemes are definitely bad with money! Penn & Teller do a good show about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep3pO7X7fEQ
Switchback fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Dec 28, 2013 |
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Dec 26, 2013 18:14
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Check out this gem of an e/n thread:Cloyster posted:The past four months of my life have been well.. loving me in the rear end with a splintery wooden dildo and I'm at a total loss as to how to even begin to cope with life. First things first, I moved into a slum in Stockton, CA (from the east bay area) early this year that was infested with cockroaches, mice, termites, bed bugs etc. That was a lovely experience, THEN the apartment building suffered a huge flood from the top floor that had water rushing through most of the walls in the apartment next to mine. The management decided that the "building was strong" and only fixed cosmetic damages. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3597413
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Dec 28, 2013 15:42
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mobby_6kl posted:They didn't pay rent for several months and what happened to that money, were they ordered to pay back rent or something? They spent it all on weed. Edit: I admit I'm a dick, but to call these people "down on their luck" is completely disingenuous. This is the direct result of poor decisions they've made. She's burned family bridges because she had already moved back home and was completely irresponsible about being an adult and excuses it as "I was over privileged." I am unsympathetic to her woe, as is the rest of that thread. Switchback fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Dec 29, 2013 |
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Dec 28, 2013 17:48
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Bad financial car decisions: this whole island of Singapore. It costs $100k for any lovely car, and we have some of the best (and cheapest!) public transport in the world. Parking sucks, traffic sucks, and there isn't anywhere you can open up and go fast. There are literally taxis everywhere if you don't want to use the clean and on-time MRT or busses. I love to drive, I love cars, but owning one here is the dumbest unnecessary financial decision. Yet I think we have more supercars per capita than anywhere in the world. My heart breaks for those multimillion dollar superbabies. They want to go so fast and be so fun, but here cannot. Maseratis and Ferraris that have never gone over 50mph. Tragic. Switchback fucked around with this message at 04:51 on Feb 28, 2014 |
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Feb 28, 2014 04:48
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Shipon posted:Not to mention the benefit of having a reliable car you don't have to worry about breaking down because you bought a beater for cheap. Especially if you're not mechanically inclined and/or live in a place where you can't easily work on a car. Well worth the extra money for peace of mind. Lol, a $10k car is by no means a "beater." I got a facebook message from my college roommate today underhandedly asking me for $1500 for detox because she's a junkie and can't find a job while she's so dependent on heroin. She's typically an escort by profession, but her junkie boyfriend doesn't want her doing that anymore (yet he isn't providing the money for detox? Ugh loving heroin). There are obviously a bunch of problems going on here, but being bad with money is certainly one of them. All her bank accounts are overdrawn (if they aren't closed and in legal proceedings), and she's already been through detox like 3 times in the past year. She's had a car repossessed, just failed out of nursing school AGAIN, and owes 3 people (including her mom) money for posting bail on various arrests. I just saw her last week and I think I may have "lost" $50 in the process. Junkie friends are the worst friends, luckily I live across the world and see her only every couple years. We were randomly paired freshman dorm roommates, it's astounding to see the difference between where our decisions have taken us.
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Mar 20, 2014 02:50
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Boyfriend's sister got braces in college at a cost of $4000. Got them removed two days later because they hurt too much.
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Apr 5, 2014 23:48
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Kids learn a lot more from who their parents are, rather than the lessons we actively try to teach. If you're responsible, you're kids are probably going to turn out fine. While these grandparents sound incredibly frustrating, the kids will learn more about relationships here than they will about financial responsibility. Back on the bad with money: I'm offshore with this girl who just bought a house for like €250k in the south of France. She's 25 and has a great job making lots of money, but she's miserable in it. She's desperately looking for a new job, but she can't take a pay cut (inevitable if she leaves offshore work, which is all international and thus tax free in France) or she will have to sell her house, which will hit her with a huge tax bill because of some incentives she would have to pay back. She has locked herself into a life that she hates for this house she gets to spend about 1/4 of her time in. She has no savings left after putting so much into the house, and took a loan greater than the value to do some renovations, so unless the work she did really increased the value she might already be a bit underwater. Good lesson in not rushing into buying a house!
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Apr 11, 2014 02:16
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MrKatharsis posted:Thousands of dollars so your kid can (maybe) find a more attractive mate? Might as well throw that money out the window. They'll learn more by conquering their insecurities and growing up like a normal person. Having a nice smile that I use a lot, thanks to braces, has significantly contributed to my career success (raises and promotions). I typically agree with rejecting cosmetic surgery over learning how to have a good character despite a goofy nose, but your smile is kind of a different league. The way your smile makes others feel has profound impacts on your life, more than just finding a partner. Braces are good. Unless you get them taken off after 2 days cause they hurt, to the tune of $6000. That's bad.
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May 17, 2014 14:08
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SiGmA_X posted:I feel your pain. I'm not married, and don't have combined budgets, but I see my gf hemorrhage money... You and your wife need to sit down and get on the same page. I'm not sure if you're at all religious, but Financial Peace University may be really good to do with her. I thought it was useful for me to DIY (you can find the old ebooks on ~the internet~) while my gf and her mom took it in person. Finances bring pain that isn't needed, and getting on the same page is required. This guy is a self-described militant athiest who alienated his former community by making GBS threads on the local's beliefs in the community newspaper, likely limiting his career opportunities in that city. He can't afford to pay both rent and credit card on time, yet he wants to buy a house? What?? Jastigar is as bad with money as any of the folks we talk about here. I fully support the Dave Ramsey philosophy and listen every day, even if I don't believe in the religion angle. Avoiding debt, taking ownership of your life and decisions, and giving back to the world generously is a solid foundation for living. But I have zero faith that Jastigar could listen to him with an open mind to just take what ideas he wants while leaving the rest behind.
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Jun 4, 2014 16:15
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spwrozek posted:I know a lot of people who do it. It is hard to take 33 days plus 11 holidays and do your job for most people. Working offshore we get comp time, but we stay pretty busy so even when people plan a holiday the managers come back with "yeahhhh so we've got this contract, we're gonna need you to go offshore..." You can't cash out comp time so usually these guys have already had 30-40 days off before they've even touched paid leave. I must work with some people pretty bad with money. We're all on expat packages (rent+utilities, travel allowance, home airfare, and most of us have cell phones). Most of us work offshore (salary + $200/day hardship pay). They recently changed the way they give the home airfare allowance- Admin used to book our tickets for us, which was a pain and you'd have to get approval if you wanted a certain flight or layover or to go somewhere not "home," so they decided to just pay a monthly sum to cover airfares and let us deal ourselves. Great! Coworker comes in bitching about how he's gonna have a hard time with it, how is he supposed to budget for the 4 tickets! ...To Philippines. From Singapore. It's like a $300 ticket? He's white so he's not even getting a discriminatory filipino salary. I think he's supporting his wife's family back home, but like, it's Philippines, cost of living is like $500/month. He's gotta bring in at least S$6k/month, not including any offshore (and he's offshore ~50% of the time). oh oh I used to live with a girl who would bitch about how "they don't pay us enough for this!" (For what? We have a great work environment, but whatever..) Turned out her parents loaned her the money for her tuition to go back to school for a masters in meteorology. Apparently she funded living expenses on a high-interest credit card. Upon graduating she got a job as an entry level meteorologist, which was SO UNFAIR because she had 4 years experience as a geologist. So all of her bill-free S$4k+/month (+$600 travel allowance, we walk to work) was going to service debt? I guess this is why people accept expat packages despite being totally miserable living abroad. Switchback fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Jun 13, 2014 |
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Jun 13, 2014 00:46
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Old Fart posted:You should start your own thread already. SloMo's is boring, and you're potentially sitting on a gold mine. His E/N threads have been pretty spectacular, I don't see why his BFC counterpart wouldn't be even better! Although I'd rather hear about his terrible decisions in this thread than any of the retarded derails we've had, or goons bragging about how I don't make bad decisions. At least Jastigar is on topic. Here is his last E/N thread (which is pretty much a BFC thread, definitely worth the read) http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3572558 And for context into his relationship with his wife, here is his old original E/N thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3550669 Switchback fucked around with this message at 13:09 on Jun 13, 2014 |
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Jun 13, 2014 12:15
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Holy poo poo this guy. He's asking about buying a million-dollar house by early next year, since he just got a real-on-paper job (previously self-employed) and he's been renting for years. Goals include "minimize downpayment." Upper 30s with 3 kids. Let's take a look at his financial situation: -$18k still owed to IRS (from $102k tax bill) -$1500 in car payments per month (one lease, two car notes with combined balance of $50k) -$31k owed on business loan -$5k balance on credit cards --------$100k+ in debts (not even including the lease) -$15k emergency fund ($7k of that in gold coins!) -$8k in 401k -$30k in savings (of that $5k in brokerage acct) --------$50k savings Income: $172k salary + $5-8k/month from side business It's like this guy thinks he's some big baller, probably thinks "I'm so rich! I make a quarter-million dollars a year!" Yet he has no college funds for his three kids and no real investments. He has -$50k and thinks he should buy a $1m house. Thanks for not failing me today reddit.
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Jun 17, 2014 14:58
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Nail Rat posted:Why in the name of gently caress would you have a 5k balance on credit cards if you have 30k cash outside of your emergency fund. Because he's got $220k in available credit!! 
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Jun 17, 2014 15:14
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VideoTapir posted:He has a visa to be in China. He cannot be in China without a visa. I think the new permanent resident rules MIGHT help him when he gets older, but like any visa change in China it'll be a year or two before everyone can agree on what the rules are. This is a super interesting story and I'm glad you posted it. Sounds like their life is a mess, this is drama better than TV. Despite how hosed up these kids are going to be from the lovely parenting, horrible financial situation, issues from never being good enough to please their parents (and man, even regular chinese parents are crazy!), assuming kid doesn't have to renounce his citizenship to go to school, I do think it will be beneficial to their lives in the future to have a US and Hong Kong passport. China passports are not convenient, as demonstrated by the efforts of Dad getting back into the states. Being able to walk over borders without stacks of travel documents and visas is pretty cool, and it'll recoup at least 0.04% of the cost of this ridiculous scenario. So at least there is that.
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Jun 19, 2014 09:01
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olylifter posted:http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=df4_1237346909 The reasoning this rear end in a top hat gives always astonishes me: I didn't pay her back because she didn't clean up around the house. Sweet loving jesus. Holy poo poo this guy borrowed $2500 from his step-daughter's Pell grant to put rims on a '94 (that he bought from her, for about $2500).
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Nov 3, 2014 15:44
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Sometimes it's cheaper to buy one, because either you'll consume less or you only need one. Buying anything in addition to what you were intending because "it's a deal!!!" is bad with money.
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Nov 10, 2014 08:21
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So we talk a lot about "if only we could educate the children" but what do you guys think about this article? http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/07/financial-literacy "Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, an American non-profit organisation, has surveyed high-school seniors every other year since 2000. These surveys consistently show that students who have taken a full-semester course in personal finance do no better on a standard financial literacy test than those who have not taken such a course. Similarly, a study by Tzu-Chin Martina Peng and her co-authors found that having taken a personal finance course in school is unrelated to investment knowledge."
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Nov 10, 2014 08:28
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This morning my boyfriend talked about bitcoin, and how he wants to get a wallet and how he could have made soooo much money if he'd got in like two months ago. Does this mean we need to break up now?
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Nov 16, 2014 05:36
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Jastiger posted:That is why I posted the Keurig thing here. I don't want one, and its wasteful. You're getting your wife a gift intending to ridicule her for it later? I don't like k-cup coffee, but I haaate cleaning up coffee grounds. gently caress you French press k-cup wins until I get a live-in maid to clean it for me.
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Dec 1, 2014 10:59
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Having an AMEX as your only credit card is bad with money, this poo poo isn't accepted anywhere.
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Dec 5, 2014 13:25
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Dale Sveum posted:You can get a free AMEX through Costco as part of your membership. It's the only card they take, and I'd rather get 1% back than nothing. Unless your bank offers a better deal when you use your debit card, I don't see why you wouldn't get one even if you use it for only the one store. It's not bad with money to have an AMEX. It's bad with money to ONLY have AMEX. Because then you end up "oh.. They don't take AMEX... Babe, do you have any cash?" But I do wish we had Costco here 
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Dec 5, 2014 15:53
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Oh god oh god I did not mean to start Cash Back Chat there is a whole thread for that. I don't care what the rewards are, don't expect your mates to pay when your only form of money is a card that isn't accepted 90% of the places we go. VISA isn't accepted in taxis here so I guess if that's your only form of money it's just as bad. Credit cards have benefits, sure, but coming out with zero cash on hand is a dick move.
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Dec 6, 2014 04:56
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You know what's bad with money? Central air. Hey let's cool a massive amount of air that I'm not even using right now. And then pay thousands to replace it.
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Dec 10, 2014 06:32
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Feb 7, 2015 03:06
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Disco Salmon posted:I saw this and went whaaaaaaaaaaaa? (at the bit Cel quoted not at his post!!) I mean, I understand in most places its way cheaper to cook for yourself. But fuuuuuck eating the same thing for more than two meals. Specialization of labor and proper infrastructure has food stalls here cheaper than western-style retail grocery stores. Stalls get their food wholesale. Sure I could cook cheap food if I shopped at the wet markets, but I have a job. I let the food specialists specialize in food. My $20 to make a chili of 8 portions sounds like the frugal decision, but when I end up throwing away 6 of them in a few months when they end up all freezer burned I was better off with the $3 plate of chicken rice.
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Feb 11, 2015 07:10
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Leroy Diplowski posted:I don't think I used the word 'cheaper'. We will see a decrease on expenses as long as $2,400 of home ownership expenses don't pop up per year, and an increase in net worth over time as long as we aren't somehow unable to pay our mortgage. I'm naive to the costs of homeownership, but wouldn't $200/month be a reasonable amount to budget for house owning expenses? I bought my fiancé a stand mixer for Christmas. Yup, still sitting here in the box..
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Feb 21, 2015 01:16
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This Libertarian Community in Chile is pretty good. People bought plots of land that lacked water rights and weren't actually allowed to be sold. And you can pay in bitcoin! Switchback fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Feb 24, 2015 |
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Feb 24, 2015 22:51
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You can also buy your GCC plot in precious metals.
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Feb 24, 2015 23:39
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Knyteguy posted:https://www.facebook.com/kolotv/photos/a.113633146502.108793.39225221502/10152544819136503/?type=1 This isn't an average of how much typical people spent on regular dates. Whatsyourprice is a website where you literally bid on dates. It's an iteration of escort-lite "dating." E: sorry, I see this has been covered Switchback fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Feb 25, 2015 |
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Feb 25, 2015 23:26
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Pompous Rhombus posted:They do, but you get the credit card's not-awesome exchange rate. I also then have to pay it off using funds in the US (or eat a second unfavourable exchange rate paying from my Australian account). I've got USAA and they are comparably quite good (very competitive exchange rate and reimburse for foreign ATM fees), but since I'm aiming to be here long term it's worth the upfront hassle to set something up so I don't get nickle-and-dimed by fees/exchange rates indefinitely, and don't have to leave much money in the US (basically just enough for online shopping + emergency funds in case I need to make an unexpected trip back). I got a foreign credit card with a $15k limit just based on my direct deposit to my local bank. My stateside bank wouldn't increase my limit above $1500 (and my credit record is just fine). Australia isn't as credit-score-obsessed like we are, you may be able to open a card easily with your local bank as long as you have direct-deposit income. The hardest part about international banking as an American is opening any account in the first place, but if you can find a bank to take you then the credit might be an easier matter. Note you will probably not be allowed to open a brokerage account with a foreign bank due to the FATCA requirements.
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Mar 17, 2015 18:36
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Bad with money: the here is why MY wedding wasn't bad with money thread
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Mar 26, 2015 00:40
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It's not good with money but the ~$40k I spent on travel last year was the best with life/youth/career/adventure decision I could imagine. I don't regret anything. Of course, a commercial safari might be like package tour deals that are almost like not being in a foreign land at all! I don't see the point in that kind of tourism. But to each their own, a hostile and a 6-star are very different experiences and both of them can be great or lovely. For me, I would do it. I won't ever have the chance again to travel with my family like that and I am jealous (this is contingent on your family being cool).
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Apr 17, 2015 06:33
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