Bad w/ Money: I just paid for a fat bitches Electric Cock Zapping Sex Toy in Kentucky

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Bad w/ Money: I just paid for a fat bitches Electric Cock Zapping Sex Toy in Kentucky

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cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Dangerous Mind posted:

I'm not sure if this applies here but after my sister started college my dad decided to stop paying child support despite my sister and I going to college full time. He is always saying he will support us both then pulls this crap. This really fucks us over and all he can really think about is saving his rear end.

I'd say the worst part about it, though, is that compared to other friends who get child support from their fathers, my dad has to pay less than half every month for the both of us compared to my friends who get more just for them, if that makes any sense. So basically he's just being a complete rear end in a top hat.

The most frustrating part about it is that he decided that he still wants to support us so he is giving me $1k this month because I took 2 summer classes at a CC (and that's how much it cost me so he wants to cover the cost for me). If he wouldn't have cut off child support he would have given us that money anyways... It really makes no sense.

You work a part time job while at school, right?

# ¿ Aug 18, 2013 02:58

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 05:58

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Spending a lot of money on a wedding isn't necessarily bad. Spend what you can budget and which wont leave you in crippling debt for years.

# ¿ Aug 23, 2013 04:48

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Delta-Wye posted:

Perhaps they made a conscious decision that immediate sacrifices will improve their standard of living in the future enough to justify it? Even with a modest interest rate, they could have saved somewhere in the neighborhood of 50% the value of the house just in interest.

I would say that both abusing credit and under-using credit are both indicative of being bad with money. Someone who drops $20,000 on a new car they can't afford is bad with money. Someone that pays cash for the car and turns down 0.99% financing in order to avoid debt is bad with money. Someone who has a comfortable job but dumps all their money in to their mortgage and lives a poverty lifestyle as a result is bad with money.

Debt and credit aren't necessarily bad things. They are tools that can be abused, but deliberately avoiding the use of these tools is also foolish.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 05:47

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

grack posted:

So.... saving $100,000 in interest and owning your own, detached home outright before you're 30 is "bad with money"?

I mean, you're entitled to your opinion and all but this happens to be a really, really stupid opinion.

Lifestyle isn't everything. And 6 years in the course of a marriage isn't much if you're committed to a goal.

Ugh. I'm not saying that paying off debt as soon as possible is being bad with money.

My point is that choosing to live in squalor for 10 years in order to pay off your mortgage faster when you could live a reasonable lifestyle by extending it out for only 5 more years is not a good decision. Yes, it costs you more money over a longer term, but for the duration of a typical mortgage amount, the servicing would be decreased by $1,000 a month, which would make a huge difference if you went from $2,000 to $3,000 of disposable income a month.

Paying interest isn't a bad thing by default. When you borrow money you balance a number of factors and lifestyle is one of them. If someone is happy and comfortable with their payments then that's great, but my statement was directed at people who live a self-imposed unsatisfying lifestyle in order to service debt just for the sake of discharging it.

NJ Deac posted:

Just because you can qualify for a low interest rate doesn't mean you should always take out a loan. Someone who elects to pay cash for their car rather than take a promo interest rate gains the benefit of owning their car outright and never having to worry about a payment if they become disabled or lose their job. This also ignores the fact that promo interest rate offers often come at the expense of straight cash back offers (e.g., 0% interest or $1500 cash back, choose one).

Yes, mathematically you might be better off in many scenarios by taking the loan and investing the money. However, calling someone who does so "bad with money" and within the scope of this thread is ludicrous.

With a conservative 3% return on your capital and a 0.99% interest rate on the loan you are pocketing the 2% difference which, on a $30,000 car, would be more than the $1500 cash back.

Basically, good financial decisions involve running the numbers and selecting variables that optimize your benefit. What I'm saying is that making decisions based on credit = good or debt = bad is not being good with money.

Edit - nevermind, you guys aren't actually reading what I'm writing.

cowofwar fucked around with this message at 07:45 on Aug 27, 2013

# ¿ Aug 27, 2013 06:35

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Lightning Zwei posted:

Boy do I love Chris Rock, I grew up listening to all of his stand-ups on repeat and could probably recite every word. I always liked this bit especially but as I've grown older I realized that life doesn't have to be the zero sum game as he describes it ("Only the white man can profit from pain."). First you have to consider what "wealth" really is, and wealth isn't money, which I think is the point he's trying to make. Poor people buy cars and jewelry when they receive a windfall, and wealthy people invest windfalls into assets that are intrinsically valuable and in turn create more wealth.

But I disagree with Chris when he pretty much paints over all poor minorities as a doomed sub-class in America. Are you at a disadvantage starting out in life if you're born to parents who are financially inept and who barely own the clothes on their backs? Sure. Are you at a serious advantage starting out in life if you're born to parents who inherited tons of money, who own five properties and have a net worth in the millions? Sure.

However, people born into poverty who choose to value their own educations and are ambitious enough can break out of poverty and rise above their surroundings. Just as people who are born into wealthy families of privilege can end up addicts or wastes of life.

You don't have to hurt anyone or become a criminal, lie, cheat, or steal to break out of poverty. And being born into poverty is not a life sentence, at least not in the United States. UnFortunately people have the freewill to make their own decisions - life is all about decisions. You have to capitalize on the advantages you are given even if they are few. Everyone in this country is born with the right to free education (and if your family's poor enough you can go to college for drat near free - I know this personally), libraries are free, the internet is free, with google and youtube alone you can learn almost anything.

There is literally no excuse for financial ignorance in this day and age, aside from apathy and laziness.

This is fiction. The American dream is bullshit, vertical mobility no longer exists in the US. Poor Americans die poor and rich Americans die rich.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ¿ Sep 29, 2013 04:37

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

If someone wants to forego $750 a month health insurance with a $11,000 deductible then they should at least seed an account with $11,000 and pay $750 a month in to it.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2013 04:22

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

FrozenVent posted:

So this showed up on my twitter:

http://www.howtosavemoney.ca/why-you-may-not-need-an-emergency-fund

Ok, that's an interesting position, but what if there is, indeed, an emergency?

This is not good advice goddamn.

If you have an unused line of credit it's totally fine to invest your emergency fund in to long-term investments. Maintaining a line of credit costs nothing or maybe $20 a year. It's not a luxury that most people have though.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2013 21:56

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Folly posted:

I've never used the margin in my brokerage account, but wouldn't it be ideal for this?

That's for trading on margin, you definitely can't write cheques for expenses with it.

I keep $5,000 in my emergency account in cash but I could just go to my bank and open a student line of credit for $5,000 and use that instead.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2013 22:58

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

My Rhythmic Crotch posted:

My cousin and her husband have six kids, five of which still live at home. They were lucky enough to be able to purchase a Habitat for Humanity home probably about 15 or so years ago. With 5 kids still at home, things were really cramped, and apparently they had paid off most of the HFH home, so they started looking. They found a new house, got really excited, and listed the old house. The old house sold quickly, but they were not able to get approved for a mortgage on the new place. So essentially they were left holding an $80k windfall, which is a lot, but not enough to get into a new house. So they rented a place, and held onto the $80k. Because they held onto that money, they had to pay capital gains taxes on it. I'm not sure what happened after that, but all I know is whatever was left of the 80k is now gone, with nothing to show. No new vehicles, expensive trips... just pissed away.

Not knowing they had blown the 80k, I saw a facebook post pop up from my cousin, announcing that they'd bought some land. I thought they'd spent the money on the land purchase, but it turns out they borrowed a few hundred bucks to make a down payment on the land. The whole situation is pretty sad.

This is really depressing.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2013 16:45

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

razz posted:

Yes it is and I agree but in cases like that it's not some societal issue where we need to be better to our fellow man, it's an issue with the individual(s) and their lack of personal accountability. I can't feel too sorry for people like that. Do I feel badly for the kids? Absolutely, they're just collateral damage and their whole lives will be shaped by their parents poor decisions. Do I feel bad for the parents who lived in a reduced-price charity house then somehow "lost" more money than I make in 5 years? No I do not.

Just-world fallacy up in this thread.

People who are good with money aren't good with money because they are smarter or better by some other metric. They are good with money because they learned good financial skills growing up, and were likely not raised in families that were for want. People who are bad with money never learned financial skills.

Saying they should just go on the internet and learn financial skills is naive. Someone who can do that has many other skills, abilities and opportunities that makes that possible and ignores all the other factors at play.

It's similar to the situation where a rich kid embraces the just-world fallacy because the only kids in his environment as a kid who weren't successful were lazy or stupid. This may be true since those kids were likely afforded almost every opportunity. However, you can't translate that in to the real world where many people are not successful because they were not afforded the same opportunities and not because they are lazy or stupid.

The situation is depressing because ignoring the fact that it was their actions that put them in that situation, the family is now destined to a much lower standard of living because of poor financial skills. Which is an avoidable situation, not avoidable by mocking them and telling them to pull up their boot straps, but by providing financial literacy skills in school and providing a reasonable standard of living and social safety net for everyone so that those skills can be applied.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2013 23:34

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Shadowgate posted:

Yeah it's usually only an issue at 10+ years and in an instance where the other person hasn't worked at all during that time.

Yeah, alimony normally recognizes sacrifices made by one member of the relationship. Like if a woman raised the kids for twenty years instead of pursuing an education and therefore cannot find gainful employment after the divorce then the courts rule that since she gave up that opportunity to raise the family that she should be reasonably supported as a result. Whereas two professionals who both held full time jobs while raising the kids would not be in the same situation with respect to alimony for either partner.

# ¿ Jan 18, 2014 20:09

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Not discussing salaries allows them to stay low which allows the job creators to create more jobs. Discussing salary is anti-American.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2014 00:34

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

If someone asks for money just lie and tell them you don't have any spare cash because things are rough now blah blah.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2014 08:18

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Tony Montana posted:

Some people have no desires beyond breeding and home ownership so if you go the gym at lot in your nanny time and latch onto someone who did do something with their life while you're still cute, you could dodge having to really work at all.

Maybe they could meet a winner like you if you weren't so insufferable.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2014 01:51

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

We actually live in a social democracy so denying poor people the right to have children is a terrible thing to espouse and makes you a terrible person.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 20:02

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

People in third world countries that live on a couple dollars a day manage to have and raise kids. They don't have to be expensive.

There are lot of people that make poor financial decisions when it comes to children but having children in of itself is not a poor financial decision.

For instance:

Formula vs breast milk
Kijiji baby gear vs retail baby gear
Jars of baby food vs home made baby food
Day care vs shared extended family or friend care
Baby toys vs pet toys
Disposable diapers vs reusable cloth diapers
Buying a new room+1 house vs crib in living area or bunk beds

There are lots of costs but many can be managed. Some costs like day care are difficult to avoid but those should be socialized. There are many poor people who raise kids on a budget with no problems. The problem is that some people have poor financial skills, not that they have children.

cowofwar fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Feb 19, 2014

# ¿ Feb 19, 2014 01:17

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

baquerd posted:

People who are bad with money because they weren't educated or didn't have the opportunity are one thing, but people who are presented with the opportunity and turn away from hard work are another. How many of the people who are bad with money in this thread have internet access and enough free time to figure things out if they're reasonably intelligent and have a modicum of willpower? Almost all of them.

I think it's fair to say that in a capitalist society, if a person is not interested in learning about the ramifications of capitalism in their lives, they deserve what they get.

Self actualization is only possible when all other needs are met. This situation really only exists in the middle upper class and is where boot strapping is legitimate. For everyone else they can't just get on the internet and learn their way to a $120k a year job because they either had a poor education or have other limitations due to no fault of their own. Your posts show a complete lack of understanding of the situations of people less fortunate and a disturbing lack of empathy.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2014 15:03

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Commercials are about strengthening associations not compelling. So if you're the type of person that has impulsive craving for something, the commercials function to associate the craving for that thing with their brand. The goal is to not make you want McDonalds now, but to make you crave McDonalds when you're near one through positive associations.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2014 03:34

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

For some people their gym membership is their hobby expense. For others it is only a gym membership and they splurge on other hobbies in addition. Without a budget breakdown it's really not remarkable on its own.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2014 05:08

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

That's a common theme on Craigslist sites. People think their couple year old consumer good is still worth near-retail price because it's in mint condition ignoring the fact that it now lacks a warranty and has been supplanted by a new model twice over.

# ¿ May 22, 2014 06:01

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

It's good with money to convince your parents to buy a timeshare because then you get free timeshare access and don't have to pay for it.

# ¿ May 30, 2014 23:15

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Dawncloack posted:

I am surprised too that they didn't nail her harder. Glad though, that's my job.

That said, I overstated the situation: I did present it as a willful and knowing attempt, it was knowing, but I'd argue it wasn't willful. It was more "Oh I save myself filling forms". Which doesn't excuse anything obvs.

One thing is clear, if she can't be an adult about that, it's over. I will not get together with not-adults.

I think it depends on what you want out of your relationship. If you want to just have fun and have sex then she sounds fun. If you want to settle down and get serious with the relationship then I say break up if it's a new relationship or give it some time if you've been together for a while and she is worth the effort.

That said financial issues are THE main strain on relationships so the best predictor of success in a relationship is to start off with two financially responsible people. If one person can't be trusted with money then the relationship is pretty much strained from the beginning.

# ¿ Jun 20, 2014 21:36

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

People pay you to house-sit, not the other way around. They are dumb.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2014 22:05

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Those articles are never written about real people and real finances. It is always padded in ways to make them seem poor or richer in order to facilitate spin.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2014 20:57

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Unless you're actually low income poverty level it's pretty inexcusable to not have six months of living expenses in savings.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2014 20:31

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Bad with money can be buying a used car. When I was looking around you could buy an off-lease or a couple year old certified used car from dealers for only a couple grand less than the new model. You can save money buying a five or more year old car with a good history but if you want something more recent you should go new.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2014 05:32

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Folly posted:

Topical: I have a coworker who can't travel for work without an advance from the company. I can't remember how much I expensed, but I think it was less half a net paycheck. And the company always reimburses within a month of filing your expense report. Does anybody work in HR and could tell me if that's normal? It seems weird to me, but based on the statistics I see about debt in America I wouldn't be too shocked if it were normal.

I always get an advance. I don't need one but why would I pay with my own money and then wait for a refund? Trips often require booking airfare and hotel at least a month in advance so without an advance you're going to have to tie up your own money floating those costs.

Wickerman posted:

I had a "bad with money" experience that I'd like to share.

Two days ago, I had a phone call with my sister who is headed off to medical school Saturday. Somehow we got on the subject of professional loans and she shared with me her "brilliant idea" (probably inspired by my mother, who deserves her own thread.) She told me she was taking out the max ($20k more than she needed) to pay off her undergrad unsubsidized stafford loans and then put the rest in the stock market to then pay down her loans more with the interest. I told her that this wasn't wise, because Professional Plus loans are at 7.2% and her undergrad loans should be at about 4.2%. I spent about 20 minutes explaining to her that you don't refinance a loan with a lower interest rate using a loan with a higher interest rate, which I was continuously met with "I'm not refinancing, I'm paying it off!" at every turn. Additionally, I tried to explain to her that putting cash into the stock market is different than putting money from a loan in, and that at best she could be looking at losing a couple hundred bucks and at worst she could lose it all. She didn't really understand that either, and I tried explaining it about 5 different ways. Then she told me that she would just put it in her 401K and try to "reduce her tax burden".

I did my best to convince her not to do this, but I can't say that I succeeded.

This is why med students and doctors are suckers targeted by everyone.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2014 19:06

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Gorman Thomas posted:

I've got a doozy that just happened at work. My coworker is selling his 3 series (that he still has 18k owed on) so he can, get ready for it, lease a 60k Lexus.

Don't worry though, his monthly payment is only 10 bucks more and he's going to buy it eventually on his 65kish salary. gently caress. That.

Jesus. New 60k cars are for people with a paid off house and a lot of disposable income. Like gambling and drug addictions.

# ¿ Sep 5, 2014 21:20

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Saddest thing is high earners who after thirty years of work have nothing to show for it.

# ¿ Sep 19, 2014 05:47

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Purposely living in squalor when you're young so that you can be rich when you're old is bad with money. I'd prefer to live life (which costs money) when I'm young and have less disposable income when I'm old and physically useless.

The point of retirement savings is to maintain your current lifestyle, not penny-pinch in the hopes of securing a better lifestyle.

# ¿ Oct 9, 2014 17:20

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

If she stopped making payment and they repossessed the car, what exactly would happen to the debt?

Would she still be in collections for owed value less the recovered value of the car? Like if she bought it for $12k and they repossessed it and established the value as $6k (despite selling it to her for $12k) would she still be in arrears for $6k?

# ¿ Oct 25, 2014 02:58

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

MickeyFinn posted:

The chart is inflation adjusted and the increasing cost of cars was precisely the point of my original post. Whether there is greater value or not, cars are getting more expensive.

I don't think a civic 20 years ago is comparable to civic of today. What was once an entry level car is now a mid tier car. The Honda fit is now the entry level car.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2014 01:02

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

MickeyFinn posted:

I look at that graph and see a price increase of roughly 1/3 over the period of 3 decades. That isn't a lot of money to you? This is the second most expensive purchase most people make. Edit: with wages stagnant (or falling) over the same period (after inflation) it just isn't shocking to me that people are taking out longer car loans. That is what started my desire to make that graph.

There's a term called car wallet or something that car manufacturers quantify. It's the average amount of money people have each month to spend on a car payment. Over the years that number has stayed the same or gone down and since the car companies don't want to lower prices to ensure that people can afford their cars, they instead subsidize longer financing periods in order to keep the average monthly cost of new car ownership within this window.

# ¿ Oct 26, 2014 03:30

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

SiGmA_X posted:

Some day I would like to do laser beard removal. Very far in the distant future. I hate shaving and I hate facial hair, so I shave daily...

I'm impressed with your DE use in just 3min, too. I don't have much facial hair either but it takes me more like 10min with a DE vs perhaps 3-5 with a disposable... Maybe it's cuz I'm asleep in the AM...

I use a 15 year old gillette razor handle. The rubber is melting off. I change my blades about once every two or three months but I clean them daily. I shave with hot water after a warm shower and it takes about a minute. Shaving cream is bad with money :smug:

# ¿ Nov 8, 2014 17:59

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Renegret posted:

I saw a commercial on ESPN a few years back that was nothing but a guy shaving completely dry. They made sure to accentuate the scraping sound of the razor scraping against his face..

It still gives me nightmares to this day. I don't even remember what the commercial was for.

Dry shaving is more like dry ripping

# ¿ Nov 8, 2014 18:36

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Ponzi scheme obviously. Forex is great for that because you can't actually verify that you own anything. Just made up numbers. I bet you could run a stats analysis on the posted results and see it fail.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 23:55

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Keurigs are ideal for people that rarely drink coffee or drink small amounts. If you drink four cups a day it is obviously bad with money.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2014 12:47

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Saying you can't ride a bike in winter is like saying you can't drive in winter because your front wheel drive sports car in summer tire slicks in the snow is dangerous.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2014 19:33

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

To be fair the people bad with money are the wealthy people that don't establish structured trusts for their beneficiaries. The people spending their inheritances are just following human nature. This is something that old money learned a long time ago - just because you're smart doesn't mean your kids aren't morons that will squander your wealth upon your passing. So you structure it to pay out dividends, or lock people out on clauses, or have delayed and periodic maturities. That way at least if your kid is a retard, your grand-kids will have something left to pay for their education.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2014 23:18

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 05:58

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

Volmarias posted:

Or they teach them how to control themselves and how not to blow it all on cocaine. Trusts work great for descendants that you know won't possibly be financially responsible enough to stop themselves, but people who don't think in truck equity don't need it, and can use it as a down payment for a house.

Houses are discretionary consumer purchases that should be made based on annual earned income if sufficiently high. Preventing your children from using their inheritances to make down payments on houses is exactly why you should establish a trust. A good use of a trust would be paying for the post-secondary education of all the children in your family for multiple generations - not enabling John Jr.'s lifestyle decisions.

cowofwar fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Dec 16, 2014

# ¿ Dec 15, 2014 23:58

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Bad w/ Money: I just paid for a fat bitches Electric Cock Zapping Sex Toy in Kentucky

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