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Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Rudager posted:

EDIT: Although, cashing out the holidays is probably bad with money since if I use them I get a 15% (or somewhere around that) "Leave Loading" on top of my regular pay, but they don't pay the extra 15% if you cash it.
That's really interesting because I thought leave loading was paid on acquired leave not taken leave. Check your EBA wording.

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Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

canyoneer posted:

My wife just got introduced to a friend of her friend. She seems seemed pretty cool

:byodame:"Hey, I'm hosting a party at my house Saturday night. Please come!"
:j:"That sounds great! Thanks for the invite, but my sister-in-law is in town this weekend, so I can't make it."
:byodame:"Bring her along too!"
:j:"Oh, I don't want to impose. Plus, I'm not sure what she has already planned"
:byodame:"No imposition at all! It's going to be great! We're going to be sharing an incredible opportunity and a fantastic sale on these essential oils and weight loss supplements!"
:j:"...."

This woman will not shut up about her stupid MLM schemes.

My wife's poor sister has to buy that crap all the time. She's on an overseas assignment with her husband in the military, and there's a huge social pressure among the officer's wives that everyone goes to each other's stupid candle/kitchen/oils/makeup/purse/whatever MLM party.
Half of them participate only out of social obligation and buy the cheapest token thing. It's ridiculous, but buying a $20 candle every couple months is the cost of "being involved" over there.
That's... really fascinating. Has she seen what happens to someone who doesnt get involved? What's the deal with army wives, they seem to be a bred differently or something seems to propagate from one generation to another. I would guess in 50 years the culture hasn't changed.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Devian666 posted:

New Zealand as a nation is bad with money. Not the Government so much but the people. The baby boomers were sold on a good standard of living and social security for retirement. This actually worked perfectly well into the 80's as my Grandparents were living well enough, had a freehold house and money invested to supplement the Government pension. Basic living costs have escalated a lot with privatisation of the power network and huge inflation on food costs. There's a few other details I'm skipping over but now we have a lot of retired baby boombers who receive a pension and have a freehold house but they are in a cashflow deficit. The thing I don't get is that noone has told them they could get a reverse mortgage to stop themselves from living like poo poo and contemplating suicide. Of course in New Zealand fashion they complain to the media instead of seeking financial advice.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/10608401/Pensioners-struggling-in-debt

The 401k style retirement fund only started in New Zealand about 7 years ago.

First time I've heard of reverse mortgage. Wouldnt this classify as bad with money though?

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

TLG James posted:

This guy too. And he's in the military. This is his logic of tipping 1 dollar per person at his table when he goes out to eat.

http://www.reddit.com/r/AirForce/comments/2mq6oh/it_wasnt_a_lot_but_i_still_got_dirty_looks/cm6ouc2



TIL that stealing from waitresses is being good with money.
How is not giving tips = stealing from waitress?

He's logic is retarded but he's not really stealing. Anyway don't want to start a loving tipping argument.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
Is it bad with money to buy a car when I have a decently running one at the moment?

Thinking of buying a 4x4 to go out bush on holidays for ~10k.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

xie posted:

Do you holiday 50% of the year? You could probably rent one for an entire month each year over the next 10 years and not spend 10k + taxes + maintenance.
No but I live in a small town that is surrounded by amazing wild life and the only way to get there is by 4x4. There's not much to do during the dry season in Darwin, all the cool stuff is camping/outdoors. During the dry it would be every second weekend + long weekends + annual leave.

Hiring a 4x4 is about 4.5k/month. Where the hell do you live where hiring a 4x4 for a whole month only costs you like a grand?

Pompous Rhombus posted:

Yeah, rego alone is what, over $500 a year? If you get something little you can tow it and not register it (did Australia get the Suzuki Jimny/Samurai?), which would doubtless be cheaper to buy outright and in the longer run.
I was thinking about a Jimny. But how the gently caress do I tow a Jimny without a decent sized car? My current one is tiny little engine and either way this is a silly idea.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
Sorry folks, yes I live in Australia, Darwin where everything is more expensive plus more because it's Darwin (fuel is 1.55/L everyday and that's after a big price drop recently).

Haha I love these things, so loving expensive for what they are. For that much you could probably get a massive van/ute and redesign it in a massive way to get better results.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
I never actually considered that idea, I've been thinking about getting a bike anyway. I will seriously consider your food thought, thanks!

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

spog posted:

This. The numbers all balance out the same to the bank, it's just a way of the borrower getting what he needs, within the constraints of religious rules - or at least appearing to do so.


AFAIK, Islam has a problem with interest, full stop. Not the type of interest.


Which if you follow the spirit of the law, you shouldn't be able to own anything that you can't pay cash for.

Great when a goat was an aspirational purchase. Not so good when you need a family house in the suburbs.
Nah this right, a lot of muslims would argue exactly that: All interest is wrong. But the strict definition is that usury is forbidden but for whatever reason everything is considered usury (the action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest). The real loving problem for a lot of muslims is they are involuntary being involved in the interest system without even knowing; inflation. Similar to the reddit guy, I was once religious and refused to deal with interest. Along the way I found it was actually usury that was forbidden and that the islam scholars are loving idiots because they refuse to deal with inflation or mitigating inflation. They consider it a system of interest and therefore ignore it, when it compacts everyone. This is kinda started me off on the path of non-religionhood. Anyway, Islamic banks were doing something so close it was pretty much interest. My parents were paying 12% "rent" in the haydays when every other bank was charging about 8%. As soon as my dad told the bank he was changing they offered a massive discount, they would never pass on interest cuts because it wasn't interest!

gently caress banks and gently caress Islamic banks. 5% interest isn't usury when inflation is about 3% and an interest savings account is 3-4% (Australia).

tl;dr muslims are bad with money.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
Thread title lives up to its name for sure.

My housemate is bad with money. Her job ends in 6 weeks and she still hasn't found another one. She went on a 2 week holiday overseas about a month ago and just before that she spent about 1k on getting some art framed. She asked to borrow $20 because she doesn't have any money or some poo poo. She's 36. loving hell you'd think someone nearly 10 years my senior would have their poo poo together. Tangent rant: She wanted me to move out because, her words, "You affect me the most because you're in the house the most" when she didn't like how the house changed from a more happy go lucky to a bunch of professionals with busy lives. She got upset because we saw each other at a local community dinner and I hadn't invited her... nor did you, you loving unstable oval office.

Thank god she is moving out because I hate her guts.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Pompous Rhombus posted:

I recently moved to Australia for the long haul, and I'm kind of in a similar situation. I haven't applied for any credit cards but since I'm currently unemployed (grad student) and on what is classified as a temporary visa it seems like I'm basically out of luck. I don't blame 'em considering how bad I look on paper (no money and a flight risk), but I have a high credit score back in the US and it's kinda lame to be starting at square one again.

I'm hoping I can partially backdoor my credit score over by getting a card in the US with a company that has operations over here, then telling them I've moved to Australia and seeing if I can get a local CC issued. (I've read about this as a viable workaround in Japan through AMEX, where foreigners face similar obstacles to getting credit cards.) No idea if it'll work or not, gonna try and take a stab at it over Easter break.

I know this is from pages ago, but in Australia there really isn't such thing as a credit score (yet, they might be bringing it in but nothing like the USA). You have a credit history but this includes anything from bills you're paying to income you're earning. You also dont need a credit card, go ask your bank for a debit card and go from there. debit cards work the same as a credit card (not as much insurance but can be used for online purchases).

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

cowofwar posted:

Horses evolved to live on a flat plain surrounded by nothing with visibility of 2km. They are pretty much the worst thing to have in an urban environment.

Also if you don't clean out their smegma they die.
What the gently caress is this a joke?

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

moana posted:

Seattle is a bunch of new money tech people, they get paid mad bank and want to impress all their friends and have no idea what to do with money but spend it all.
WTF is the deal with rent over there? I've got someone going over there as part of a scholarship and shes asking for 30k for 12 months for a furnished apartment. I knew Seattle was expensive but daaaaamnnn.

P.S Im from Australia.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
Someone explain to me how you can take out a loan from 401k? Not American so I'm confused, I've seen it brought up multiple times but is your 401k account loaning you money (this is really bizarre) or are you using 401k account to borrow against?

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Jeffrey of YOSPOS posted:

This isn't even close to true - governments spend most of their money on their own citizens, and the most efficient charities don't generally involve the first world.

http://www.givewell.org/ is a charity efficiency rating charity and according to them, the Against Malaria Foundation saves a childs life for roughly every $3,340 donated. Do you think that an extra $3,340 in tax revenue, divvied up as the government's budget is, would save a child's life?
I think you missed his point. He isn't talking about an African country increasing taxes to reduce malarial burden or USA increases taxes to provide donations to these countries.

What he is saying is problems in your respective developed countries could be better handled from increasing taxes and using the money directly to fund programs that look into solving these problems. Off the top of my head (not american): your homeless problem, your healthcare (sorry lets not start this argument), drug problems, pregnancy/family planning programs (I think these are happening now?) and other things.

Also yes a government could easily out perform any charity organisation whose job is to distribute nets to thousands of people in 2 countries in Africa.

Suspicious Lump fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Apr 30, 2015

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
Why would you pay that much for a dog and why would you drive that loving far for it? That's ~4 hour drive for a loving dog.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Inept posted:

I quit my job and sold my car and it somehow took me a year and a half to make another one of those monthly box of random poo poo ordering websites:


https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/388dc6/a_year_and_a_half_ago_i_quit_my_job_and_sold_my/

Brilliant ideas so far: selling 4 snacks for $14, and 8 for $29. But the 8 snacks are higher quality. But he doesn't say that anywhere on the site.

And of course, this is on the front page of Reddit because entrepreneurial spirit!
What gets me about a lot of AMA on reddit is they are thinnly disguised propaganda for their new venture. Who loving gives a poo poo, the link is in the first post straight away.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Barry posted:

It's especially worse when they go on to pollute completely unrelated subreddits with their advertising. A year back some guy was selling candles and made a post in /r/pics every few months basically just showing candles and shipping boxes. That's the kind of cool content I want to see when browsing a subreddit (ostensibly) about cool pictures.

It also turns out that he wasn't actually very good at running his business.

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/26pkug/after_starting_a_candle_company_while_high_doing/
http://www.reddit.com/r/trees/comments/1hvo7y/i_did_an_ama_a_couple_weeks_ago_about/
Holy mackerel, this is crazy. He's even deleted his account. I would be posting abuse in that second thread.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Rudager posted:

Well here in Australia our treasurer just told everyone that million dollar houses are affordable and everyone just needs to bootstraps them selves into a better job.
To be fair this was specifically about buying houses in Sydney, which is probably one of the more expensive places. Of course you need a good job to buy an expensive place in a big city wtf people?

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

BigDave posted:

Didn't barbers used to pull teeth and amputate limbs?
Kinda. There were barber surgeons floating about in Europe. I think because they had a Sharpe tool available they doubled as surgeons too. They were bad rear end.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Devian666 posted:

I'm looking at HSBC, an Australian owned bank and a rural bank which provides 4%+ interest in a tax advantaged account. That gives some spread on the credit ratings and interest rates. The only frustrating thing is all the paperwork to set up an account these days if you aren't an existing customer.

e: bonus bad with money is owing $2b in back taxes http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2015/04/16/irs-says-prominent-texas-billionaire-late-brother-owe-3b/

Yeah I was going to mention Australia. The government guarantees your savings up to $250k per account and most people I know with that much money have multiple accounts. It's not a problem and the government doesnt worry because it targets average people with savings below that amount anyway.

So MJBuddy, nah you're wrong.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
:( I'm lactose intolerant. I can't help it dude. Whys you discriminate against me?

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Devian666 posted:

I could talk about the no vote from Greece but it's time to get closer to home. The discussion about what people do with their retirement savings in New Zealand.

http://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/76335/bernard-hickey-argues-its-time-think-about-how-million-retiring-kiwisavers-could

Only 51% knew what they were going to do with their retirement savings. With 37% either paying off mortgage, leaving the investment there or investing elsewhere. That's not to bad but the remainder planning to spend it all are crazy (that's more than a 1/4 of those that responded).
Well, 1000 people can't really be indicative of 4.7million people... oh nope it is. At 95% confidence level and 3% error margin you only need to survey 1000 people. What the gently caress is 22% of the population thinking?

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
Haha that's a great post. In Oz Mazda is known for having a ridiculous service requirements. They charge and request a lot more inspections to keep up warranty. So that 20k Mazda is actually 25k over 3years.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
It's all jibberish now. Anyone quote or screenshot?

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
True automated factories are very few, they still require humans to be around in some capacity. There are a few factories that are completed automated, and the thought is these will be the norm in the very short future. This means that countries like China and India are going to have a problem when the Western countries can now produce equally cheap poo poo without human suffering (ironically, creating human suffering maybe even longer term).

If we move to complete automation, where even our supermarkets are stocked by robots of some kind, then yes the jobs will decrease. I think the difference between the aforementioned automation and the automation of the industrial revolution is the net number of jobs created. If robots could create robots then if that number even considers approaching 0 there will be problems.

this is all theoretical bullshit and it will be really interesting how people and governments react to this level of automation. I'm looking forward to the clusterfuck that it will create!

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Pompous Rhombus posted:

You can't do that, right? Would otherwise seem like a good way to get that pesky non-discharable-in-bankruptcy debt dischargeable. I guess you couldn't really make much of a dent in the really apocalyptic student debt you'd want to try such a scorched-earth policy on though...
No idea about USA but in Australia some credit cards will specifically say 0% for a specific time period on transfers. So it is possible.

I think it;s a good idea if you could pull it off. Even if you can get a single credit card with 0% for at least 12 months then that would help a lot.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
Complete derail: is codeschool any good? Have you looked into coursera and edx?

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Pompous Rhombus posted:

If pensions were still a thing, sure.

I was looking at camper rentals here in Australia last night and you can get them for essentially free ($1/day, I guess they legally have to charge something) to move them one-way for the company. In some cases they will also give you money towards petrol, depending on how badly they need it in the next place. It is pretty short-notice though, all the deals I saw were for this month.

Pay more attention to the finer details, they need the camper van taken to a certain location within a specific time. If I remember correctly, usually you are rushing to get there and can't take your time.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

last laugh posted:

Literally just googled "islamic mutual funds" and was given pages of funds that invest in Halal securities.
Haha this is great! I never knew this existed.

I was the same at his age, interest it is haram! But then my parents bought a house using a mortgage. Still my parents believed interest is haram! My brother got a rent to buy car which ended up costing him 10k more instead of just getting a loan. From the beginning I realised that inflation eats away at your savings but ever time I googled about how to deal with interest and inflation I read the same junk: inflation is a result of interest and both are haram :psyduck:. You're not even allowed to receive interest to counter inflation. I've always wondered if religious people get upset when they see prices go up. It gets fairly interesting when the word for interest in arabic translates to usury (excessive prices) but interest is haram!

Also the reason he won't invest in those managed funds is because they probably invest in banks or "haram" companies. Even if a company sells alcohol or pig products, it's haram.

P.S :20bux: says he looks at porn.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Devian666 posted:

It took a long time before interest and banking became acceptable to Christians. Work arounds to bend the rules were used a lot including foreign exchange fees (which just concealed interest as the fees related to the length of the loan).

My sister moans about usury a lot but she still has a mortgage but is at least heavily focused on repaying debts. Although for some reason she paid off a 0% student loan first. I don't know what she was thinking with that. :ughh:
Religious derail income: My brother who is fairly religious now wouldn't except a 0% interest for 24 months offer because he considers it the same as accepting interesting. Which is an interesting argument but as far as I know in Islam it is the act that is punishable not the though. So I always assumed physically receiving or paying interest was the sin and if no money was exchanged then it's A-OK. It gets very interesting when hearing Imams proclaim a certain something as usury or haram. How loving out of the loop they are always amazes me. Not sure what country you're from but the current interest rate in Australia is great and has been dropping, meaning this is a good time to buy houses or start a business.

On the topic of interest becoming acceptable to Muslims; it's moving that way but in a very odd direction. The first bank my parents went with for the mortgage was an "islamic" bank which actually derived all its income streams from the big 4 banks in Australia. They charged a crazy 12% interest, of course this was around the time the interest rate was dropping but they weren't passing off the savings. Once my dad realised he was getting screwed (like 6% screwed) he changed banks. The loving loan manager calls him up and begs for my dad to change his mind ("brother how could you do this to me") but my dad being a stubborn arab (god bless that side) refused even when offered 4% reduction. He went to the big 4, got a variable interest rate and just this year paid everything off. gently caress MCCA they are cunts. So the point of this story? Muslims are starting to realise that interest is intrinsic part of our economy and have started to device ways of ripping their fellow brethren by wording the loans differently and charging them 50% more. Ironic how this is acceptable but standard rates are considered usury.

One of the few good things about my family is their lack of debit, but their opportunity for mobility is hindered. Only in numbers do they overcome it (i.e we all actually chipped into the mortgage, all 5 kids).

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Devian666 posted:

The ultimate in bad with money: that $2m worth of gold and silver I keep in the spare bedroom has gone missing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...43d3_story.html

What will they do now if the world economy collapses and they have to exchange worthless gold and silver for valuable food and alcohol.
Haha this is amazing. I never understood why people keep gold in their home when you can buy gold and have it stored at the mint, with a few clicks you can sell or buy more.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Devian666 posted:

I'm pretty sure problems relating to immortality can be resolved by chopping people's heads off.
I'm pretty sure problems relating to our ageing population can be resolved by chopping people's heads off.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Devian666 posted:

The problem I have with this is that I'll be 68 when the peak retirement population hits. I might have to expand my weapon collection.
How did you calculate this? I must also prepare

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004
Anyone got experience in "churning" (if that's the correct term) credit cards that are attached to frequent flyer programs? I've seen heaps of credit cards that offer 10k points if you sign up, with a year free. I haven't read the conditions properly but I know the first year is free, you're required to spend a certain amount on the card within a specified time period. What's stopping me from putting my groceries for a month on the credit card, getting hte points then legging it (cancelling)?

Is it illegal?

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

BossRighteous posted:

Does it not just obliterate your credit score having 12+ open credit lines?
Australia doesn't have the credit scoring system that USA has. Praise the lord.

pig slut lisa/Devian666: Thanks for the info.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Breetai posted:

Boomeranging after being made redundant due to a reorg, realising that buying a house in Australia on a single salary is generally beyond the reach of sanity, and deciding to swallow my pride and staying put after I quickly found a better job and putting 80% of every single paycheck directly into a bank account and completely forgetting it exists for 5 solid years. My car is literally old enough to vote (1995 Nissan Pulsar Q Hatchback - I swear the fucker's indestructible even though I take the bus to work every day and only really use it on weekends), I only got a smart phone 2 years ago after I accidentally left my Nokia brick in my jeans in the wash (Sony Xperia Sola for $cheap) and only got mobile internet data 2 months ago after a recent raise could justify me increasing my discretionary spending so that I pay $30/mo on mobile rather than $15/mo, and the only real holiday I've been on in this period was a long weekend trip up to visit my best friend after she moved up to Melbourne (paid for by sticking any cash I had of the 20% I allow myself to access every week into a piggy bank until I had enough for tickets and spending money), but on the bright side I've enough money to comfortably buy a house by the end of the year and not only maintain it, but live on something other than ramen noodles for the next 30+ years of my life.
Have you considered putting your money instead in an offset account and only paying 20% deposit? Run the numbers and you might find out it's better idea. If you're saving at such an insane rate then paying off the principle amount should be easy.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Breetai posted:

Definitely considering it - the budget I'm planning has a lot of provisions for putting aside regular amounts of money for ongoing expenses (medical, emergency fund, emergency home repair, 10% of net pay into long term savings) and I may as well have that money working for me at maximum efficiency. I'll crunch the numbers when I'm at the stage of comparing loan options.
It's good you're considering it. It would be interesting to see the comparison, so if you don't mind can you update us in the future? Most people go the offset account route, and at first it seems very counter-intuitive. Though it depends on a lot of factors (your view of the proper, investment vs home, liquid capital vs non liquid).

Personally I'd rather have liquid capital, you never know what might happen in the future and you may need to move.

Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

Devian666 posted:

Bad with money overdrive. Star Citizen has blown $82m of $90m and achieved nothing. There is no game. Additional bad with money I funded the game for $30 so I've just requested a refund as it's clear they'll never try to make the game they initially promised.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonev...on-is-to-blame/

SA thread with all the news starts with suicide prevention advice.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3744337
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahha. That SA thread is fantastic.

Kickstarter is an insane concept and I have no idea why people actually put money down. If the people are held to SOME standard then you could maybe not be BWM but as it currently stands... it's better to go gamble your money at the casino.

I honest think part of the kickstarter service should be business support, management support etc etc that's included in the package for successful campaigns above a certain amount (similar to what some business incubators do). 90 loving million and not a adviser to be seen.... aaaaaaaaaaaahahaha

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Suspicious Lump
Mar 11, 2004

MrOnBicycle posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tV6L-wzfHY

300k for getting a degree in Chinese medicine is as bad as it sounds, right?
Haha what the hell.

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