Bad With Money 2018: When I die, bury me in the blockchain.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Bad With Money 2018: When I die, bury me in the blockchain.

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Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Lockback posted:

Screwing people over with pedantic benefits is GWM!

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/8k5ixo/is_this_a_normal_kind_of_401k_matching/

"Is this a normal kind of 401k matching?"

Holy crap this just cannot be true. Matching 4% if the employees contribution cannot possibly be worth the administrative fee.

# ¿ May 18, 2018 20:33

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 11:37

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

crazypeltast52 posted:

This reminded me to email our benefits department. Our CEO sent an email to the company after the tax bill saying we would get more 401k match, but that was back in February, so it seems like it may have been forgotten.

We had a our semi-annual meeting with our 401k provider last summer. We were told they were introducing more flexibility to the plan; which is of course them changing the match to .5% for every 1% (maximum match of 3%) we contribute. So you would need to double your contribution from 3% to 6% to max out the match. Luckily I was already putting in 10%, but I would not call that "flexibility".

# ¿ May 18, 2018 20:52

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

BigDave posted:

Remember Theranos? The Sillicon Valley disrupting unicorn insert additional buzzword here startup?

Guess who just pled guilty to fraud charges?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sec-charges-theranos-and-founder-elizabeth-holmes-with-fraud-1521045648?mod=trending_now_3

My company sold millions of dollars in equipment to Theranos back in 2014. Last week the president of the company came down and asked me to pull all the Theranos invoices, should be a fun couple of weeks.

# ¿ May 21, 2018 14:33

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

AndrewP posted:

Weird that the IRS insists on Western Union transfers these days, anyway here's my life's savings

lol

he's 28, grosses <$20k a year and somehow saved $66K only to fork it over to an obvious scam in 10 months

Is his friend a Nigerian prince? I re-read the whole account and I just can't believe that story is true. How could someone be such a sucker to make multiple payments into the thousands of dollars before questioning the situation?

# ¿ May 29, 2018 00:03

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Lots of holes here, as expected.

$100 a month in water? That has to be a quarterly bill. $350 a month on cell/cable/internet can certainly be lowered by dropping down a package or just calling the carrier and threatening to cancel.

# ¿ May 29, 2018 20:56

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

SiGmA_X posted:

Awesome. So awesome. Also, no, it's not. You need at least $100,001.

(I really don't think it is enough, but I have friends who are comfortable on less than that... They also probably won't be as comfortable as they should be come retirement. Long term planning is hard...)

It all depends on how you live etc. I have a family of 4 in loving Connecticut and we get by just fine on 95k a year.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ¿ May 29, 2018 23:49

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

General Probe posted:

It was already posted but it's great enough to read again.

I really, really wish I could be there if/when he goes to the lawyers apparent place of business and it turns out to be a broom closet or PO box.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2018 20:27

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

California is BWL because of Proposition 13. They will forever be in the hole.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2018 00:42

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Mantle posted:

It's not BWM just because you don't agree with his purchases. He's clearly spending within his means and saving a significant portion of his income.

I think it's less his purchases and mlfe

Mantle posted:

It's not BWM just because you don't agree with his purchases. He's clearly spending within his means and saving a significant portion of his income.

I think it's less his purchases and more the values he's using. $30 a month for auto insurance? In which state does this buy you the mandated minimum coverage?

# ¿ Jun 9, 2018 02:49

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

WithoutTheFezOn posted:

Groceries must mean �eating out�. I don�t think you even could spend $2100/mo on groceries for a family of four.

Combination of family of four, shopping at Whole Foods, and generally not paying attention to grocery bills can easily top $500 a week.

They can get this down to $200 a week easily with the slightest bit of planning.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2018 12:18

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

CornHolio posted:

Yeah, I have a family of four (plus two cats) and I budget 200/week for groceries. We used to plan meals better but I hit that even after going to the store almost daily for stuff (it's right next door to my gym and less than a mile away from my house). And I'm not exactly making rice and beans for every meal. And hell that's even shopping at the local grocery store (Martin's for those in the northern Indiana area) which is more expensive than Meijer/Walmart, and I never pay attention to what's on sale and don't cut coupons.

I would really have to try hard to hit 500/week.

We've gotten it to under $150 a week (also family of 4). If it comes from an box, can, bag or is a non fresh bakery item then it comes from Aldi 100% of the time. We will buy quite a bit of fresh fruits and vegetables from Aldi, but you need to be really careful and give it a look over. Their meat is generally good, but the prices can be the same as Walmart.

Our local IGA has a weekly fresh meat special which we take advantage of some weeks.

The major grocery chain in our area (CT) is unbelievably expensive, even for store brands. There I could see us easily spending $300+ per week.

# ¿ Jun 10, 2018 19:44

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Not counting FMLA. In the majority of companies fathers can take vacation time for child birth, which is exactly what I did for both of mine. I think I took seven days for my son and Sox for my daughter.

I did have a friend who got 16 weeks paid for the birth of his daughter and my jaw almost hit the floor.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2018 03:25

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Dunno-Lars posted:

Chiming in with GWM here in socialist utopia Norway: https://www.nav.no/en/Home/Benefits+and+services/Relatert+informasjon/parental-benefit

How do people in the US cope with going back to work so soon after giving birth? How about feeding the kids? Breastfeeding?

My wife is a teacher and we were fortunate enough to have both our kids in the springtime (April/May), so she had the entire summer to heal/bond/breastfeed until she went back to work (late August). If you are exclusively breastfeeding, then going back to work is almost impossible unless you have a very flexible work from home or in office daycare situation. Funny fact about public school teachers (at least in CT) is that they get no paid maternity leave whatsoever.

Offices with over 50 employees are required to provide you with a non-bathroom, private area to pump breast milk. However, in her experience such an area doesn't exist so it just ends up being the bathroom.

Fathers are guaranteed nothing at all. I saved vacation time to take a week or two off for both my kids births.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2018 12:45

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

canyoneer posted:

I work for a company in the US with a paid 8 weeks bonding leave period. It's a new policy in the last few years for us.
Every manager I've had has always been really cool about encouraging people to take all 8 weeks of it. One of my bosses has worked here for 25 years and told me that he wished that policy existed back when he was having kids. He said that he remembers taking 2 or 3 vacation days for each kid and then coming back to work on Monday.

If you are a woman and part of the working poor, that's pretty much what it looks like for you too, because you may not be able to afford to take unpaid medical leave.

That's amazing. I have a friend in California who received 12 weeks of paid leave when his son was born, and his employer was flexible with it so his wife stayed home with the baby for 16 weeks, the he took the next 12 weeks off. So the kid was cared for by his parents for over six months before going to day care.

# ¿ Jun 11, 2018 13:39

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

These never get old:

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/8qjzh7/question_about_next_year_taxes_for_ages_2336_is/

quote:

My husband is 36 and I am 23, we recently got in a discussion with my husband about taxes. He quit is job about 4 months ago and started computer certification courses (A+, Linux, etc). He was in the marines and had some money leftover so he used that for schooling and other expenses. His classes will be over by July/August. He says that now he wants to wait until January to get a job so he will not have to pay (back taxes from being unemployed for a while then suddenly working). I want him to get a job ASAP since he goes to school maybe 3 times a week and plays video games/sometimes study the rest. I do not know that much about taxes but is he correct in that if he goes back to work now then he will have to pay extra taxes?

I don't think you can possibly pay more in taxes than you earn. Get to looking for a job.

# ¿ Jun 12, 2018 19:30

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

GamingHyena posted:

I'm more interested in how he's only spending $450/ month on every other non-truck expense in his life combined including rent. Imagine living a monastic lifestyle because you love your rock-climbing truck and the places it can take you (on top of rocks, presumably).

He's got to be living with his parents.

# ¿ Jun 14, 2018 12:00

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Splicer posted:

Nightmare is the name of the horse

Has she considered eating the horse? I think with a decent chest freezer it could last 8 weeks or so.

# ¿ Jun 23, 2018 21:44

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Rudager posted:

So both CC's have balances over twice their limit?

That's seems like a hell of a lot of not paying anything against it for a long time.

When you're a master of eBay Retail Arbitrage in 2018 you have to take the deals when you see them. Interest rates be damned.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2018 12:04

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Ebola Roulette posted:

She only works 2 days a week but can't find time to clean their nightmare kitchen? Also, how bad is it that they can't just eat peanut butter sandwiches? Or gently caress, just start eating stuff off the dollar menu at McDonald's.

Eat the horse. Solves multiple problems.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2018 12:40

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

I need to see a credit card statement with $400 month of digital programming.

Guy has to have several porn subscriptions from the early 2000's he just forgot about.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2018 00:13

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:

This gig economy is really a piece of poo poo isn't it? *Ubers home from work, grabs Amazon package off of porch, orders delivery from GrubHub*

Worry not. Those poor souls will soon be completely unemployed when they are replaced with drones and self driving cars.

# ¿ Jun 26, 2018 23:57

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Twerk from Home posted:

Aldi makes a knockoff halo top that's the same stuff for under $3 a pint.

Slow down just a second. Where are you located? I am an Aldi aficionado and I've never seen this.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2018 21:31

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Personal Finance Subreddit posted:

Hi, not sure why it took me so long to find this sub.

I�m 32, make $130k/year, and have very poor spending habits. I impulse buy a lot and Amazon Prime is killing me. I�m not saving much because I don�t have a plan. This sub is giving me major anxiety.

$750/mo car payment (2% interest loan)
$2700/mo mortgage (3.7% loan)
$500-750/mo on food (can�t cook)
$500/mo on other expenses
no other debt

6.5% 401k + 3.5% matched

might save $1k/mo and leave it in my checking until I throw it in crypto or another dipping stock, which always results in capital losses

got an undisciplined portfolio. Always playing with volatile stocks.

800+ credit score (I think?)

Ideally, how much should I save? Should I save for another house? How should I invest now? I see IRA mentioned a lot here but I never did that. Still embarrassingly ignorant with that.

How much can I use for traveling? How do I find balance?

How the hell does someone get out of the mentality of always wanting the best brand/quality of everything? I don�t even know how I developed this expensive taste because my parents were always very frugal.

Anyone holding cash in anticipation for another 2008 market crash? I�ve bought some gold and silver bullions � anyone buying physical metals? Prices haven�t gone anywhere in a few years.

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/8wkp7c/32yo_with_expensive_taste_and_poor_spending_habits/

At least he seems super receptive to advise in the comments. He knows he has a spending problem.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2018 20:22

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Raldikuk posted:

Almost certainly. Most people don't track their spending to the penny and it is very easy to overlook snack purchases since their individual dollar value can be so small. It's like how spending $5.33 on Red Bull every working day will add up to $1,385.80 over the course of a year. If you're making $15/hour that represents 4.4% of your gross income. That poo poo is significant, yet most people will rationalize it away as if it were nothing.

I do love that his mortgage has a higher rate than his truck (I assume it is a truck). He also doesn't list insurance nor gas, and I do not believe for a second that fits under his $500/mo misc expenses.

I think he said somewhere in the comment that's it's a BMW. $750 a month @2%is about 55k, so it must be a new 3 series.

I get wanting a nice car when you have a good income but he could have gotten a CPO 2016 3 series for about 20k less. Probably with less than 25,000 miles on it and a 1.99% interest rate.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2018 00:47

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

SpelledBackwards posted:

Whoa, and I saw this for a robotic strawberry harvested while trying to find that Apple video. Cuts the stem to avoid damaging the fruit (2018):
https://youtu.be/M3SGScaShhw

This is unbelievably cool. I actually sell robotics equipment for the plastics industry and this robot as shown must be near $5 million or more. Which I guess it close to a lifetime of under the table migrant labor for some of these farms.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2018 00:28

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

SiGmA_X posted:

Sweet mother of god.

Can I get a horse with that?

Yes, but the horse is delivered via trailer towed by a Dodge Ram 1500. Surely you can lease such a vehicle.

# ¿ Jul 9, 2018 21:32

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

TraderStav posted:

Far point, I'm more in the Ann Arbor suburbs than Detroit, but your point stands on insurance costs. My two vehicles are $2400/yr combined, '18 Volt and a '14 Explorer.

Just saying it's not the worst idea when compared to buying new cars/leasing all the time.

Holy crap. Is there a particular reason auto insurance rates are so high in Michigan? Comparing to Connecticut (where everything is expensive), '11 Mercedes and a '15 GMC is less than $1150 for the year.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2018 16:08

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/8yn1xs/two_graduate_students_getting_married_how_to_deal/

Personal Finance Subreddit posted:

So my fiance is currently going to a private school for his masters degree where I just recently got accepted to. We've been engaged but aren't in a rush to get married especially if it would be bad for us financially, taxes, fafsa, ect. I admit we need to research this part.

Here's the breakdown of debt: Me: 25k in credit card debt 30k in undergrad loans 900 dollars a month for bills including cc payments and undergrad loan payments + 65k for graduate school if I go

My fiance: 900 bucks credit card debt -15k undergrad loans 65k grad loans -1k a month in bills

I've always been very honest about my financial situation with him as we've been together 13 years, known each other 15. Both of us are 25 years old and he graduates next year with his masters.

So I'm actually hesitant on going to grad school because it would add that 65k to us. Would we still be ok if I went to graduate school? I'm currently bringing 24k/yr home after taxes from a desk job and am actively paying off my credit cards but if I went to school the course is so rigorous that no one there holds a part time job other than being a TA and my fiance is doing that this fall.

Rhetorically how do grad students barely meet in college, get married and deal with it? Ha.

I'm concerned because we'd both be in the same degree field more or less, video game devs. With the field itself I'm told you could end up job hunting/jumping a lot from one project to the next. Would this sustain us especially if one gets a job somewhere and the other doesn't?

This has all felt very stressful to think about the future. He wants me to succeed as an individual though insists we'll be alright together. Meanwhile my mother who has my best interest at heart, is concerned that if we split like 20 years down the road that if I don't go to graduate school I won't be able to hold myself comfortably even without the debt. My fault for getting a psych undergrad.

Should I triple my student loan debt so I can make vidja games with my fiance?

# ¿ Jul 13, 2018 20:51

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

boop the snoot posted:

BWM: being poor and living in NYC on a $25/hour job.

GWM: only paying for Netflix and bikini waxes and getting mom and dad to pay for everything else.

https://www.refinery29.com/amp/money-diary-new-york-city-marketing-intern-income?__twitter_impression=true

$210/month Equinox membership. Also daily trips to Whole Foods for $7 cold brew coffee (which she thinks is money saving somehow?) How about making a drip pot of Chock Full O Nuts and tossing it in the fridge overnight?

# ¿ Jul 18, 2018 15:48

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

DEMAG posted:

Even more GWM. Using the empty cans for storage. My garage is Chock Full O Chock Full O Nuts cans.

100% this. My kids like using them as drums too, even more GWM - let your kids play with would-be garbage.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2018 16:21

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Droo posted:

This is like the third time this has come up in the last few months in this thread and I'm not exactly sure why (everyone understands the difference between a used Hyundai and a new Lexus, or lovely gas station coffee and good coffee) but since it keeps recurring here is a list of things I notice at a Lifetime fitness compared to a generic $20 per month gym or like my college gym. Also note that I think $20 gyms are fine although I do appreciate the nice clean equipment since people are gross.

There's nothing wrong with luxury items or memberships if you can afford it. She's mooching off her parents for necessities while splurging on wants.

# ¿ Jul 18, 2018 16:36

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

I always thought the lender required you to have the home inspected prior to approving the loan. Who would borrow that kind of money without having the house inspected.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2018 14:37

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

I once had a friend close on a new home, but the property taxes had been calculated on the empty lot, not with a house built on it. They lived there for like 5 months before they received a letter from the city notifying them of the reassessment.

Their mortgage ended up nearly doubling and they went deep into debt trying to keep up with the new payments. Ultimately they were able to sell the house, but they were way underwater and had to bring a huge check to the closing. It was a situation where GWM would have been to have declared bankruptcy, but their pride took over and they took the hit.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2018 12:35

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

WithoutTheFezOn posted:

Speaking of closing costs and fees, my wife told me just yesterday that one of her co-workers just put in an offer on a house. They bought a house last September but this new one �has more character�.

This is a reminder to check if your employer offers a Hyatt or Metlaw legal plan. Mine offers it for $8 per paycheck and it covers any legal fees except divorce, suing your employer, or suing the Metlife/Hyatt.

Several co-workers saved thousands by getting a good chunk of their closing costs covered. It pays for itself with just Will preparation.

# ¿ Jul 21, 2018 19:06

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Spokes posted:

please, check out this user's reddit comment history. you deserve it. don't skip to season 3 of this one, the slow burn setup is excellent

edit: not that it's particularly hilarious or anything, but you can see him (an adult) getting set up to shell out money to his girlfriend (a 16-year-old) a mile away

edit edit: there are some good takes here https://www.reddit.com/r/bestoflegaladvice/comments/91xbbb/an_incredibly_fucked_up_heartbreaking_story_of/

You don't even need to read any of the posts in entirety; the details spell themselves out in the thread titles:

(GA) Prosecuting for sexual abuse [F-16]
Last night. Alcohol, Xanax, abuse, anger
(GA) Anonymity for rape kits - following sexual abuse (F-16)
A monster turned our world upside down
We got the rape kit results back. He took my girlfriend's virginity. She doesn't want to pursue charges
Medical costs after rape/assault [GA]
I don't want my gf to be visiting/contacting her mom. She is upset about this
Hospital told my gf she was raped. Now they've said she needs another test as results were "inconclusive". We have to pay again. [GA]
My gf was told she had been raped. Today, we found out this was wrong. Now, I've been left with a lot of questions.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2018 18:23

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

uvar posted:

From r/povertyfinance, which is usually more like Sad With (no) Money Also, I don't know much about your tax system, but overpaying thousands of dollars isn't typical is it? Let alone budgeting with it in advance? My neck feels itchy.

It's pretty typical to overpay on your taxes in the US. The average tax refund in the US is about $3,100. Far too many people use this as an interest free savings account and immediately blow it upon receiving their refund check.

In an ideal world you would run a dummy tax return annually and figure out exactly how many expemtions to declare (so you owe/receive something near zero at tax return time), then you would just get that money in your paycheck every two weeks. But...effort.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2018 12:17

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

You could solve this just by looking at your last two tax returns (if you got a refund). As long as they are within 5% of each other, take the lower number (to be safe), then divide by the number of paychecks you get each year, take it to your HR department and tell them you want that much withheld from each paycheck.

Not sure if this works with the 2018 rates being so different. But it would work previously and will work again in a year or two.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2018 00:32

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

I have one of these cards because when they first launched they were desperate to get people to sign up and offered a $250 statement credit if you spent $500 in the first 3 months.

I put $504 on it. Paid $254 and now I get a packet once a month asking me to please use the card to buy a discounted disney timeshare or cruise.

In related BWM credit card company ideas: Chase apparently lose $1.2 billion dollars on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. They had generous sign-up benefits, but an annual fee of $450. They expected to lose money in the short term, but gain it back with a lot of people keeping the card and paying the annual fee.

It apparently worked out so badly that they cut the benefits in half, kept the $450 annual fee, and cancelled a policy of pro-rating your annual fee payment if you cancelled within 3 months of paying your annual fee.

It turns out that the only way to lose money as a credit card company is to make a credit card that is extremely attractive to churners and the super rich, while marketing it to the average person.

Even with the decreased benefits Chase Sapphire Reserve is still probably the best overall travel rewards card out there. The $450 annual fee is pretty steep, but you get an annual $300 travel credit. So as long as you stay in a hotel 2 nights per year, buy half an airline ticket, or use a bunch of Uber, then the fee comes down to $150 pretty quick. Plus your Ultimate Rewards points spend at 1.5x.

The benefits they removed were fringe things anyways like price protection and extended warranty on purchases made with the card. Nothing I, or anyone I can think of, would ever bother actively using or even knowing existed.

Sock The Great fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Sep 20, 2018

# ¿ Sep 20, 2018 21:03

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

Motronic posted:

Agreed.

Also, I've had parking garages end up coded as travel before.

I have no idea how they're making any money on it, but I'll keep on using it for those sweet, sweet UR points while my company is reimbursing me for all the travel I'm putting on it. I took my family to Key West this winter on UR points......fewer than I earned in the previous year. So yes, I will take a free vacation per year, thanks Chase.

At 19.5%+ APR they probably need less than 5% of cardholders to make the minimum payments each month for it to be profitable for them.

# ¿ Sep 20, 2018 21:29

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# ¿ May 5, 2024 11:37

Sock The Great: Oct 1, 2006; It's Lonely At The Top. But It's Comforting To Look Down Upon Everyone At The Bottom; Grimey Drawer

There's nothing you can say to convince me that an elementary school librarian needs a master's degree, which in some states they do. You are not curating a timeless collection of picture books and sub 100 page young adult fiction to be passed down through the ages. It requires some record keeping and basic computer skills.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2018 13:21

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Bad With Money 2018: When I die, bury me in the blockchain.

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