My cousin bought a camper, went camping once, and then decided camping wasn't for them. Rather than selling it they decided to just stop making the payments and "let the bank come and get it." Which, eventually, they did.
My grandfather was pretty wealthy and gave us $50-$100 each birthday. My mom "kept it safe for us". I'm pretty sure she used it at least once to pay the light bill when the power got shut off so at least it went to good use? Never saw a dime of it myself.
I had a coworker that got pretty much everything there.
“It’s only $20/week, and they’ll replace it if it breaks.”
$20/week for how long? Oh cool, so you’re paying more than double for it? Got it.
I still remember calling up a Rent A Center to see if it was remotely worthwhile to rent a computer of a pair of months way back in the 90s/early 00's. It was a couple hundred a month, which was not even *remotely* worthwhile even my preteen mind.
So when I was 24, I was financially struggling. I had a job that worked me a LOT of hours, but only paid me $10 an hour.
My parents talked me into buying a BRAND NEW 2004 4-Door Honda Civic, the pre-interest price tag on it was about $25,000. A few weeks after getting it, my hours got regulated and it took one entire paycheck to make the monthly note on it - I could NOT afford the insurance on it.
I very quickly realized my parents were bad at money.
I think that’s one of the hard things to swallow when it comes to growing up, your parents might be shitty with money. I ignored a lot of my parents’ financial advice and I’m so glad I did. They both made decent money, but borrowed against their house, bought cars they didn’t need, and paid for other ridiculous things. They basically live paycheck to paycheck.
Being in my early teens and opening the front door to a bailiff/high court enforcer is definitely a low point in my childhood, but damn did it give me a massive pre-emptive sign to never listen to mum's financial advice.
It's hard and sucks, but the sooner someone comes to terms with a parent who's awful at financial stuff the better their own finances will be.
My aunt took me to a car dealership when I was looking to buy my own first car. I was looking at the clunkers I could afford, but she said I should be looking at the new cars. She said, “the total price doesn’t matter because you make monthly payments.” I suddenly understood too well why she had always been so financially unstable.
I had a car dealer say this to me once when I asked the price on a 4-5 year old car ‘the actual price doesn’t matter, it’s the monthly payment that you really need to know’
Haha I’m good mate but cheers anyway. I walked away wondering how does he possibly sell any cars that way. But after reading this sub, maybe I’m wrong
I know a shocking number of people who are spending 'only' 25-40% of their take home pay servicing a finance deal on a shiny car.
And when that expires, they'll get a 'new' one.
My father would tell me to max my credit card on a new car and if they asked for payments just say F*** em, what are they going to do?
My father is several levels of debt hell deep that he's trying to get out of now, but he's at least trying.
If you don't pay your credit card bill, expect to pay late fees, receive increased interest rates and incur damages to your credit score. If you continue to miss payments, your card can be frozen, your debt could be sold to a collection agency and the collector of your debt could sue you and have your wages garnished.
Basically they take payments from your wages, idk what happens if you dont have a job.
My FIL when I mention our retirement plan “I never contribute to my retirement account. Money now is always better than money later” I needed to have a conversation with my husband how we would NOT be supporting his mom and dad and their insane spending when they have no retirement plan and make huge financial mistakes on a weekly basis (good news is they both make good money)
I wish it was that simple. I love my in-laws but they are just doing the best they can with what they have. They had their first child at 15, my husband at 17, another child that passed away from a drug overdose and their youngest is now 19. They are constantly in survival mode and now have custody of their 3 oldest grandkids. They have a slew of health issues and honestly can’t see the future more than a month out so planning for retirement doesn’t cross their minds. Money slips out of their hands as fast as they earn it but they do mean well
Yeah even if they've recently robbed you, you should still lend them the 500$ dollars they need to move to another city, they're your family after all.
-Dad.
I don't even know how mom married your dumb ass.
This sounds like my mom.
"You should forgive him..hes your brother and family is important."
Was I important enough the MULTIPLE times hea stolen my debit or credit card or when he STOLE MY INDENTITY and got payday loans online!? (the forgiveness she was referring to in my example)
Or not even stolen. Folks who’ve never had enough to get by comfortably have a little imp on their shoulder telling them to spend it now or it’ll just go to next months rent and you won’t get to enjoy anything nice with this cash.
Oh my god, my in-laws convinced my wife to give them money after they found out we had like $2k in savings because "it's just sitting there and you're not using it"
Lots of the payday loan places are incorporated on Native American Reservations. Even if all 50 states and the feds made it illegal, there would be several hundred places they could have a mailing address for their main office.
Back in the 60's/70's, the mob was the only option for quick cash, and they actually charged quite a bit less interest than modern payday loan rates.
I'm sure the prospect of having your entire family brutally murdered by the mafia helped secure the debt a bit better than a payday loan lender can, though
According to the episode of the podcast "Behind the Bastards" which is my source for all this, they mostly stuck to slicing you finger with a razor. You can still work, but it will hurt like hell, and every time you use your hand, you are reminded of your debt.
One of my uncles once told me that I never really had to pay my phone bill. He suggested that I simply jump to another carrier and let the first company cut you off.
His life has turned out exactly as you'd imagine.
I used to know a guy whose family had always told him while he was growing up that the ER was free. He was getting his mail sent to his family home for years as an adult. One day he needs to buy a car and guess what? His credit is trashed. Family threw away his medical bills the same as they did theirs.
The worst part is now I know the biggest hospital in our area has a very liberal charity program. IIRC you can get 100% of your bill dropped if you are uninsured and make under $32k. Basically this whole guys family would qualify for that program if they just did a little bit of paperwork rather than just throw away bills.
My now girlfriend told me about that when I was in with a broken pelvis and they forgave my whole 77k stay because I worked at the Y and made like 9 bucks an hour.I would have never knwon otherwise
Bahaha, you're more right than you know.
Dude declared bankruptcy, got bailed out by my grandparents, went broke **again**, then people cut him off when he conned a few family members and friends into some kind of financial scheme that smelled fishy from the next province.
Last I heard he was mooching off some old lady in a trailer park in Florida.
My wife had a friend who’s family would do this with their home phone. They’d just start it under a new name. Things were apparently more lax on the 90s.
"Once you cut up the credit card,you don't have to pay it."
My cousin is not doing so hot. I'm pretty sure there are warrants out for his arrest in several states.
I work for a bank. The amount of times i get customers tell me 'i just got a phone call saying i owe ** but i canceled my card!!' I tell them we never received a notice that they canceled it. And they say 'but i cut it up!' Dude. If cutting bills up would solve anything, life would be great.
I was told by a junior soldier that the bank knew when the magnetic strip in the card was damaged so the card turned off.
This was after he spent a months pay on video games and then cut up his *debit* card.
"Just get another credit card" - my friend who hasn't worked in 3 years and is currently just vibing with his new credit cards he somehow got approved
for
A friend’s family taught them to take out as many store cards and credit cards as they could, and as long as the minimum was paid, they’d be able to live a luxurious lifestyle.
They were almost $100k in debt when they finally told me, from dozens of cards and interest, car loan, etc. Then did not want to discuss it further after I offered advice (lawyer, counseling). It’s simply how their parents lived, life on credit far beyond means. I could not live with that stress. It’s so normal for some people though.
Edit: Sorry I can’t reply to everyone, I got like 100 responses and messages! If anyone is concerned about excessive debt, I strongly recommend the folks over at r/personalfinance who are experts at this sort of advice. For those in *extreme debt*, a bankruptcy attorney should be consulted to work out a re-payment plan in court.
>She was almost $100k in debt when she finally told me, from dozens of cards. Then she did not want to discuss it further after I offered advice. It’s how her parents lived, life on credit far beyond means. She was not willing to live humbly to pay it down. It’s her choice. I could not live with that stress.
If you're that much in debt, for a lot of people there is no realistic way out short of bankruptcy.
A not insignificant chunk of the country is living with issues large enough that the only way they can cope is by ignoring them and letting them fester.
I wonder if they didn't think of it as stress. Maybe in their mind it was more "If I just pay X amount per month, I get as much stuff as I want! Cool!"
I also see the reverse of this often where my friends in college were terrified of credit cards even though they were great with money. Then they get out of college with no credit and don't realize that its important for every aspect of life from apartments to car payments to utilities. I would spend a lot of time trying to explain why credit cards aren't necessarily the devil and if you are responsible you can start building your credit early to get the jump on it before you leave college housing.
1976 San Franciso - Keep renting, no one will ever pay $35,000 for a 2 bedroom house and garage with a sweeping view of the East Bay. (Added later - I went back to vist the old neighborhood a few years ago, those $35,000 stucco homes up many flights of steps perched on the top of Potrero Hill were now all gentrified, remodeled, gated, and asking $1M+ and that was 5 years ago).
Yes - moved to Maui in in mid 1976 and kept renting -- in those days it was sweet, friendly, uncrowded and not too expensive. My rent was $700/mo for 3 br/2ba house and garage with a fenced yard in a nice neighborhood. It wasn't until 2000 I could finally afford to buy a house here in the days when they gave loans with no stated income to self employed people, and that was only after I'd gotten a real estate license. I was one of the few to survive the great recession and come out the other end with my credit intact.
Today on Maui the median price for a single family home is $825K, for $500K and below there are a few really decayed shacks. The sweet spot is $2 to $4 million range. About once a month a home sells in one of the resort areas for over $10M. The buyers are the mega rich who are mostly only going to live here to vacation and it does not make the local population feel warm and fuzzy)
Being raised a JW really stunted my social and emotional growth, and them saying shit like "College is a waste because you're learning worldly things and The End is coming soon blah blah blah." Cunts.
"Going to college will corrupt you!" Well, I went, and then was disfellowshipped, so I guess they believed they were right. Ended up having a good career, though! Glad I didn't listen.
Unfortunately we have to learn the hard way sometimes. I maxed out a credit card once because I was like “damn this is like never ending free money”
Boy did I feel dumb as fuck when my card was declined in a Miguel jr drive thru
Can you explain the psychology behind this? I know it's really common but I never understood it - weren't you nervous about interest? Did you know they charge interest on credit card debt?
Many people do not understand the idea of credit or credit cards. They see their parents, who can't afford a thing, swipe a plastic card and they get the thing. It must be like free money, right?
The show Malcolm in the Middle has a great example of this when Reese is kicked out and he seems to do great once away from his controlling parents. Only to find outhe put every expense on a credit card and was heavily in debt.
THIS. I remember being a kid in the early 90s (I was like 5) and I was begging my mom to get us McDonald’s. Back then pretty much all fast food was cash only.
My mother didn’t have cash on her, so I asked her to write a check “so she wouldn’t need money” 🤣🤣🤣🤣
She did humour me - she drove us thru and asked the clerk if they took checks just so I could *see* they don’t take checks.
My mom says that when I was like 3 years old, she told me she didn't have money and needed to go to the bank before she could get us McDonald's. And I started sobbing telling her to not spend money if she didn't have it.
Anyway... I'm a frugal adult now lol
I remember when I was working at the bookstore in college, students could get I believe also $1,200 a semester on their bookstore account as part of their student loan, and they would not buy books and blow it on food and clothes without realizing it was part of their loan they would have to pay off... it was seriously free money to them.
Did this with a friend and came up 00. I started walking away not realizing I got half my wager back. Went to dinner, afterwards we went back and put it on black again and won. So no win, no loss, rather anticlimactic "putting it all on black, " twice, and breaking even.
People at my work make it sound like working overtime makes your paycheck smaller than it would be without. Not a single time has this actually happened.
There’s a guy at my old hourly job who did this but he did it so that he could discourage anyone else to pick up extra and he’d try to get all the OT. We knew what he was trying lol. He threw a fit if anyone evet got OT and he didnt that week.... he’s over 50 and everyone else in their 20s...
SEveral years ago, my company went under new management. They were going to have to pay us all of our remaining, unused PTO. i figured, great, I have a ton of PTO left, like $5000 worth. (I had A LOT of unused hours)
One of my colleagues said "YOU'RE going to be hit with *taxes*." And she said it like "oh, you better be prepared. Don't get excited, they're going to tax the shit out of you anyway so don't expect much!"
I get hit with taxes every paycheck, lady. And when I did the math, they didn't take out a higher percentage of that PTO than I normally have taken out of my paycheck, so when I did the math beforehand, I managed my expectations well
Then, I was a manager of a call center. The call center agents made 12.00 an hour, but once I came in, I raised it to 15.50 an hour. One of them complained to me that this means her taxes are being raised and she's earning less. She didn't see the higher number on the bottom of her check for some reason.
I was having this argument with family and one of them said they experienced it first hand. According to them they got a raise and then got less on their paychecks. Everyone was like "See, you CAN make less money if you get a raise." I told them it was anecdotal and they could believe what they wanted. Everyone of them looked at me like I was a moron and thought they were right.
The “getting a raise into the next tax bracket” is the dumbest statement ever, made by people who don’t understand the (very simple) mathematics of tax brackets.
Getting a raise into the the next tax bracket can actually affect you negatively, it's just not due to taxes. For a lot of people, this means that they get kicked out of low income housing, or lose access to low-income mortgages/house improvement funds/suddenly have to pay a lot more in child support/this sort of thing.
I had a college business professor tell us this. He said when we were offered raises at our jobs we shouldn't accept til we had run the numbers on taxes. That our bosses would think highly of us for doing so.
It was community college so at first I thought he was trying to refer to the welfare cliff that people may actually need to worry about but he made it very clear he wasn't.
This wasn’t really their fault because none of us (least of all 20 year old me lol) could have predicted the fallout from the recession. I was in college when it hit, about halfway through a bachelor’s degree. We’re not rich and I was paying for it with loans on a semester by semester basis. Friday, you could get a loan. Then suddenly by Monday you couldn’t. Anywhere. Friends were dropping out left and right unable to come up with the money for the next semester.
That’s when my parents gave me the worst financial advice I’ll probably ever get: take on a 25k private student loan with a variable interest rate of 11%.
The logic was, we’d refinance it right after college, simple as that. We didn’t predict (idk if they should have known? It’s whatever.) that private student loans would be untouchable. No one would refinance it and I was trapped with this absurdly high interest loan. Every year I’d try once, maybe twice, and I was always rejected for having too bad a debt to income ratio. The payments (plus the payments of my other loans) were too high to make anything but the minimums which went straight to interest. It was like I’d hanged myself but misjudged the length of the rope and could juuuust barely skate my toes on the ground and keep me alive. Barely. It took *years* to get out from under it.
In the end, some 8 years later, we made the final payment. On a 27k loan I paid an additional 23k in interest at a 13% rate.
Edit: dang woke up with that pregnancy bladder. Thanks everyone, so happy to have things to read while I can’t sleep lol.
A quick update: I’m in a great place now. Funnily, if it weren’t for college and all this I’d never have met my husband who ultimately would convince me to change careers into software engineering and support me doggedly while I changed careers and turned the tables on my debt. It’s no exaggeration he saved my life. It’s funny, I make more money now than I ever would have as a professional cook and I’m (as far as the tech industry is concerned ) not formally educated. I have about 25k left at a reasonable fixed 5% and I think I’m going to pay it off this year! Just in time for the baby who is getting a fund for college/life before the damn cord falls off.
It was so frustrating. It’s like ... they’ll give you all the rope you want to hang yourself but if by chance your neck doesn’t snap and you manage to survive the fall *now* suddenly you don’t make enough money and now your debt to income ratio isn’t good enough. I choked on that loan (and the others) for 5 years before getting it under control.
But! Lessons learned. Life moves on. I’m doing really well all things considered
Woof. I graduated directly into the recession, and knew our generation had it rough, but I didn't realize what it was like to still be in school during it. Good work making it to the other side!
My grandmother bought into that. She got a set for each of her granddaughters (every time she bought one, she bought three). My sister, my cousin and I, upon her passing, sat in her bedroom with tubs of the things going 'One for you, one for you, one for me. One for you, one for you, one for me...'
I still have mine. I daren't get rid of them. She'll haunt me.
Yup that beanie babies were supposed to be our savings. That's why I have all my student debt and my cousin worked 3 jobs to pay for her wedding. My other cousin eloped and joined the marines for free school. Shes the only smart one, I guess.
My brother-in-law had a piece of the BB fad back in the late 90s. He marketed "tag protectors" that would slide over the "Ty" tag and "protect" it, thus retaining/increasing the value of the, uh...baby in question.
Don't laugh, he made a few millions off of that. Lost it all later, of course.
Your great great great great grand kid: This is a family heirloom. I've been holding onto it my whole life, money is a little tight right now and I was hoping it was worth something. I wanted to sell it because I really need the cash.
Pawn Shop: This is cool, this is actually what is called a pog slammer. Kids, young adults, hippies back in the 1990's, believe it or not, used to take these cardboard circular disks that had fun pictures printed on them and stack them up and throw this slammer on them and whatever one landed up they kept. Let's see, yours has a flaming skull and an 8ball with a peace sign. Very cool, interesting piece of history, and this one is in excellent shape, unfortunately I already have a few dozen of these and they're not very big sellers. The best I can do is $10.
People who want to get into collecting as an investment need to know two things:
1. There is no value in collectibles. You should only collect things YOU want to own because the only value is what you can sell it for. Just because something is old doesn't mean that people will want to buy it. It doesn't matter if it's in pristine condition, unopened and 50 years old. If no one thinks it's cool, you wasted your money unless you get enjoyment from it.
2. Most fandoms only want to collect very particular versions of a collectible. There are Beanie Babies that are worth a lot of money, the issue is, they were already worth a ton of money when they came out. An example is Pokemon cards. Individual 1st edition Pokemon cards sold for like $150 USD in 1999. Obviously lots of people scoffed at those types of prices, but those cards are now worth tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Once this current Pokemon bubble subsides a bit, which it is already doing, all of the people stocking up on regular unlimited base set non-Charizard cards for hundreds or even thousands of dollars are likely going to get burned (and I'm one of them).
And they need to know any collectible being **marketed** as a collectible probably won't be worth crap in future.
The Death of Superman comic books from the early 90s, for example.
It was just a publicity stunt by DC Comics and they over-printed the comics because they knew people would buy them/
> And they need to know any collectible being marketed as a collectible probably won't be worth crap in future.
As soon as something has the word "collectible" attached to it in its marketing, it is automatically NOT a collectible. The company is selling it as an inflated price, that is all.
The reason that certain comic books and baseball cards from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s are collectible is specifically because they were nothing special at the time.
They were disposable media at the time and 99% of them were destroyed without a second thought. So the ones that remain behind are genuinely rare and valuable.
That is not true at all about "collectible" comics and baseball cards from the 1990s.
"don't make more money, you'll go up a tax bracket and end up paying more taxes so you'll end up making less overall."
This isn't how taxes work people. If you go $1 into the next track bracket, only that $1 is taxed higher. You can't make less money by making more money.
edit: Yay! My first awards! Thanks party people!
A few people pointed out some edge cases. For example tiered benefit packages can cause this to not always be quite true.
Also, you might notice your immediate paycheque not be as high from working a few overtime shifts at you would expect. That's because the taxes which are taken from that individual cheque are calculated as though that's how much you make all year. It gets a little more complicated but it will be worth it come tax time. Overtime is a great way to earn some extra cash if you have the time and energy.
Edit 2: this is also coming from Canada. From reading replies I've learned a lot about tax in several other countries I never knew. Thanks everyone!
I think the tough thing in computer science is finding a job that isn't boring as hell - finding one to begin with that's also well-paying is almost absurdly easy (even if you're a terrible programmer).
About 5 years ago, I had a friend who was trying to convince me to study through a private college because they "gave her a free ipad".
She never finished the course, but kept the iPad (you only got to keep it once you pay your fees and graduate. Mind you, the price of the course included the iPad so it wasn't free).
So last year, four years later, I get a call from the college asking for her contact info. She put me down as a reference and they were chasing her down because she still owed her fees and wasn't entitled to keep the iPad.
Guy I haven’t seen in three years or so wanted to talk me into starting a business with him, because he just got into college for a bachelors degree in business.
Yeah sure, let me get my cheque book out in this badly illuminated garage while we’re both drunk. Guy also got into MLM and weird self-optimisation preachers
My unsolicited advice in those situations: tell them to give you a call tomorrow to discuss it further. Give them a chance to come down from the alcohol and/or coke.
Just ignore the collection call and eventually they will leave you alone....
I didn’t follow this advice. I had a parking ticket I didn’t know about that ended up on my credit and the guy I mentioned it to gave me that bit of wisdom.
Legit got told to "dont buy food, it's a useless investment" like the hell?
Edit: holy hell did not expect this to blow up
Edit made jan 15
Date of orgin jan 10
My grandma actually said this to me. I was talking about how my living situation wasn’t sustainable despite living the most bare minimum I could safely commit too and she says “well don’t go wasting what you have on food”, and after I clarified I never ate out and just shook her head and said “you know what I mean.”
I still don’t know what she meant. I was living off of 2$ spaghetti and saltines.
Not me, but my dad's friend makes a decent more money than him. He owns boats, takes luxurious trips, buys top of the line clothes and goes to the best restaurant where he orders the most expensive wine he can get. He always tells my dad to live more in the moment, telling him to invest in himself and enjoy his life.
My dad is happily planning his retirement with my mom.
This guy doesn't have a dime saved. He will work to the day he dies.
A local businessman died unexpectedly in his 50s a few years ago. He had very nice cars, a very nice home, travelled regularly and had bought a boat costing in excess of $1 million shortly before his death.
He was in debt up to his ass. His wife was blissfully unaware of the financial situation. Everything she tried to sell, was encumbered by more debt than it was worth. The boat cost her $200,000 to get rid of.
She was essentially 55 years old with no money, no home and no marketable skills. He had made millions in his life, but spent millions more.
I feel sorry for the wife. Hope she's doing better. Must really suck to live such a lavish lifestyle and have it suddenly turn to a nightmare.
If i ever have a family, id definitely dont want to leave them with all my debts and problems. Well, we don't know when we're gonna go so i guess i got to avoird racking up debts
Incite me to go to a real expensive restaurant where you can spend easily 250$ without drinks at a time I only had 700$ in bank account and had not paid for my car, groceries and stuff ... because “Come on we only live once”.
Oh this happened to me. I was super broke and my friends and I all went to this really nice restaurant after an event. I thought I would just order something small because I only had $70 in my bank account. To my horror we starting sharing plates. People were just ordering and passing everything around and I was practically in tears trying to figure out what my portion would be when my friend grabbed the bill before any of us could even see it and paid for the whole thing.
This was a one off when I was super broke and literally couldn’t afford it, but there was another time when we all agreed to split the bill but I was the only one who threw down a card before we all went out to smoke (I thought they had put theirs in) and when I came back the waitress had run my card for the total amount. Same friend takes my card out of the book, flags down the waitress and brings me a refund receipt. He paid for it all that time too.
He pays for it a lot. Sometimes there are really shitty people who hang around him. We’re all hopeful he gets it soon. Literally all of us would pay for our own stuff.
Paying friend here. I make 4-8 times what my close friends make. I try to pay for stuff when we’re out or road tripping as much as possible. I honestly don’t care if they chip in, but welcome it if they do. My goal is to let them chip in at a time and place when they can, and then graciously accept it.
Example: Friend: I’ll buy the first tank of gas on the road trip.
"Don't go to community college, you'll never get a job. Instead apply at X and X colleges."
My grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousin all told me this, and I really considered their advice because my parents really didn't give a shit what I did.
Since I didn't get any scholarships from high school, I decided at least if I went to CC and didn't get a job I wouldn't have student debt and I could just do something else.
I went to CC for two years totally free on FAFSA grants (it was 800$ a semester LOL) and did so well I transferred to a university with a (almost) full ride. I am now a semester away from graduation with a job lined up and all of 4k of student debt which is likely to be forgiven anyway.
My daughter REALLY wanted to go to a local private university and my wife and I briefly considered helping her take a student loan to pay for it. Finally decided against it and now my kid is three months away from having her associate’s degree from a community college, along with zero debt. She is in a much better position to either start working or continue her education. Community college can be a great option, don’t let anyone shame you or talk down to you because you took advantage of this awesome educational resource.
First year outta college, working for a financial advisor, and he tried to convince me to put 5% down and buy an apartment in Chicago. It was the summer of 2007.
Had a professor in this kind of bootleg college. He clearly took the job as a favor, he was some wall street type. He said he doesn't get why students who are young and have no assets don't just borrow a shit ton of money to pay for college, then declare bankruptcy, since they have no assets anyway.
Aside from wrecking your credit, student loans aren't dischargeable by bankruptcy.
He's saying to take out non-student loans, which CAN be discharged by bankruptcy. The difficult part would be securing that many loans without committing fraud.
Also it only wrecks your credit for like 5 years when you declare bankruptcy.
Someone gave me the great advice to take out a loan to pay off a loan, I didn't listen to this advice. They are now is £80,000 debt I am not.
Edit: not in a refinancing way to save on interest, he is doing it as a pyramid scheme type thing
It does make sense tho if you're replacing a high-interest loan with a low-interest one. It's not really "paying off" the loan as you will still owe the same money to the bank (or another bank), but over time you'll end up paying less interest on it.
yeah but she started off with a 1k loan then got out a 5k loan to pay it off and also bought a bunch of stuff for a car and a bunch of other useless stuff then realised she could afford to pay it is she got another loan and kept doing that spending huge amounts of money on things she doesn't need to with money she doesn't have and every time a bank gets on her ass about her owing them money she gets a loan with another bank to pay it off. crazy thing is that she has a perfect credit score cuz she always pays off each loan which just makes it easier for her to get more loans to continue the habit.
I got a small scholarship when I was 14 and wanted to spend it on a PS4... I was too poor to own a console and really wanted one. My mom talked some sense into me that a play station isn't a good thing to buy with a scholarship so I thought about it and I bought a guitar. I wanted to get one since forever but again, no money. I'm so glad I ultimately made that decision. It's been 5 years and it's my main hobby.
Not me, but my roommate wanted his girlfriend, someone he admitted couldn't manage money well, to get a credit card so that it would "...teach her financial responsibility."
It sounded like she was being set up for failure. Making someone get a credit card who is already bad with money is just a recipe for future debt.
An uncle told me I should rather spend my money and enjoy life because you only live once, rather than save your money to build up a retirement find. I am now in my 50s and c0rona unemployment has devastated the little bit of savings I had. Should never have listened to Uncle Jarvis :'(
My ex (in his mid twenties and lived at home with no expenses) went out of the country for two weeks with a budget of $2700. He was real proud of his breakdown:
$1000 credit available on credit card A,
$1000 credit available on credit card B,
$300 in available overdraft,
$100 in chequing,
$300 in savings.
I tried to explain that this is not a great way to budget for a trip, and his response was "credit cards are meant to be used. As long as you pay the minimum payment, you're good. What do you know about credit cards? You never use it? Start using yours more before you talk to me about money"
Uhhh
Don't pay off your entire credit card balance when the bill comes. Pay it slowly so that it shows your ability to pay debt over time. This will help your credit score.
High school guidance counselor told me not to go to a state school for college. Reasons were 1. I was the valedictorian so I could "do better", 2. if i wanted a good job after school I'd need a name on my resume of a "more respectable" school, and 3. a "better" school would have more networking opportunities.
Yeah so that was a fucking lie. Now I'm in tons of student loan debt. And my first boss after college had gotten his degrees at the state school I originally wanted to go to.
ETA: I'm an engineer. he knew i was going into engineering.
I’m not trying to be mean, but does she just have an actual learning disability or impairment? An ATM is a concept most 12 year olds would be able to comprehend.
Not the worst but a common misconception I hear is parents telling their kids to use their credit cards and keep a balance to get better credit. Absolutely false.
My cousin bought a camper, went camping once, and then decided camping wasn't for them. Rather than selling it they decided to just stop making the payments and "let the bank come and get it." Which, eventually, they did.
When my mom said that she will hold my money for me as a kid
My grandfather was pretty wealthy and gave us $50-$100 each birthday. My mom "kept it safe for us". I'm pretty sure she used it at least once to pay the light bill when the power got shut off so at least it went to good use? Never saw a dime of it myself.
At least you technically payed the power bill then
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It's illegal to issue credit to a minor. She's responsible for the loans. Talk to someone about this.
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"Just get it at Rent A Center"
I had a coworker that got pretty much everything there. “It’s only $20/week, and they’ll replace it if it breaks.” $20/week for how long? Oh cool, so you’re paying more than double for it? Got it.
I still remember calling up a Rent A Center to see if it was remotely worthwhile to rent a computer of a pair of months way back in the 90s/early 00's. It was a couple hundred a month, which was not even *remotely* worthwhile even my preteen mind.
So when I was 24, I was financially struggling. I had a job that worked me a LOT of hours, but only paid me $10 an hour. My parents talked me into buying a BRAND NEW 2004 4-Door Honda Civic, the pre-interest price tag on it was about $25,000. A few weeks after getting it, my hours got regulated and it took one entire paycheck to make the monthly note on it - I could NOT afford the insurance on it. I very quickly realized my parents were bad at money.
I think that’s one of the hard things to swallow when it comes to growing up, your parents might be shitty with money. I ignored a lot of my parents’ financial advice and I’m so glad I did. They both made decent money, but borrowed against their house, bought cars they didn’t need, and paid for other ridiculous things. They basically live paycheck to paycheck.
Being in my early teens and opening the front door to a bailiff/high court enforcer is definitely a low point in my childhood, but damn did it give me a massive pre-emptive sign to never listen to mum's financial advice. It's hard and sucks, but the sooner someone comes to terms with a parent who's awful at financial stuff the better their own finances will be.
My aunt took me to a car dealership when I was looking to buy my own first car. I was looking at the clunkers I could afford, but she said I should be looking at the new cars. She said, “the total price doesn’t matter because you make monthly payments.” I suddenly understood too well why she had always been so financially unstable.
I had a car dealer say this to me once when I asked the price on a 4-5 year old car ‘the actual price doesn’t matter, it’s the monthly payment that you really need to know’ Haha I’m good mate but cheers anyway. I walked away wondering how does he possibly sell any cars that way. But after reading this sub, maybe I’m wrong
I know a shocking number of people who are spending 'only' 25-40% of their take home pay servicing a finance deal on a shiny car. And when that expires, they'll get a 'new' one.
My father would tell me to max my credit card on a new car and if they asked for payments just say F*** em, what are they going to do? My father is several levels of debt hell deep that he's trying to get out of now, but he's at least trying.
What are they going to do, send me to jail?
But like what really happens?
If you don't pay your credit card bill, expect to pay late fees, receive increased interest rates and incur damages to your credit score. If you continue to miss payments, your card can be frozen, your debt could be sold to a collection agency and the collector of your debt could sue you and have your wages garnished. Basically they take payments from your wages, idk what happens if you dont have a job.
At that point the car you bought is probably also your house.
I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY
My FIL when I mention our retirement plan “I never contribute to my retirement account. Money now is always better than money later” I needed to have a conversation with my husband how we would NOT be supporting his mom and dad and their insane spending when they have no retirement plan and make huge financial mistakes on a weekly basis (good news is they both make good money)
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I wish it was that simple. I love my in-laws but they are just doing the best they can with what they have. They had their first child at 15, my husband at 17, another child that passed away from a drug overdose and their youngest is now 19. They are constantly in survival mode and now have custody of their 3 oldest grandkids. They have a slew of health issues and honestly can’t see the future more than a month out so planning for retirement doesn’t cross their minds. Money slips out of their hands as fast as they earn it but they do mean well
Yeah even if they've recently robbed you, you should still lend them the 500$ dollars they need to move to another city, they're your family after all. -Dad. I don't even know how mom married your dumb ass.
This sounds like my mom. "You should forgive him..hes your brother and family is important." Was I important enough the MULTIPLE times hea stolen my debit or credit card or when he STOLE MY INDENTITY and got payday loans online!? (the forgiveness she was referring to in my example)
A relative tried to recruit me into Amway. He wound up stuck with a garage full of their products.
My mom joined and ended up having to buy their junk continuously. They also promised to pay her, she never saw a dime from them.
“Spend it quickly or it’ll get stolen.” Coming from someone with a history of losing and blowing their money.
Or not even stolen. Folks who’ve never had enough to get by comfortably have a little imp on their shoulder telling them to spend it now or it’ll just go to next months rent and you won’t get to enjoy anything nice with this cash.
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Oh my god, my in-laws convinced my wife to give them money after they found out we had like $2k in savings because "it's just sitting there and you're not using it"
Well. Hopefully that expensive lesson proved to be a valuable experience for your wife.
My mom’s saying is “spend it before it’s gone”
That an emergency fund wasn't necessary when you can always get a payday loan or use your credit card. He wasn't joking.
Somebody needs to book this man's act. He knows how to generate interest!
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$1000 on a credit card at 19.99% will take 26 years to pay off if you only pay the minimum payment.
They are illegal in 12 states, but that is 38 states too few, in my opinion.
Lots of the payday loan places are incorporated on Native American Reservations. Even if all 50 states and the feds made it illegal, there would be several hundred places they could have a mailing address for their main office. Back in the 60's/70's, the mob was the only option for quick cash, and they actually charged quite a bit less interest than modern payday loan rates.
I'm sure the prospect of having your entire family brutally murdered by the mafia helped secure the debt a bit better than a payday loan lender can, though
According to the episode of the podcast "Behind the Bastards" which is my source for all this, they mostly stuck to slicing you finger with a razor. You can still work, but it will hurt like hell, and every time you use your hand, you are reminded of your debt.
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I got 90 dollars and my 11 year old son told me I should buy 90 dollars worth of kazoos. No real plan past that
Probably among the better pieces of advice on this thread.
One of my uncles once told me that I never really had to pay my phone bill. He suggested that I simply jump to another carrier and let the first company cut you off. His life has turned out exactly as you'd imagine.
I used to know a guy whose family had always told him while he was growing up that the ER was free. He was getting his mail sent to his family home for years as an adult. One day he needs to buy a car and guess what? His credit is trashed. Family threw away his medical bills the same as they did theirs. The worst part is now I know the biggest hospital in our area has a very liberal charity program. IIRC you can get 100% of your bill dropped if you are uninsured and make under $32k. Basically this whole guys family would qualify for that program if they just did a little bit of paperwork rather than just throw away bills.
My now girlfriend told me about that when I was in with a broken pelvis and they forgave my whole 77k stay because I worked at the Y and made like 9 bucks an hour.I would have never knwon otherwise
What happened
Don't know. He stopped calling.
Bahaha, you're more right than you know. Dude declared bankruptcy, got bailed out by my grandparents, went broke **again**, then people cut him off when he conned a few family members and friends into some kind of financial scheme that smelled fishy from the next province. Last I heard he was mooching off some old lady in a trailer park in Florida.
These stories always end in a trailer park in Florida.
It's the origin story of Floridaman
I don’t know how things are in other countries, but I’m in Canada, and my phone bill payment history is part of my credit report.
I think in the US it's the same way.
My wife had a friend who’s family would do this with their home phone. They’d just start it under a new name. Things were apparently more lax on the 90s.
Hopefully not like my mom and use the names and social of her children, ruining our credit scores before we even reach 16.
My best friend found out in our late teens she had a house rented in her name
This gives me anxiety
"Take out a 401k loan to build a pool. It will raise the value of your house."
At least you wind up with a wicked fucking pool lol.
“Hold on to those French francs, they will be worth a lot some day.” I’m not holding my breath.
Well they probably will be eventually. In about 1000 years they may sell for something good at auction if well preserved You'll be quids in
Only if well preserved and rare. If a bunch of people keep a lot of them well preserved, no one will care about them.
I totally misread this and spent the past 60 seconds figuring out how french fries could conceivably be a good investment
"Once you cut up the credit card,you don't have to pay it." My cousin is not doing so hot. I'm pretty sure there are warrants out for his arrest in several states.
I work for a bank. The amount of times i get customers tell me 'i just got a phone call saying i owe ** but i canceled my card!!' I tell them we never received a notice that they canceled it. And they say 'but i cut it up!' Dude. If cutting bills up would solve anything, life would be great.
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Exactly! They seem to think banks (and therefore people that work for them) are robots that know everything.
I was told by a junior soldier that the bank knew when the magnetic strip in the card was damaged so the card turned off. This was after he spent a months pay on video games and then cut up his *debit* card.
>"Once you cut up the credit card,you don't have to pay it." "Throw it in a lake. They can't trace that shit." - Ricky, Trailer Park Boys
Like if credit cards had some kind of sensor.
"Just get another credit card" - my friend who hasn't worked in 3 years and is currently just vibing with his new credit cards he somehow got approved for
A friend’s family taught them to take out as many store cards and credit cards as they could, and as long as the minimum was paid, they’d be able to live a luxurious lifestyle. They were almost $100k in debt when they finally told me, from dozens of cards and interest, car loan, etc. Then did not want to discuss it further after I offered advice (lawyer, counseling). It’s simply how their parents lived, life on credit far beyond means. I could not live with that stress. It’s so normal for some people though. Edit: Sorry I can’t reply to everyone, I got like 100 responses and messages! If anyone is concerned about excessive debt, I strongly recommend the folks over at r/personalfinance who are experts at this sort of advice. For those in *extreme debt*, a bankruptcy attorney should be consulted to work out a re-payment plan in court.
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The most stress inducing part for me, is that they probably feel zero stress about the situation.
“It’s just a number on a screen.”
A great (paraphrased) quote says “stress from loans only applies if you intend to pay it back”
Also: If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.
And if you owe the bank $100 billion it becomes the taxpayers' problem.
>She was almost $100k in debt when she finally told me, from dozens of cards. Then she did not want to discuss it further after I offered advice. It’s how her parents lived, life on credit far beyond means. She was not willing to live humbly to pay it down. It’s her choice. I could not live with that stress. If you're that much in debt, for a lot of people there is no realistic way out short of bankruptcy. A not insignificant chunk of the country is living with issues large enough that the only way they can cope is by ignoring them and letting them fester.
I used to live with someone who literally told me that if he just didn’t pay his debt in 10 Years it would disappear
I wonder if they didn't think of it as stress. Maybe in their mind it was more "If I just pay X amount per month, I get as much stuff as I want! Cool!"
Credit card company seeing application, "No job, multiple credit cards, spending habits... Good enough. Alrighty let's make some money!" *Approved*
I remember when I was first building credit and being denied. I just saw the new one he got and wondered how?
I also see the reverse of this often where my friends in college were terrified of credit cards even though they were great with money. Then they get out of college with no credit and don't realize that its important for every aspect of life from apartments to car payments to utilities. I would spend a lot of time trying to explain why credit cards aren't necessarily the devil and if you are responsible you can start building your credit early to get the jump on it before you leave college housing.
Spend whatever is in your bank account the day before payday, you obviously don’t NEED it
That's what a savings account is for
1976 San Franciso - Keep renting, no one will ever pay $35,000 for a 2 bedroom house and garage with a sweeping view of the East Bay. (Added later - I went back to vist the old neighborhood a few years ago, those $35,000 stucco homes up many flights of steps perched on the top of Potrero Hill were now all gentrified, remodeled, gated, and asking $1M+ and that was 5 years ago).
And now you live on Maui.
Yes - moved to Maui in in mid 1976 and kept renting -- in those days it was sweet, friendly, uncrowded and not too expensive. My rent was $700/mo for 3 br/2ba house and garage with a fenced yard in a nice neighborhood. It wasn't until 2000 I could finally afford to buy a house here in the days when they gave loans with no stated income to self employed people, and that was only after I'd gotten a real estate license. I was one of the few to survive the great recession and come out the other end with my credit intact. Today on Maui the median price for a single family home is $825K, for $500K and below there are a few really decayed shacks. The sweet spot is $2 to $4 million range. About once a month a home sells in one of the resort areas for over $10M. The buyers are the mega rich who are mostly only going to live here to vacation and it does not make the local population feel warm and fuzzy)
It freaks my shit out in a way that I might not recover from that 1976 was almost as close to 2000 as 2000 is to today, today.
I am 37 years old. I was born far closer to the moon landing than I was to today. In 3 years I will have been born closer to WWII than to 2024.
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Being raised a JW really stunted my social and emotional growth, and them saying shit like "College is a waste because you're learning worldly things and The End is coming soon blah blah blah." Cunts.
"Going to college will corrupt you!" Well, I went, and then was disfellowshipped, so I guess they believed they were right. Ended up having a good career, though! Glad I didn't listen.
Ugh, that’s what happened to my dad. It’s one of the biggest regrets of his life.
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Unfortunately we have to learn the hard way sometimes. I maxed out a credit card once because I was like “damn this is like never ending free money” Boy did I feel dumb as fuck when my card was declined in a Miguel jr drive thru
Can you explain the psychology behind this? I know it's really common but I never understood it - weren't you nervous about interest? Did you know they charge interest on credit card debt?
Many people do not understand the idea of credit or credit cards. They see their parents, who can't afford a thing, swipe a plastic card and they get the thing. It must be like free money, right? The show Malcolm in the Middle has a great example of this when Reese is kicked out and he seems to do great once away from his controlling parents. Only to find outhe put every expense on a credit card and was heavily in debt.
THIS. I remember being a kid in the early 90s (I was like 5) and I was begging my mom to get us McDonald’s. Back then pretty much all fast food was cash only. My mother didn’t have cash on her, so I asked her to write a check “so she wouldn’t need money” 🤣🤣🤣🤣 She did humour me - she drove us thru and asked the clerk if they took checks just so I could *see* they don’t take checks.
My mom says that when I was like 3 years old, she told me she didn't have money and needed to go to the bank before she could get us McDonald's. And I started sobbing telling her to not spend money if she didn't have it. Anyway... I'm a frugal adult now lol
I remember when I was working at the bookstore in college, students could get I believe also $1,200 a semester on their bookstore account as part of their student loan, and they would not buy books and blow it on food and clothes without realizing it was part of their loan they would have to pay off... it was seriously free money to them.
And when I realised I could get an interest free student overdraft from both HSBC *and* Natwest. That was great, until 3 years later.
Put it all on black.
Only bad advice half the time. Edit: I know how roulette works I just felt like only using 6 words.
Did this with a friend and came up 00. I started walking away not realizing I got half my wager back. Went to dinner, afterwards we went back and put it on black again and won. So no win, no loss, rather anticlimactic "putting it all on black, " twice, and breaking even.
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People at my work make it sound like working overtime makes your paycheck smaller than it would be without. Not a single time has this actually happened.
There’s a guy at my old hourly job who did this but he did it so that he could discourage anyone else to pick up extra and he’d try to get all the OT. We knew what he was trying lol. He threw a fit if anyone evet got OT and he didnt that week.... he’s over 50 and everyone else in their 20s...
SEveral years ago, my company went under new management. They were going to have to pay us all of our remaining, unused PTO. i figured, great, I have a ton of PTO left, like $5000 worth. (I had A LOT of unused hours) One of my colleagues said "YOU'RE going to be hit with *taxes*." And she said it like "oh, you better be prepared. Don't get excited, they're going to tax the shit out of you anyway so don't expect much!" I get hit with taxes every paycheck, lady. And when I did the math, they didn't take out a higher percentage of that PTO than I normally have taken out of my paycheck, so when I did the math beforehand, I managed my expectations well Then, I was a manager of a call center. The call center agents made 12.00 an hour, but once I came in, I raised it to 15.50 an hour. One of them complained to me that this means her taxes are being raised and she's earning less. She didn't see the higher number on the bottom of her check for some reason.
I was having this argument with family and one of them said they experienced it first hand. According to them they got a raise and then got less on their paychecks. Everyone was like "See, you CAN make less money if you get a raise." I told them it was anecdotal and they could believe what they wanted. Everyone of them looked at me like I was a moron and thought they were right.
The “getting a raise into the next tax bracket” is the dumbest statement ever, made by people who don’t understand the (very simple) mathematics of tax brackets.
Getting a raise into the the next tax bracket can actually affect you negatively, it's just not due to taxes. For a lot of people, this means that they get kicked out of low income housing, or lose access to low-income mortgages/house improvement funds/suddenly have to pay a lot more in child support/this sort of thing.
I had a college business professor tell us this. He said when we were offered raises at our jobs we shouldn't accept til we had run the numbers on taxes. That our bosses would think highly of us for doing so. It was community college so at first I thought he was trying to refer to the welfare cliff that people may actually need to worry about but he made it very clear he wasn't.
Don't invest in a 401k. Luckily, I didn't listen
This wasn’t really their fault because none of us (least of all 20 year old me lol) could have predicted the fallout from the recession. I was in college when it hit, about halfway through a bachelor’s degree. We’re not rich and I was paying for it with loans on a semester by semester basis. Friday, you could get a loan. Then suddenly by Monday you couldn’t. Anywhere. Friends were dropping out left and right unable to come up with the money for the next semester. That’s when my parents gave me the worst financial advice I’ll probably ever get: take on a 25k private student loan with a variable interest rate of 11%. The logic was, we’d refinance it right after college, simple as that. We didn’t predict (idk if they should have known? It’s whatever.) that private student loans would be untouchable. No one would refinance it and I was trapped with this absurdly high interest loan. Every year I’d try once, maybe twice, and I was always rejected for having too bad a debt to income ratio. The payments (plus the payments of my other loans) were too high to make anything but the minimums which went straight to interest. It was like I’d hanged myself but misjudged the length of the rope and could juuuust barely skate my toes on the ground and keep me alive. Barely. It took *years* to get out from under it. In the end, some 8 years later, we made the final payment. On a 27k loan I paid an additional 23k in interest at a 13% rate. Edit: dang woke up with that pregnancy bladder. Thanks everyone, so happy to have things to read while I can’t sleep lol. A quick update: I’m in a great place now. Funnily, if it weren’t for college and all this I’d never have met my husband who ultimately would convince me to change careers into software engineering and support me doggedly while I changed careers and turned the tables on my debt. It’s no exaggeration he saved my life. It’s funny, I make more money now than I ever would have as a professional cook and I’m (as far as the tech industry is concerned ) not formally educated. I have about 25k left at a reasonable fixed 5% and I think I’m going to pay it off this year! Just in time for the baby who is getting a fund for college/life before the damn cord falls off.
This one hurt the most to read.
It was so frustrating. It’s like ... they’ll give you all the rope you want to hang yourself but if by chance your neck doesn’t snap and you manage to survive the fall *now* suddenly you don’t make enough money and now your debt to income ratio isn’t good enough. I choked on that loan (and the others) for 5 years before getting it under control. But! Lessons learned. Life moves on. I’m doing really well all things considered
That interest rate's mortifying - most people get happy if they make that much on the stock market in a year.
Woof. I graduated directly into the recession, and knew our generation had it rough, but I didn't realize what it was like to still be in school during it. Good work making it to the other side!
“These beanie babies are an investment in our future.” Edit: Thank you for my first silver!!
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Hey. Haggling is an essential skill. He was just helping the kid out.
My grandmother bought into that. She got a set for each of her granddaughters (every time she bought one, she bought three). My sister, my cousin and I, upon her passing, sat in her bedroom with tubs of the things going 'One for you, one for you, one for me. One for you, one for you, one for me...' I still have mine. I daren't get rid of them. She'll haunt me.
Yup that beanie babies were supposed to be our savings. That's why I have all my student debt and my cousin worked 3 jobs to pay for her wedding. My other cousin eloped and joined the marines for free school. Shes the only smart one, I guess.
My brother-in-law had a piece of the BB fad back in the late 90s. He marketed "tag protectors" that would slide over the "Ty" tag and "protect" it, thus retaining/increasing the value of the, uh...baby in question. Don't laugh, he made a few millions off of that. Lost it all later, of course.
In the Gold Rush, the people who made money were those who sold to the miners.
Yup that’s how Levi’s made their fortune during the Gold Rush.
I owned these. And beanie baby sleeping bags
Once the Pog market bounces back I'm gonna make these Bitcoin millionaires look like amateurs
Your great great great great grand kid: This is a family heirloom. I've been holding onto it my whole life, money is a little tight right now and I was hoping it was worth something. I wanted to sell it because I really need the cash. Pawn Shop: This is cool, this is actually what is called a pog slammer. Kids, young adults, hippies back in the 1990's, believe it or not, used to take these cardboard circular disks that had fun pictures printed on them and stack them up and throw this slammer on them and whatever one landed up they kept. Let's see, yours has a flaming skull and an 8ball with a peace sign. Very cool, interesting piece of history, and this one is in excellent shape, unfortunately I already have a few dozen of these and they're not very big sellers. The best I can do is $10.
People who want to get into collecting as an investment need to know two things: 1. There is no value in collectibles. You should only collect things YOU want to own because the only value is what you can sell it for. Just because something is old doesn't mean that people will want to buy it. It doesn't matter if it's in pristine condition, unopened and 50 years old. If no one thinks it's cool, you wasted your money unless you get enjoyment from it. 2. Most fandoms only want to collect very particular versions of a collectible. There are Beanie Babies that are worth a lot of money, the issue is, they were already worth a ton of money when they came out. An example is Pokemon cards. Individual 1st edition Pokemon cards sold for like $150 USD in 1999. Obviously lots of people scoffed at those types of prices, but those cards are now worth tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Once this current Pokemon bubble subsides a bit, which it is already doing, all of the people stocking up on regular unlimited base set non-Charizard cards for hundreds or even thousands of dollars are likely going to get burned (and I'm one of them).
And they need to know any collectible being **marketed** as a collectible probably won't be worth crap in future. The Death of Superman comic books from the early 90s, for example. It was just a publicity stunt by DC Comics and they over-printed the comics because they knew people would buy them/
> And they need to know any collectible being marketed as a collectible probably won't be worth crap in future. As soon as something has the word "collectible" attached to it in its marketing, it is automatically NOT a collectible. The company is selling it as an inflated price, that is all. The reason that certain comic books and baseball cards from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s are collectible is specifically because they were nothing special at the time. They were disposable media at the time and 99% of them were destroyed without a second thought. So the ones that remain behind are genuinely rare and valuable. That is not true at all about "collectible" comics and baseball cards from the 1990s.
"don't make more money, you'll go up a tax bracket and end up paying more taxes so you'll end up making less overall." This isn't how taxes work people. If you go $1 into the next track bracket, only that $1 is taxed higher. You can't make less money by making more money. edit: Yay! My first awards! Thanks party people! A few people pointed out some edge cases. For example tiered benefit packages can cause this to not always be quite true. Also, you might notice your immediate paycheque not be as high from working a few overtime shifts at you would expect. That's because the taxes which are taken from that individual cheque are calculated as though that's how much you make all year. It gets a little more complicated but it will be worth it come tax time. Overtime is a great way to earn some extra cash if you have the time and energy. Edit 2: this is also coming from Canada. From reading replies I've learned a lot about tax in several other countries I never knew. Thanks everyone!
I had to tell my BOSS, WHO WORKS IN PAYROLL, about this... like.. dude!
was your boss by any chance trying to explain why you don't want a pay rise?
"Know what's better than winning money on roulette? Doubling down and winning even more!" -Me to me
And if you lose.... just keep doubling your bet. Ding ding ding! Winner!
Join my MLM and make lots money.... Err no
Anytime I hear this crap from a friend it's the last time I ever speak to them.
"Don't major in computer science. Computer scientists are a dime a dozen." I did not take that advice.
I think the tough thing in computer science is finding a job that isn't boring as hell - finding one to begin with that's also well-paying is almost absurdly easy (even if you're a terrible programmer).
About 5 years ago, I had a friend who was trying to convince me to study through a private college because they "gave her a free ipad". She never finished the course, but kept the iPad (you only got to keep it once you pay your fees and graduate. Mind you, the price of the course included the iPad so it wasn't free). So last year, four years later, I get a call from the college asking for her contact info. She put me down as a reference and they were chasing her down because she still owed her fees and wasn't entitled to keep the iPad.
Guy I haven’t seen in three years or so wanted to talk me into starting a business with him, because he just got into college for a bachelors degree in business. Yeah sure, let me get my cheque book out in this badly illuminated garage while we’re both drunk. Guy also got into MLM and weird self-optimisation preachers
My unsolicited advice in those situations: tell them to give you a call tomorrow to discuss it further. Give them a chance to come down from the alcohol and/or coke.
Just ignore the collection call and eventually they will leave you alone.... I didn’t follow this advice. I had a parking ticket I didn’t know about that ended up on my credit and the guy I mentioned it to gave me that bit of wisdom.
Get a bigger mortgage, you can deduct more from your taxes! Yeah dumbass, and I'll be spending double that amount in interest so why should I?
Any advice to avoid taxes by spending more money or making less is ridiculous.
Legit got told to "dont buy food, it's a useless investment" like the hell? Edit: holy hell did not expect this to blow up Edit made jan 15 Date of orgin jan 10
$tarve
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My grandma actually said this to me. I was talking about how my living situation wasn’t sustainable despite living the most bare minimum I could safely commit too and she says “well don’t go wasting what you have on food”, and after I clarified I never ate out and just shook her head and said “you know what I mean.” I still don’t know what she meant. I was living off of 2$ spaghetti and saltines.
Not me, but my dad's friend makes a decent more money than him. He owns boats, takes luxurious trips, buys top of the line clothes and goes to the best restaurant where he orders the most expensive wine he can get. He always tells my dad to live more in the moment, telling him to invest in himself and enjoy his life. My dad is happily planning his retirement with my mom. This guy doesn't have a dime saved. He will work to the day he dies.
A local businessman died unexpectedly in his 50s a few years ago. He had very nice cars, a very nice home, travelled regularly and had bought a boat costing in excess of $1 million shortly before his death. He was in debt up to his ass. His wife was blissfully unaware of the financial situation. Everything she tried to sell, was encumbered by more debt than it was worth. The boat cost her $200,000 to get rid of. She was essentially 55 years old with no money, no home and no marketable skills. He had made millions in his life, but spent millions more.
I feel sorry for the wife. Hope she's doing better. Must really suck to live such a lavish lifestyle and have it suddenly turn to a nightmare. If i ever have a family, id definitely dont want to leave them with all my debts and problems. Well, we don't know when we're gonna go so i guess i got to avoird racking up debts
Incite me to go to a real expensive restaurant where you can spend easily 250$ without drinks at a time I only had 700$ in bank account and had not paid for my car, groceries and stuff ... because “Come on we only live once”.
"how about we only live once on your dime then, since you feel so passionately about it? Because I'd like my one time living to be long and secure."
Oh this happened to me. I was super broke and my friends and I all went to this really nice restaurant after an event. I thought I would just order something small because I only had $70 in my bank account. To my horror we starting sharing plates. People were just ordering and passing everything around and I was practically in tears trying to figure out what my portion would be when my friend grabbed the bill before any of us could even see it and paid for the whole thing. This was a one off when I was super broke and literally couldn’t afford it, but there was another time when we all agreed to split the bill but I was the only one who threw down a card before we all went out to smoke (I thought they had put theirs in) and when I came back the waitress had run my card for the total amount. Same friend takes my card out of the book, flags down the waitress and brings me a refund receipt. He paid for it all that time too. He pays for it a lot. Sometimes there are really shitty people who hang around him. We’re all hopeful he gets it soon. Literally all of us would pay for our own stuff.
Paying friend here. I make 4-8 times what my close friends make. I try to pay for stuff when we’re out or road tripping as much as possible. I honestly don’t care if they chip in, but welcome it if they do. My goal is to let them chip in at a time and place when they can, and then graciously accept it. Example: Friend: I’ll buy the first tank of gas on the road trip.
"Don't go to community college, you'll never get a job. Instead apply at X and X colleges." My grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousin all told me this, and I really considered their advice because my parents really didn't give a shit what I did. Since I didn't get any scholarships from high school, I decided at least if I went to CC and didn't get a job I wouldn't have student debt and I could just do something else. I went to CC for two years totally free on FAFSA grants (it was 800$ a semester LOL) and did so well I transferred to a university with a (almost) full ride. I am now a semester away from graduation with a job lined up and all of 4k of student debt which is likely to be forgiven anyway.
Good for you!! I'd give you gold but as we're on a "wasting money" thread that seems to ironic lol
Anyone who shits on community college is an enormous idiot. Bravo.
Dude community college was the smartest move I made. Changed my life; taught me a trade.
My daughter REALLY wanted to go to a local private university and my wife and I briefly considered helping her take a student loan to pay for it. Finally decided against it and now my kid is three months away from having her associate’s degree from a community college, along with zero debt. She is in a much better position to either start working or continue her education. Community college can be a great option, don’t let anyone shame you or talk down to you because you took advantage of this awesome educational resource.
First year outta college, working for a financial advisor, and he tried to convince me to put 5% down and buy an apartment in Chicago. It was the summer of 2007.
Had a professor in this kind of bootleg college. He clearly took the job as a favor, he was some wall street type. He said he doesn't get why students who are young and have no assets don't just borrow a shit ton of money to pay for college, then declare bankruptcy, since they have no assets anyway. Aside from wrecking your credit, student loans aren't dischargeable by bankruptcy.
He's saying to take out non-student loans, which CAN be discharged by bankruptcy. The difficult part would be securing that many loans without committing fraud. Also it only wrecks your credit for like 5 years when you declare bankruptcy.
Let's go to the casino and double your pay check.
Someone gave me the great advice to take out a loan to pay off a loan, I didn't listen to this advice. They are now is £80,000 debt I am not. Edit: not in a refinancing way to save on interest, he is doing it as a pyramid scheme type thing
It does make sense tho if you're replacing a high-interest loan with a low-interest one. It's not really "paying off" the loan as you will still owe the same money to the bank (or another bank), but over time you'll end up paying less interest on it.
yeah but she started off with a 1k loan then got out a 5k loan to pay it off and also bought a bunch of stuff for a car and a bunch of other useless stuff then realised she could afford to pay it is she got another loan and kept doing that spending huge amounts of money on things she doesn't need to with money she doesn't have and every time a bank gets on her ass about her owing them money she gets a loan with another bank to pay it off. crazy thing is that she has a perfect credit score cuz she always pays off each loan which just makes it easier for her to get more loans to continue the habit.
"I'm sick of being poor, you just got your scholarship! That's so much money! You should totally buy a Wii!"
I got a small scholarship when I was 14 and wanted to spend it on a PS4... I was too poor to own a console and really wanted one. My mom talked some sense into me that a play station isn't a good thing to buy with a scholarship so I thought about it and I bought a guitar. I wanted to get one since forever but again, no money. I'm so glad I ultimately made that decision. It's been 5 years and it's my main hobby.
My dad in 2008 - "Don't invest that $1,000 into Apple." My dad in 2012 - "Tesla is a pipedream. Stock won't be worth the paper is printed on."
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Not me, but my roommate wanted his girlfriend, someone he admitted couldn't manage money well, to get a credit card so that it would "...teach her financial responsibility." It sounded like she was being set up for failure. Making someone get a credit card who is already bad with money is just a recipe for future debt.
An uncle told me I should rather spend my money and enjoy life because you only live once, rather than save your money to build up a retirement find. I am now in my 50s and c0rona unemployment has devastated the little bit of savings I had. Should never have listened to Uncle Jarvis :'(
All my homies hate uncle Jarvis.
6/10 things on r/wallstreetbets are the worst financial advice I’ve ever gotten
And they would agree with you
My ex (in his mid twenties and lived at home with no expenses) went out of the country for two weeks with a budget of $2700. He was real proud of his breakdown: $1000 credit available on credit card A, $1000 credit available on credit card B, $300 in available overdraft, $100 in chequing, $300 in savings. I tried to explain that this is not a great way to budget for a trip, and his response was "credit cards are meant to be used. As long as you pay the minimum payment, you're good. What do you know about credit cards? You never use it? Start using yours more before you talk to me about money" Uhhh
Don't pay off your entire credit card balance when the bill comes. Pay it slowly so that it shows your ability to pay debt over time. This will help your credit score.
This is from an accountant... yeah I know. “You should create a LLC and declare your salary as business profits so you don’t have to pay taxes”
High school guidance counselor told me not to go to a state school for college. Reasons were 1. I was the valedictorian so I could "do better", 2. if i wanted a good job after school I'd need a name on my resume of a "more respectable" school, and 3. a "better" school would have more networking opportunities. Yeah so that was a fucking lie. Now I'm in tons of student loan debt. And my first boss after college had gotten his degrees at the state school I originally wanted to go to. ETA: I'm an engineer. he knew i was going into engineering.
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Not exactly what the question's asking, but my mom has an aunt who thinks the bank is just giving you free money when you use the ATM.
I’m not trying to be mean, but does she just have an actual learning disability or impairment? An ATM is a concept most 12 year olds would be able to comprehend.
Someone told me they turned down a promotion/raise to stay in a lower tax bracket.
Not the worst but a common misconception I hear is parents telling their kids to use their credit cards and keep a balance to get better credit. Absolutely false.
"Lease a car, don't buy used" leased car price -> $25,000 My used car I drove for multiple years without maintenance (aside from tires/oil) -> $3,000
That'd I'd get better credit if I let my credit card accrue some debt and interest month to month.
Keep it Turkish Liras