Lurker > pinky0926

Guys I ain't even kidding. When i see a white board I think it's gonna be a greasy spoon diner for tradies, but blackboard is somehow more upmarket immediately

S_A_S posted...

pinky, when I was about 20 years old, I had a friend who was roughly the same age as me, but much more worldly, and he explained to me that if you have a credit card and pay off the debt at the end of each month, that's how you build up a good credit rating.

I really don't know much about personal finance, though. Anything else about money you've learned recently, that you should've known in your 20s, or possibly earlier?

I knew that part. Here were the parts that I learned since then:

• Don't borrow money you don't have, unless it's for something you need and/or something that will reliably generate wealth or reduce costs. E.g. don't finance your furniture or a car beyond your means. Do get a mortgage, maybe.
• Never justify buying things on finance based on being able to keep up with the monthly repayments. If you have to finance something, only justify it based on how much you are prepared to lose and how quickly you can have equity.
• Don't buy things on your credit card unless you can pay off the full balance each month. Don't fall into the trap of leaving some leftover for the next month and justifying the interest. This is the slippery slope that leaves even smart and sensible people into mountains of debt.
• There is literally no cost effective way to buy a car. The least shitty way is to buy it outright with cash. A car should cost no more than 10% of your annual income, generally.
• Add another 10% for general car costs.
• If you really want something you can't afford and you're thinking about putting it on a 2-3 year finance agreement, think about how emotionally attached you are going to feel about it in 6 months time, and consequentially how bitter you're going to feel about those repayments once the novelty has worn off.
• Set aside a monthly budget for annual costs. If your car's accident and emergency costs 150 a year, then set aside 12.50 a month for it. That payment won't sting at all when it renews next year.
• Keep 3 months of salary in savings as an emergency fund. You don't touch this for holidays or toys or whatever. This is just there in case you lose your job and you need that cash there to keep you afloat.
• Finally, maybe live your life a little anyway. Certainly being financially covered is important, but no one sits on their deathbed and remembers their investment portfolio.

"I've always wanted to be in a bar fight, does this count?"

Ok, someone defend this, I fucking dare you.

dark mode is superior o_o

My controversial hot take is that the theatrical versions were better than the extended editions.

Too long, too many scenes that slowed the pacing down just for the sake of giving a nod to book readers, etc.

Guy had 600k at 76, what was he doing investing in meme stocks? He was already set. Idiot

Bass posted...

Your stance isn't that bad. You'll probably be happier than someone up to their eyeballs in debt even if it isn't optimal. If you keep up with the investing you'll be setting yourself up for a good retirement. You still have a lot of time left to grow your money.

I never understood what it could be like to actually grow wealth until relatively recently. The idea that I could have money beyond what I need to pay bills for and a little bit extra "just in case" has been foreign to me.

And now I'm realising...fuck that. I can have 6 figures in cash just sitting there in less than a decade without too much hard work, if I'm smart. That was eye opening.

archizzy posted...

Nope. While I understand what you are saying and I go out of my way to avoid debt I never hesitated when buying a house to take on a mortgage. But I have pretty much paid for everything in cash in life just because my dad taught me to be responsible with money and not live off credit. But he actually had me take out a loan on my first vehicle rather than but in cash to establish credit.

i was raised very smartly when it came to financial decisions. Identifying needs vs wants, prioritizing responsibilities and bills. How to build wealth. Learned this from a young age.

Now Im 48 and sitting damn good. Own my home outright and have for years. No mortgage, no vehicle payment, legitimately about as perfect as you can get credit rating if I need it.

But I am really frugal. Its not a fear of debt, just I hate wasting money. Outside of required monthly bills I legitimately have spent less than $100 out of pocket in the last 12 months. Last spring I bought a video game and last November I bought 4 books. Thats it. Seriously.

I go months and months and months and never spend a penny outside of my required monthly bills. Im an extreme saver. But not out of fear.

This is what I never got. I love my parents, I have a wealth of so many experiences in life because of them. But I swear, I only really understood the purpose of a credit card at the age of 32.

I'm 36 now and only starting to build wealth. Its a little maddening, but I guess now is better than never.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Just declare bankruptcy. Especially if he's 25.

Hes over 40 now, runs his own business. The problem with my brother is he's a salesman right down to his soul. He will always spend 5 dollars he doesn't have if he thinks he can make 20 dollars from it.

I'm not sure what my brother did tbh. He started to get on top of his debt in his mid 30s, or at least put together a plan to start paying it off. His wife nearly divorced him when she found out, I credit her for sorting him out.

My parents just took a golden goose and decided to eat all the eggs. I try not to be bitter about it because its not like I was anything but a little bludger, but I still idly wonder how different life would be if dad made smart investment decisions.

On the one hand I'm thankful that I didn't have the same mindset. On the other hand, I wish I had someone around to teach me about money from a young age.

My parents basically blew the chance of a very easy life by being really fucking stupid with money. Dad could have been a multi millionaire by now but is sitting on literally nothing.

And my older brother figured out that if he maxed out as many credit cards as possible by the age of 25 then he could just act like money is monopoly money. What even is debt anyway? 5 figures, 6 figures - who cares? It's just several hundred dollars in minimum payments per month foe the rest of your life...

So now I'm basically allergic to debt. Even good debt. I can barely justify a mortgage or a car. Instead I live out of a suitcase at net zero. The most debt I've ever been in was 4k and that wasn't even for me. I'm only just now at the age of 36 learning how to invest and grow wealth.

action52 posted...

If you're not confident you can resist using the money at least until you can easily pay back the remainder, don't do it.

Also if you use the money, it's not in the account collecting interest, which defeats the whole purpose.

This is a good point.

I originally looked at the offer because I thought buying a car on an interest-free loan is better than a regular car loan, but then I realised...wait, this could actually make me money.

Probably wants to help you celebrate record profits!

LeCh0nk posted...

Why would you not just withdraw what you need from the same savings account you put it in to pay them back? I assume you can just do that.

That's true. I suppose there's a non-zero % chance that I actually use that money at some point.

Turbam posted...

Do remember tho, that because of inflation it's hard to say if it's a 100% yes.

Why would inflation be an issue?

Hexenherz posted...

Eh But are you going to be with the company in five years?

This is why I'm hesitating.

If I chose to leave in say 3 years, I'd have to pay the company back 4k. In that time I'd have generated 1k, which is ok but if I then had to take out a loan to pay back the rets of the amount immediately then it would basically not be worth it.

My company offers an interest free loan up to 10k, no questions asked. The repayment length is agreed and the payments are deducted from your monthly paycheck. The obvious incentive here is that once you owe the company money, you're less likely to leave.

Some people in the office have taken up this offer for things like gaming computers, new cars, etc.

I'm sitting here thinking...why not just stick that in a high interest savings account and leave it? If I borrowed 10k and set the repayment length for 5 years, then in that time I'd earn probably +2k in interest.

As for an exit strategy, I could take out a personal loan to cover the rest, right?

They always ask this when you bring in the most basic ass microwave dinner, lol

What depresses me is when I leave the bubble internet of gamefaqs and subreddits I like, and go into the comments section of the wider internet.

Jesus, the world really hates trans people, gay people and liberals.

As if you needed any more reason to hate the guy, but this video sums up exactly how his (and other grifters like him) work:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTBeF-DuPo0

TL;DW - Demands a youtuber(who makes fitness content) to fly out and come on his show (but the youtuber is warned that there's no guarantee he'll get on the show). The youtuber is coached to deliberately fat shame Piers on live TV. So basically, the format here is "tank your career and reputation so that we can get 30 seconds of shock factor TV". I imagine a lot of people take that offer, this guy managed to skirt around it.

pegusus123456 posted...

They're claiming they don't make enough money from YouTube so they're moving to a subscription service. Fans point out that they only release a few videos a month and have a studio in Hollywood with 25 employees.

$6 a month to watch one youtube channel putout a couple of videos is an interesting streaming decision...

What's the TL;DR of this drama?

I couldn't get into that gsme. On top of everything else, I hated the loot/crafting system.

Turducken posted...

How much of a genius could you have been if you thought you couldn't be hot and smart at the same time?

I was in fact not a genius

Ok bonus round -

People were either smart or into sports, but rarely both. The people who did well academically weren't smart, they just tried hard.

Unlike me, I was such a genius, all my teachers said i had great potential if i only worked harder, blah blah blah

DipDipDiver posted...

No, I was childhood friends with both girls who ended up being my year's valedictorian and salutatorian and they were both very attractive

My biggest crush was the smartest person in school and she was very attractive, but I probably thought she was the exception to the rule

But basically never both?

I remember thinking this. Also I probably thought I was an intellectual because I played videogames instead of sports.

Man I was such an incel back then, lmao

Arcanine2009 posted...

where in the world are you getting $10 per bowl?

Nowhere tbh, I was quoting OP

*character turns around*
"uh"
*character grimaces slightly
"huh"
*character looks at someone else*
"eh"

Jesus Japan, stop

Beveren_Rabbit posted...

it takes about 26 hours to make ramen

You didn't ask but I typed it out anyway.

Ramen typically has 4 components: the noodles, the broth, the toppings and the tare (seasoning sauce). Let's take a "tonkotsu" (pork broth) ramen as an example.

The noodles are handmade. They are the quickest thing to come together and require the least amount of ingredients, but they're also the hardest part to get right. There is very little margin for error and a considerable amount of craft. Usually there's a special noodle making machine required, and this is expensive to buy and maintain. Any ramen shop worth its salt is making its own noodles.

The broth for tonkotsu is a pork bone stock made over 2-3 days, sometimes a week. You can use a lot of pork bones, but for the really authentic kind you need pigs trotters. The bones are cleaned and blanched and then the boil has to be kept at a high rolling boil for the entirety of the time you're making it. You can't stick it in a slow cooker and forget about it - in order to get the creamy consistency required you need to keep it very very hot and you need to keep topping it up with water. This means it has to be manned regularly.

The toppings usually includes pork chashu, which is a slow braised roll of pork in particular liquids. This is usually finished with a blowtorch to get the perfect char. The braise might take 8 hours or so. Other toppings including soft boiled marinated eggs, kelp seaweed, mushrooms, etc. You can have a lot of things here, and a ramen shop will treat and prepare each of these toppings carefully.

The tare is going to be some complex ultra reduction of soy sauce, chilli, mirin and dashi stock. Blackened garlic is often used. A lot of ingredients will get used to make a very small amount of sauce.

So you prepare all of this, and the final step is to combine it all together with just the right timing. You need everything hot but you don't want the noodles to overcook or the toppings to lose their freshness. You can't pre-prepare ramen bowls. If it sits in the bowl for too long the entire thing is ruined. So all of these things you spent days preparing now has to come together and be served at just the right temperature in a 30 second window.

That's one ramen bowl. Every ramen bowl is prepared something like this, regardless of the type of ramen or ingredients used.

If you try to do this at home, it ends up being expensive and needlessly fussy. So if you want a real bowl of ramen, the only way to have it is to go out and eat it somewhere.

I have made authentic ramen before, and let me tell you - you're getting the best deal of your life at a ramen shop compared to basically any other type of food.

I'm serious. Pizza, chilli, sushi, mexican, indian, whatever - these are all laughably simply and quick to prepare by comparison.

There is more or less no other food that is so time consuming and work heavy and time-sensitive as ramen.

Now if you can't taste the difference or don't care then that's cool, nobody can tell you what's good or not. I'm just saying, if you understood the amount of work and craft that goes into a single ramen bowl you would be thinking "my god, only $10 for this?"

pegusus123456 posted...

From what I've heard of One Piece, you left off a 0.

I'm a big fan of the show and I'd say the general gist is this:

0-10 - wtf am I even watching?
10-30 - ah ok there's a plot, kinda
30-60 ok I'm starting to dig these characters
60-140 - what is even going on
140- 300 - ok this got quite political and deep all of a sudden
300- 500 - this is the greatest show of all time
600+ ok it literally doesnt matter anymore because I'm never quitting

Revisited posted...

This is another good'un, two in a row!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/8f521ddf.jpg

https://xkcd.com/2727/

The anime version of this:

One Piece is great once you get past the first 30 episodes or so, trust me bro

I heard Tim Henson (zoomer guitarist) talk about "boomer bends", referring to bending notes in guitar solos, and now I can never unhear it.

Not what you asked but Iunno

It's a natural feeling. Not an entirely rational one, but one that everyone feels from time to time.

It's like when you follow a sport and watch all the league matches, and then the superbowl or world cup rolls around and suddenly every layperson you know is an expert despite having never watched a game in the last 4 years. It's annoying.

Glob posted...

Have you considered not buying a car?

Believe me, if I could walk/cycle to work and everything I wanted to do was near enough, I would not own a car at all.

Hyena_Of_Ice posted...

The used car dealership

You're not wrong. I used to work at a Mercedes dealership. The new car guys were all pretty slick and smarmy, but the used guys were all grotty liars.

Foppe posted...

...how often do you buy cars?

Hopefully as infrequently as possible. I never got into the 3-year turnaround perma car loan life so it's just been buy a banger, run it into the ground, buy the next banger.

Last car purchase was 2018.

I'm just spoiled.

Pre-pandemic I found a listing for a VW passat estate for $1500. There was literally nothing wrong with it. It was basically perfect. Turns out the lady was getting a divorce and that was his car. I didn't ask too many questions. I got a dream car for fuck all, and I drove that thing into the ground over the next 6 years. Loved that car. Cost me nothing. Super comfortable. Nothing will compare.

AND THEN

Say you do want the car, and you've made peace with the money you're going to be spending. Well now you have a choice: do you go private and take all that risk into your hands, or do you deal with the hell that is a car dealership?

Is there any more wretched a hive of scum and villainy than a car dealership? No, no there is not. I used to work at one, the people there are actually worse than you know.

What was the purpose of these codes? Were they for developers play-testing?

Like there's just no way around it. Say you want something decent.

You can buy it outright and lose the least amount of money over time, if you happen to have I dunno, $20k sitting around that you don't want to spend on anything that will actually grow your wealth.

Or you can get a loan and lose thousands of dollars over years for an "asset" that is just a money pit that is losing value all the time.

That's the best case scenario. Another scenario with a pretty high probability is that your car develops some major fault that requires scrapping or a major overhaul and now it's tens of thousands down the drain.

The less risky option is you get a car lease, and also the most expensive option. And I hope you don't actually like driving or using your car much.

So then if you're fiscally conscious you decide to go with an absolute banger. You buy it outright. You deal with having a shitty driving experience every day, you absorb the frequent mechanics bills knowing that it's technically less money than you would be paying on a loan. Every day sucks this way, but at least you saved some money.

Whatever option you choose you're going to be paying it off for years, and the excitement over your new car might last 3-6 months. After that you're just putting $300 dollars into the ether every month for this thing you've grown bitter about.

God damn I hate buying new cars. Hate hate hate

That was physically uncomfortable to watch

God's blessing on this wonderful world

Aloc posted...

188 cm and I know what it is.

Nah. Every aussie rule's footie player I've ever seen in person is like 6ft5.

solosnake posted...

actually seems to be a lot of NBA players now days whose primary motivation is the money

I think it's one thing to be in the league and make decisions based on financial incentives once you're there - I'm speaking more about the idea of money being the motivator to become a professional athlete.

Super privileged thing to be able to say, but the stuff in supermarkets hardly even seems like the same species of plant.

Just had some sorrel from a garden and it tasted like someone had squeezed a lemon over the top of it. Can't believe ordinary green salad leaves can be so delicious

This I think https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9dc8b9a5.png

What's that meme about hot sauce, something about how hot sauce makers have to call it deathblast thunder pants and there's gotta be skulls and whatnot on the label

See this indie platformer from 10 years ago? Well now it's only $15, marked down from $25! What a steal hah hah hahh aaaaaa

Fenriswolf posted...

Elon might be interested

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1781387457193230338

Remember when elon went banning and deleting accounts that did little more than call him a goober

Man is such a lil bitch