Author Topic: Overheard at Work  (Read 13252632 times)

dragoncar

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18600 on: September 28, 2017, 06:56:46 PM »
This one is actually overheard from my dads work but is too juicy not to tell.

My dad works at a relatively small company and is one of the partners there. Due to them being small and competing against much bigger firms they need everyone to pull their own weight. They are severely overstaffed in some departments though. In one of those departments they employ a married couple who have been with the firm for close to 15 years. The husband was hired shortly after he successfully battled cancer and therefore had disability status. This grants employees special rights such as 5 additional paid days off and basically full protection from being laid off.

Throughout the years his performance became gradually worse and several other employees complained about work not being done in time and their work suffering because of him. This got to the point where they had one intern look back through the time management system only to find out that through a combination of sick days (which they would take at the same time) and home office (also taken at the same time) him and his wife only spend 40% of official work hours actually in the office. Management suggested to reduce his hours but he was not interested and due to him being protected by his status it was decided that more drastic action could not really be taken.

This kept going on for a few years until at another partner meeting it was suggested to check whether his disability status was actually still in place, with the cancer now being more than 15 years in the past. Turns out that he lost his disability status and therefore the special rights in 2009, which he was required by law to communicate to the firm. He proceeded to tell the boss that he told the secretary and she must have forgotten (a lie). His next move was to not show up for work since then, claiming to be sick. He is now being fired.

On top of using all additional paid days of and hiding behind the status of being unfireable he also lead the firm to commit fraud, because employers are required to employ a certain percentage of disabled people or pay a yearly fee. Since the firm thought they achieved that percentage they didn’t pay the fee for years.
And all of this behavior in a situation where he really can’t afford to lose his job. They have 3 cars, 2 motorbikes and a huge mortgaged house which they could barely finance to begin with. It's like they intentionally dug a huge hole that is really difficult to dig out of again and then went ahead and threw away their shovel.

Wow, which country is this? 

WerKater

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18601 on: September 29, 2017, 12:19:33 AM »
Wow, which country is this?
I am guessing: Germany.

Ze Stash

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18602 on: September 29, 2017, 04:45:58 AM »

MonkeyJenga

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18603 on: September 29, 2017, 06:23:45 AM »
On top of using all additional paid days of and hiding behind the status of being unfireable he also lead the firm to commit fraud, because employers are required to employ a certain percentage of disabled people or pay a yearly fee. Since the firm thought they achieved that percentage they didn’t pay the fee for years.

This right here is on the company. They should be checking the status every year to ensure they are in compliance. Do they have a regulatory/compliance officer? I'm curious what else they might be non-compliant with and not realise it.

What's happening with the wife?

Linea_Norway

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18604 on: September 29, 2017, 06:41:47 AM »
Today we got a presentation of the new pension system our company wants to introduce. Mandatory for all new employees. We who already work here need to make a choice.

One of my young colleagues (under 30): I have never thought about pension. I am saving money to buy a Tesla.

I told her a bit about index funds and she wants me to show her sometime. That is a start.

jadd806

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18605 on: September 29, 2017, 01:24:19 PM »
All of my 20-something coworkers rushing to buy houses is so cringe-worthy.

One is 27. She can't seem to make ends meet without working overtime. She is obsessed with buying a house and constantly talks about how she needs to build equity instead of wasting money on rent. Her solution? A 0% down, 6% interest mortgage. The mortgage is advertised as "no PMI," but she doesn't seem to realize that a lower interest loan with PMI would end up cheaper. I tried to point that out, along with the fact that she won't be building much equity during the first several years of the mortgage due to the payments being mostly interest.

Seeing the type of people who are buying houses right now has kinda scared me away from real estate.

JoJo

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18606 on: September 29, 2017, 01:34:40 PM »
All of my 20-something coworkers rushing to buy houses is so cringe-worthy.

One is 27. She can't seem to make ends meet without working overtime. She is obsessed with buying a house and constantly talks about how she needs to build equity instead of wasting money on rent. Her solution? A 0% down, 6% interest mortgage. The mortgage is advertised as "no PMI," but she doesn't seem to realize that a lower interest loan with PMI would end up cheaper. I tried to point that out, along with the fact that she won't be building much equity during the first several years of the mortgage due to the payments being mostly interest.

Seeing the type of people who are buying houses right now has kinda scared me away from real estate.

Here we go again.  At least it's not interest only?

mtn

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18607 on: September 29, 2017, 02:30:50 PM »
All of my 20-something coworkers rushing to buy houses is so cringe-worthy.

One is 27. She can't seem to make ends meet without working overtime. She is obsessed with buying a house and constantly talks about how she needs to build equity instead of wasting money on rent. Her solution? A 0% down, 6% interest mortgage. The mortgage is advertised as "no PMI," but she doesn't seem to realize that a lower interest loan with PMI would end up cheaper. I tried to point that out, along with the fact that she won't be building much equity during the first several years of the mortgage due to the payments being mostly interest.

Seeing the type of people who are buying houses right now has kinda scared me away from real estate.

Does it have MIP though?

In all fairness, we (26 and 27 when we bought, 27 and 28 now) bought a house because we could no longer afford to rent. Seriously. Once you factored in the equity into the equation, we broke even after 2 years.

Of course, there are a ton of other factors that go into this, and in a slightly different situation we *could* have rented cheaper... but for us, after factoring in our commuting costs (including time) and everything else, it was cheaper to buy. Seems crazy to me too.

frugalnacho

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18608 on: September 29, 2017, 02:45:09 PM »
All of my 20-something coworkers rushing to buy houses is so cringe-worthy.

One is 27. She can't seem to make ends meet without working overtime. She is obsessed with buying a house and constantly talks about how she needs to build equity instead of wasting money on rent. Her solution? A 0% down, 6% interest mortgage. The mortgage is advertised as "no PMI," but she doesn't seem to realize that a lower interest loan with PMI would end up cheaper. I tried to point that out, along with the fact that she won't be building much equity during the first several years of the mortgage due to the payments being mostly interest.

Seeing the type of people who are buying houses right now has kinda scared me away from real estate.

Does it have MIP though?

In all fairness, we (26 and 27 when we bought, 27 and 28 now) bought a house because we could no longer afford to rent. Seriously. Once you factored in the equity into the equation, we broke even after 2 years.

Of course, there are a ton of other factors that go into this, and in a slightly different situation we *could* have rented cheaper... but for us, after factoring in our commuting costs (including time) and everything else, it was cheaper to buy. Seems crazy to me too.

I bought a 3/2 with garage and basement and my mortgage was around $600/mo, which was cheaper than anything I could rent (houses or apartments, even a dinky 1 bedroom shit hole on the shitty side of town).  The only thing cheaper would have been renting a room from someone, and not by much.  I didn't really understand the whole "rent vs buy" thing until well after I bought my house and talked to people in different geographic regions via the internet.  I always thought it was a stupid comparison because buying was the best option 100% of the time by a wide margin everywhere in my region (detroit metro).  Comparing apples to apples (ie house to house, not buying house vs renting apartment or something) renting was always at least twice as expensive as owing.  The only reason anyone  would ever rent is if they couldn't qualify to buy.  Or if you were going to live here short term and didn't want the hassle of buying and selling a property for the short term and were ok with spending thousands extra in rent over that period.  Even then in made sense IMO to buy and resell in 2-3 years and just eat the transaction fee since you'd still come out ahead .  Those were the only possible explanations of why someone would be renting in my area. 

We have friends renting a smaller house than ours less than a mile away in the same city and their rent is about $7k/yr more than my mortgage/insurance/taxes on my house.  Of course houses have appreciated some since we purchased, but it's still cheaper to buy.

BiochemicalDJ

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18609 on: September 29, 2017, 02:54:05 PM »

... buying was the best option 100% of the time by a wide margin everywhere in my region (detroit metro). 

I think the anti-mustachian bit refers to people desperate to buy houses in areas where it would be unquestionably stupid to do so. For example, where I am, the average value of a house (AVERAGE!) is about $426,000. That's for detached. Condos are $209K plus condo fees. So even attempting to follow the '1%' rule of renting (if you were buying for investment) means you'd need to rent it out for $4.5K. Which is unheard of where I am- I'm currently renting a house worth about 380K for 1.5K/month. (Make sure not to tell the landlord he's made a terrible decision...)

So buying a house in Detroit metro is a very mustachian decision. Not necessarily everywhere, for sure.

I know I get super annoyed with co-workers giving me the weird looks when I tell them I still live with students and I'm full time employed. But for me, it's whatever builds the 'stache...

Ze Stash

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18610 on: September 29, 2017, 03:43:00 PM »
On top of using all additional paid days of and hiding behind the status of being unfireable he also lead the firm to commit fraud, because employers are required to employ a certain percentage of disabled people or pay a yearly fee. Since the firm thought they achieved that percentage they didn’t pay the fee for years.

This right here is on the company. They should be checking the status every year to ensure they are in compliance. Do they have a regulatory/compliance officer? I'm curious what else they might be non-compliant with and not realise it.

What's happening with the wife?

I generally agree. They are however really small and have a rather informal company culture. It was expected that the employee would inform the company if there were any changes to his status, the same as all other employees try to act in the best interest of the company. They should have been more careful in checking that though. They have a flat hierarchy and a very reasonable person as CEO. If the employee had come to him at any point in the last 8 years, came clear that he lost his disability status and didn't tell them yet, explained the sitatution and apologised they 100% would not have fired him and tried to work something else out. He chose to hide that fact though and then when it was revealed tried to blame someone else that wasn't even involved.

The wife is fine. Despite the suspicious home office scheduling her work doesn't seem to suffer and there are no complaints from other employees about her work, so no reason that she shouldn't continue to work there. So far only the partners and the one accused secretary know of the whole drama with the husband though. I suspect the other employees who had to pick up the slack because of him will not be very warm towards her when they find out.

aperture

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18611 on: September 29, 2017, 06:04:24 PM »
Guy in the office next to me had a seizure at his desk yesterday. Today we found out he had experienced a hemorrhagic stroke. Presently he remains in a coma - status unknown.  I helped search his office for the keys to his brand new crew cab Toyota Tundra sitting out in the parking lot. 

Sad, scary, ironic. Best wishes to all you, aperture.

chaskavitch

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18612 on: October 01, 2017, 07:33:21 AM »
All of my 20-something coworkers rushing to buy houses is so cringe-worthy.

One is 27. She can't seem to make ends meet without working overtime. She is obsessed with buying a house and constantly talks about how she needs to build equity instead of wasting money on rent. Her solution? A 0% down, 6% interest mortgage. The mortgage is advertised as "no PMI," but she doesn't seem to realize that a lower interest loan with PMI would end up cheaper. I tried to point that out, along with the fact that she won't be building much equity during the first several years of the mortgage due to the payments being mostly interest.

Seeing the type of people who are buying houses right now has kinda scared me away from real estate.

Here we go again.  At least it's not interest only?

I have a young coworker with three children who just purchased a house.  She had some emergency medical issues right before they started looking, which depleted their downpayment fund, so she was worried that they wouldn't qualify with such a small downpayment percentage.  Since it was their first house, they did qualify even with something like a 2.5% downpayment, but then they went out and bought all new furniture so their house would look grown-up.  I'm not certain at all where the money for all the furniture is supposed to come from :(

Raenia

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18613 on: October 01, 2017, 09:01:34 AM »
All of my 20-something coworkers rushing to buy houses is so cringe-worthy.

One is 27. She can't seem to make ends meet without working overtime. She is obsessed with buying a house and constantly talks about how she needs to build equity instead of wasting money on rent. Her solution? A 0% down, 6% interest mortgage. The mortgage is advertised as "no PMI," but she doesn't seem to realize that a lower interest loan with PMI would end up cheaper. I tried to point that out, along with the fact that she won't be building much equity during the first several years of the mortgage due to the payments being mostly interest.

Seeing the type of people who are buying houses right now has kinda scared me away from real estate.

Here we go again.  At least it's not interest only?

I have a young coworker with three children who just purchased a house.  She had some emergency medical issues right before they started looking, which depleted their downpayment fund, so she was worried that they wouldn't qualify with such a small downpayment percentage.  Since it was their first house, they did qualify even with something like a 2.5% downpayment, but then they went out and bought all new furniture so their house would look grown-up.  I'm not certain at all where the money for all the furniture is supposed to come from :(

Sometimes I worry if we'll be able to get a 20% downpayment together when we want to buy (most of our savings is currently going into tax-deferred options, and I don't want to pull anything out of that if possible), and we start nervously discussing if we'd be comfortable going ahead with 15% or even 10% down.  Then I read something like this, and feel better about myself :P

bigalsmith101

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18614 on: October 01, 2017, 11:31:32 AM »
Sometimes I worry if we'll be able to get a 20% downpayment together when we want to buy (most of our savings is currently going into tax-deferred options, and I don't want to pull anything out of that if possible), and we start nervously discussing if we'd be comfortable going ahead with 15% or even 10% down.  Then I read something like this, and feel better about myself :P

I have quite a few friends that have tackled 20% down payments on their respective homes. Each one was always focused on removing any prospective PMI payments.

However PMI is based on credit-worthiness, and the required payments can vary quite a huge amount, and is definitely based on how close the actual downpayment is to 20%.

In our case, we put down 10% on a $450k home. Our PMI payment is $101/mo or $1212/yr or ~2.7%. The mortgage is 3.625%. Combined that is 6.325%

The effective overal interest rate on our home is 3.895% for the next 7 years, until the PMI drops off.

If I had an additional $45k, would I have put it down against my home to remove PMI? Maybe...

Pooperman

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18615 on: October 01, 2017, 01:43:49 PM »
Sometimes I worry if we'll be able to get a 20% downpayment together when we want to buy (most of our savings is currently going into tax-deferred options, and I don't want to pull anything out of that if possible), and we start nervously discussing if we'd be comfortable going ahead with 15% or even 10% down.  Then I read something like this, and feel better about myself :P

I have quite a few friends that have tackled 20% down payments on their respective homes. Each one was always focused on removing any prospective PMI payments.

However PMI is based on credit-worthiness, and the required payments can vary quite a huge amount, and is definitely based on how close the actual downpayment is to 20%.

In our case, we put down 10% on a $450k home. Our PMI payment is $101/mo or $1212/yr or ~2.7%. The mortgage is 3.625%. Combined that is 6.325%

The effective overal interest rate on our home is 3.895% for the next 7 years, until the PMI drops off.

If I had an additional $45k, would I have put it down against my home to remove PMI? Maybe...

Our PMI is about $70 on a 200k loan. It was 5% down with a rate of 3.25%.

Dave1442397

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18616 on: October 01, 2017, 01:44:35 PM »
Sometimes I worry if we'll be able to get a 20% downpayment together when we want to buy (most of our savings is currently going into tax-deferred options, and I don't want to pull anything out of that if possible), and we start nervously discussing if we'd be comfortable going ahead with 15% or even 10% down.  Then I read something like this, and feel better about myself :P

I have quite a few friends that have tackled 20% down payments on their respective homes. Each one was always focused on removing any prospective PMI payments.

However PMI is based on credit-worthiness, and the required payments can vary quite a huge amount, and is definitely based on how close the actual downpayment is to 20%.

In our case, we put down 10% on a $450k home. Our PMI payment is $101/mo or $1212/yr or ~2.7%. The mortgage is 3.625%. Combined that is 6.325%

The effective overal interest rate on our home is 3.895% for the next 7 years, until the PMI drops off.

If I had an additional $45k, would I have put it down against my home to remove PMI? Maybe...

We only put down 5% on our house (mainly a timing issue), and had PMI of around $125/month. I was able to refi after two years and get rid of the PMI as well as reducing my mortgage rate by a couple of percent. We did have credit scores in the 800s.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18617 on: October 02, 2017, 09:06:36 PM »
A couple of years back, I refinanced my house to get a better interest rate.  I mentioned it to one of my co-workers who was incidentally also refinancing her house.  She said "Don't you just love refinancing?  We do it every year and take out as much money as we can.  One of the perks of owning your own home, I guess."  I am quite certain my eye is still twitching at the memory.

dbm

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18618 on: October 02, 2017, 11:45:59 PM »
Even so...40% interest rate?  Still doesn't pass the smell test.

If there was debt rolled in then it wouldn't be 40%, and if there were late fees, or a penalty interest rate?

My in-laws were paying 59% on a loan. Their credit is ... not good.

My sister's current interest rate is 38% and she was $3k underwater on the car she traded in.  Once she rolled the tax and title fees into the loan she ended up with a $12k loan for an 8k used car....at 38% interest.

Wow, I'm guessing the US doesn't have Usury laws?  Maybe people would see that as impinging on their freedom...

marielle

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18619 on: October 03, 2017, 06:19:19 AM »
Even so...40% interest rate?  Still doesn't pass the smell test.

If there was debt rolled in then it wouldn't be 40%, and if there were late fees, or a penalty interest rate?

My in-laws were paying 59% on a loan. Their credit is ... not good.

My sister's current interest rate is 38% and she was $3k underwater on the car she traded in.  Once she rolled the tax and title fees into the loan she ended up with a $12k loan for an 8k used car....at 38% interest.

Wow, I'm guessing the US doesn't have Usury laws?  Maybe people would see that as impinging on their freedom...

Looks like it varies wildly by state, and some states don't have a limit. http://www.loanback.com/category/usury-laws-by-state/

Credit cards are often 24%+. I have a good credit score and I still have credit cards that high (not that it matters). People sometimes even pay down payments with credit cards, though some dealerships may not allow it. Not sure.

It's pretty rare for a dealership to turn a customer down. You would have to have REALLY bad credit, and be trading in a car with a much higher payoff than what it's worth. It can happen if the car has transmission problems or something early in its life.

economista

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18620 on: October 03, 2017, 08:32:06 AM »
Even so...40% interest rate?  Still doesn't pass the smell test.

If there was debt rolled in then it wouldn't be 40%, and if there were late fees, or a penalty interest rate?

My in-laws were paying 59% on a loan. Their credit is ... not good.

My sister's current interest rate is 38% and she was $3k underwater on the car she traded in.  Once she rolled the tax and title fees into the loan she ended up with a $12k loan for an 8k used car....at 38% interest.

Wow, I'm guessing the US doesn't have Usury laws?  Maybe people would see that as impinging on their freedom...

Looks like it varies wildly by state, and some states don't have a limit. http://www.loanback.com/category/usury-laws-by-state/

Credit cards are often 24%+. I have a good credit score and I still have credit cards that high (not that it matters). People sometimes even pay down payments with credit cards, though some dealerships may not allow it. Not sure.

It's pretty rare for a dealership to turn a customer down. You would have to have REALLY bad credit, and be trading in a car with a much higher payoff than what it's worth. It can happen if the car has transmission problems or something early in its life.

Interestingly enough, my sister has been turned down twice!  The first time she got a car loan it was a $5k used car but she had nothing to put down on it and really bad credit.  My grandparents co-signed for her and my grandpa was smart about it and made the payments himself each month, with her reimbursing him.  Unfortunately, she didn't always make the payments to him like she was supposed to.  Around a year later she still owed $4k on it and something was really broken with it (I don't remember the details).  They would only offer her $1k to trade it in and she needed a working vehicle, but once again she didn't have any cash for a down payment and she was $3k underwater on the car.  The first dealer she went to talked her into a brand new, 2017 Honda Fit but she was there late enough in the day that they couldn't run her credit or anything.  She took pictures with the car and posted them on Facebook and got tons of comments about how hard work pays off and everyone was so proud of her.  The next day she went back and they ran her credit - the score was around 510 or 515 and she had 3 accounts sitting in collections.  They turned her down flat and my grandfather didn't have any interest in helping her out this time.  That afternoon she went to a really shady used car dealer and got the 38% loan. 

dragoncar

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18621 on: October 03, 2017, 09:41:05 AM »
Even so...40% interest rate?  Still doesn't pass the smell test.

If there was debt rolled in then it wouldn't be 40%, and if there were late fees, or a penalty interest rate?

My in-laws were paying 59% on a loan. Their credit is ... not good.

My sister's current interest rate is 38% and she was $3k underwater on the car she traded in.  Once she rolled the tax and title fees into the loan she ended up with a $12k loan for an 8k used car....at 38% interest.

Wow, I'm guessing the US doesn't have Usury laws?  Maybe people would see that as impinging on their freedom...

I looked them up for California once and the exceptions were mind boggling.  They don’t apply to banks for example.  WTF kind of useless usury law doesn’t apply to the majority of lenders

MgoSam

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18622 on: October 03, 2017, 10:47:47 AM »
Even so...40% interest rate?  Still doesn't pass the smell test.

If there was debt rolled in then it wouldn't be 40%, and if there were late fees, or a penalty interest rate?

My in-laws were paying 59% on a loan. Their credit is ... not good.

My sister's current interest rate is 38% and she was $3k underwater on the car she traded in.  Once she rolled the tax and title fees into the loan she ended up with a $12k loan for an 8k used car....at 38% interest.

Wow, I'm guessing the US doesn't have Usury laws?  Maybe people would see that as impinging on their freedom...

I looked them up for California once and the exceptions were mind boggling.  They don’t apply to banks for example.  WTF kind of useless usury law doesn’t apply to the majority of lenders

Sacramento is I believe the third largest market for lobbyists (behind DC and Albany, NY). Bankers have a lot of money to spend on lobbyists....

Debts_of_Despair

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18623 on: October 03, 2017, 03:15:52 PM »
Leaving work on my bike, I get many genuine "be careful!" warnings.  This is coming from people who do absolutely zero physical activity and probably haven't been on a bike since they were 12.  I almost want to tell them "be careful of getting heart disease!" as they climb into their SUVs.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18624 on: October 03, 2017, 03:53:03 PM »
"We just signed up for 25 year extended repayment plans on my [over $100k] student debt. Now my payment is half what it used to be!"
me: "But isn't the interest rate the same?"
"Well we really want to buy a house [long tirade about annoying 'ethnic' apartment neighbors] and couldn't afford to save while paying off debt."

Later I was walking back from the meeting with another coworker and she said, "wouldn't you want to pay off student loans faster, not slower?" She's going to do alright.

Leaving work on my bike, I get many genuine "be careful!" warnings.  This is coming from people who do absolutely zero physical activity and probably haven't been on a bike since they were 12.  I almost want to tell them "be careful of getting heart disease!" as they climb into their SUVs.

This behavior is common among humans: exaggerating immediate danger and ignoring delayed danger. Luckily I am a robot.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18625 on: October 03, 2017, 04:32:50 PM »
Leaving work on my bike, I get many genuine "be careful!" warnings.  This is coming from people who do absolutely zero physical activity and probably haven't been on a bike since they were 12.  I almost want to tell them "be careful of getting heart disease!" as they climb into their SUVs.

Being on a roadway is a dangerous activity. Doesn't matter if you're walking, biking or driving. Few people walk on the road. Drivers are frequently protected by cars. I'd say biking is the most dangerous things you can do on a road. You're hard to see sometimes, some cyclers feel entitled to do things that increase their risk (like riding two abreast), and you're likely to have very serious injuries if you do get into an accident. Only thing worse you could do is be a motorcyclist, which is only really adding speed to the already dangerous cycling activity. Of course, if you have dedicated cycle lanes, that assessment changes. In this country, cyclists are on the main carriage way, with all the other traffic for the most part. There are cycle lanes at some intersections, but that's about it.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18626 on: October 03, 2017, 05:38:01 PM »
Colleague paid $125 per kid for her son and daughter to go to a show by a YouTube 'star', then an extra $125 per kid for a two minute meet-and-greet with him. Her daughter then spent $100 of her own money on merchandise.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18627 on: October 03, 2017, 05:39:02 PM »
Oh my god, she just rationalised it by saying they enjoyed it much more than they would have enjoyed 10 $50 presents.

ಠ_ಠ

ereamrod

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18628 on: October 04, 2017, 12:23:37 AM »
"I guess you need a really fancy car when you sit in traffic for that long to make it bearable". 🤦🏽‍♀️

ereamrod

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18629 on: October 04, 2017, 12:27:31 AM »

Leaving work on my bike, I get many genuine "be careful!" warnings.  This is coming from people who do absolutely zero physical activity and probably haven't been on a bike since they were 12.  I almost want to tell them "be careful of getting heart disease

This behavior is common among humans: exaggerating immediate danger and ignoring delayed danger. Luckily I am a robot.

A Robot who has their investment contributions on autopilot!!

Linea_Norway

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18630 on: October 04, 2017, 12:50:02 AM »
At our job we will need to make an individual choice to swap to another kind of pension system.

One of the colleagues in my room said that he and his wife had both been saving for pension privately. He talked about 15.000 NOK (approx 1600 USD) per year each. He also said he wanted to retire early. I said that maybe he should save more than that sum per year. But I'm not sure what he had in mind with early retirement, what age he was thinking of. He is now 50. Maybe he just thinks of 62, which is the earliest age for us to get paid out our saved pension.

A Definite Beta Guy

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18631 on: October 04, 2017, 07:39:27 AM »
Co-workers keep bothering me to start investing in stocks. I tell them they I do, through my 401(k), in index funds.

A lot of the young guys are avid  stock pickers, and don't see why you would both want to read business news (like I do) and not want to stock pick (which I don't).

They also buy the company stock, but refuse to buy the company stock THROUGH THE COMPANY which offers a 10% discount, because of the 1 year vesting period.

Index funds, index funds, index funds. They look at me like I just told them to invest all their money in gold (except some of them probably think that's uber-smart).

Linea_Norway

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18632 on: October 04, 2017, 07:43:41 AM »
Co-workers keep bothering me to start investing in stocks. I tell them they I do, through my 401(k), in index funds.

A lot of the young guys are avid  stock pickers, and don't see why you would both want to read business news (like I do) and not want to stock pick (which I don't).

They also buy the company stock, but refuse to buy the company stock THROUGH THE COMPANY which offers a 10% discount, because of the 1 year vesting period.

Index funds, index funds, index funds. They look at me like I just told them to invest all their money in gold (except some of them probably think that's uber-smart).

You have other colleagues than I do. When I recently at the coffee table mentioned to a young colleague who wanted to know more about investing, that she should be buying index funds, no one at the table said anything against it.

My DH has several times made quite good money by investing in his own company, the stock bought with employee discount and sold for a lot more later.

A Definite Beta Guy

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18633 on: October 04, 2017, 08:36:39 AM »
Co-workers keep bothering me to start investing in stocks. I tell them they I do, through my 401(k), in index funds.

A lot of the young guys are avid  stock pickers, and don't see why you would both want to read business news (like I do) and not want to stock pick (which I don't).

They also buy the company stock, but refuse to buy the company stock THROUGH THE COMPANY which offers a 10% discount, because of the 1 year vesting period.

Index funds, index funds, index funds. They look at me like I just told them to invest all their money in gold (except some of them probably think that's uber-smart).

You have other colleagues than I do. When I recently at the coffee table mentioned to a young colleague who wanted to know more about investing, that she should be buying index funds, no one at the table said anything against it.

My DH has several times made quite good money by investing in his own company, the stock bought with employee discount and sold for a lot more later.

I'm hoping it's just a small group of my coworkers and not everyone. These are usually smart young guys that want to be in the know about business. They just all idolize Warren Buffet and think they can beat the market by trading actively (and frequently) and are way too confident in their abilities.


Really hope most of my coworkers aren't in this boat.... :(

merula

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18634 on: October 04, 2017, 08:37:59 AM »
I'm hoping it's just a small group of my coworkers and not everyone. These are usually smart young guys that want to be in the know about business. They just all idolize Warren Buffet and think they can beat the market by trading actively (and frequently) and are way too confident in their abilities.


Really hope most of my coworkers aren't in this boat.... :(

Would it help to point out that Warren Buffet doesn't actively trade? He buys at a discount and holds forever.

A Definite Beta Guy

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18635 on: October 04, 2017, 09:35:14 AM »
I'm hoping it's just a small group of my coworkers and not everyone. These are usually smart young guys that want to be in the know about business. They just all idolize Warren Buffet and think they can beat the market by trading actively (and frequently) and are way too confident in their abilities.


Really hope most of my coworkers aren't in this boat.... :(

Would it help to point out that Warren Buffet doesn't actively trade? He buys at a discount and holds forever.

I might try that route if they bring up the Oracle again. Dude is closer to a Private Equity firm than he is a day-trader.

Probably won't work. These guys romanticize finance. They need to get into currency trading so they can lose all their hair and realize how stupid it is, lol.

MgoSam

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18636 on: October 04, 2017, 10:03:22 AM »
I'm hoping it's just a small group of my coworkers and not everyone. These are usually smart young guys that want to be in the know about business. They just all idolize Warren Buffet and think they can beat the market by trading actively (and frequently) and are way too confident in their abilities.


Really hope most of my coworkers aren't in this boat.... :(

Would it help to point out that Warren Buffet doesn't actively trade? He buys at a discount and holds forever.

I might try that route if they bring up the Oracle again. Dude is closer to a Private Equity firm than he is a day-trader.

Probably won't work. These guys romanticize finance. They need to get into currency trading so they can lose all their hair and realize how stupid it is, lol.


I'm glad that others have caught on that Warren Buffett isn't a day trader. When my company had a showroom in Chicago I spoke to a bunch of salesmen and women whose company's had showrooms there. Nearly all of them were day trading and I just had to shake my head at them. I really wish I could find out how much more money they would have had if they had simply put their investments into index funds instead of moving them around from one hot stock to another. I imagine transaction fees were eating up any return they got. Quite a few of the salesmen are in their 50s and 60s whereas I was in my mid-20s and likely making nearly as much as them.

Digital Dogma

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18637 on: October 04, 2017, 10:15:17 AM »
I'm hoping it's just a small group of my coworkers and not everyone. These are usually smart young guys that want to be in the know about business. They just all idolize Warren Buffet and think they can beat the market by trading actively (and frequently) and are way too confident in their abilities.


Really hope most of my coworkers aren't in this boat.... :(

Would it help to point out that Warren Buffet doesn't actively trade? He buys at a discount and holds forever.

I might try that route if they bring up the Oracle again. Dude is closer to a Private Equity firm than he is a day-trader.

Probably won't work. These guys romanticize finance. They need to get into currency trading so they can lose all their hair and realize how stupid it is, lol.
I see the same types trading crypto-currency, the real winners are the exchanges. These guys stress over every little choice and you never hear a peep about losses, but the second they double up they're self appointed gurus.

nick663

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18638 on: October 04, 2017, 10:51:22 PM »
Even so...40% interest rate?  Still doesn't pass the smell test.

If there was debt rolled in then it wouldn't be 40%, and if there were late fees, or a penalty interest rate?

My in-laws were paying 59% on a loan. Their credit is ... not good.

My sister's current interest rate is 38% and she was $3k underwater on the car she traded in.  Once she rolled the tax and title fees into the loan she ended up with a $12k loan for an 8k used car....at 38% interest.

Wow, I'm guessing the US doesn't have Usury laws?  Maybe people would see that as impinging on their freedom...

Looks like it varies wildly by state, and some states don't have a limit. http://www.loanback.com/category/usury-laws-by-state/

Credit cards are often 24%+. I have a good credit score and I still have credit cards that high (not that it matters). People sometimes even pay down payments with credit cards, though some dealerships may not allow it. Not sure.

It's pretty rare for a dealership to turn a customer down. You would have to have REALLY bad credit, and be trading in a car with a much higher payoff than what it's worth. It can happen if the car has transmission problems or something early in its life.
I put a 4k down payment for a car on a CC.  Varies by dealer and most have a limit because they don't want to absorb the fees.

Good way to meet the minimum spend for a CC bonus. :-)

LennStar

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18639 on: October 05, 2017, 02:43:49 AM »
Leaving work on my bike, I get many genuine "be careful!" warnings.  This is coming from people who do absolutely zero physical activity and probably haven't been on a bike since they were 12.  I almost want to tell them "be careful of getting heart disease!" as they climb into their SUVs.

Being on a roadway is a dangerous activity. Doesn't matter if you're walking, biking or driving. Few people walk on the road. Drivers are frequently protected by cars. I'd say biking is the most dangerous things you can do on a road. You're hard to see sometimes, some cyclers feel entitled to do things that increase their risk (like riding two abreast), and you're likely to have very serious injuries if you do get into an accident. Only thing worse you could do is be a motorcyclist, which is only really adding speed to the already dangerous cycling activity. Of course, if you have dedicated cycle lanes, that assessment changes. In this country, cyclists are on the main carriage way, with all the other traffic for the most part. There are cycle lanes at some intersections, but that's about it.

Actually bike lanes make it more dangerous on average.
Granted, that is based on european studies. I would not be surprised to hear that both the US road system and road users make it even more dangerous then that.


Quote
They just all idolize Warren Buffet and think they can beat the market by trading actively
Hah?????

They idolize someone who says you should invest in index funds and hold for decades and then do the opposite?

Imma

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18640 on: October 05, 2017, 03:06:13 AM »
Leaving work on my bike, I get many genuine "be careful!" warnings.  This is coming from people who do absolutely zero physical activity and probably haven't been on a bike since they were 12.  I almost want to tell them "be careful of getting heart disease!" as they climb into their SUVs.

Being on a roadway is a dangerous activity. Doesn't matter if you're walking, biking or driving. Few people walk on the road. Drivers are frequently protected by cars. I'd say biking is the most dangerous things you can do on a road. You're hard to see sometimes, some cyclers feel entitled to do things that increase their risk (like riding two abreast), and you're likely to have very serious injuries if you do get into an accident. Only thing worse you could do is be a motorcyclist, which is only really adding speed to the already dangerous cycling activity. Of course, if you have dedicated cycle lanes, that assessment changes. In this country, cyclists are on the main carriage way, with all the other traffic for the most part. There are cycle lanes at some intersections, but that's about it.

Actually bike lanes make it more dangerous on average.
Granted, that is based on european studies. I would not be surprised to hear that both the US road system and road users make it even more dangerous then that.


Do you have a source for that? I'm a European and a frequent user of bike lanes and I just can't see how on earth they would make things more dangerous. I feel very safe on a bike lane and most accidents I've witnessed happened with cyclists on smaller main roads, especially when those roads are frequently used by buses or trucks.

Playing with Fire UK

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18641 on: October 05, 2017, 03:08:42 AM »
I wonder if the study looked at bike lanes that are demarcated by a line of paint rather than proper bike lanes that have a physical barrier.

It doesn't fit with my experience either.

kayvent

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18642 on: October 05, 2017, 04:06:31 AM »
I'm hoping it's just a small group of my coworkers and not everyone. These are usually smart young guys that want to be in the know about business. They just all idolize Warren Buffet and think they can beat the market by trading actively (and frequently) and are way too confident in their abilities.


Really hope most of my coworkers aren't in this boat.... :(

Would it help to point out that Warren Buffet doesn't actively trade? He buys at a discount and holds forever.

I wonder if these people realize that Berkshire Hathaway doesn't buy stocks. They buy companies. They own dozens of companies outright and have large shares (double digit percents) of many others. I assert that it is not only because they buy good companies that they do so well; it is also because they are able to influence the companies.

Rollin

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18643 on: October 05, 2017, 05:16:24 AM »

This is the same boss who is leasing two vehicles for his family at $700+/month - minivan for mom/kids and a sedan (Camry? I forget) for him.  His justification is that Toyota Care covers the first two years of the lease, meaning he only has to pay for one year of maintenance before it's time for the next lease.

That makes sense. Brand new Toyota's under warranty are extremely expensive to maintain.

Yes, like maybe $30 for an oil change (DYI of course)?

UKMustache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18644 on: October 05, 2017, 06:27:21 AM »
Today I heard a colleague making a furious phone call to (I presume) her husband. 

She asked if he was using her credit card.. he must have said yes.

She started shouting at him, the bank had just e-mailed her to say she was over her limit. 
Rather than tell him to stop buying things, she said he should use 'one of the cards that isn't maxed out'.

We got paid 6 days ago, if they've run out of money already it's going to be a long month for them.

Panly

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18645 on: October 05, 2017, 06:29:02 AM »

I think the anti-mustachian bit refers to people desperate to buy houses in areas where it would be unquestionably stupid to do so. For example, where I am, the average value of a house (AVERAGE!) is about $426,000. That's for detached. Condos are $209K plus condo fees. So even attempting to follow the '1%' rule of renting (if you were buying for investment) means you'd need to rent it out for $4.5K. Which is unheard of where I am- I'm currently renting a house worth about 380K for 1.5K/month. (Make sure not to tell the landlord he's made a terrible decision...)

So buying a house in Detroit metro is a very mustachian decision. Not necessarily everywhere, for sure.

I know I get super annoyed with co-workers giving me the weird looks when I tell them I still live with students and I'm full time employed. But for me, it's whatever builds the 'stache...

that was the situation a few years ago around here. 

But then prices doubled, if not tripled.

Tell me, who looks "unquestionably stupid" today?    The ones like you and me, renting forever, or the now millionaires pocketing 800k without having lifted a finger. 



merula

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18646 on: October 05, 2017, 06:36:53 AM »
that was the situation a few years ago around here. 

But then prices doubled, if not tripled.

Tell me, who looks "unquestionably stupid" today?    The ones like you and me, renting forever, or the now millionaires pocketing 800k without having lifted a finger.

They still do. It's speculation. Sure, sometimes it works out, but I can show you many, many more examples when it didn't.

And anyway, "speculation" and "pocketed $800k" assumes that they sold the house and moved somewhere cheaper. That's the best-case scenario. It's more likely that they are using that massive gain as a piggy bank.

Panly

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18647 on: October 05, 2017, 06:37:06 AM »


I wonder if these people realize that Berkshire Hathaway doesn't buy stocks. They buy companies. They own dozens of companies outright and have large shares (double digit percents) of many others. I assert that it is not only because they buy good companies that they do so well; it is also because they are able to influence the companies.

before they own a lot of stock, they have to buy a lot of stock.   It seems you haven't realized that.

Panly

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18648 on: October 05, 2017, 06:46:24 AM »
that was the situation a few years ago around here. 

But then prices doubled, if not tripled.

Tell me, who looks "unquestionably stupid" today?    The ones like you and me, renting forever, or the now millionaires pocketing 800k without having lifted a finger.

They still do. It's speculation. Sure, sometimes it works out, but I can show you many, many more examples when it didn't.

And anyway, "speculation" and "pocketed $800k" assumes that they sold the house and moved somewhere cheaper. That's the best-case scenario. It's more likely that they are using that massive gain as a piggy bank.

indeed, that's how the ones who didn't benefit attempt to rationalise it.






BiochemicalDJ

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18649 on: October 05, 2017, 06:57:53 AM »

that was the situation a few years ago around here. 

But then prices doubled, if not tripled.

Tell me, who looks "unquestionably stupid" today?    The ones like you and me, renting forever, or the now millionaires pocketing 800k without having lifted a finger.

Well, I'll tell you that I look "unquestionably stupid" for wimping out and not buying Bitcoin when it was trading at $126 CAD after watching it skyrocket up from $25 CAD within a few months. It's now trading at $5385.91.

Except then you put on your mustachian thinking cap and you remember that hindsight is 20/20, and gambling is a really, really stupid way to plan for retirement.

In Canada, the real estate bubble hasn't burst yet. We haven't had our housing crisis. Once it does and these prices normalize, then I'll consider buying- But the data in my city suggest that housing hasn't "Doubled" or "Tripled". In fact, the gains have been incredibly modest over the last 30 years. Since 1978, the average increase in house prices has been 5.04% per year1  Inflation over that same time period averaged out to 3.27% per year2.

So, people can enjoy their 'mad gainz' on real estate in this city of a fat 1.77%/year.

I'll just sit on my couch potato funds and twiddle my thumbs... Not lifting a finger.

1 (http://www.agentinottawa.com/1956-present-prices.php), retrieved 2017-10-05
2 (http://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/), retrieved 2017-10-05

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!