Author Topic: Overheard at Work  (Read 13252758 times)

change_seeker

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19800 on: March 21, 2018, 12:14:55 PM »
Coworker recently sold their classic VW Beetle, so now she has a significant amount of cash laying around. Naturally she must spend it on something else so she is looking at buying a travel trailer. As if this isn't bad enough, she has asked nearly everyone in the building if they have space for them to park the new trailer. Because they don't have any place for it and you know, paying $150/mo in storage just won't cut it. I've been so stunned I haven't even said a word.

How about you don't buy anything..

I sense a great opportunity here, I have a travel trailer for sale AND will rent the spot to her ;)

fattest_foot

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19801 on: March 22, 2018, 09:44:42 AM »
Went on travel with 5 of my coworkers this week and it was depressing.

Two of our coworkers didn't go with us, but I found out that one is 64 and the other 68, with neither planning on retiring anytime soon because of how poorly they've managed their finances.

My supervisor and his wife (also in management) have a combined income of in excess of $225k and live paycheck to paycheck.

On expressing how "I can't even imagine working at age 68" another coworker (in her mid-50's) said "I will have to work until I'm 72." I replied, "What do you mean have to?" She went on a rant about how they can't save anything and excuse after excuse. I was just sitting there thinking, I sure hope that your health even allows you to work that long if that's your plan.

One of my coworkers is in her early 40's with a husband who is retired military. I actually presented MMM to her a few weeks ago and she seemed excited. Unfortunately they LOVE to spend money. Despite trying to sell her on the fact that she has a massive leg up (the pension being equivalent to a risk free $650k if it was invested), I've seen nothing to show she's actually interested. I told her I would answer any questions she had, but if she didn't ask, I wasn't going to preach to her.

Another coworker is in her early 30's. We drove to the site in her $60k Tahoe. I texted my wife and we figured out that every single car we've owned in our lives (8 total cars, we're in our mid 30's) we'd still paid less than that in total. Anyway, on the way they stopped at Starbucks where she spilled her drink in her clown car. And then freaked out about; which I suppose is understandable when your car costs sixty thousand dollars! We went out to dinner the other night and watched her parallel park. She was super careful about not hitting the curb. Turns out her wheels were $1000 each. She's mentioned Dave Ramsey a few times which I suppose is a positive, but actually saving seems to be a foreign concept as long as you're not "in debt."

I've decided we'll just keep our mouth shut about finances from here on out. I imagine I'll end up retiring before every single one of them except the 68 year old.

Just Joe

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19802 on: March 22, 2018, 01:30:53 PM »
Maybe I saw your coworker in traffic the other day: big SUV with a front license plate that said in fancy script "Blessed". Hopefully they were thankful for more than their material possessions.

DutchGirl

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19803 on: March 23, 2018, 12:20:19 AM »
During a meeting at work:

Colleague: Hank did good for himself. He retired early.
Me, interested: Oh, at what age?
Colleague: Oh, I don't know, but before official retirement age.

Me, thinking: hmm, probably at age 63 instead of 65 or so. Okay, I'm not so interested anymore.

mm1970

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19804 on: March 23, 2018, 09:03:29 AM »
Went on travel with 5 of my coworkers this week and it was depressing.

Two of our coworkers didn't go with us, but I found out that one is 64 and the other 68, with neither planning on retiring anytime soon because of how poorly they've managed their finances.

My supervisor and his wife (also in management) have a combined income of in excess of $225k and live paycheck to paycheck.

On expressing how "I can't even imagine working at age 68" another coworker (in her mid-50's) said "I will have to work until I'm 72." I replied, "What do you mean have to?" She went on a rant about how they can't save anything and excuse after excuse. I was just sitting there thinking, I sure hope that your health even allows you to work that long if that's your plan.

One of my coworkers is in her early 40's with a husband who is retired military. I actually presented MMM to her a few weeks ago and she seemed excited. Unfortunately they LOVE to spend money. Despite trying to sell her on the fact that she has a massive leg up (the pension being equivalent to a risk free $650k if it was invested), I've seen nothing to show she's actually interested. I told her I would answer any questions she had, but if she didn't ask, I wasn't going to preach to her.

Another coworker is in her early 30's. We drove to the site in her $60k Tahoe. I texted my wife and we figured out that every single car we've owned in our lives (8 total cars, we're in our mid 30's) we'd still paid less than that in total. Anyway, on the way they stopped at Starbucks where she spilled her drink in her clown car. And then freaked out about; which I suppose is understandable when your car costs sixty thousand dollars! We went out to dinner the other night and watched her parallel park. She was super careful about not hitting the curb. Turns out her wheels were $1000 each. She's mentioned Dave Ramsey a few times which I suppose is a positive, but actually saving seems to be a foreign concept as long as you're not "in debt."

I've decided we'll just keep our mouth shut about finances from here on out. I imagine I'll end up retiring before every single one of them except the 68 year old.

Oh boy.

I had a convo with a coworker yesterday who mentioned that he's never really thought about money.  "I just buy what I want."  I joked "Maybe that's why you say you won't ever retire, not just that you put 4 kids through college."  Then he said "well, I don't even remember how many decades ago it was when I made even only $100k."  Um, thanks man.  Wasn't too long ago for me.

dcheesi

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19805 on: March 23, 2018, 09:20:37 AM »
Went on travel with 5 of my coworkers this week and it was depressing.

Two of our coworkers didn't go with us, but I found out that one is 64 and the other 68, with neither planning on retiring anytime soon because of how poorly they've managed their finances.

My supervisor and his wife (also in management) have a combined income of in excess of $225k and live paycheck to paycheck.

On expressing how "I can't even imagine working at age 68" another coworker (in her mid-50's) said "I will have to work until I'm 72." I replied, "What do you mean have to?" She went on a rant about how they can't save anything and excuse after excuse. I was just sitting there thinking, I sure hope that your health even allows you to work that long if that's your plan.

One of my coworkers is in her early 40's with a husband who is retired military. I actually presented MMM to her a few weeks ago and she seemed excited. Unfortunately they LOVE to spend money. Despite trying to sell her on the fact that she has a massive leg up (the pension being equivalent to a risk free $650k if it was invested), I've seen nothing to show she's actually interested. I told her I would answer any questions she had, but if she didn't ask, I wasn't going to preach to her.

Another coworker is in her early 30's. We drove to the site in her $60k Tahoe. I texted my wife and we figured out that every single car we've owned in our lives (8 total cars, we're in our mid 30's) we'd still paid less than that in total. Anyway, on the way they stopped at Starbucks where she spilled her drink in her clown car. And then freaked out about; which I suppose is understandable when your car costs sixty thousand dollars! We went out to dinner the other night and watched her parallel park. She was super careful about not hitting the curb. Turns out her wheels were $1000 each. She's mentioned Dave Ramsey a few times which I suppose is a positive, but actually saving seems to be a foreign concept as long as you're not "in debt."

I've decided we'll just keep our mouth shut about finances from here on out. I imagine I'll end up retiring before every single one of them except the 68 year old.

Oh boy.

I had a convo with a coworker yesterday who mentioned that he's never really thought about money.  "I just buy what I want."  I joked "Maybe that's why you say you won't ever retire, not just that you put 4 kids through college."  Then he said "well, I don't even remember how many decades ago it was when I made even only $100k."  Um, thanks man.  Wasn't too long ago for me.
Pre-mustache, I considered "not thinking about money" to be my greatest luxury. I wasn't making anywhere near $100k at the time, but a combination of LCoL and instinctive cheapness meant that my bank account still grew (slowly) without my ever having to consciously budget.

Now I look back and shake my head, thinking about all the money I could have been socking away with only a minor amount of thought applied to my finances!

RyanAtTanagra

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19806 on: March 23, 2018, 10:12:17 AM »
Oh boy.

I had a convo with a coworker yesterday who mentioned that he's never really thought about money.  "I just buy what I want."  I joked "Maybe that's why you say you won't ever retire, not just that you put 4 kids through college."  Then he said "well, I don't even remember how many decades ago it was when I made even only $100k."  Um, thanks man.  Wasn't too long ago for me.
Pre-mustache, I considered "not thinking about money" to be my greatest luxury. I wasn't making anywhere near $100k at the time, but a combination of LCoL and instinctive cheapness meant that my bank account still grew (slowly) without my ever having to consciously budget.

Now I look back and shake my head, thinking about all the money I could have been socking away with only a minor amount of thought applied to my finances!

I never used to think about money.  Oddly enough (not really), I was always worried/stressed about it though.  Now I think about money a lot (maybe too much), but I never worry about it anymore!

jax8

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19807 on: March 23, 2018, 10:33:32 AM »
Yesterday my officemate said, "I wish we could name a dollar amount to contribute to our 401Ks instead of a percentage.  I wish I could just put $100 in there instead of $36.64 or whatever it works out to be. Then maybe I could get somewhere."

We both are in our late 30's and we both make around $38,000.  I'm contributing a flat dollar amount of $300 per pay--she's contributing $36.64.  I told her that yes, we can in fact ask for a flat rate because that's exactly what I'm doing, and to email HR asap.

Yikes.

Penn42

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19808 on: March 24, 2018, 08:47:12 AM »
The latest circumstance that had me shaking my head at work. 

Coworker really doesn't like his job, but doesn't think he'll be able to retire for the better part of two decades.  He's also worried about how he's going to help pay for his kids college.  His household income is over 150k, he doesn't max his 401k or have an IRA and buys things ALL THE TIME!  He came in the other week and marked down 9 days off in April to go on a vacation that wasn't in the plans until the night before.  It's sad some people don't see they have control over this stuff. 

I like this coworker and wish there was someway I could help without being preachy.  I'm also much younger and in a subordinate position which always complicates things.

Roadrunner53

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19809 on: March 24, 2018, 12:30:23 PM »
That is a sticky subject to discuss money issues with a coworker! Maybe just discuss your desire to retire in 20+/- years and how you are taking advantage of the company 401K and the match they give. Tell him your plans and maybe you will put a bug in his head. Tell him how you are leading a frugal life so you can achieve retirement early. That is really all you can do. Unless he asks for help.

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19810 on: March 24, 2018, 03:01:09 PM »
Co-worker excitedly announced he was going to KMart after work. I asked what he intended buying and he said 'anything I want!'. Just a spend for entertainment exercise by the sound of it.

nick663

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19811 on: March 24, 2018, 03:15:29 PM »
Co-worker excitedly announced he was going to KMart after work. I asked what he intended buying and he said 'anything I want!'. Just a spend for entertainment exercise by the sound of it.
Is it sad that I assumed the coworker was going to KMart for a "going out of business" sale?

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19812 on: March 24, 2018, 03:27:04 PM »
Co-worker excitedly announced he was going to KMart after work. I asked what he intended buying and he said 'anything I want!'. Just a spend for entertainment exercise by the sound of it.
Is it sad that I assumed the coworker was going to KMart for a "going out of business" sale?

Would it matter? A set of towels that you don't need at $30 is pretty much the same as a set of towels that you don't need for $10.

Nudelkopf

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19813 on: March 26, 2018, 12:15:12 AM »
Coworker: "You're not allowed to retire until you're 67. The government won't let you."

Ummmmm, yeah, fuck off. This is why he's 50 & has no assets to his name.

Freedomin5

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19814 on: March 26, 2018, 06:32:56 AM »
Coworker was talking about her weekend and how she just happened to be walking past the (very expensive) revolving restaurant in the city and decided to have dinner there “just cuz it was a nice day, and why not?” She makes $30k a year. Sigh.

ducky19

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19815 on: March 26, 2018, 07:37:34 AM »
Coworker: "You're not allowed to retire until you're 67. The government won't let you."

Ummmmm, yeah, fuck off. This is why he's 50 & has no assets to his name.

This is true if your retirement plan is social security (technically 62, I guess). Sad though, if they actually believe the "gub'ment" won't let you retire before that...

Just Joe

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19816 on: March 26, 2018, 09:06:59 AM »
Coworker: "You're not allowed to retire until you're 67. The government won't let you."

Ummmmm, yeah, fuck off. This is why he's 50 & has no assets to his name.

This is true if your retirement plan is social security (technically 62, I guess). Sad though, if they actually believe the "gub'ment" won't let you retire before that...

Maybe they are the type that functions on heresay rather than facts. Not a good way to live life.

Samuel

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19817 on: March 26, 2018, 09:38:50 AM »
This one is from last September, when Apple announced their latest batch of fancy new stuff. The morning after the announcement a coworker (who was always coming in with some cool new gadget) excitedly cornered me...

CW: "Are you getting an iPhone X!?"
Me: "Uh, no."
CW: (disappointed) "Oh. What about the new Apple TV, the fifth generation? I'm getting it so I can watch my library in 4k..."
Me: "Nope." (then think for a second...) "But if you want to sell your old one I might take it off your hands" (for a deal, since you obviously don't care about money)
CW: "Sure! I have the first gen, the third gen, and the fourth gen. Which one?"

He jumped ship before I could close the deal (don't really need an Apple TV anyways), but good lord, how much stuff do you buy man?

Uturn

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19818 on: March 26, 2018, 09:55:47 AM »
Coworker:  Oh, my neighborhood would be a great place for you to buy in.  Lots of smaller homes.

So I look up the neighborhood on Zillow.  Smallest house I found was 3200 sq ft. 

FreshPrincess

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19819 on: March 30, 2018, 02:17:49 AM »
Co-worker excitedly announced he was going to KMart after work. I asked what he intended buying and he said 'anything I want!'. Just a spend for entertainment exercise by the sound of it.
Is it sad that I assumed the coworker was going to KMart for a "going out of business" sale?

I had similar thoughts.  First I thought "who goes to K-Mart?" and then I thought "wait, there are still K-Marts?"

FindingFI

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19820 on: March 30, 2018, 05:53:29 AM »
Got to chatting with a coworker yesterday about retirement contributions and she told me about a method she has been using for two years to get a “better” return.  She contributes 5% to get the full employer match, which isn’t great but at least she’s getting all the available free money, so points for that.

But then it took a turn for the worse.  She has been taking out loans from her retirement account and honestly thought that the 3% interest rate was money that she was “making” because more went back into the retirement account than what she took out.  And that it was good because it was way more than the 0.1% that her savings accounts makes.

The story has a happy ending though! It took a few minutes to explain the 6-8% return from the market that she was missing out on with this strategy and that the 3% interest that was going back into her retirement account was her money anyway so she wasn’t “making” anything.  She’s as smart person, but had a fundamental misunderstanding of how market returns and retirement account loans work. So now she’s done taking any new loans and is working on how much to increase her contributions instead to get that money into her account fro the beginning. We even started talking about which funds to put money into and the contribution cap.  Got high hopes for this one!

FreshPrincess

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19821 on: March 30, 2018, 06:16:11 AM »
Got to chatting with a coworker yesterday about retirement contributions and she told me about a method she has been using for two years to get a “better” return.  She contributes 5% to get the full employer match, which isn’t great but at least she’s getting all the available free money, so points for that.

But then it took a turn for the worse.  She has been taking out loans from her retirement account and honestly thought that the 3% interest rate was money that she was “making” because more went back into the retirement account than what she took out.  And that it was good because it was way more than the 0.1% that her savings accounts makes.

The story has a happy ending though! It took a few minutes to explain the 6-8% return from the market that she was missing out on with this strategy and that the 3% interest that was going back into her retirement account was her money anyway so she wasn’t “making” anything.  She’s as smart person, but had a fundamental misunderstanding of how market returns and retirement account loans work. So now she’s done taking any new loans and is working on how much to increase her contributions instead to get that money into her account fro the beginning. We even started talking about which funds to put money into and the contribution cap.  Got high hopes for this one!

Oh, man.  My former TPA/Retirement Plan Administrator heart just broke for her.  I saw too many brokers and advisors encouraging people to take loans against their retirement accounts like they were a revolving credit card or checking account.  I would do the behind the scenes administration and see people with low balances and outstanding loans.  Shame, shame.  And not in a finger-wagging way... in a "it's a shame" kind of way.  It would make me sad.

"Set it and forget it" was the best advice I ever got.  And looking back now, as much as I HATED retirement plan administration... I thank my lucky stars I fell into it because I started saving early.  Probably wouldn't have otherwise.

nick663

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19822 on: March 30, 2018, 08:07:40 AM »
Co-worker excitedly announced he was going to KMart after work. I asked what he intended buying and he said 'anything I want!'. Just a spend for entertainment exercise by the sound of it.
Is it sad that I assumed the coworker was going to KMart for a "going out of business" sale?

Would it matter? A set of towels that you don't need at $30 is pretty much the same as a set of towels that you don't need for $10.
Sorry, that was just a snarky comment about the finances of KMart as a company.  They have closed all of their stores in my area.

Davnasty

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19823 on: March 30, 2018, 12:27:41 PM »
Co-worker excitedly announced he was going to KMart after work. I asked what he intended buying and he said 'anything I want!'. Just a spend for entertainment exercise by the sound of it.
Is it sad that I assumed the coworker was going to KMart for a "going out of business" sale?

Would it matter? A set of towels that you don't need at $30 is pretty much the same as a set of towels that you don't need for $10.
Sorry, that was just a snarky comment about the finances of KMart as a company.  They have closed all of their stores in my area.

Oh shit! K-mart still exists?

The last time I was in one of those stores it felt more like a flea market than a big-box store, and that was at least 5 years ago. I thought it was overpriced even though half the crap had a clearance sticker and the other half had no discernable pricetag. Open boxes, unfolded clothes lying around and even some broken products on the shelves. Employees were like meerkats. Sightings were rare and if one popped up and saw you, they were gone again.

How is this place still in business?

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19824 on: March 30, 2018, 02:58:03 PM »
Kmart is quite different on this side of the globe. They seem to specialise in high end looking, low end prices. But they're still cheap crap at the end of the day. Don't think they'll be out of business anytime soon

NaN

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19825 on: April 01, 2018, 04:28:45 PM »
Co-worker, an intern transferring over to full time in several months, was asking another co-worker about auto-loans. He apparently already has his new car picked out. He had not purchased his new car, but was asking the other co-worker if he could get the dealer financing to start his loan payments after he starts in several months. Older coworker said "Sure, everything is negotiable." Meanwhile, intern co-worker, "Yeah, it seems doable, they will still be charging interest until I start paying."

Just Joe

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19826 on: April 02, 2018, 08:55:15 AM »
Co-worker excitedly announced he was going to KMart after work. I asked what he intended buying and he said 'anything I want!'. Just a spend for entertainment exercise by the sound of it.
Is it sad that I assumed the coworker was going to KMart for a "going out of business" sale?

Would it matter? A set of towels that you don't need at $30 is pretty much the same as a set of towels that you don't need for $10.
Sorry, that was just a snarky comment about the finances of KMart as a company.  They have closed all of their stores in my area.

Oh shit! K-mart still exists?

The last time I was in one of those stores it felt more like a flea market than a big-box store, and that was at least 5 years ago. I thought it was overpriced even though half the crap had a clearance sticker and the other half had no discernable pricetag. Open boxes, unfolded clothes lying around and even some broken products on the shelves. Employees were like meerkats. Sightings were rare and if one popped up and saw you, they were gone again.

How is this place still in business?

The stores definitely varied. Our local store was well kept until the day it closed. Fair prices, decent stuff for a discount store, and a heck of a lot easier to get in and out of than a WalMart. Then our KMart closed.

I visited other stores in surrounding counties and they were dumps. If that was a the morn then no wonder nobody wanted to shop there.

talltexan

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19827 on: April 05, 2018, 09:17:53 AM »
Went on travel with 5 of my coworkers this week and it was depressing.

Two of our coworkers didn't go with us, but I found out that one is 64 and the other 68, with neither planning on retiring anytime soon because of how poorly they've managed their finances.

My supervisor and his wife (also in management) have a combined income of in excess of $225k and live paycheck to paycheck.

On expressing how "I can't even imagine working at age 68" another coworker (in her mid-50's) said "I will have to work until I'm 72." I replied, "What do you mean have to?" She went on a rant about how they can't save anything and excuse after excuse. I was just sitting there thinking, I sure hope that your health even allows you to work that long if that's your plan.

One of my coworkers is in her early 40's with a husband who is retired military. I actually presented MMM to her a few weeks ago and she seemed excited. Unfortunately they LOVE to spend money. Despite trying to sell her on the fact that she has a massive leg up (the pension being equivalent to a risk free $650k if it was invested), I've seen nothing to show she's actually interested. I told her I would answer any questions she had, but if she didn't ask, I wasn't going to preach to her.

Another coworker is in her early 30's. We drove to the site in her $60k Tahoe. I texted my wife and we figured out that every single car we've owned in our lives (8 total cars, we're in our mid 30's) we'd still paid less than that in total. Anyway, on the way they stopped at Starbucks where she spilled her drink in her clown car. And then freaked out about; which I suppose is understandable when your car costs sixty thousand dollars! We went out to dinner the other night and watched her parallel park. She was super careful about not hitting the curb. Turns out her wheels were $1000 each. She's mentioned Dave Ramsey a few times which I suppose is a positive, but actually saving seems to be a foreign concept as long as you're not "in debt."

I've decided we'll just keep our mouth shut about finances from here on out. I imagine I'll end up retiring before every single one of them except the 68 year old.

Based on the Ramsey name-dropping, it sounds as though your younger co-worker deserves at least some credit for saving up and paying cash for her Tahoe. Or she could be like me and just listen to it for pure entertainment.

Inaya

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19828 on: April 05, 2018, 10:04:00 AM »
My company just released (internally) some statistics about employee utilization of benefits. Apparently 86% of employees participate in the 401k plan. Which sounds great, until you find out that the company contributes 3% of every employee's salary, pre-match, regardless of employee contribution. As in, even if you contribute 0%, you still get 3% from the company. Every employee is automatically opted in when they're hired.

In other words, ~2500 employees went out of their way to opt out of free money.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2018, 10:06:08 AM by Inaya »

avalanchecity

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19829 on: April 05, 2018, 12:30:13 PM »
i have an older, more senior coworker i spend a lot of time with, as we're the only two women in our immediate office. i also know roughly what she makes, since we work for the federal government and pay grades are automatically openly displayed in a lot of programs, like e-mail. CW earns roughly double what i do, but is constantly broke because she spends her money without any thought at all -- i.e. paying $3 for a toasted bagel with cream cheese at starbucks every morning instead of spending $3 on a week's worth of bagels and cream cheese at the grocery store.

she and her husband have been married for about five years, but they're still paying off her engagement ring. they didn't buy a wedding ring for her at the time because they couldn't afford any she wanted, but a couple of months ago it really started to bother her that she didn't have one. she told me she worked hard, and she deserved to treat herself every now and then. which i mean, yeah, i agree with that -- but not when you've also just told me you have less than a dollar in savings. you don't deserve things you haven't earned.

so she shops around, and ends up getting not one - because again, she deserves it -- but TWO wedding bands, each studded with diamonds, to wear with her engagement ring. she financed both rings, so now, although she can flash around something really shiny and pretty any time she gestures, she's carrying the equivalent of $7K in debt on her hand every day.

solon

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19830 on: April 05, 2018, 12:34:18 PM »
My company just released (internally) some statistics about employee utilization of benefits. Apparently 86% of employees participate in the 401k plan. Which sounds great, until you find out that the company contributes 3% of every employee's salary, pre-match, regardless of employee contribution. As in, even if you contribute 0%, you still get 3% from the company. Every employee is automatically opted in when they're hired.

In other words, ~2500 employees went out of their way to opt out of free money.

I can't come up with the words...

Literally, I wrote two responses to this story and erased them both because they didn't do justice to the level of stupidity.

dcheesi

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19831 on: April 05, 2018, 12:38:27 PM »
My company just released (internally) some statistics about employee utilization of benefits. Apparently 86% of employees participate in the 401k plan. Which sounds great, until you find out that the company contributes 3% of every employee's salary, pre-match, regardless of employee contribution. As in, even if you contribute 0%, you still get 3% from the company. Every employee is automatically opted in when they're hired.

In other words, ~2500 employees went out of their way to opt out of free money.
Are you sure all employees are eligible? It could be interns or part-time employees that don't get that benefit?

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19832 on: April 05, 2018, 12:43:29 PM »
My company just released (internally) some statistics about employee utilization of benefits. Apparently 86% of employees participate in the 401k plan. Which sounds great, until you find out that the company contributes 3% of every employee's salary, pre-match, regardless of employee contribution. As in, even if you contribute 0%, you still get 3% from the company. Every employee is automatically opted in when they're hired.

In other words, ~2500 employees went out of their way to opt out of free money.
Are you sure all employees are eligible? It could be interns or part-time employees that don't get that benefit?


It's a day-one benefit for all regular employees. If you're eligible to be in the 401k, you get the free 3% (prorated if your start date is in Q4). They could be counting interns and contractors, but as they're not eligible for the 401k program at all, I would be very surprised if they were included in the total.

solon

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19833 on: April 05, 2018, 12:43:05 PM »
My company just released (internally) some statistics about employee utilization of benefits. Apparently 86% of employees participate in the 401k plan. Which sounds great, until you find out that the company contributes 3% of every employee's salary, pre-match, regardless of employee contribution. As in, even if you contribute 0%, you still get 3% from the company. Every employee is automatically opted in when they're hired.

In other words, ~2500 employees went out of their way to opt out of free money.
Are you sure all employees are eligible? It could be interns or part-time employees that don't get that benefit?

If that was the explanation, then they wouldn't say "86% of employees participate". They would say "100% of eligible employees participate." Or in other words, there's no reason to track the number of ineligible employees who don't participate.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19834 on: April 05, 2018, 12:44:12 PM »
i have an older, more senior coworker i spend a lot of time with, as we're the only two women in our immediate office. i also know roughly what she makes, since we work for the federal government and pay grades are automatically openly displayed in a lot of programs, like e-mail. CW earns roughly double what i do, but is constantly broke because she spends her money without any thought at all -- i.e. paying $3 for a toasted bagel with cream cheese at starbucks every morning instead of spending $3 on a week's worth of bagels and cream cheese at the grocery store.

she and her husband have been married for about five years, but they're still paying off her engagement ring. they didn't buy a wedding ring for her at the time because they couldn't afford any she wanted, but a couple of months ago it really started to bother her that she didn't have one. she told me she worked hard, and she deserved to treat herself every now and then. which i mean, yeah, i agree with that -- but not when you've also just told me you have less than a dollar in savings. you don't deserve things you haven't earned.

so she shops around, and ends up getting not one - because again, she deserves it -- but TWO wedding bands, each studded with diamonds, to wear with her engagement ring. she financed both rings, so now, although she can flash around something really shiny and pretty any time she gestures, she's carrying the equivalent of $7K in debt on her hand every day.

I don't understand. Any of this. It sounds like she treats herself more than every now and then. More like several times a day.

And 2 wedding bands! How did they arrive at that decision? I hope they don't do that when they shop for cars... "I really like the bmw but it just doesn't fit as many shopping bags as the suburban. I know, we'll get both!"

Inaya

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19835 on: April 05, 2018, 12:58:39 PM »
My company just released (internally) some statistics about employee utilization of benefits. Apparently 86% of employees participate in the 401k plan. Which sounds great, until you find out that the company contributes 3% of every employee's salary, pre-match, regardless of employee contribution. As in, even if you contribute 0%, you still get 3% from the company. Every employee is automatically opted in when they're hired.

In other words, ~2500 employees went out of their way to opt out of free money.

Follow up. I was discussing this with an acquaintance within the company. She was similarly surprised that people would opt out. However, at one point she said, "I actually don't contribute much to my 401k because there aren't any options for storing the money that aren't in the stock market. I would do it if there was a money market option or something similar."

In her defense, she is older and much closer to traditional retirement age than I am, so she's probably extremely risk averse. She probably wants to protect her funds from market fluctuations. I understand to some extent. But we do have access to an S&P500 index with a .02% ER and a decent bond index as well, so I'm sad for her that she's so risk averse that she's missing out on potential earnings when she needs them most (especially last year's run up). If I was her age, I'd be doing catch up contributions to reduce my taxable income even further.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19836 on: April 05, 2018, 02:33:08 PM »

so she shops around, and ends up getting not one - because again, she deserves it -- but TWO wedding bands, each studded with diamonds, to wear with her engagement ring. she financed both rings, so now, although she can flash around something really shiny and pretty any time she gestures, she's carrying the equivalent of $7K in debt on her hand every day.

I don't even know what to say about this. Two wedding rings, an engagement ring that hasn't been paid off FIVE years after the wedding and not a single $ in savings. I didn't even know people financed wedding rings...  I think a financed engagement ring would be a very good reason to say NO.

To be fair, my future H and I are considering two rings because we just can't agree over the design. He wants a wooden ring, I love them too, but I want a golden ring that will last a lifetime and I can pass on to my grandchildren ( I know, stupid sentimentality). I already feel guilty about this because having two rings is just insane and decadent. 

We're going to spend about €500 on all rings together, if we do it, and it's the only thing we're going to spend money on apart from the paperwork.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19837 on: April 05, 2018, 04:20:38 PM »

so she shops around, and ends up getting not one - because again, she deserves it -- but TWO wedding bands, each studded with diamonds, to wear with her engagement ring. she financed both rings, so now, although she can flash around something really shiny and pretty any time she gestures, she's carrying the equivalent of $7K in debt on her hand every day.

I don't even know what to say about this. Two wedding rings, an engagement ring that hasn't been paid off FIVE years after the wedding and not a single $ in savings. I didn't even know people financed wedding rings...  I think a financed engagement ring would be a very good reason to say NO.

To be fair, my future H and I are considering two rings because we just can't agree over the design. He wants a wooden ring, I love them too, but I want a golden ring that will last a lifetime and I can pass on to my grandchildren ( I know, stupid sentimentality). I already feel guilty about this because having two rings is just insane and decadent. 

We're going to spend about €500 on all rings together, if we do it, and it's the only thing we're going to spend money on apart from the paperwork.

I am positive that if you keep looking you can find a ring that is both wood and gold.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19838 on: April 05, 2018, 05:04:08 PM »
My company just released (internally) some statistics about employee utilization of benefits. Apparently 86% of employees participate in the 401k plan. Which sounds great, until you find out that the company contributes 3% of every employee's salary, pre-match, regardless of employee contribution. As in, even if you contribute 0%, you still get 3% from the company. Every employee is automatically opted in when they're hired.

In other words, ~2500 employees went out of their way to opt out of free money.

Follow up. I was discussing this with an acquaintance within the company. She was similarly surprised that people would opt out. However, at one point she said, "I actually don't contribute much to my 401k because there aren't any options for storing the money that aren't in the stock market. I would do it if there was a money market option or something similar."

In her defense, she is older and much closer to traditional retirement age than I am, so she's probably extremely risk averse. She probably wants to protect her funds from market fluctuations. I understand to some extent. But we do have access to an S&P500 index with a .02% ER and a decent bond index as well, so I'm sad for her that she's so risk averse that she's missing out on potential earnings when she needs them most (especially last year's run up). If I was her age, I'd be doing catch up contributions to reduce my taxable income even further.

I'm actually surprised there isn't something like that as an option. I thought most/all of these plans included some shitty low-interest-bearing, 100% safe option for the people who are scared of their own shadows.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19839 on: April 05, 2018, 05:41:53 PM »
I am positive that if you keep looking you can find a ring that is both wood and gold.

I saw one maybe that had petrified wood as a component?

EuroGap

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19840 on: April 06, 2018, 12:25:20 AM »
Probably a common mindset, but I heard this gem yesterday:

"I couldn't afford working part time, free time costs way too much"

Linea_Norway

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19841 on: April 06, 2018, 01:49:37 AM »
Probably a common mindset, but I heard this gem yesterday:

"I couldn't afford working part time, free time costs way too much"

:-D

The Norwegian TV recently had an topic about the fact that many middle-aged women from the so-called better west side of Oslo stopped working at 50 or so. According to the TV channel and our industry minister there were way too many women making this choice.

What these women spent their free time on was: shopping in a fancy shopping center that also has some nice cafés where I'm sure you can drink expensive coffee with your friends.


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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19842 on: April 06, 2018, 06:05:57 AM »

so she shops around, and ends up getting not one - because again, she deserves it -- but TWO wedding bands, each studded with diamonds, to wear with her engagement ring. she financed both rings, so now, although she can flash around something really shiny and pretty any time she gestures, she's carrying the equivalent of $7K in debt on her hand every day.

I don't even know what to say about this. Two wedding rings, an engagement ring that hasn't been paid off FIVE years after the wedding and not a single $ in savings. I didn't even know people financed wedding rings...  I think a financed engagement ring would be a very good reason to say NO.

To be fair, my future H and I are considering two rings because we just can't agree over the design. He wants a wooden ring, I love them too, but I want a golden ring that will last a lifetime and I can pass on to my grandchildren ( I know, stupid sentimentality). I already feel guilty about this because having two rings is just insane and decadent. 

We're going to spend about €500 on all rings together, if we do it, and it's the only thing we're going to spend money on apart from the paperwork.

My coworker has an iPhone X with a ring on the back you can use to hold it or prop it up or whatever.  I put it on my finger then realized, wow this thing costs way more than the wedding ring I got my wife!  When I told everyone they said they were not surprised ;)

I have never seen a wooden ring, sounds cool.  Ours are reticulated rose gold, looks good and reasonably priced.  Diamonds are silly.

SwitchActiveDWG

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19843 on: April 06, 2018, 07:43:01 AM »
All this wedding ring talk... I have 6 wedding bands. Six pack of the silicon bands on an amazon lightning deal for $2.99. They’ve lasted me years.

Hirondelle

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19844 on: April 06, 2018, 08:20:14 AM »
I helped a co-worker filling in forms for health insurance benefits/subsidies (he doesn't speak the language - forms aren't available in English) and after we figured how much he'd get he said "oh wow, now I can maybe buy myself a fancy camera for traveling!"

Overall he's not too bad though. He likes to look online for random stuff, but doesn't buy that much in the end. I bet he won't buy the $600 camera he was talking about.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19845 on: April 06, 2018, 09:26:27 AM »
Co-worker excitedly announced he was going to KMart after work. I asked what he intended buying and he said 'anything I want!'. Just a spend for entertainment exercise by the sound of it.
Is it sad that I assumed the coworker was going to KMart for a "going out of business" sale?

Would it matter? A set of towels that you don't need at $30 is pretty much the same as a set of towels that you don't need for $10.
Sorry, that was just a snarky comment about the finances of KMart as a company.  They have closed all of their stores in my area.

Oh shit! K-mart still exists?

The last time I was in one of those stores it felt more like a flea market than a big-box store, and that was at least 5 years ago. I thought it was overpriced even though half the crap had a clearance sticker and the other half had no discernable pricetag. Open boxes, unfolded clothes lying around and even some broken products on the shelves. Employees were like meerkats. Sightings were rare and if one popped up and saw you, they were gone again.

How is this place still in business?

The stores definitely varied. Our local store was well kept until the day it closed. Fair prices, decent stuff for a discount store, and a heck of a lot easier to get in and out of than a WalMart. Then our KMart closed.

I visited other stores in surrounding counties and they were dumps. If that was a the morn then no wonder nobody wanted to shop there.
We had a Kmart about a mile from our home. It was not doing well, anytime I heard about a round of store closings, I thought ours would be closing, but it never did. Then a Walmart that was near by closed, as a new Superwalmart opened about a mile farther away. After that, the Kmart business picked up and a conversation with a manager confirmed that their business really picked up.
 About 2 years later, Walmart reopened the original store, this hit the Kmart hard and it finally did close.

SimplyFinanciallyFree

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19846 on: April 06, 2018, 09:40:59 AM »

so she shops around, and ends up getting not one - because again, she deserves it -- but TWO wedding bands, each studded with diamonds, to wear with her engagement ring. she financed both rings, so now, although she can flash around something really shiny and pretty any time she gestures, she's carrying the equivalent of $7K in debt on her hand every day.

I don't even know what to say about this. Two wedding rings, an engagement ring that hasn't been paid off FIVE years after the wedding and not a single $ in savings. I didn't even know people financed wedding rings...  I think a financed engagement ring would be a very good reason to say NO.

To be fair, my future H and I are considering two rings because we just can't agree over the design. He wants a wooden ring, I love them too, but I want a golden ring that will last a lifetime and I can pass on to my grandchildren ( I know, stupid sentimentality). I already feel guilty about this because having two rings is just insane and decadent. 

We're going to spend about €500 on all rings together, if we do it, and it's the only thing we're going to spend money on apart from the paperwork.

A friend had his ring custom designed and it is made with both wood and gold.  It is beautiful and will certainly last as long as he takes care of it.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19847 on: April 06, 2018, 01:35:39 PM »
I'm a CPA and do corporate accounting. A few jobs ago I worked at a very small company which was a bit of a mess accounting/finance-wise. So for the 2.5 years I was there I spent a lot of energy trying to clean things up. One of the things that entailed was properly reporting executive fringe benefits for tax purposes, which obviously resulted in more taxes being owed by the people receiving these benefits(I was one of them).

One of the company's presidents(miserable woman) who made well north of 200k per year, drove a Masserati, and was a member of a local country club($1k+ monthly dues) snapped at me one day and told me I was taking food off of her family's table by doing this.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19848 on: April 06, 2018, 02:48:24 PM »
A colleague of m8ne will turn 60 this year. He owns a house and acabin, close to his house. The cabin is in fact a small farm with a long driveway. This year had a lot of snow. Therefore my colleague purchased an old tractor to clear away the snow (and to play with it). He has had it for a few weeks and it has already broken down. He would be picking up new parts this afternoon.

TomTX

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #19849 on: April 07, 2018, 06:23:22 AM »

so she shops around, and ends up getting not one - because again, she deserves it -- but TWO wedding bands, each studded with diamonds, to wear with her engagement ring. she financed both rings, so now, although she can flash around something really shiny and pretty any time she gestures, she's carrying the equivalent of $7K in debt on her hand every day.

I don't even know what to say about this. Two wedding rings, an engagement ring that hasn't been paid off FIVE years after the wedding and not a single $ in savings. I didn't even know people financed wedding rings...  I think a financed engagement ring would be a very good reason to say NO.

To be fair, my future H and I are considering two rings because we just can't agree over the design. He wants a wooden ring, I love them too, but I want a golden ring that will last a lifetime and I can pass on to my grandchildren ( I know, stupid sentimentality). I already feel guilty about this because having two rings is just insane and decadent. 

We're going to spend about €500 on all rings together, if we do it, and it's the only thing we're going to spend money on apart from the paperwork.

I am positive that if you keep looking you can find a ring that is both wood and gold.

$30 at Amazon, found in about 15 seconds (admittedly it's gold plated, but the underlying material is tungsten carbide, very tough)

https://www.amazon.com/Tungsten-Carbide-Inlay-Plated-Wedding/dp/B00VMSUJ5U