Author Topic: Overheard at Work  (Read 13252581 times)

killingxspree

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3850 on: August 25, 2014, 11:20:17 PM »
coworker recently mentioned she bought a treadmill. I have one and asked her about its features... and she described it being super fancy and expensive... then she dropped this bomb on me.'I was worried about how we were going to afford it so I asked hubby if we could afford and he said its fine we'll get the payment plan.'  and then she gushed about how awesome her partner was for letting her get it... so the payment plan is 12$ a week. I asked for how long and she said she didn't know. what I found most disturbing is she didn't have the money for a treadmill lying around and she is always complaining about their lack of money. I wonder where it's all going?
edit -didn't see the discussion around lying around. lol I meant in her bank account. You know as some form of savings.
« Last Edit: August 25, 2014, 11:25:50 PM by killingxspree »

87tweetybirds

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3851 on: August 25, 2014, 11:36:51 PM »
A good(positive) overheard at work. I work in a patient care setting, and before a meeting one day we were discussing that much of our news is heard while popping in and out of rooms. My CW said "I was able to make some good money in the stock market from something overheard. They were talking about stock prices falling and that the government wouldn't let the banks fail, so I bought some stock for about $5/share, and when I sold it I sold it for about $25/share." I thought yay! How fantastic that you saw it as an opportunity.

Nudelkopf

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3852 on: August 26, 2014, 12:57:31 AM »
That is hilarious. I actually /do/ have small amounts of cash stashed around my house in places where I'll forget about it. I'll come across it randomly and be like "oh yeah, I left some money here encase I need it. Well, I don't need it now, I guess I'll just leave it there". Its a pretty awesome feeling tbh.
When I was a kid, I picked up a book out of Mum's bookshelf & found she'd been using a $100 note a bookmark. Whoops! Apparently she'd taken cash out for Christmas a few years earlier, and had been bummed when she hadn't found it - she thought she'd lost it somehow. (We weren't a rich family that casually uses money as bookmarks.)

agent_clone

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3853 on: August 26, 2014, 02:11:08 AM »
That is hilarious. I actually /do/ have small amounts of cash stashed around my house in places where I'll forget about it. I'll come across it randomly and be like "oh yeah, I left some money here encase I need it. Well, I don't need it now, I guess I'll just leave it there". Its a pretty awesome feeling tbh.
When I was a kid, I picked up a book out of Mum's bookshelf & found she'd been using a $100 note a bookmark. Whoops! Apparently she'd taken cash out for Christmas a few years earlier, and had been bummed when she hadn't found it - she thought she'd lost it somehow. (We weren't a rich family that casually uses money as bookmarks.)
Apparently there are more $100 notes in circulation in Australia than there are $20 notes, a lot more.  Despite the fact that most people either haven't seen one or wouldn't recognise one...

larmando

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3854 on: August 26, 2014, 06:47:10 AM »
Eh, that's a good one. :) I also got a free credit card (they're a bit harder to find in europe), which I pay in full of course

Hope you picked one that is offering some benefits, eg. the Payback Amex, Deutsche Bahn Mastercard or Cortal Consors Visa.

At the moment I have a lufthansa one (free bc I fly a lot for work) and a barclaycard, also free, with almost a month between the bill and the payment, and with the "free cash withdrawal" perk, which I never saw before in a cc.

I can do without, of course, but it's also nice that I don't need to think how much cash I'll need in a month, I can just save everything upfront when I receive my salary (minus what I have in outstanding bills, which will get debited later during the month, and minus a small buffer), and then any cash I withdraw I just have to account for in the next salary cycle. I'll have a look at the ones you suggest, wife has an amazon one which also has cashback via amazon.

Moonwaves

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3855 on: August 26, 2014, 07:23:43 AM »
Eh, that's a good one. :) I also got a free credit card (they're a bit harder to find in europe), which I pay in full of course

Hope you picked one that is offering some benefits, eg. the Payback Amex, Deutsche Bahn Mastercard or Cortal Consors Visa.

At the moment I have a lufthansa one (free bc I fly a lot for work) and a barclaycard, also free, with almost a month between the bill and the payment, and with the "free cash withdrawal" perk, which I never saw before in a cc.

I can do without, of course, but it's also nice that I don't need to think how much cash I'll need in a month, I can just save everything upfront when I receive my salary (minus what I have in outstanding bills, which will get debited later during the month, and minus a small buffer), and then any cash I withdraw I just have to account for in the next salary cycle. I'll have a look at the ones you suggest, wife has an amazon one which also has cashback via amazon.
I have a BahnCard Mastercard - if you have a BahnCard and use the train at all it's well worth it. I had a mega year a couple of years ago when I signed up - between the bonus sign-up points and booking flights to Australia on it I had enough points to get a return 1st class ticket to Bad Reichenhall as well as a return 2nd class to my Geneva (can get the bus from there to my sister in France). Also, you can maintain a positive balance on the card if you like and it earns interest - it's not much, something like ECB less 0.5% but that's still more than my current account offers.

Astromarine

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3856 on: August 26, 2014, 07:28:11 AM »
my manager, after hearing me and a colleague talk how we have the minimum mandatory health insurance plan with the highest deductible, and just make sure we have some money set aside for medical stuff specifically. CW said he keeps about 3000, to which my manager replied:

"that'd never work with me, which is why I have better insurance. If I had 3k for medical emergencies in the bank, very quickly I'd have a new camera instead."

MillenialMustache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3857 on: August 26, 2014, 07:56:22 AM »
A few weeks after a coworker was hired, she explained to me that she had to have enough life insurance to cover her student loans, because her husband (a pharmacist) was not willing to pay them when she died. Her loans are $70,000. Ok....

Today, she told me that they have $30,000 saved for their five-year-old daughter to go to college.

What kind of logic is that?!?

MillenialMustache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3858 on: August 26, 2014, 08:11:46 AM »
A few weeks after a coworker was hired, she explained to me that she had to have enough life insurance to cover her student loans, because her husband (a pharmacist) was not willing to pay them when she died. Her loans are $70,000. Ok....

Today, she told me that they have $30,000 saved for their five-year-old daughter to go to college.

What kind of logic is that?!?
To be fair, term life can be really cheap. $13 to ensure my wife for our current debts, once the term is up (or once we're out of debt) we'll stop paying it.

BUT, most student loans are discharged on death, and can't be transfered to a spouse. So there's that.
And it looks like I missed your point, lol. They should pay off the student loans now, duh!

Haha, right. I guess I wasn't clear on that. I wasn't too concerned about the life insurance, but when I found out they could pay off half of it but were instead saving it for their five-year-old daughter, that seemed a bit odd to me. Why not just pay her debts?

eyePod

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3859 on: August 26, 2014, 09:28:09 AM »
A few weeks after a coworker was hired, she explained to me that she had to have enough life insurance to cover her student loans, because her husband (a pharmacist) was not willing to pay them when she died. Her loans are $70,000. Ok....

Today, she told me that they have $30,000 saved for their five-year-old daughter to go to college.

What kind of logic is that?!?
To be fair, term life can be really cheap. $13 to ensure my wife for our current debts, once the term is up (or once we're out of debt) we'll stop paying it.

BUT, most student loans are discharged on death, and can't be transfered to a spouse. So there's that.
And it looks like I missed your point, lol. They should pay off the student loans now, duh!

Haha, right. I guess I wasn't clear on that. I wasn't too concerned about the life insurance, but when I found out they could pay off half of it but were instead saving it for their five-year-old daughter, that seemed a bit odd to me. Why not just pay her debts?

But how will their kid get anywhere in life so they can make a lot of money and end up taking care of the parents because the kid feels guilty that their parents stayed in debt to get the kid through college?

larmando

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3860 on: August 26, 2014, 09:44:16 AM »
Eh, that's a good one. :) I also got a free credit card (they're a bit harder to find in europe), which I pay in full of course

Hope you picked one that is offering some benefits, eg. the Payback Amex, Deutsche Bahn Mastercard or Cortal Consors Visa.

At the moment I have a lufthansa one (free bc I fly a lot for work) and a barclaycard, also free, with almost a month between the bill and the payment, and with the "free cash withdrawal" perk, which I never saw before in a cc.

I can do without, of course, but it's also nice that I don't need to think how much cash I'll need in a month, I can just save everything upfront when I receive my salary (minus what I have in outstanding bills, which will get debited later during the month, and minus a small buffer), and then any cash I withdraw I just have to account for in the next salary cycle. I'll have a look at the ones you suggest, wife has an amazon one which also has cashback via amazon.
I have a BahnCard Mastercard - if you have a BahnCard and use the train at all it's well worth it. I had a mega year a couple of years ago when I signed up - between the bonus sign-up points and booking flights to Australia on it I had enough points to get a return 1st class ticket to Bad Reichenhall as well as a return 2nd class to my Geneva (can get the bus from there to my sister in France). Also, you can maintain a positive balance on the card if you like and it earns interest - it's not much, something like ECB less 0.5% but that's still more than my current account offers.

Don't use the train much (a bit, but not much, I end up flying a lot, and have a partner bahncard 25 when we do use the train, which usually pays itself in one/two trips). Also I pay up the cards but normally don't maintain a positive balance on them (given the interest...): qq, isn't ECB-0.5 negative these days? (IIRC ECB is at 0.25 and -0.15...)

Edited to add: I was too optimistic, it's -0.10 (for deposits) and 0.15 (for lending). Either way -0.5 will bring it to way negative, no?
« Last Edit: August 26, 2014, 09:48:48 AM by larmando »

golden1

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3861 on: August 26, 2014, 09:58:03 AM »
So we had a 401K meeting at work this morning.  They were making a few changes to the available funds, including adding plans with lower expense ratios, including some Vanguard funds (yay!).  This one guy raises his hand and asked if that meant that they were trying to get us to buy bad funds because "obviously, the funds with low fees aren't as good as the ones with higher fees".  He said that even though the prospectus sitting right in front of him showed that all the funds and their expense ratios clearly showed that the expense ratios of the funds available for selection were not at all correlated to performance. 

Ugh.

eyePod

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3862 on: August 26, 2014, 10:25:35 AM »
So we had a 401K meeting at work this morning.  They were making a few changes to the available funds, including adding plans with lower expense ratios, including some Vanguard funds (yay!).  This one guy raises his hand and asked if that meant that they were trying to get us to buy bad funds because "obviously, the funds with low fees aren't as good as the ones with higher fees".  He said that even though the prospectus sitting right in front of him showed that all the funds and their expense ratios clearly showed that the expense ratios of the funds available for selection were not at all correlated to performance. 

Ugh.

And that guy is why index funds work!

Ynari

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3863 on: August 26, 2014, 11:03:14 AM »
A couple of weeks ago, I was travelling to a meeting in a coworker's car.  We talk about biking because I bike to work every day from half an hour away.

He says:  "Yeah, I used to bike to work some.  I live just by X stop on the train (very close to work), so it's almost faster to bike than drive.  But ever since my girlfriend moved in, I keep the bike in the basement and it's too much work to get it out."

He lives a mile and a half from work.  It'd be a casual 30 minute walk, or 10 minutes by bike or transit.  About 10 minutes drive in traffic, and then he has to pay for the godawful city parking at $12-14 a day?

Seriously, I'd do anything but drive.

Jack

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3864 on: August 26, 2014, 11:16:46 AM »
He lives a mile and a half from work.  It'd be a casual 30 minute walk, or 10 minutes by bike or transit.  About 10 minutes drive in traffic, and then he has to pay for the godawful city parking at $12-14 a day?

You should point out to him that if he rode a bike he'd be "making" (i.e., saving) $30+/hour.

frugalnacho

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3865 on: August 26, 2014, 12:37:47 PM »
My boss just bought a 2014 GMC yukon to transport his 1 kid (and apparently friends and team mates) around town.  He already owns an impala and 2 trail blazers for just him and his wife. 

I know he has money, but I still can't understand the wastefulness.  4 cars for 2 people? 

I have talked to him about FIRE but he doesn't seem to care.  I talked the math with him, but I think he is already FI, and also he hates his wife and home life, so owning a company gives him an excuse to get out of the house 5 days a week and he can sit around and get drunk every day without his wife.  And he has enough money to commute 45 minutes each way, and own 4 cars, and a boat, and jet skis, and several rental houses, and a thriving business, and spend money like it's going out of style.   He was frugal when he didn't have much money, so I think he is inflating his life style now to keep up with the money, and the money keeps increasing because there is a shortage of people who do what he does so he can charge a decent amount of money, and combined with the fact that he actually likes to get away from his house and family, he has no reason to sell the business.  So he just spends money like crazy.  I need to start buttering him up for my annual raise.

firelight

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3866 on: August 26, 2014, 02:02:48 PM »
Frugalnacho, what does your boss do?

sheepstache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3867 on: August 26, 2014, 03:15:07 PM »
also he hates his wife and home life,

That's what I thought might be going on with that lady from France upthread who was going to go 2 years without seeing her daughter so she could buy shoes or something.  Some people just like an excuse not to spend time with family.

gimp

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3868 on: August 26, 2014, 04:54:28 PM »
That is hilarious. I actually /do/ have small amounts of cash stashed around my house in places where I'll forget about it. I'll come across it randomly and be like "oh yeah, I left some money here encase I need it. Well, I don't need it now, I guess I'll just leave it there". Its a pretty awesome feeling tbh.

I do this with my car. Emergency stash of bills and coins. It's a great idea.

Moonwaves

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3869 on: August 26, 2014, 05:11:27 PM »
Don't use the train much (a bit, but not much, I end up flying a lot, and have a partner bahncard 25 when we do use the train, which usually pays itself in one/two trips). Also I pay up the cards but normally don't maintain a positive balance on them (given the interest...): qq, isn't ECB-0.5 negative these days? (IIRC ECB is at 0.25 and -0.15...)

Edited to add: I was too optimistic, it's -0.10 (for deposits) and 0.15 (for lending). Either way -0.5 will bring it to way negative, no?
As I was writing that I was thinking the same thing. I don't manage to maintain much of a positive balance for long enough to really notice yet but now I'm curious about it. Think I'll phone them to see what they say. Oh, and I just checked a statement and it's ECB -0.3% for balances up to 5,000, ECB over 5,000 and ECB +0.3% for over 20,000 (ha! If I had 20,000, I'd definitely be doing something better with it than leaving it on a credit card!)

fartface

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3870 on: August 26, 2014, 06:13:54 PM »
At a meeting yesterday with seven middle-aged women (myself included) and one young dude. One of these BIOTCHES starts blasting him about an old scooter his grandpa gave him. He's been driving it to work with a milk crate attached to the back. I'm thinking this guy is alright (he also bikes everywhere).

Another snide Biotch says, "Scooters are for teenagers and old people." Table erupts with laughter.

Guy shrugs sheepishly - playing the good sport.  These women are just laying into the poor dude razzing him terribly.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and say, "Well, I guess he's got the last laugh considering he's got no car payment and probably saves $300 a month on gasoline."

That shut the table up pretty quickly. BIOTCHES.

P.S. Last spring we changed 403b providers at work and there were initially problems with the new company posting contributions in a timely manner.  Same group of us were around the table when I asked in general if anyone else was having the problem I was having w/contributions posting to their accounts. Everybody looked at me blankly because NONE OF THEM contribute to the 403b and therefore had no idea what I was talking about EXCEPT Scooter Dude. He also contributes and knew about the technical glitch. Ha!

frugalnacho

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3871 on: August 26, 2014, 07:35:38 PM »
Frugalnacho, what does your boss do?

Environmental consulting.  Mostly air.  The regulations have out paced qualified individuals, so there is more work to be done than qualified people to do it. 

okashira

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3872 on: August 26, 2014, 09:02:30 PM »
At a meeting yesterday with seven middle-aged women (myself included) and one young dude. One of these BIOTCHES starts blasting him about an old scooter his grandpa gave him. He's been driving it to work with a milk crate attached to the back. I'm thinking this guy is alright (he also bikes everywhere).

Another snide Biotch says, "Scooters are for teenagers and old people." Table erupts with laughter.

Guy shrugs sheepishly - playing the good sport.  These women are just laying into the poor dude razzing him terribly.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and say, "Well, I guess he's got the last laugh considering he's got no car payment and probably saves $300 a month on gasoline."

That shut the table up pretty quickly. BIOTCHES.

P.S. Last spring we changed 403b providers at work and there were initially problems with the new company posting contributions in a timely manner.  Same group of us were around the table when I asked in general if anyone else was having the problem I was having w/contributions posting to their accounts. Everybody looked at me blankly because NONE OF THEM contribute to the 403b and therefore had no idea what I was talking about EXCEPT Scooter Dude. He also contributes and knew about the technical glitch. Ha!

That's some serious ownage right there. LOL

Daisy

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3873 on: August 26, 2014, 09:50:05 PM »
my manager, after hearing me and a colleague talk how we have the minimum mandatory health insurance plan with the highest deductible, and just make sure we have some money set aside for medical stuff specifically. CW said he keeps about 3000, to which my manager replied:

"that'd never work with me, which is why I have better insurance. If I had 3k for medical emergencies in the bank, very quickly I'd have a new camera instead."

I wonder how much more a year his good insurance cost him. Was it anything close to 3k?

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3874 on: August 27, 2014, 09:06:00 AM »
At a meeting yesterday with seven middle-aged women (myself included) and one young dude. One of these BIOTCHES starts blasting him about an old scooter his grandpa gave him. He's been driving it to work with a milk crate attached to the back. I'm thinking this guy is alright (he also bikes everywhere).

Another snide Biotch says, "Scooters are for teenagers and old people." Table erupts with laughter.

Guy shrugs sheepishly - playing the good sport.  These women are just laying into the poor dude razzing him terribly.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and say, "Well, I guess he's got the last laugh considering he's got no car payment and probably saves $300 a month on gasoline."

That shut the table up pretty quickly. BIOTCHES.
Great story!  You should cross-post this in the "anti-anti-mustachian heard at work" thread :)

MandalayVA

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3875 on: August 27, 2014, 10:37:06 AM »
P.S. Last spring we changed 403b providers at work and there were initially problems with the new company posting contributions in a timely manner.  Same group of us were around the table when I asked in general if anyone else was having the problem I was having w/contributions posting to their accounts. Everybody looked at me blankly because NONE OF THEM contribute to the 403b and therefore had no idea what I was talking about EXCEPT Scooter Dude. He also contributes and knew about the technical glitch. Ha!

Huzzah for Scooter Dude!

HairyUpperLip

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3876 on: August 27, 2014, 12:51:22 PM »
Someone should invite scooter dude to MMM. :-p

Dezrah

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3877 on: August 27, 2014, 12:55:51 PM »
At a meeting yesterday with seven middle-aged women (myself included) and one young dude. One of these BIOTCHES starts blasting him about an old scooter his grandpa gave him. He's been driving it to work with a milk crate attached to the back. I'm thinking this guy is alright (he also bikes everywhere).

Another snide Biotch says, "Scooters are for teenagers and old people." Table erupts with laughter.

Guy shrugs sheepishly - playing the good sport.  These women are just laying into the poor dude razzing him terribly.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and say, "Well, I guess he's got the last laugh considering he's got no car payment and probably saves $300 a month on gasoline."

That shut the table up pretty quickly. BIOTCHES.

P.S. Last spring we changed 403b providers at work and there were initially problems with the new company posting contributions in a timely manner.  Same group of us were around the table when I asked in general if anyone else was having the problem I was having w/contributions posting to their accounts. Everybody looked at me blankly because NONE OF THEM contribute to the 403b and therefore had no idea what I was talking about EXCEPT Scooter Dude. He also contributes and knew about the technical glitch. Ha!

I love this story, but my favorite part is that you, a 40-year-old self-proclaimed middle-aged woman, goes by the name FartFace and calls people BIOTCHES and Scooter Dude.  Cracks me up.

ScienceRules

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3878 on: August 27, 2014, 01:36:35 PM »
I finally have one, sadly.

One of my good friends at work, who knows about MMM and all that I do to try and save was commenting on how he has no money so he started cooking dinner instead of eating out every night. He also eats out every lunch, just bought a car (we make <$20K a year and he lives 3 miles from work), went on a last minute vacation (book 3 days ahead of time), and is going on a month long vacation in a few weeks. I know he knows what I do to save money because we talk about it all the time, but it's sad because I don't think he will be implementing any of it soon. Even cooking dinner, he commented that he can't wait for a few more paychecks because he is sick of cooking (it's been less than 2 weeks of cooking and for 5 days of that he was on his last minute trip).

wild wendella

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3879 on: August 27, 2014, 02:24:58 PM »
This thread is always so entertaining. I finally have some stories to add.

I've been occasionally biking to work, and I got into a conversation with a guy who lives less than a mile away, possibly half a mile.  He doesn't own a bike.  Claims he wouldn't have anywhere to keep it.  He doesn't even consider walking to work, because he might get sweaty.  Also, for the occasional night he works late, he feels safer driving his car.  It's just more convenient.

Yesterday I had a long car conversation with some chaps at work.  One of them, a large Russian guy, previously had a Honda Ridgeline and just upgraded to a Dodge Ram.  He commutes 35 miles each way.  Part of his rationale was, he's frustrated that he pays so much in property taxes that he doesn't benefit from because he has no school-aged children, so he might as well get *some* personal use out of his remaining money. (In other words, he deserves to drive the vehicle he wants).  Also, he always leases.  Asked me 'why would you want to buy, it makes no sense?'  He said he couldn't imagine keeping the same car for more than a few years.  I asked him if he felt the same way about women. 

Today a friend at work wanted to talk about retirement planning over lunch.  He offered to buy my lunch.  I said, 'that's ok, I brought mine'.  So I just brought my salad/yogurt down to the cafeteria and met him.  He spent $7.77 on lunch (which isn't really that bad).  Afterwards he stopped off for a $2.50-ish Honest Tea. I told him he could make tea for free - we have free tea bags in the pantry, and free hot water.  He can make hot tea and let it cool.  We also have free cups and ice which he can use to make the tea cold.  He wasn't buying it.  this last guy is actually in good shape financially, but it's interesting to realize the little needless things you waste money on. 
« Last Edit: August 27, 2014, 02:26:43 PM by wild wendella »

frugalnacho

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3880 on: August 27, 2014, 04:26:51 PM »
Someone should invite scooter dude to MMM. :-p

and recommend his screen name be "scooter dude".

solon

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3881 on: August 27, 2014, 04:45:56 PM »
Someone should invite scooter dude to MMM. :-p

fartface, that's you! Don't come back here without ScooterDude!

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3882 on: August 27, 2014, 06:04:27 PM »
The newly remarried mom was complaining that "these banks just expect you to have money lying around for a down payment!"  They spoke some more and I tuned out, then heard the single mom say "No one in this day and age should hold it against someone for having credit card debt; we all do!"

I love it when someone talks about "who has money lying around." As if people with savings just have piles of cash on the floor, where we stumble over them and exclaim, "Oh! I could make a down payment with this!" It makes me want to drape some dollar bills on the couch, on the bed, in the recliner, on a cushion, etc., so I can have money actually lying around (instead of working its butt off earning interest and dividends).


I've never mentally pictured "money lying around."  Now I will think of


Oh hahaha this is exactly what I thought of when I read that post.  Scrooge McDuck was my childhood comic book hero.  I loved the thought of swimming in his olympic sized moneypool until....

Elderwood17

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3883 on: August 27, 2014, 08:15:48 PM »
Someone should invite scooter dude to MMM. :-p

fartface, that's you! Don't come back here without ScooterDude!
Fartface and scooterdude......sounds like the dynamic duo of MMM!

agent_clone

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3884 on: August 28, 2014, 02:52:51 AM »
I finally have one, sadly.

One of my good friends at work, who knows about MMM and all that I do to try and save was commenting on how he has no money so he started cooking dinner instead of eating out every night. He also eats out every lunch, just bought a car (we make <$20K a year and he lives 3 miles from work), went on a last minute vacation (book 3 days ahead of time), and is going on a month long vacation in a few weeks. I know he knows what I do to save money because we talk about it all the time, but it's sad because I don't think he will be implementing any of it soon. Even cooking dinner, he commented that he can't wait for a few more paychecks because he is sick of cooking (it's been less than 2 weeks of cooking and for 5 days of that he was on his last minute trip).
I can understand being sick of cooking, especially if doing it every day.  Tell him if he's sick of it, to cook batches, freeze the leftovers then take them out when he doesn't feel like cooking.  If he wants variety then cook a few different things and pick what he wants depending on his mood.

Patrick A

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3885 on: August 28, 2014, 08:42:19 AM »
Finally have one:

There are some roofers working on our building at the moment.  I hear portions of their conversations. 

"You can't have good credit unless you are in debt" 

I thought, well that's odd.  I have pretty damn good credit and I've never been in debt.

It amazes me that in a world where a few simple well worded google searches can answer almost any question with facts, simple misunderstandings like this continue to persist (and be perpetuated by those with the confidence to blurt them out).

ScienceRules

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3886 on: August 28, 2014, 09:02:19 AM »
I finally have one, sadly.

One of my good friends at work, who knows about MMM and all that I do to try and save was commenting on how he has no money so he started cooking dinner instead of eating out every night. He also eats out every lunch, just bought a car (we make <$20K a year and he lives 3 miles from work), went on a last minute vacation (book 3 days ahead of time), and is going on a month long vacation in a few weeks. I know he knows what I do to save money because we talk about it all the time, but it's sad because I don't think he will be implementing any of it soon. Even cooking dinner, he commented that he can't wait for a few more paychecks because he is sick of cooking (it's been less than 2 weeks of cooking and for 5 days of that he was on his last minute trip).
I can understand being sick of cooking, especially if doing it every day.  Tell him if he's sick of it, to cook batches, freeze the leftovers then take them out when he doesn't feel like cooking.  If he wants variety then cook a few different things and pick what he wants depending on his mood.

So I have suggested batch cooking in the past (when money was tight so he cooked dinner), but he says he won't eat leftovers. That is also his excuse for continuing to buy lunch everyday. I don't get. I love leftovers because then I don't have to cook and for a lot of food I cook the flavor gets better once it sits overnight.

J'onn J'onzz

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3887 on: August 28, 2014, 09:29:11 AM »
I finally have one, sadly.

One of my good friends at work, who knows about MMM and all that I do to try and save was commenting on how he has no money so he started cooking dinner instead of eating out every night. He also eats out every lunch, just bought a car (we make <$20K a year and he lives 3 miles from work), went on a last minute vacation (book 3 days ahead of time), and is going on a month long vacation in a few weeks. I know he knows what I do to save money because we talk about it all the time, but it's sad because I don't think he will be implementing any of it soon. Even cooking dinner, he commented that he can't wait for a few more paychecks because he is sick of cooking (it's been less than 2 weeks of cooking and for 5 days of that he was on his last minute trip).
I can understand being sick of cooking, especially if doing it every day.  Tell him if he's sick of it, to cook batches, freeze the leftovers then take them out when he doesn't feel like cooking.  If he wants variety then cook a few different things and pick what he wants depending on his mood.

So I have suggested batch cooking in the past (when money was tight so he cooked dinner), but he says he won't eat leftovers. That is also his excuse for continuing to buy lunch everyday. I don't get. I love leftovers because then I don't have to cook and for a lot of food I cook the flavor gets better once it sits overnight.

I have been told that by numerous people I have known, I just don't it.

eyePod

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3888 on: August 28, 2014, 09:51:10 AM »
I finally have one, sadly.

One of my good friends at work, who knows about MMM and all that I do to try and save was commenting on how he has no money so he started cooking dinner instead of eating out every night. He also eats out every lunch, just bought a car (we make <$20K a year and he lives 3 miles from work), went on a last minute vacation (book 3 days ahead of time), and is going on a month long vacation in a few weeks. I know he knows what I do to save money because we talk about it all the time, but it's sad because I don't think he will be implementing any of it soon. Even cooking dinner, he commented that he can't wait for a few more paychecks because he is sick of cooking (it's been less than 2 weeks of cooking and for 5 days of that he was on his last minute trip).
I can understand being sick of cooking, especially if doing it every day.  Tell him if he's sick of it, to cook batches, freeze the leftovers then take them out when he doesn't feel like cooking.  If he wants variety then cook a few different things and pick what he wants depending on his mood.

So I have suggested batch cooking in the past (when money was tight so he cooked dinner), but he says he won't eat leftovers. That is also his excuse for continuing to buy lunch everyday. I don't get. I love leftovers because then I don't have to cook and for a lot of food I cook the flavor gets better once it sits overnight.

I have been told that by numerous people I have known, I just don't it.

I didn't used to eat vegetables. Until after college. But hey, I eat them now. People learn.

Ybserp

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3889 on: August 28, 2014, 09:59:28 AM »
So I have suggested batch cooking in the past (when money was tight so he cooked dinner), but he says he won't eat leftovers. That is also his excuse for continuing to buy lunch everyday. I don't get. I love leftovers because then I don't have to cook and for a lot of food I cook the flavor gets better once it sits overnight.

I have been told that by numerous people I have known, I just don't it.

I didn't used to eat vegetables. Until after college. But hey, I eat them now. People learn.

When people say they refuse to eat leftovers, I wonder if they never learned how to store food or how to reuse food as an ingredient. Chili stored properly in the fridge overnight and then put in a tortilla shell with some cheese makes a good burrito. Or a bunch of those burritos lined up in a casserole dish and covered in salsa and cheese makes an excellent entirely new meal. But if the "won't eat leftovers" person just leaves the day old chili in the pot and tries to eat it as is for breakfast or even worse doesn't think to at least put the pot in the fridge... Well I can see how leftovers can quickly become disgusting for a person lacking in basic kitchen skills.

notquitefrugal

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3890 on: August 28, 2014, 10:07:59 AM »
I agree. I actually think chili, pasta salad, and a lot of other things taste better the second day!

dragoncar

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3891 on: August 28, 2014, 10:18:51 AM »
So I have suggested batch cooking in the past (when money was tight so he cooked dinner), but he says he won't eat leftovers. That is also his excuse for continuing to buy lunch everyday. I don't get. I love leftovers because then I don't have to cook and for a lot of food I cook the flavor gets better once it sits overnight.

I have been told that by numerous people I have known, I just don't it.

I didn't used to eat vegetables. Until after college. But hey, I eat them now. People learn.

When people say they refuse to eat leftovers, I wonder if they never learned how to store food or how to reuse food as an ingredient. Chili stored properly in the fridge overnight and then put in a tortilla shell with some cheese makes a good burrito. Or a bunch of those burritos lined up in a casserole dish and covered in salsa and cheese makes an excellent entirely new meal. But if the "won't eat leftovers" person just leaves the day old chili in the pot and tries to eat it as is for breakfast or even worse doesn't think to at least put the pot in the fridge... Well I can see how leftovers can quickly become disgusting for a person lacking in basic kitchen skills.

Right, if leftovers means "substantially prepared a previous day and reheated" then frozen food and most fast food and some fast casual food is "leftovers".  Like, they never eat a hot pocket or frozen burrito?  Good for them, if so.

But I think they just get turned off by the terminology.  I can't stand the thought of " brown bagging it" but I don't ins brining own lunch.  Just not in one of those brown bags ... Yuck

frugalnacho

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3892 on: August 28, 2014, 10:53:14 AM »
So I have suggested batch cooking in the past (when money was tight so he cooked dinner), but he says he won't eat leftovers. That is also his excuse for continuing to buy lunch everyday. I don't get. I love leftovers because then I don't have to cook and for a lot of food I cook the flavor gets better once it sits overnight.

I have been told that by numerous people I have known, I just don't it.

I didn't used to eat vegetables. Until after college. But hey, I eat them now. People learn.

When people say they refuse to eat leftovers, I wonder if they never learned how to store food or how to reuse food as an ingredient. Chili stored properly in the fridge overnight and then put in a tortilla shell with some cheese makes a good burrito. Or a bunch of those burritos lined up in a casserole dish and covered in salsa and cheese makes an excellent entirely new meal. But if the "won't eat leftovers" person just leaves the day old chili in the pot and tries to eat it as is for breakfast or even worse doesn't think to at least put the pot in the fridge... Well I can see how leftovers can quickly become disgusting for a person lacking in basic kitchen skills.

No those people are just idiots.  I have known people that have an aversion to left overs.  They don't apply any type of logic or food safety arguments to their aversion.  It's more like "you prepared that food for dinner yesterday? THEN IT'S OLD! I need (and deserve) fresh food, prepared today, specifically for the meal i'm going to eat!"  They can't be reasoned with.

DeepEllumStache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3893 on: August 28, 2014, 10:57:33 AM »
Someone should invite scooter dude to MMM. :-p

and recommend his screen name be "scooter dude".

Yes please!

TrulyStashin

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3894 on: August 28, 2014, 11:18:07 AM »
In the hallway outside my office, two equity partners in my BigLaw firm (the top 100 largest law firms = BigLaw) were discussing retirement.  They're both in their mid- to late-fifties.  They've both been EQUITY partners for roughly twenty years now.  Note . . . profits per equity partner at my firm hover around $950,000 annually.  Yes, you read that correctly.

P1:  "I'd love to retire, but I don't have enough money."

P2:  "Me too.  And it's not like we can count on social security."

This happened about two weeks ago and I still don't understand.   Neither partner is a spendy guy.  They each drive a Prius.  They have middle class-type houses.  Nice, but not swanky.   Maybe it's fear talking?  SMH

Basenji

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3895 on: August 28, 2014, 11:26:22 AM »
Someone should invite scooter dude to MMM. :-p

fartface, that's you! Don't come back here without ScooterDude!
This is gorgeous. Like Shakespeare!
« Last Edit: August 28, 2014, 11:29:29 AM by Basenji »

Cheddar Stacker

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3896 on: August 28, 2014, 11:31:03 AM »
In the hallway outside my office, two equity partners in my BigLaw firm (the top 100 largest law firms = BigLaw) were discussing retirement.  They're both in their mid- to late-fifties.  They've both been EQUITY partners for roughly twenty years now.  Note . . . profits per equity partner at my firm hover around $950,000 annually.  Yes, you read that correctly.

P1:  "I'd love to retire, but I don't have enough money."

P2:  "Me too.  And it's not like we can count on social security."

This happened about two weeks ago and I still don't understand.   Neither partner is a spendy guy.  They each drive a Prius.  They have middle class-type houses.  Nice, but not swanky.   Maybe it's fear talking?  SMH

Yeah, I don't think social security pays out $950K annually. I haven't checked in a while though, maybe with inflation? : )

I think this is just people who think they need $10M+ to retire. For any of us, that's too much, and we would've saved it by now anyway. But for most, this has been beat into people's brains all their lives. I don't get it.

Timmmy

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3897 on: August 28, 2014, 11:52:35 AM »
In the hallway outside my office, two equity partners in my BigLaw firm (the top 100 largest law firms = BigLaw) were discussing retirement.  They're both in their mid- to late-fifties.  They've both been EQUITY partners for roughly twenty years now.  Note . . . profits per equity partner at my firm hover around $950,000 annually.  Yes, you read that correctly.

P1:  "I'd love to retire, but I don't have enough money."

P2:  "Me too.  And it's not like we can count on social security."

This happened about two weeks ago and I still don't understand.   Neither partner is a spendy guy.  They each drive a Prius.  They have middle class-type houses.  Nice, but not swanky.   Maybe it's fear talking?  SMH

Ignoring taxes and using rough numbers...  So if they save about 15% or 150k per year and spend 800K.  Which normal people would see as being very responsible.  They'd need about 20M in the bank for a 4%SWR.  Takes a long time to get there saving 150k/yr.

Even if they spent a mere 40% or so. They'd save about 550k/yr but they'd need 10M for a 4%SWR if the wanted to maintain current lifestyle in retirement.  That still will take a while. 

If they spent 100k per year and saved the rest they could retire in less than 4 years. 

fallstoclimb

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3898 on: August 28, 2014, 11:59:53 AM »
So I have suggested batch cooking in the past (when money was tight so he cooked dinner), but he says he won't eat leftovers. That is also his excuse for continuing to buy lunch everyday. I don't get. I love leftovers because then I don't have to cook and for a lot of food I cook the flavor gets better once it sits overnight.

I have been told that by numerous people I have known, I just don't it.

I didn't used to eat vegetables. Until after college. But hey, I eat them now. People learn.

When people say they refuse to eat leftovers, I wonder if they never learned how to store food or how to reuse food as an ingredient. Chili stored properly in the fridge overnight and then put in a tortilla shell with some cheese makes a good burrito. Or a bunch of those burritos lined up in a casserole dish and covered in salsa and cheese makes an excellent entirely new meal. But if the "won't eat leftovers" person just leaves the day old chili in the pot and tries to eat it as is for breakfast or even worse doesn't think to at least put the pot in the fridge... Well I can see how leftovers can quickly become disgusting for a person lacking in basic kitchen skills.

No those people are just idiots.  I have known people that have an aversion to left overs.  They don't apply any type of logic or food safety arguments to their aversion.  It's more like "you prepared that food for dinner yesterday? THEN IT'S OLD! I need (and deserve) fresh food, prepared today, specifically for the meal i'm going to eat!"  They can't be reasoned with.

Is this really a real thing?  I've never been confused so much in my life.  Like...what about apples?  Apples are (probably) trucked across the country and sit in the store a few days and then normal people eat them over the course of a week.  Do they not eat that because its old?  How is say, a day-old salad any different?  Who ARE these people?

I hate wasting food so I am absolutely horrified by this.

deedeezee

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #3899 on: August 28, 2014, 12:24:56 PM »
So I have suggested batch cooking in the past (when money was tight so he cooked dinner), but he says he won't eat leftovers. That is also his excuse for continuing to buy lunch everyday. I don't get. I love leftovers because then I don't have to cook and for a lot of food I cook the flavor gets better once it sits overnight.

I have been told that by numerous people I have known, I just don't it.

I didn't used to eat vegetables. Until after college. But hey, I eat them now. People learn.

When people say they refuse to eat leftovers, I wonder if they never learned how to store food or how to reuse food as an ingredient. Chili stored properly in the fridge overnight and then put in a tortilla shell with some cheese makes a good burrito. Or a bunch of those burritos lined up in a casserole dish and covered in salsa and cheese makes an excellent entirely new meal. But if the "won't eat leftovers" person just leaves the day old chili in the pot and tries to eat it as is for breakfast or even worse doesn't think to at least put the pot in the fridge... Well I can see how leftovers can quickly become disgusting for a person lacking in basic kitchen skills.

No those people are just idiots.  I have known people that have an aversion to left overs.  They don't apply any type of logic or food safety arguments to their aversion.  It's more like "you prepared that food for dinner yesterday? THEN IT'S OLD! I need (and deserve) fresh food, prepared today, specifically for the meal i'm going to eat!"  They can't be reasoned with.

Is this really a real thing?  I've never been confused so much in my life.  Like...what about apples?  Apples are (probably) trucked across the country and sit in the store a few days and then normal people eat them over the course of a week.  Do they not eat that because its old?  How is say, a day-old salad any different?  Who ARE these people?

I hate wasting food so I am absolutely horrified by this.

It is most definitely a real thing.  I know several people who have an aversion to having the same meal more than once per week.  I have a relative (by marriage, not sure why I feel the need to distance myself...) who will eat a meal one time.  Meaning, if you make chicken soup, he will eat it the day you make it.  If you made a pot, and there are still 8 bowls left the next day, he would literally throw it out before he ate it for another meal.

Without becoming the poster child for insane behavior, I don't love leftovers after day 2 either.  Chili is great, leftover chili is delicious, but if I eat it more than 4 times in a week, I don't want to eat it again for months.  Luckily, batch cooking and reformulating leftovers (day 1, roast chicken, day 2, chicken soup, day 3, chicken enchiladas) solves my problem.  That, and sometimes I just put on my big girl pants and eat it even if I don't want to, because plenty of people go hungry in the world and "I'm sorry, I'm tired of having this specific totally edible and delicious meal" is just ridiculous on its face.