Overheard at Work

[RWD]

Got an email at work. Aon Hewitt says I'm on track to retire in 32 years! I can pay them for the details on how they figured that out. The 32 years is just when I turn 65.

Was sitting in a meeting this morning working out that I can retire in 3years on $24K pa.
I was so bored that I was doing the multiplication long hand while pretending to take notes.

I started to do that instead of working out how much staff wages were being wasted on yet another pointless meeting with all 5 directors present.
One of the few things I miss now I'm FIRE :)

Not overheard at work as I'm FIRE, but neighbour who's just spent thousands flying family from UK to Mexico (1st class) for a holiday  'because they can afford it'
Same neighbour just spent £30k on their lounge 'because they can afford it'
Same neighbour told me how she'd love to retire early but can't see it happening any time soon.......

I guess they can't afford retirement...

[Adventine]

--- Quote from: spartana on Today at 05:19:22 AM ---
--- Quote from: Adventine on Today at 03:55:48 AM ---It isn't about the bad words. It's about how some posters keep bringing up divisive off-topic debates, even after several warnings.

Stop spoiling the best thread on this forum! Let's get back to making fun of people at the office!

--- End quote ---
Oops sorry. My bad. Didn't see mods warning until much later. Will stay OT and enjoy everyone's trials and tribulations about working life from the comfort of my ER arm chair. It does help to keep me on the straight and narrow MMM path when I hear terrible work stories because I don't want to have to deal with that stuff again.

--- End quote ---

No worries, you're one of the more levelheaded posters on the forum :) I just really want to get back on topic!

Overheard at my office building lobby (not my actual office):

Two office workers, both thirtysomething men, were discussing emergency funds. Guy A was giving sensible advice to Guy B ("You should definitely have at least 6 months worth of expenses saved. You need to calculate how much you spend in a month to get to that figure") but B was unimpressed: "If I run out of money, I'll just move in with my parents. I'll have as much as I want to eat." (paraphrased)

I could only shake my head sadly as they walked away.

[ducky19]

I was walking past a coworker's desk who drives a Dodge Ram Crew Cab 55 miles each way five days a week and noticed he's looking at trucks on the local dealer's website.

Me: Are you getting a new truck?
CW: Just looking to see how much the bigger crew cab is. (drives solo, mind you)
Me: What year is your truck?
CW: 2014, but they've got some really good deals and I'm tired of the grandkid's feet kicking my seat.
Me: Have you thought of putting him on the other side?
CW: *silence*

[HydroJim]

I just arrived back at my facility from an intern event at the corporate headquarters. I sat down with my supervisor for lunch.
We started talking about cars. I don't remember the exact dialogue, but here is the gist.

Supervisor: "I have a 2012 corvette"
Me: "Oh that's cool. Do you only drive it on the weekends or something?" (I had never seen it in the parking lot)
Supervisor: "Well I haven't really driven it at all this year. It still only has 600 miles on it"
Me: *smacks head*

No idea why someone would pay that much for a car and not drive it. I really love cars, but if I ever bought an awesome car, I'd be driving that thing as much as possible.

On the plus side, he told me a story about a volkswagen diesel that he used to have. He bought it for something like $750 and put like $300 in parts in it for 90k miles and then junked it out for $75. Considering all ownership costs, he found that he actually made money driving it because the company paid him for his miles to drive to our Indiana facility. I thought that was pretty cool.

[Seppia]

@ducky Are we talking about this tank disguised as a civil vehicle?



Because of course what looks to be a 163 tons, 35ft long monstrosity is not enough because "I have a baby now".
Genius :)

[Hedge_87]

I just arrived back at my facility from an intern event at the corporate headquarters. I sat down with my supervisor for lunch.
We started talking about cars. I don't remember the exact dialogue, but here is the gist.

Supervisor: "I have a 2012 corvette"
Me: "Oh that's cool. Do you only drive it on the weekends or something?" (I had never seen it in the parking lot)
Supervisor: "Well I haven't really driven it at all this year. It still only has 600 miles on it"
Me: *smacks head*

No idea why someone would pay that much for a car and not drive it. I really love cars, but if I ever bought an awesome car, I'd be driving that thing as much as possible.

Lol I have a father in law just like this. He has one car he's poured tons of money into to make a show/drag car. It can't sit and idle in traffic (it's rocking 400+ horsepower) so it doesn't leave the garage. He doesn't even take it to car shows or anything. I've heard it start once lol. He has a 2007 Harley that I've never seen out of its cover in the corner of the garage. He also has several project cars in storage units and is talking about putting a lift in his garage  (which will take major structural renovations to accommodate) so he can park another car in there. And after all this he has a 2013 explorer that sits in the driveway in the middle of a state that has several sever hail storms a year.

[EricL]

GS-13 in my office whining about his pay... he always has some issue. He is retired from the military, did his 20+ years, gets a pension. So he whines about his 2nd paycheck at least once a month. This is a man who is a drama queen, annoys my contractor boss constantly, does absolutely nothing and doesn't contribute to a positive work environment, and drives 150 miles round trip for 4 10-hour work days.

I sympathize.  I got to work with plenty of GS workers who were vets.  They worked for a living and felt the government already gave them their due entitlements.  They weren't looking for anything but an honest wage for honest work. But then there was always that guy...

[whiskerstash]

CW Background:
23 yr old male; hired on six months ago; entry level position.

CW shows up to work last month in a financed 2014 GMC 2500. Everyone procedes to congratulate him with high fives and 'manly compliments'.(someone even ran out to buy a cake to celebrate at lunch)

He's beyond open about his finances. Details :
5 yr term, 0 down, 7+% interest, he financed every option he could so that the truck would 'keep its value', and he calculated that between the note and ins paymts hes paying more than 50% of his NET PAY. He got excited about this as if overextending yourself on a massive tank was somehow something to be proud of. How tf did the lender decide this was a good idea?

Oh and my favorite. Said coworker is late at least 3x/wk. When questioned about it he said it's because he can't drive over 65mph since he's trying to save money on gas. Wtf?

Penny wise, and dollar foolish?
Or just plain foolish?

[solon]

CW Background:
23 yr old male; hired on six months ago; entry level position.

CW shows up to work last month in a financed 2014 GMC 2500. Everyone procedes to congratulate him with high fives and 'manly compliments'.(someone even ran out to buy a cake to celebrate at lunch)

He's beyond open about his finances. Details :
5 yr term, 0 down, 7+% interest, he financed every option he could so that the truck would 'keep its value', and he calculated that between the note and ins paymts hes paying more than 50% of his NET PAY. He got excited about this as if overextending yourself on a massive tank was somehow something to be proud of. How tf did the lender decide this was a good idea?

Oh and my favorite. Said coworker is late at least 3x/wk. When questioned about it he said it's because he can't drive over 65mph since he's trying to save money on gas. Wtf?

Penny wise, and dollar foolish?
Or just plain foolish?

I think his main problem is his age. Hopefully he'll learn from this.

[grantmeaname]

I think his main problem is his age. Hopefully he'll learn from this.

No, his main problem is that he's a dumbass. Age has little to do with it. Not all 23-year-olds finance trucks, and not many older folks are any better.

[Seppia]

But there's still hope. At 23 you can do a lot of stupid things (I did).
Never overextended myself financially though

[HairyUpperLip]

When I was around 20 years old I bought a Toyota Tacoma from the dealership. Even then I still picked a used model, standard cab, 5 speed, 2wd - a pretty practical truck in all honesty. I think I made around $13/hr back then too. I think I paid around $10-11k.

At 31 I'm making 99k and just the thought of a 2014 2500 payment with 0% interest makes me stress out. This whole everyone having the best of everything kills me.

[fb132]

A collegue of mine was broke this month because she bought gifts for her family that were expensive wallets, so I told her why would you go broke on fucking wallets, all wallets do is carry money, why did you NEED to buy your family members (mainly cousins) a couple of expensive wallet. Then she gets angry at me "People with ugly wallets are ugly people, I wouldn't want to be seen with an ugly wallet.". I stopped the conversation right there, because I knew whatever I said would just turn into a verbal dispute and it would go nowhere. I don't understand people, why complain to me that your broke, then tell me that you bought some ridiculous merchandise (which is the reason why you are broke in the first place) and when I point that out, I am the asshole who doesn't understand,lol.

[Squirrel away]

Then she gets angry at me "People with ugly wallets are ugly people, I wouldn't want to be seen with an ugly wallet.".

Lol.:P

[fb132]

I should of asked her how much she paid for those damn wallets, I am curious how wallets can cost you your entire paycheck.

[Sam E]

I should of asked her how much she paid for those damn wallets, I am curious how wallets can cost you your entire paycheck.

It seems really ironic to spend all the money you have on something that does nothing but hold money.

[midweststache]

Then she gets angry at me "People with ugly wallets are ugly people, I wouldn't want to be seen with an ugly wallet.".

::head:desk::

[fb132]

I should of asked her how much she paid for those damn wallets, I am curious how wallets can cost you your entire paycheck.

It seems really ironic to spend all the money you have on something that does nothing but hold money.

Well technically those wallets will go to her family members, so it won't be her money that will be in those wallet. What is ironic is I joke around (well not really) that she puts too much value on "things", she denies it and says that she is far from being materialistic....Oh, I had to contain myself when I heard that. Btw, she owns 2-3 cars including a BMW and she makes less than me and I don't make a high income to begin with. I feel sad that she fell for what the media and society tells her to do. Hopefully when I will be FI in 10 years, maybe that will convince her to change her ways.

[MgoSam]

Then she gets angry at me "People with ugly wallets are ugly people, I wouldn't want to be seen with an ugly wallet.".

Lol.:P

"The things you own end up owning you"
Tyler Durden (Fight Club)

[Iron Mike Sharpe]

A collegue of mine was broke this month because she bought gifts for her family that were expensive wallets, so I told her why would you go broke on fucking wallets, all wallets do is carry money, why did you NEED to buy your family members (mainly cousins) a couple of expensive wallet. Then she gets angry at me "People with ugly wallets are ugly people, I wouldn't want to be seen with an ugly wallet.". I stopped the conversation right there, because I knew whatever I said would just turn into a verbal dispute and it would go nowhere. I don't understand people, why complain to me that your broke, then tell me that you bought some ridiculous merchandise (which is the reason why you are broke in the first place) and when I point that out, I am the asshole who doesn't understand,lol.

Of course she got angry with you.  You attacked her decision unprovoked. 

I'd suggest reading the classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People.

[RWD]

I think his main problem is his age. Hopefully he'll learn from this.

No, his main problem is that he's a dumbass. Age has little to do with it. Not all 23-year-olds finance trucks, and not many older folks are any better.

Agree. When I was 23 (in 2008) our two vehicles had a combined approximate value of maybe $8k tops (1995 Subaru Legacy wagon and 1991 Toyota Supra Turbo).

[MudDuck]

A co-worker told me he was going to trade in his (2008-9) Chrysler 300 after work and get a 2013 Chrysler 300 because the air conditioning fan had broken and, "you know, it's out of warranty and once one thing goes..." I asked if it wouldn't be cheaper to just replace the fan and keep driving the old one and he said he didn't have the money to get it fixed. That made me kind of sad, but ok...

Next morning: He's got a 2015 Chrysler 200... because that's all they could qualify for. I died a little.

[HairyUpperLip]

Next morning: He's got a 2015 Chrysler 200... because that's all they could qualify for. I died a little.

lolol I find humor in that.

[ducky19]

@ducky Are we talking about this tank disguised as a civil vehicle?



Because of course what looks to be a 163 tons, 35ft long monstrosity is not enough because "I have a baby now".
Genius :)

That's the one. Except in red.  ;)

[wkumtrider]

Not overheard, but some situations of a few co-workers:  Three of them are in their late seventies (77+ yrs old) and still work because they say they can not afford to quit.  One of these cw's daughter, boyfriend, and their kids live with her and they do not work.  So here she is, 77 yrs old and working to support her lazy family. It is really sad. I don't get why she puts up with it.  Another cw who is also 77 continues to work because she says she would have nothing to do.  I can think of a million other things to do besides work.

[LeRainDrop]

I should of asked her how much she paid for those damn wallets, I am curious how wallets can cost you your entire paycheck.

It seems really ironic to spend all the money you have on something that does nothing but hold money.

Ha, they also hold credit cards, so there's that! . . .  ;-)

[willikers]

I should of asked her how much she paid for those damn wallets, I am curious how wallets can cost you your entire paycheck.

It seems really ironic to spend all the money you have on something that does nothing but hold money.

Isn't that what pockets and banks are for?

[driftxsequence]

A good friend of mine is a car nut. Die hard chevy guy. This is his current daily driver.

http://s149.photobucket.com/user/32turbo/media/Picture058.jpg.html

He blew up the engine in his 2009 Cobalt SS, ( that he just paid off) and is getting a new motor built out in kentucky. So to save on SHIPPING COSTS. he is driving his trail blazer out there...WITH A TRAILER.....FOR A 4 CYLINDER MOTOR. instead of in the back of his SUV. he got 14.4 MPG...

for perspective. I was able to shove 2 engines, and 2 transmissions and engine stands in the back of my Mazda 3, with 2 people up front.

[I'm a red panda]

There was a shark tank product called "The Elephant in the Room".

Apparently it was for marital happiness.  You put the elephant out when there was an issue you needed to discuss with your spouse.

But it cost a fortune.  Seems like if that sort of thing works for you, you could easily come up with a signal that costs nothing.

They did not get a deal.

[Travis]

There was a shark tank product called "The Elephant in the Room".

Apparently it was for marital happiness.  You put the elephant out when there was an issue you needed to discuss with your spouse.

But it cost a fortune.  Seems like if that sort of thing works for you, you could easily come up with a signal that costs nothing.

They did not get a deal.

Was that irony not lost on the sharks?  The majority of marital problems are financial in nature.

"Honey, we're having serious money problems and it's tearing us apart."
"So your solution was to buy an expensive doll to start the conversation?"

[mustachepungoeshere]

It's 11.34am and I am overhearing a co-worker SNORING at his desk.

[nobodyspecial]

There was a shark tank product called "The Elephant in the Room".

Apparently it was for marital happiness.  You put the elephant out when there was an issue you needed to discuss with your spouse.

I think the fact that the two of you had been put in a tank full of sharks would have been enough to make you pull together.
Was this a rather more bloodthirsty version of the swimming with dolphins new-age therapy stuff?

[babysnowbyrd]

Coworker today sees my small purse. Tells me she has one "just like it" in bright yellow.

Then goes on to say she has OVER 250 PURSES HANGING ON HER WALL.

Then adds "...all name brand!"

I'm imagining and entire wall full of hooks with purses hanging off of them. And name brand purses are pricey!

My purse that's "just like" hers? Not name brand, got at Ross for like, $14 MAX.

[Basenji]

A new installment in the elephant war...

After the above circulation, a staff member brought in a second elephant, and set it up smoking and playing cards while the first one got a tag put above it on the bulletin board that read "I'm in Time Out." or something like that. Naturally the second elephant is now more loved than the first.

Today a new email came around about the mental health elephant:

The Elephant has been welcomed!

We have had a lot of fun with our little Elephant.

He has been held by many, travelled around the bulletin board, spent some time with friends at their card table and I’m sure with him being Soooo irresistible, he has been cuddled by a few admirers.

I am happy to say, he has done a good job at raising our awareness to the stigma of mental illness. Our little fellow not only befriended another little blue elephant, but they have become inseparable playmates. How wonderful is that!!!!!!

Well, guess what!  He wants to stay with his new found family at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Unfortunately we don’t know what to call him. Let’s show him he’s welcome by giving him a name suitable to his caring personality.

Names I've heard for the mental health elephant haven't been so very endearing. I can't wait for the next email to come around. I'm guessing it will be another 'Thou shalt not...' sort of message.

All this elephant stuff is hard on your mental well being.

<ETA> By the way there are no children in the building - this is the engineering department of a municipality. I just thought I should point that out in case the stuffed animals make things unclear. </Edit>

I love this story. Pls keep it coming. Overofficious yet infantile  emails like that crack me up. Our widdle elephant wantza name!

[I'm a red panda]

There was a shark tank product called "The Elephant in the Room".

Apparently it was for marital happiness.  You put the elephant out when there was an issue you needed to discuss with your spouse.

But it cost a fortune.  Seems like if that sort of thing works for you, you could easily come up with a signal that costs nothing.

They did not get a deal.

Was that irony not lost on the sharks?  The majority of marital problems are financial in nature.

"Honey, we're having serious money problems and it's tearing us apart."
"So your solution was to buy an expensive doll to start the conversation?"

No, I'm pretty sure the sharks tore them apart about all aspects of the product, including price.

[Making Cookies]

Wait, Joe Average, you were really told that a Prius can tow or this was a joke? When I moved a few years back I tried to get a hitch on my Prius and Toyota was like "oh hell no"... Maybe it just couldn't tow enough weight to be worth it? But I was planning to tow something smaller than a camper!

I just checked and there is a trailer hitch for a Prius via aftermarket suppliers - 2010  anyhow. Rated for 2000 lbs! That is by the way double of what my owner's manual says about my CR-V... ;)

[Making Cookies]

I think from now on, I will refer to groups of people as "males" instead. Just to really piss off anyone who gets annoyed by gendered pronouns. "Hey you males, how's it going?"

I was the boss of an all male crew and wonder how they would feel if I called them all ladies - "Alright ladies, this is what we are doing today". Yeah, that's what I should have done. Not insulting at all to them.

OK really not picking a fight but just wanted to post to follow this thread as I finally got around to reading some of it. Took me a couple of years though :-)!

Hey I had a couple Navy Chief’s that addressed us guys as "ladies" when he was frustrated...

[Making Cookies]

Good info. Really I don't need/plan to tow with my Prius, it only came up once a couple years ago when my bf and I were moving from state to state. We both have small cars, me a Prius and him Corolla. Mtm, they also said the Corolla could not tow but perhaps this is because neither car could tow anything close to what we needed, I assume a full u-haul trailer would be more than 1000 lbs....

We had to rent a truck but we ended up needing the space anyway!

The trailer alone would be more than 1000 lbs... I'd guess a trailer loaded with household goods i.e. not home workshop stuff but furniture and kitchen items would be closer to 4000 lbs for a double axle rental trailer. I could do it with my four cylinder CR-V if I restricted my speeds to 25 mph and 3rd gear... ;)

[Making Cookies]

I tried trust me.
I even did the rough math for him, like "do you realize that $100 of your gross are $70 in your pocket at most, but would be $200 in the 401k? You'd give up 70$ per paycheck and get 200$ in exchange, it's a magic tool that triples your money"
Didn't work.

Heard this on NPR this morn. Good food for thought. No spoilers from me.

http://www.npr.org/2015/07/31/427990401/why-peer-pressure-doesn-t-add-up-to-retirement-savings

[mtn]

Good info. Really I don't need/plan to tow with my Prius, it only came up once a couple years ago when my bf and I were moving from state to state. We both have small cars, me a Prius and him Corolla. Mtm, they also said the Corolla could not tow but perhaps this is because neither car could tow anything close to what we needed, I assume a full u-haul trailer would be more than 1000 lbs....

We had to rent a truck but we ended up needing the space anyway!

The trailer alone would be more than 1000 lbs... I'd guess a trailer loaded with household goods i.e. not home workshop stuff but furniture and kitchen items would be closer to 4000 lbs for a double axle rental trailer. I could do it with my four cylinder CR-V if I restricted my speeds to 25 mph and 3rd gear... ;)

An enclosed 5x10 (their second biggest of the 4 encolsed trailers) is 1250lbs dry. But you could easily get a smaller one or an open trailer.  Not that I'd do that if I were moving though, probably just if I bought something bulky.

Wait, Joe Average, you were really told that a Prius can tow or this was a joke? When I moved a few years back I tried to get a hitch on my Prius and Toyota was like "oh hell no"... Maybe it just couldn't tow enough weight to be worth it? But I was planning to tow something smaller than a camper!

I just checked and there is a trailer hitch for a Prius via aftermarket suppliers - 2010  anyhow. Rated for 2000 lbs! That is by the way double of what my owner's manual says about my CR-V... ;)

(Keep in mind I'm the guy who says tow with anything that isn't a Lotus, just be smart about it)

The HITCH is rated for 2000lbs. That is not the tow rating for the car. My friend has a Civic with a 5000lb rated tow hitch. His civic absolutely cannot tow that much, but if it could, the hitch could take it.

[Making Cookies]

A co-worker told me he was going to trade in his (2008-9) Chrysler 300 after work and get a 2013 Chrysler 300 because the air conditioning fan had broken and, "you know, it's out of warranty and once one thing goes..." I asked if it wouldn't be cheaper to just replace the fan and keep driving the old one and he said he didn't have the money to get it fixed. That made me kind of sad, but ok...

Next morning: He's got a 2015 Chrysler 200... because that's all they could qualify for. I died a little.

Buy the old car and then proceed to drive it another 20 years... That might make them think. Then again maybe it doesn't matter.

[Pooplips]

Page 200 here we come.

[Making Cookies]

Well, guess what!  He wants to stay with his new found family at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Unfortunately we don’t know what to call him. Let’s show him he’s welcome by giving him a name suitable to his caring personality.[/glow]

Names I've heard for the mental health elephant haven't been so very endearing. I can't wait for the next email to come around. I'm guessing it will be another 'Thou shalt not...' sort of message.

All this elephant stuff is hard on your mental well being.

I think you work at a paper company somewhere....

[Making Cookies]

The HITCH is rated for 2000lbs. That is not the tow rating for the car. My friend has a Civic with a 5000lb rated tow hitch. His civic absolutely cannot tow that much, but if it could, the hitch could take it.

Good point on the hitch.

I have the same mentality. If you have enough brakes to stop it then tow it - to a point. I have towed 3500 lbs with our little 'V. Brakes are the huge issue. On that trip my speed was about 25 mph. Mostly I tow 600-800 lbs. Trailer and trash cans, trailer and table saw, trailer and a few things from the hardware store. I think the Prius would be capable of that at least.

http://priuschat.com/threads/prius-towing-capacity.39695/

In the spirit of this thread - the ability to tow modest loads with a car, roof racks, and hatchbacks with huge interior volumes - all conspire to make pickups seem silly for most people. While I see pickups working hard occasionally - there is a large number that ride around with empty beds or carrying less than my "toy trailer" carries. Besides the average new truck is so big they are a hassle to park or load/unloaded (high bed).

[wordnerd]

I am on a three person team. Today, the other people were talking about how increased life expectancy isn't that great because you can never save enough money and who wants a 20-25 year "vacation at the end" anyway?

[wenchsenior]

I tried trust me.
I even did the rough math for him, like "do you realize that $100 of your gross are $70 in your pocket at most, but would be $200 in the 401k? You'd give up 70$ per paycheck and get 200$ in exchange, it's a magic tool that triples your money"
Didn't work.

Heard this on NPR this morn. Good food for thought. No spoilers from me.

http://www.npr.org/2015/07/31/427990401/why-peer-pressure-doesn-t-add-up-to-retirement-savings

WOW. Was not expecting that; it seems totally counter-intuitive.

[Ashyukun]

I'm a driver of antiques. Am restoring (painfully slowly so I can do it all out of pocket, last thing on our budget) a late 70s VW Westfalia. Will be new paint top and bottom, inside and out. And we'll drive the wheels off of it. When its tattered and worn out looking again - I'll clean it up again - and drive it some more. None of this only warm, sunny day driving for us. Want to use it. Figure it'll be clean and neat for a decade at least with little effort.

Amen to that! I love older, unusual cars- and will always choose to drive them when I can instead of just having them sit in the garage. My FIL is a big Corvette guy, and has a very recent model and a very classic one (split window Stingray?) which essentially never leaves the garage. He's also got an old roadster that probably hasn't left its special spot in the back of the garage since my wife was a teenager. Makes absolutely no sense to me... if all you want to do is look at it, why not just buy an empty shell or a full-size replica? Let someone who will actually drive it have the real car...

[Basenji]

I tried trust me.
I even did the rough math for him, like "do you realize that $100 of your gross are $70 in your pocket at most, but would be $200 in the 401k? You'd give up 70$ per paycheck and get 200$ in exchange, it's a magic tool that triples your money"
Didn't work.

Heard this on NPR this morn. Good food for thought. No spoilers from me.

http://www.npr.org/2015/07/31/427990401/why-peer-pressure-doesn-t-add-up-to-retirement-savings

WOW. Was not expecting that; it seems totally counter-intuitive.

This should be a whole MMM post. Holy cow. So, they think that the reason people did NOT respond to peer pressure to sign up for retirement savings is they assume they are too far behind thier peers, like they think, "what's the point now? Too late for me." 
IDK, I think people are so intimidated by investments and money issues that they assume they can't manage such a complicated thing. In any case, this relates to another thread saying that many billions of dollars in company matching finds are left on the table because a person doesn't save enough to maximize the match.

[fb132]

I tried trust me.
I even did the rough math for him, like "do you realize that $100 of your gross are $70 in your pocket at most, but would be $200 in the 401k? You'd give up 70$ per paycheck and get 200$ in exchange, it's a magic tool that triples your money"
Didn't work.

Heard this on NPR this morn. Good food for thought. No spoilers from me.

http://www.npr.org/2015/07/31/427990401/why-peer-pressure-doesn-t-add-up-to-retirement-savings

WOW. Was not expecting that; it seems totally counter-intuitive.

This should be a whole MMM post. Holy cow. So, they think that the reason people did NOT respond to peer pressure to sign up for retirement savings is they assume they are too far behind thier peers, like they think, "what's the point now? Too late for me." 
IDK, I think people are so intimidated by investments and money issues that they assume they can't manage such a complicated thing. In any case, this relates to another thread saying that many billions of dollars in company matching finds are left on the table because a person doesn't save enough to maximize the match.

I think its more that people don't know what options they have. They have this notion and fear that the stock market is a place where you lose money and that having a high interest account that pays 1% is a good thing. I know many who are absolutely clueless on where they can invest their money. There's a huge lack of education when it comes to finances in our society.

[Beaker]

Was sitting in a meeting this morning working out that I can retire in 3years on $24K pa.
I was so bored that I was doing the multiplication long hand while pretending to take notes.

I started to do that instead of working out how much staff wages were being wasted on yet another pointless meeting with all 5 directors present.
One of the few things I miss now I'm FIRE :)

I used to work for small-ish company that would have weekly meetings of everybody. I used to calculate the burn rate in dollars per minute (usually low three digits) so that I could tell how much it cost for the sales bro to regale us with tales of buying dinners for prospective clients.