Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)

[sherr]

But there's really no reason for it; people can type capitals on mobile devices. It's a bad idea. And if they implemented a bad idea they probably also are incompetent enough to have done it the wrong way with plain-text passwords.

Ah, I take it back. :( :( :( :(

If they have some sort of phone authentication option, eg typing in your password with a phone numberpad, then there's no distinction between upper and lowercase and they have to do some weird things to allow the call-in customers authenticate.

Anyone want to try typing your Wells Fargo password as the phonepad equivalent and see if it works?

[dragoncar]

The virtual keyboard is to combat keyloggers

[CptCool]

My Mustachian-before-it-was-cool grandfather (AKA The Frugal Patriarch) left, in addition to stocks and real estate and whatnot, six figures worth of US Treasury bonds. The kind with maturity dates and whatnot.

My mother wanted to put these in my name and my sister's. Are you shocked to hear that the website is not user-friendly? You have to enter your password with a virtual keyboard that you click with your mouse. BUT, when you create your password, you do that with your actual keyboard, and are required to use a capital, a lowercase, a number, and a special character.

My favorite detail about this is that the virtual keyboard is not case-sensitive.

Most (all?) banks don't use case sensitivity when actually entering your password. Their "requirements" might require it when you create it, but when actually entering it into their website or app it doesn't matter.

No, this is not all or even most banks. It got a lot of attention a few years back when Wells Fargo and a few other major banks were caught. This is a major problem because in addition to lowering the security against brute force attempts it means they are not hashing the passwords (e.g. stored in plaintext) which means that in the case of a data breach the passwords will be exposed. Or nefarious employee with access to the database could just look up passwords.

Just tried on wellsfargo and americanexpress from my laptop and both work just fine changing any combination of letters between upper & lower case. Chase didn't work. Didn't bother continuing the test with other banks

[LennStar]

The virtual keyboard is to combat keyloggers

mouseloggers.

[sherr]

The virtual keyboard is to combat keyloggers

mouseloggers.

IDK if you're making a joke or not, but while that's technically possible its much, much more difficult. Keyloggers are relatively simple because the program simply has to record what keys are being pressed, and then someone later can look at the results and try to parse out usernames/passwords from the whole thing.

While it's possible to listen for mouse movement/clicks in the same way, the program has to not only record them it has to pair them up with what's being displayed on the screen and interpret the result as "oh the user clicked on 'k' on an on-screen keyboard". And there is much, much more "noise" (non-password-related mouse movements / clicks) in that data. And on-screen security keyboards are much rarer anyway, so there's much less incentive to bother with the whole thing.

[dragoncar]

I’m pretty sure you used to be able to use a numeric code to login to fidelity.  Like the numbers corresponding to entering your password on a telephone keypad.  So instead of like 10 alphanumeric case sensitive letters, complexity was reduced to just a 10 digit number.  I just checked and it looks like they fixed that, but I wonder if they still use that when calling in.

[Alternatepriorities]

Turns out I don't need to worry about capitalization at my bank either... I find the arbitrary password rules at different institutions mildly annoying, more so now that I know they are just to look safer anyway.

[Mighty Eyebrows]

I’m pretty sure you used to be able to use a numeric code to login to fidelity.  Like the numbers corresponding to entering your password on a telephone keypad.  So instead of like 10 alphanumeric case sensitive letters, complexity was reduced to just a 10 digit number.  I just checked and it looks like they fixed that, but I wonder if they still use that when calling in.

Tangerine Bank (Canada) has a maximum password of 6 numerical digits only. Truly the worst online password policy I have ever seen.

[Alternatepriorities]

I’m pretty sure you used to be able to use a numeric code to login to fidelity.  Like the numbers corresponding to entering your password on a telephone keypad.  So instead of like 10 alphanumeric case sensitive letters, complexity was reduced to just a 10 digit number.  I just checked and it looks like they fixed that, but I wonder if they still use that when calling in.

Tangerine Bank (Canada) has a maximum password of 6 numerical digits only. Truly the worst online password policy I have ever seen.

I think I’d close an account there over that if there were anywhere else to bank.

[dragoncar]

I’m pretty sure you used to be able to use a numeric code to login to fidelity.  Like the numbers corresponding to entering your password on a telephone keypad.  So instead of like 10 alphanumeric case sensitive letters, complexity was reduced to just a 10 digit number.  I just checked and it looks like they fixed that, but I wonder if they still use that when calling in.

Tangerine Bank (Canada) has a maximum password of 6 numerical digits only. Truly the worst online password policy I have ever seen.

I think I’d close an account there over that if there were anywhere else to bank.

Way ahead of you... I already closed your account!  Next time use something different than the combination to my luggage

[Alternatepriorities]

I’m pretty sure you used to be able to use a numeric code to login to fidelity.  Like the numbers corresponding to entering your password on a telephone keypad.  So instead of like 10 alphanumeric case sensitive letters, complexity was reduced to just a 10 digit number.  I just checked and it looks like they fixed that, but I wonder if they still use that when calling in.

Tangerine Bank (Canada) has a maximum password of 6 numerical digits only. Truly the worst online password policy I have ever seen.

I think I’d close an account there over that if there were anywhere else to bank.

Way ahead of you... I already closed your account!  Next time use something different than the combination to my luggage

Thank for taking care of that for me!

[Mighty Eyebrows]

Way ahead of you... I already closed your account!  Next time use something different than the combination to my luggage

Ha, you would also need to know that my first dog's name was Rover! Very secure, no-one will ever find that out.

[Alfred J Quack]

MPP for this year, had to cash our modest investments because we had a number of large expenses (both planned and unplanned) and the service that did our low-cost investment only does weekly withdrawels that take about 2 weeks to proces.

The alternative would have been a HELOC type loan but we didn't want to go there because SIL has a business that was heavily hit by the lockdowns this year. SIL asked for a loan, and got it, but that pretty much cleared us out of a comfortable savings account (still some left but nearly 0 after all expected expenses the next month). We did make it clear that this would be the only substantial loan we could provide, and I made it clear to DW beforehand that this would be a loan we should not expect to be payed back.

On the plus, SIL had an offer for a takeover of her business (which is a third more than she payed for herself), which she refused because it wasn't enough...

[Mighty Eyebrows]

On the plus, SIL had an offer for a takeover of her business (which is a third more than she payed for herself), which she refused because it wasn't enough...

That would be the Endowment Effect (thanks Dan Ariely):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endowment_effect

[ixtap]

I was trying to be generous for the holidays and send out money to friends and family who are regularly short or particularly affected by the pandemic. Somehow, I chose the wrong person on PayPal, so when I got a thank you from an old colleague (who was indeed quite affected, but not someone I have interacted with in quite some time), I had to send out another payment yet. I know this Christmas sucks for a lot of people, but I just keep thinking of more people to try to cheer up.

[okisok]

I'm glad to get out of extended family holiday celebrations. Coming up with gifts to give people that I only see this one time a year and dealing with the gifts they give me. I hate the travel and the overeating and the obligatory gifts. I'm so relieved to not do any of it this year. I've mailed gifts to close friends and family and will do a short trip to visit immediate family only. If I mention any of these silver linings to Covid, people are horrified.

(I've tried to get them to not do gifts. Both writing a letter in the fall one year and asking everyone to not do gifts, and just flat out not getting any of them gifts one year. They resisted every attempt.)

[Steeze]

Bonus season! Usually the craziest budgeting month of the year. How to allocate all this irregular cash? What accounts to fill, lump some or DCA?!?

MPP: although bonus time also falls on triple paycheck month this year, it still will not be as crazy as November gains. Little disappointing in a way? Just deposit check, transfer to brokerage and done. No scheming, no plotting, no numbers to run, no forecasts to update... just doesn’t bring the excitement it used to.

Yay! My net worth went up 1.25%!?

[ixtap]

Bonus season! Usually the craziest budgeting month of the year. How to allocate all this irregular cash? What accounts to fill, lump some or DCA?!?

MPP: although bonus time also falls on triple paycheck month this year, it still will not be as crazy as November gains. Little disappointing in a way? Just deposit check, transfer to brokerage and done. No scheming, no plotting, no numbers to run, no forecasts to update... just doesn’t bring the excitement it used to.

Yay! My net worth went up 1.25%!?

I haven't become that jaded. I still find a 1% increase impressive. Heck, I can still get pretty excited over a .1% windfall!

[shelivesthedream]

Whoever mentioned the bulldog clip toothpaste thing : THANK YOU. Changed my life.

[Fomerly known as something]

Logged into my bank this morning to see if a purchase had cleared.  Forgot I had started to move money from my HYSA that is earmarked for funding my IRA on January 1.  Was totally surprised by the amount in my checking account.

[Adventine]

Whoever mentioned the bulldog clip toothpaste thing : THANK YOU. Changed my life.

@shelivesthedream that was me. Happy to serve ;)

[Freedomin5]

We don’t have a TV. No cable. No streaming services. Nothing. But sometimes I want to watch movies on a screen larger than my laptop screen. But I don’t want to pay a thousand dollars (or whatever a TV costs) just so I can hook my computer to it and watch a movie on it once or twice a year.

[Morning Glory]

We don’t have a TV. No cable. No streaming services. Nothing. But sometimes I want to watch movies on a screen larger than my laptop screen. But I don’t want to pay a thousand dollars (or whatever a TV costs) just so I can hook my computer to it and watch a movie on it once or twice a year.

Around here, people just give away TVs if they aren't the super thin flat screens.

[Trifle]

We don’t have a TV. No cable. No streaming services. Nothing. But sometimes I want to watch movies on a screen larger than my laptop screen. But I don’t want to pay a thousand dollars (or whatever a TV costs) just so I can hook my computer to it and watch a movie on it once or twice a year.

Same here!  We have no TV or cable, nothing but laptops, and I've wondered what we may be able to buy that's bigger, just for watching a movie once in a while.  Maybe just a big computer monitor?  I looked at those and most seem to run in the range of $100 - $500.  I wonder if anyone sells decent used ones . . .

[Tigerpine]

We don’t have a TV. No cable. No streaming services. Nothing. But sometimes I want to watch movies on a screen larger than my laptop screen. But I don’t want to pay a thousand dollars (or whatever a TV costs) just so I can hook my computer to it and watch a movie on it once or twice a year.

Same here!  We have no TV or cable, nothing but laptops, and I've wondered what we may be able to buy that's bigger, just for watching a movie once in a while.  Maybe just a big computer monitor?  I looked at those and most seem to run in the range of $100 - $500.  I wonder if anyone sells decent used ones . . .

Estate sales have lots of used stuff.

[Mighty Eyebrows]

Around here, a new 32" TV costs less than $200 CAD, but you can probably find an old computer monitor or TV in a thrift store (or craigslist) for much less.

[LennStar]

We don’t have a TV. No cable. No streaming services. Nothing. But sometimes I want to watch movies on a screen larger than my laptop screen. But I don’t want to pay a thousand dollars (or whatever a TV costs) just so I can hook my computer to it and watch a movie on it once or twice a year.

Same here!  We have no TV or cable, nothing but laptops, and I've wondered what we may be able to buy that's bigger, just for watching a movie once in a while.  Maybe just a big computer monitor?  I looked at those and most seem to run in the range of $100 - $500.  I wonder if anyone sells decent used ones . . .

Just mentioning that a TV screen and a computer screen are often fairly different affairs. Of course it still shows a picture, but one is made to blur, one to be sharp to read text.
That is less an issue if you pay four digits, but you aren't doing it.
So, if you want to watch TV, get a TV, not a computer screen. Should be easier, too.

[Mighty Eyebrows]

Just mentioning that a TV screen and a computer screen are often fairly different affairs. Of course it still shows a picture, but one is made to blur, one to be sharp to read text.
That is less an issue if you pay four digits, but you aren't doing it.
So, if you want to watch TV, get a TV, not a computer screen. Should be easier, too.

Not really true. We have used a (smallish) samsung TV as a computer screen for one of our house computers for about 8 years. The only thing you need to think about is resolution, it runs just fine at 60 Hz. Most of the young people I know watch their movies on their computers. TV vs Computer screens should not matter to most people unless you do video editing, photo colour-work, high-refresh gaming, or end up with an oversized TV that is only 1080p hooked up to your computer.

[Uturn]

I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase. 

[Steeze]

I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

[APowers]

Just mentioning that a TV screen and a computer screen are often fairly different affairs. Of course it still shows a picture, but one is made to blur, one to be sharp to read text.
That is less an issue if you pay four digits, but you aren't doing it.
So, if you want to watch TV, get a TV, not a computer screen. Should be easier, too.

Not really true. We have used a (smallish) samsung TV as a computer screen for one of our house computers for about 8 years. The only thing you need to think about is resolution, it runs just fine at 60 Hz. Most of the young people I know watch their movies on their computers. TV vs Computer screens should not matter to most people unless you do video editing, photo colour-work, high-refresh gaming, or end up with an oversized TV that is only 1080p hooked up to your computer.

This is what I found in my research as well. The differences between tv and monitor are largely technicalities that mostly matter in edge cases. Are you gaming at a serious level, like, competitively ranked in something? Then yeah, a monitor will make sense for you. Doing photoshop? Monitor. Are you building a hi-fi home theater? Then yeah, a tv is the better call. But 99% of all the situations in between? Buy the cheapest one that works, it'll be fine.

[dragoncar]

I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

If you sell something worth $300 and receive $300 cash, your net worth doesn't change.

You need to sell something worth $300 to some sucker for $600

[Adventine]

I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

If you sell something worth $300 and receive $300 cash, your net worth doesn't change.

You need to sell something worth $300 to some sucker for $600

Not too late to holiday guilt trip some unsuspecting relatives for $300 worth of gifts, either!

[dragoncar]

I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

If you sell something worth $300 and receive $300 cash, your net worth doesn't change.

You need to sell something worth $300 to some sucker for $600

Not too late to holiday guilt trip some unsuspecting relatives for $300 worth of gifts, either!

Look, if anyone needs a $300 NW boost, I'll happily provide a revocable gift.  Please allow 4 days for delivery and if you don't get it, consider the gift revoked!

[Morning Glory]

I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

If you sell something worth $300 and receive $300 cash, your net worth doesn't change.

You need to sell something worth $300 to some sucker for $600

Can you cash out some points for $300? Or clean out all your cash back apps, if you use them.

 There are some bank bonuses that pay out almost immediately (sofi is the best one, also chime, varo and stash paid out within days.)

[Plina]

I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

If you sell something worth $300 and receive $300 cash, your net worth doesn't change.

You need to sell something worth $300 to some sucker for $600

That would depend on if you count the 300 worth of stuff that is sold to your networth. I would guess that most of the people don’t count their stuff when they are counting their networth.

[Alfred J Quack]

I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

If you sell something worth $300 and receive $300 cash, your net worth doesn't change.

You need to sell something worth $300 to some sucker for $600

Not too late to holiday guilt trip some unsuspecting relatives for $300 worth of gifts, either!

Look, if anyone needs a $300 NW boost, I'll happily provide a revocable gift.  Please allow 4 days for delivery and if you don't get it, consider the gift revoked!

That sounds like something my bank would do in their fiscal report...

[Adventine]

Time's a-wastin. What'll it be, @Uturn ? A ridiculous marked up sale of your possessions, imaginary gifts from random forum members, extorting your guilty family, or... just random market movement on the last working day of 2020? ;)

[ixtap]

Time's a-wastin. What'll it be, @Uturn ? A ridiculous marked up sale of your possessions, imaginary gifts from random forum members, extorting your guilty family, or... just random market movement on the last working day of 2020? ;)

What about CP distributions? Should have waited until the end of the year to run year end calculations.

[dragoncar]

That would depend on if you count the 300 worth of stuff that is sold to your networth. I would guess that most of the people don’t count their stuff when they are counting their networth.

A lot of us here don't have excessive value in "stuff".  Like I'm pretty sure a robber would not be able to liquidate my physical possessions for more than 1% of my NW.  So we kinda ignore the value as it's not worth the time to actually mark to market.  But if you are close to a NW milestone, I'd absolutely go "oh yeah and my car is worth $1k so that bumps me over... YAY.

[dragoncar]

Look, if anyone needs a $300 NW boost, I'll happily provide a revocable gift.  Please allow 4 days for delivery and if you don't get it, consider the gift revoked!

That sounds like something my bank would do in their fiscal report...

Wonder how GAAP treats revocable trusts.   They have SOME value even if the value isn't certain.

[Sugaree]

I got some gift cards for xmas and now I don't know what I want to spend them on.  I usually keep a list of things that I want to save up for, but nothing on that list is really all that appealing now that I actually have some money to throw at them. 

[Uturn]

Time's a-wastin. What'll it be, @Uturn ? A ridiculous marked up sale of your possessions, imaginary gifts from random forum members, extorting your guilty family, or... just random market movement on the last working day of 2020? ;)

I just checked market movement since my last post, and got the bump.  Also, I realized I get paid on 15 and 31, not 1 and 15.  So I have another 2020 paycheck coming tomorrow.  I think it might be safe to dance naked on the table to celebrate the milestone, but I will hold off until tomorrow just to be sure.

[Adventine]

Time's a-wastin. What'll it be, @Uturn ? A ridiculous marked up sale of your possessions, imaginary gifts from random forum members, extorting your guilty family, or... just random market movement on the last working day of 2020? ;)

I just checked market movement since my last post, and got the bump.  Also, I realized I get paid on 15 and 31, not 1 and 15.  So I have another 2020 paycheck coming tomorrow.  I think it might be safe to dance naked on the table to celebrate the milestone, but I will hold off until tomorrow just to be sure.

Mr. Market came through for you! Happy new year and have a great table dance!

[NorCal]

This falls more in the category of "good problems to have", but this seemed like the best place for it instead of starting a new thread.

  My wife is a new partner at a small law firm for 2020, so it's our first year doing quarterly estimated taxes.  Essentially, the law firms full profit & loss (and all it's vagaries) flow through to our individual taxes.

  The firm ended up distributing more year-end cash than we expected.  This leaves us with several challenges:

1.  All of my work estimating taxes was waay off.  I have about 2 weeks to figure out how to handle our estimated tax payment. 

2.  The firm received a PPP loan during the early days of the pandemic when things seemed much more dire.  Our 2020 compensation is now contingent upon the PPP loan being forgiven.  We actually had to sign a document that we will return a significant portion of our 2020 earnings if this PPP loan is not forgiven.  Not only this, how the PPP loans will be taxed is in the process of being changed (I think this was included in one of those bills currently sitting on Trump's desk).

Still, I can't complain too much about getting unexpected money.  Even if I might have to pay it back next year.

[Travis]

It's 1am on the 1st in my time zone. I'm awake updating my monthly spreadsheet. I want to knock out both IRAs for the year, but it's not the 1st yet in the US so Vanguad won't let me contribute to 2021 yet.

[solon]

It's 1am on the 1st in my time zone. I'm awake updating my monthly spreadsheet. I want to knock out both IRAs for the year, but it's not the 1st yet in the US so Vanguad won't let me contribute to 2021 yet.

I think that might be the mustachiest of the mustache problems.

And I'm a little jealous...

[Tinker]

Copied my spending spreadsheet over for 2021.
Took about 3 minutes max, but i still feel like there must be a way to automate this through templates.

Programmer mind: never spend 3 minutes doing something by hand if you can spend an entire day failing to automate it

[ixtap]

Copied my spending spreadsheet over for 2021.
Took about 3 minutes max, but i still feel like there must be a way to automate this through templates.

Programmer mind: never spend 3 minutes doing something by hand if you can spend an entire day failing to automate it

My husband has a reputation as both the best programmer and the best Excel manipulator on his team. But if I ask him to do either for me, if he can't figure it out in 5 minutes, he tells me to Google it. As frustrating as this is in the moment, I am proud of him for learning this lesson!

[SwordGuy]

My husband has a reputation as both the best programmer and the best Excel manipulator on his team. But if I ask him to do either for me, if he can't figure it out in 5 minutes, he tells me to Google it. As frustrating as this is in the moment, I am proud of him for learning this lesson!

And that would be EXACTLY why he's the best Excel manipulator on his team...  :)