Good friend is an exploding volcano of wastefulness!!

[cdnstache]

Morning everyone, I just need a place to rant for a few minutes.

I spent the weekend helping my friend move some dirt and rocks around his house as he was doing some landscaping before he leaves the country for 6-months while leaving his wife and 4 kids back here. So the shovelling gave us some time to talk about things. Mostly though, it was about his finances, or lack thereof. Here are the highlights:

-Bragged about signing up for accelerated payments for his mortgage (effectively 2 extra payments per year)
-He was concerned that said mortgage payment was coming out of his bank account on the 14th, but doesn't get paid until the 15th ??!!
-He doesn't want to bring his expensive Breitling watch overseas with him so he bought a cheap $100 watch ??!! (so many WTF's in this statement!)
-His main motivation for this deployment is to pay off debts (including a line of credit with his parents). Keep in mind this a man in his 30s.
-He saw my 40" LCD tv and said I need a new one because mine was "old". Sure, its from 2009 but works fine! (not broke, not upgrading)
-Upgraded his and his wife's Iphone 5 to Iphone 6 cause he thought the bigger screen was more convenient
-Has satellite TV with every channel imaginable but can't watch the morning sports centre cause his commute is so long (45 mins) so he also has satellite radio to listen to it in the car SUV instead.

AHHHH! My head was hurting from all the money I could see just being flushed down the toilet. He's also completing his MBA but has no idea how to save and invest his own money. I didn't even ask if he had any investments. I'd be afraid to hear about mutual funds and financial advisors?! He's a good friend, but uber stubborn so I doubt anything I say about frugality/mustachiansm would do anything. And I really feel bad for his wife and 4 kids as he's trading away family time to earn more money to buy into the cosumer lifestyle. He's already making over $110k/year for pete's sake!!

Thanks for listening. Rant over.

[KungfuRabbit]

Sad. Those biweekly mortgage plans are a scam. It's fine paying off a mortgage faster, but at least at my bank they spin it like some magical deal that  saves money by paying every other week instead of on e a month, and they charge you $10 / payment to do it. Meanwhile you could just add extra principle to your monthly payment for no charge.

[cdnstache]

Sad. Those biweekly mortgage plans are a scam. It's fine paying off a mortgage faster, but at least at my bank they spin it like some magical deal that  saves money by paying every other week instead of on e a month, and they charge you $10 / payment to do it. Meanwhile you could just add extra principle to your monthly payment for no charge.

I agree. I think he said he'll end up shaving about 2 years off the life of his mortgage, which would make it 23 years instead of 25?! I'm doing match-a-payments with my mortgage, which doubles the mortgage payment but the matching goes entirely against the principle.

[MgoSam]

Sad. Those biweekly mortgage plans are a scam. It's fine paying off a mortgage faster, but at least at my bank they spin it like some magical deal that  saves money by paying every other week instead of on e a month, and they charge you $10 / payment to do it. Meanwhile you could just add extra principle to your monthly payment for no charge.

I agree. I think he said he'll end up shaving about 2 years off the life of his mortgage, which would make it 23 years instead of 25?! I'm doing match-a-payments with my mortgage, which doubles the mortgage payment but the matching goes entirely against the principle.

Gotta keep in mind that some people won't agree to pay more than the mortgage amount each month. It's sad but something like an extra $100 does wonders at lowering your principal and lowering how long it takes to pay off your mortgage, especially if you do it during your first year, but all too often people won't sign up for it and will instead pay extra 'if they can,' and of course they can't because many are going paycheck to paycheck. So it never gets done. At least someone doing biweekly payments is paying off a little faster.

[zephyr911]

Sad. Those biweekly mortgage plans are a scam. It's fine paying off a mortgage faster, but at least at my bank they spin it like some magical deal that  saves money by paying every other week instead of on e a month, and they charge you $10 / payment to do it. Meanwhile you could just add extra principle to your monthly payment for no charge.

They charge you extra? Who the fuck pays extra to make extra payments?
I had a biweekly plan once, and it was free.

[cautiouspessimist]

Sad. Those biweekly mortgage plans are a scam. It's fine paying off a mortgage faster, but at least at my bank they spin it like some magical deal that  saves money by paying every other week instead of on e a month, and they charge you $10 / payment to do it. Meanwhile you could just add extra principle to your monthly payment for no charge.

They charge you extra? Who the fuck pays extra to make extra payments?
I had a biweekly plan once, and it was free.

Exactly. I just refinanced and set up my payments to be bi-weekly and it's totally free. The only downside was that the day I wanted to start on was the 3rd(?) and so I had to make a full payment the week before my bi-weekly payments started. A little bit of a cash flow crunch, but it worked out.

[zephyr911]

Exactly. I just refinanced and set up my payments to be bi-weekly and it's totally free. The only downside was that the day I wanted to start on was the 3rd(?) and so I had to make a full payment the week before my bi-weekly payments started. A little bit of a cash flow crunch, but it worked out.

I've been in many cash crunches, mostly self-imposed. I prefer to think of them as strategic savings accelerations. ;)

[AM43]

Morning everyone, I just need a place to rant for a few minutes.

I spent the weekend helping my friend move some dirt and rocks around his house as he was doing some landscaping before he leaves the country for 6-months while leaving his wife and 4 kids back here. So the shovelling gave us some time to talk about things. Mostly though, it was about his finances, or lack thereof. Here are the highlights:

-Bragged about signing up for accelerated payments for his mortgage (effectively 2 extra payments per year)
-He was concerned that said mortgage payment was coming out of his bank account on the 14th, but doesn't get paid until the 15th ??!!
-He doesn't want to bring his expensive Breitling watch overseas with him so he bought a cheap $100 watch ??!! (so many WTF's in this statement!)
-His main motivation for this deployment is to pay off debts (including a line of credit with his parents). Keep in mind this a man in his 30s.
-He saw my 40" LCD tv and said I need a new one because mine was "old". Sure, its from 2009 but works fine! (not broke, not upgrading)
-Upgraded his and his wife's Iphone 5 to Iphone 6 cause he thought the bigger screen was more convenient
-Has satellite TV with every channel imaginable but can't watch the morning sports centre cause his commute is so long (45 mins) so he also has satellite radio to listen to it in the car SUV instead.

AHHHH! My head was hurting from all the money I could see just being flushed down the toilet. He's also completing his MBA but has no idea how to save and invest his own money. I didn't even ask if he had any investments. I'd be afraid to hear about mutual funds and financial advisors?! He's a good friend, but uber stubborn so I doubt anything I say about frugality/mustachiansm would do anything. And I really feel bad for his wife and 4 kids as he's trading away family time to earn more money to buy into the cosumer lifestyle. He's already making over $110k/year for pete's sake!!

Thanks for listening. Rant over.

I can share similar story. Good friend of mine. Wife and 3 kids.
Working for major Wall Street Financial Co. earning very high income of approx 500K per year.
Purchased 1mil + house in very upscale area with good schools and sky high taxes(30k per year)
When I questioned him about it, he said he needs to be close to work.
Took second mortgage out and had to sell stock options to put as down payment as they have very little savings if at all.
First thing he did to that house is to build sauna. Price tag 30K.
We both share passion for saunas, but I built mine with my own hands for fraction of his cost.
Not too long ago he showed me his new watch. He said it was his dream to own this particular one and
all higher ups at his office own similar watches and it would look good at meetings. Price tag 5K.
I care about this fucking guy and cant stop thinking how he could be totally FI by now, instead he is setting himself up for lifetime of suffering. When i try to talk to him, he changes subject and just tells me that we have different ideas about money and what to do with it.