Overheard at Work

[Richard3]

I think prang might even be regional British. I didn't hear it living in the North and have never heard it in NZ.

[dragoncar]

My coworker drives a paid off vehicle, lives with a roommate, has few bills, and says he saves a good bit of money.

Yesterday, he told me that he looked at a 2014 truck that he had to say no to because it would've cost $900 a month for 7 years!  Some quick math made me question this egregious amount and he countered that he recalls factoring in all the costs (insurance, gas, etc).  Still...

Later that day, he was perusing the interwebs and found two other pickup trucks that were in the $40k-$50k range.  In asking for my opinion, I said they looked nice but suggested he save the money instead.

Him:  "I save now, i'm tired of saving money."
Me:  "Do you contribute to your retirement?"
Him:  "Yeah, the max...6%."
Me:  "The max is $17,500 for the year, not 6%.  You can contribute 10, 15, or even 20%."

He continues to argue about the max and then the conversation trails off.

Maybe he makes $291k

[kiwibeach]

Prang in New Zealand is a minor accident,
Eg you you pranged your car when you backed into the wall
Someone pranged your car when they cut the corner and hit your car
Someone pranged your car when they were parking next to you, and forgot their car was enormous and put a dent in your car.

Could also be for a bike, plane, boat, anything really.

Didn't know they used it in Aussie though 😄

[grantmeaname]

Is a bus nearly flattening a pedestrian a prang? Or did the video give me the wrong impression.

[kt]

A prang is a vehicle-pedestrian collision?

No, it could (British usage anyway, I'm not sure about Australian) be any crash.  You could prang a bike or airplane.  Connotation seems that it's comparatively minor, maybe equivalent to US fender-bender?

my impression is that the vehicle would end up with a minor dent. i would associate it with a crash with another vehicle or object rather than a person.

[Fireman]

Is a bus nearly flattening a pedestrian a prang? Or did the video give me the wrong impression.

A prang is a vehicle-pedestrian collision?

No, it could (British usage anyway, I'm not sure about Australian) be any crash.  You could prang a bike or airplane.  Connotation seems that it's comparatively minor, maybe equivalent to US fender-bender?

my impression is that the vehicle would end up with a minor dent. i would associate it with a crash with another vehicle or object rather than a person.

@grantmeaname...by kt's definition, yes.  I'm sure said pedestrian would cause a minor dent.

[jba302]

Is a bus nearly flattening a pedestrian a prang? Or did the video give me the wrong impression.

Aussies / NZers are extremely tough people.

[HappierAtHome]

Prang is minor and usually a two car accident, though they could also be one car if you dent your car while parking or something.

Never occurred to me that prang wasn't universal!

If a person got hit by a vehicle, I doubt that would ever be considered a prang.

[geekette]

Is a bus nearly flattening a pedestrian a prang? Or did the video give me the wrong impression.

Aussies / NZers are extremely tough people.

You can't kill me, I'm Russian (and they all seem to have dash cams).

[fantabulous]

Prang is minor and usually a two car accident, though they could also be one car if you dent your car while parking or something.

Never occurred to me that prang wasn't universal!

If a person got hit by a vehicle, I doubt that would ever be considered a prang.

One day in Bangkok I got hit by a vespa (the world certainly wasn't my oyster that day). I didn't think to look for traffic on the shoulder going the wrong direction on a one way road and the driver couldn't stop in time. My palms got a bit scraped up from the fall as I threw my arms out to keep my torso from hitting the pavement. I guess that would be a prang.

[Fireman]

My coworker drives a paid off vehicle, lives with a roommate, has few bills, and says he saves a good bit of money.

Yesterday, he told me that he looked at a 2014 truck that he had to say no to because it would've cost $900 a month for 7 years!  Some quick math made me question this egregious amount and he countered that he recalls factoring in all the costs (insurance, gas, etc).  Still...

Later that day, he was perusing the interwebs and found two other pickup trucks that were in the $40k-$50k range.  In asking for my opinion, I said they looked nice but suggested he save the money instead.

Him:  "I save now, i'm tired of saving money."
Me:  "Do you contribute to your retirement?"
Him:  "Yeah, the max...6%."
Me:  "The max is $17,500 for the year, not 6%.  You can contribute 10, 15, or even 20%."

He continues to argue about the max and then the conversation trails off.

Maybe he makes $291k

I lol'd at this!

[HappierAtHome]

Nah, I've been hit as a pedestrian by a car twice and a bus once, and if I'd described those incidents as "prangs" I would have been rushed off to check for concussion. (Only one of those was my fault, for the record).

I think fender bender is the closest synonym.

[Russ]

(and they all seem to have dash cams).

They actually do, 'cause insurance and bad law enforcement

ETA: not literallyall, they aren't required, but it's a very very good idea

[poxpower]

One of my friends who bought a 500$ purse last week posted this on her FB today:

[AlanStache]

Let me just set down my 10' poll that I'm not going to touch this with.

[iris lily]

...This person has a one-income family and they just bought a (huge) house... a) why on earth does she own a $28,000 car, and b) I can't believe that somebody could own a $28,000 car and a $700,000 house with one income and not have an emergency fund.

These are the same people who have to buy a house in perfect shape with a perfect kitchen and a garage because they have $ 0 to make those renovations. They can only borrow money for a mortgage, and the mortgage (in most instances) will only fund what is already there.

I used to be puzzled why having to find a house with a garage was such a big deal to some people. Find the house you love and if it doesn't have a garage, build one! DH had to explain it to me: these people don't HAVE $25,000 sitting around to build a garage. since they are buying $300,000 to $500,000 in my neighborhood, I found that idea shocking.

[Anatidae V]

...This person has a one-income family and they just bought a (huge) house... a) why on earth does she own a $28,000 car, and b) I can't believe that somebody could own a $28,000 car and a $700,000 house with one income and not have an emergency fund.

These are the same people who have to buy a house in perfect shape with a perfect kitchen and a garage because they have $ 0 to make those renovations. They can only borrow money for a mortgage, and the mortgage (in most instances) will only fund what is already there.

I used to be puzzled why having to find a house with a garage was such a big deal to some people. Find the house you love and if it doesn't have a garage, build one! DH had to explain it to me: these people don't HAVE $25,000 sitting around to build a garage. since they are buying $300,000 to $500,000 in my neighborhood, I found that idea shocking.

I'm quite certain you can buy quite a few non-perfect homes in Perth for $700k, so I hope they did get a nice one.

[poxpower]

Also this whole thread reminds me of something that happened when I was in 1st grade.

Our teacher would pay us with 5 tickets if we were good that day. The tickets could be exchanged for fancy stickers at the end of each week, or saved up each week to get even fancier stickers later (some up to 120tickets!!! lol).

At the end of the first week, she said that everyone who'd been nice should have 20 tickets ( even though the week was 5 days long so in reality we could have up to 25). Only one kid counted his actual tickets and figured out that he had 25.

We all wondered how it could be that he had 25 tickets while we only had 20. We didn't even count ours, we just figured that he must somehow had been luckier and gotten 5 extra tickets out of nowhere.

That kid was totally mistermoneymustache and the rest of us were the poor saps wondering where all our money went when in fact it was right under our noses all along and we were simply too stupid to count it properly.

[eyePod]

It's the same logic that keeps people from paying off their student loans because "I'd lose the tax deduction!"

I hear this all the time with respect to mortgages.  "you're just throwing away your money when you're renting!"  I like to point out that you're absolutely right if I'm not SAVING THE DIFFERENCE THAT I'M SAVING BY NOT OWNING A DAMN HOUSE.  There are times when it makes sense to buy a house, financially, but if the average american is doing it, it's most likely not the right thing to do (in my mind at least).

Also
"I saved 5k on my brand new car!" -
Me - "But you still spent 30k..."

[eyePod]

CW1: You switched to third party car insurance, right? How much is it costing you? I'm thinking of switching too.
Me: Just over $300 a year. My comprehensive car insurance was costing me $1080 per year, so it was well worth the savings to me.
CW2: Oh my god, how can you afford not to have comprehensive car insurance? What if somebody hits you and they're not insured so you don't get any money?
Me: I'll pay to repair the car myself, or if it's totalled, I'll replace it.
CW2: That's insane, I don't have $28,000 sitting around to replace my car. I don't have any money saved up.
...
This person has a one-income family and they just bought a (huge) house... a) why on earth does she own a $28,000 car, and b) I can't believe that somebody could own a $28,000 car and a $700,000 house with one income and not have an emergency fund.

I'm betting that car isn't paid off either...

[eyePod]

Prang is minor and usually a two car accident, though they could also be one car if you dent your car while parking or something.

Never occurred to me that prang wasn't universal!

If a person got hit by a vehicle, I doubt that would ever be considered a prang.

One day in Bangkok I got hit by a vespa (the world certainly wasn't my oyster that day). I didn't think to look for traffic on the shoulder going the wrong direction on a one way road and the driver couldn't stop in time. My palms got a bit scraped up from the fall as I threw my arms out to keep my torso from hitting the pavement. I guess that would be a prang.

Bangkok is RIDICULOUS!  I loved how every time the drivers were waiting for a light to turn green, all of the little scooters would weave in between all the cars stopped at the light and pass in front of the cross walk (still behind the green light).  Once that light turned green, there would be 50+ scooters gunning it like motocross!!  SO fun to watch.

[DTown]

I have one from my last job. I was considered a healthnut (mostly true) so sometimes people would ask me for my health-wise opinion. This particular coworker sometimes made a point of being as unhealthy as possible with the 'goal' of dying before his wife. This was such a facepalm I had a hard time deciding if he was honestly asking or not. He never played around much, so I'm pretty sure he was being serious.

Coworker: Hey DTown, what do you do for energy?
Me: What do you mean? (Was he wondering about calories or caffine?)
Coworker: You know, to stay awake? I know you don't drink soda or energy drinks.
Me: (Wondering if he was being serious) I...uh...sleep???
Coworker: (Completely serious) Oh... I hadn't thought about that. I guess you're right. *Walks away awkwardly*

[Paul der Krake]

I have one from my last job. I was considered a healthnut (mostly true) so sometimes people would ask me for my health-wise opinion. This particular coworker sometimes made a point of being as unhealthy as possible with the 'goal' of dying before his wife. This was such a facepalm I had a hard time deciding if he was honestly asking or not. He never played around much, so I'm pretty sure he was being serious.

Coworker: Hey DTown, what do you do for energy?
Me: What do you mean? (Was he wondering about calories or caffine?)
Coworker: You know, to stay awake? I know you don't drink soda or energy drinks.
Me: (Wondering if he was being serious) I...uh...sleep???
Coworker: (Completely serious) Oh... I hadn't thought about that. I guess you're right. *Walks away awkwardly*

What is this sleep you speak of and where can I finance it?

[nyxst]

What is this sleep you speak of and where can I finance it?

Hahahahaha! Perfect :)

[mgarl10024]

I think prang might even be regional British. I didn't hear it living in the North and have never heard it in NZ.

Prang in New Zealand is a minor accident,
Eg you you pranged your car when you backed into the wall
Someone pranged your car when they cut the corner and hit your car
Someone pranged your car when they were parking next to you, and forgot their car was enormous and put a dent in your car.

Could also be for a bike, plane, boat, anything really.

Didn't know they used it in Aussie though 😄

As someone from the UK, this is how I would understand the word prang.  I wouldn't think it involved pedestrians though as others have suggested.

MG

[iris lily]

Bangkok is RIDICULOUS!  I loved how every time the drivers were waiting for a light to turn green, all of the little scooters would weave in between all the cars stopped at the light and pass in front of the cross walk (still behind the green light).  Once that light turned green, there would be 50+ scooters gunning it like motocross!!  SO fun to watch.

tuk-tuks, I still remember what they were called 25 years after visiting Bangkok.

[FunkyStickman]

Heard today:

Him: "Maybe I'll be able to do that when I retire, in like 35 years" (this person is about 37)
Me: "I'm planning on retiring in about 12 to 15 years. Once I pay off my house in 8, the rest goes in investments, I have no other payments."
Him: "Even if I pay off my house, I'll always have a car payment."
Me: "Why? I don't have one."
Him: "Cause I replace my cars every 10 years, and I have 2 cars..."
Me: "You can't save up a bit and buy one cash? You know how much you lose in interest?"
Him: "Nope, and yes."
Me: "......"

[lizfish]

Heard today:

Him: "Maybe I'll be able to do that when I retire, in like 35 years" (this person is about 37)
Me: "I'm planning on retiring in about 12 to 15 years. Once I pay off my house in 8, the rest goes in investments, I have no other payments."
Him: "Even if I pay off my house, I'll always have a car payment."
Me: "Why? I don't have one."
Him: "Cause I replace my cars every 10 years, and I have 2 cars..."
Me: "You can't save up a bit and buy one cash? You know how much you lose in interest?"
Him: "Nope, and yes."
Me: "......"

This perfectly encapsulates the rest of this thread. "I know I'm being an idiot, but I choose not to exercise my free will in order to change" Let them and the industries they feed get on with it. Good luck to 'em.

[jrs]

There I was, sitting in the company sponsored retirement planning workshop...

Instructor: If you look at the next handout, you'll see it's your budget work sheet.  Everyone, I want you to pick up your pens and cross out the word "budget".  [… waits whilst we scribble …].  Okay, I want you to write the word "Spending".  Yes, this is your spending worksheet.  Doesn't that sound more fun?

Me: facepalm. 

[eyePod]

There I was, sitting in the company sponsored retirement planning workshop...

Instructor: If you look at the next handout, you'll see it's your budget work sheet.  Everyone, I want you to pick up your pens and cross out the word "budget".  [… waits whilst we scribble …].  Okay, I want you to write the word "Spending".  Yes, this is your spending worksheet.  Doesn't that sound more fun?

Me: facepalm.

Well, if he tried to help them find ways to reduce their spending or find places where they're leaking money it could really help!  I'm sure that's not the case though...

[pipercat]

Heard today:

Him: "Maybe I'll be able to do that when I retire, in like 35 years" (this person is about 37)
Me: "I'm planning on retiring in about 12 to 15 years. Once I pay off my house in 8, the rest goes in investments, I have no other payments."
Him: "Even if I pay off my house, I'll always have a car payment."
Me: "Why? I don't have one."
Him: "Cause I replace my cars every 10 years, and I have 2 cars..."
Me: "You can't save up a bit and buy one cash? You know how much you lose in interest?"
Him: "Nope, and yes."
Me: "......"

This perfectly encapsulates the rest of this thread. "I know I'm being an idiot, but I choose not to exercise my free will in order to change" Let them and the industries they feed get on with it. Good luck to 'em.

I think this is so prevalent.  I think of the phrase "When you know better, you do better".  I would like to think that applies to me, but I clearly have "known better" at certain times of my life, but I have still made the dumb choice.  At least I hope to be leaving that behind!

[senecando]

"I know I'm being an idiot, but I choose not to exercise my free will in order to change"

I was reading an article about how much debt PhD's had at graduation and the first comment said "How much agency do graduate students really have?"

[Hadilly]

As a former graduate student, I find that really funny. Yet somehow I graduated with no debt; guess I had some agency after all!

[AlanStache]

yeah buying comfortable quality for where you will spend 1/3 to 1/4 of your life is one thing, going behind your partners back is totally different.  Strong words would be said I guarantee.

[Tyler]

CW#1 (looking at a photo on a wall): What's that building?
CW#2: That's a famous movie theater in town.  You mean you've never seen it?
CW#1: Nope.  My wife and I are hard workers.  We work all day, eat dinner, and go to bed. 

[tracipam]

My work switched the company that manages our 401K plans.  The new company held a series of seminars to educate us about their 401K (theoretically).  As their opening slide, they posted the number 43,800 and asked us what we thought it was.  Of course nobody guessed.  They triumphantly announced that it was the number of meals a couple would eat during 20 years of retirement and then pointed out dramatically that if the couple *ONLY* spent $5 PER PERSON PER MEAL, they would have to have save >$200,000 just for MEALS! Egads! The horrors!  LOOK AT HOW EXPENSIVE RETIREMENT IS!! AHHHH!!! 

Two of the people sitting next to me work in the financial management department--you know, the one that deals with charging people money, projecting revenues, looking at timelines, that sort of thing.  Many of them have MBAs and degrees in finance and business management stuff. 

I rolled my eyes and made some joking comment to them about the dreaded $5 scenario was and made a sarcastic retort about the 401K company's scare tactic.  Meanwhile, I back-caculated that their estimate would result in this hypothetical couple spending something above $10,000 per year just in food costs, which comes to about half my annual spending (although I didn't say that last part out loud). 

MBA-type #1 looked at me with wide eyes and said earnestly, 'But sometimes you spend a lot MORE than $5 per meal!  Wow!  That's a lot of money!' 

Later, the MBA-type #2 approached the finance people to ask about investing in the 401K.  Which, if this made them think about getting their finances in order, I guess... good.  But do I want these people in charge of the financial management of my company?  Eek! 

[Insanity]

...buying comfortable quality for where you will spend 1/3 to 1/4 of your life...

This always comes across to me as very effective marketing and justification for spending lots and lots on putting something between you and the ground.

It isn't.  Getting a great night sleep is a big deal.  I've tried various mattresses and still haven't found one that works as well as our sleep number did when we first got it.  I can't say anything about it now since most of my nights over the last 5 years have been interrupted by kids or dog :)

When we first got it, my wife and I had settings that were completely different and we both woke up better.  We weren't able to cuddle much though -- the difference in the sides caused a cliff between them to form (i like mine much harder than she likes her side).

[Richard3]

(i like mine much harder than she likes her side).

That's what she said.

[No Name Guy]

...buying comfortable quality for where you will spend 1/3 to 1/4 of your life...

This always comes across to me as very effective marketing and justification for spending lots and lots on putting something between you and the ground.

Hmmmm.....slept in a tent on a 1/2" thick foam pad for 5+ months.  After the first couple weeks of getting used to it, it was the best sleep of my life....except for the one night when the stupid deer were stomping around outside the tent all flipping night long.  YMMV of course.

[Insanity]

(i like mine much harder than she likes her side).

That's what she said.

I re-wrote that part about 5 times… nothing got away from expecting that response :)

[jba302]

When we first got it, my wife and I had settings that were completely different and we both woke up better.  We weren't able to cuddle much though -- the difference in the sides caused a cliff between them to form (i like mine much harder than she likes her side).

My wife and I have twin beds pushed together. I think she does backflips in her sleep, but now it doesn't wake me up compared to the old shitty queen mattress we had. Saved us a couple grand compared to what we were expecting to pay.

[Hedge_87]

We get paid monthly and payroll has a timeframe of anywhere from the first and the fith to get our money to us. Mildly inconvenient but not impossible to work around. EVERY single month I have co workers flipping out because they are out of money and they have bills that are due or worse passed due. This blows my mind! I've tried to help with words of advice and all I get is abunch of excuses like. Easy for you to say you don't have a car payment do. I tell them that's an easy problem to fix and I get but we need something reliable we have kids. I understand their finances are probably a little more complicated but I just wait to get the direct deposit email from my bank and then log in and send my money to where it all needs to go CC, house payment, and other goals. The rest sits in the account to cover the utilities that auto draft throughout the month. This whole process takes 10 minutes of my life every month lol. I'm ok with that

[the fixer]

As someone who once had a car payment I don't see how that's an excuse. It's all about living within one's means. I used to keep an extra $1000-1500 sitting in the checking account as a floor that I would never plan on spending, just in case I overspent or didn't get paid on time or something. It may not be the most optimal life arrangement, but it's extremely easy to do and better than having your hair on fire once per month! In the 3 or 4 years I had that loan I never had a financial problem.

(BTW people telling me my advice is inapplicable because I don't have a house/kid/fancy car in my life is a big pet peeve of mine, so it's nice that I can actually speak from experience on one of these!)

[Hedge_87]

That's why I now just surf the web on my phone and let the excuses and complaints go on in the back ground. I also have had debt to repay before and it never seemed to be much of an issue. I just had less money to put to other goals. I have been pretty lucky so far in not having to worry to much about not having enough. I don't think I would like the stress of not knowing if I was going to be able to pay everything in a given month.

[eyePod]

Receptionist at work talking about when they bought their bed:

"We finally found one we could both agree on except he wanted a queen and I wanted a California king. He won and we got the queen and he got cheapest mattress they had. I went back the next day and said "Give me a California king and change the mattress to a TempurPedic. Ended up costing about $1500 more. When it came he asked if it was bigger that what we ordered, I told him it just looked that way since our room is small. I knew he'd want to kill me when he saw the bank statement but it's a nice bed!"

I don't know what they actually paid for the bed, it might very well have been reasonable but the fact she did it behind his back and waited for him to see the bank statements to find out is ridiculous. I'd be having pretty harsh words with DH if he tried anything like that

At least she's willing to spend the money on the mattress.  My co-worker got a really expensive/nice bedroom set and got the mattress from big lots.  I'd have done the opposite since you actually sleep on the damn mattress!

[Hedge_87]

Funny thing happened just a few minutes ago. We where headed back to the shop and I told my co worker I had to stop at the auto parts store and by some antifreeze for my personal vehicle. While I was picking up the jug he told me that I was getting the wrong one. I asked why? He said well if you by that one you have to mix it yourself. Why not just by the pre mixed? I quickly explained the genuis marketing strategy that was used to make you buy 50% water for the same price as the concentrated version where you get twice enough. He still said that it was easier to just get the pre mixed coolant lol o well had to try

[Fireman]

I used to work at a an (un)advanced auto parts store and couldn't understand why people would buy 50/50 antifreze! 

It's like the Hershey's Air Delight bar...you're literally paying for air.

Or Gatorade G2...it's regular gatorade cut with water, for the same price!

[grantmeaname]

G2 is different. They load that shit with Sucralose.

[Hedge_87]

G2 is different. They load that shit with Sucralose.

Haha yes but http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vw2CrY9Igs

[dragoncar]

Funny thing happened just a few minutes ago. We where headed back to the shop and I told my co worker I had to stop at the auto parts store and by some antifreeze for my personal vehicle. While I was picking up the jug he told me that I was getting the wrong one. I asked why? He said well if you by that one you have to mix it yourself. Why not just by the pre mixed? I quickly explained the genuis marketing strategy that was used to make you buy 50% water for the same price as the concentrated version where you get twice enough. He still said that it was easier to just get the pre mixed coolant lol o well had to try

Is it really the same price, and do they sell distilled water in the same store?  I think I bought coolant a grand total of once, and it was worth it to get the pre-mixed at the time.

By the way, would it be bad to have 100% coolant, 0% water?