Author Topic: Overheard at Work  (Read 13252933 times)

AlmostIndependent

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1500 on: January 16, 2014, 01:25:08 PM »
If it helps I've been at work for the entire airplane discussion :)

grantmeaname

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1501 on: January 16, 2014, 01:25:55 PM »
If it helps I've been at work for the entire airplane discussion :)
And the NSA listened to every word he said. Therefore, it's overheard at work!

dragoncar

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1502 on: January 16, 2014, 01:37:25 PM »
If it helps I've been at work for the entire airplane discussion :)
And the NSA listened to every word he said. Therefore, it's overheard at work!

I use steganography to encode secret messages disguised as aeronautic discussions

AlanStache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1503 on: January 16, 2014, 01:39:02 PM »
My coworker once said that he spends more than 20k$ per year to maintain and store his personal airplane.

AlmostIndependent

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1504 on: January 16, 2014, 01:58:56 PM »
If it helps I've been at work for the entire airplane discussion :)
And the NSA listened to every word he said. Therefore, it's overheard at work!

Lol. I like your style.

chicagomeg

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1505 on: January 16, 2014, 02:35:44 PM »
I think it would be even more ridiculous to lock the longest thread on the forum just because went ever so slightly OT for less than a page...

+1

CNM

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1506 on: January 16, 2014, 02:41:37 PM »
"Budgets are for poor people"


I work in an office full of accountants. We see the inner workings of people's financial lives. We should be smarter than this.

Wow!  My husband's a CPA and he frequently comments (generally, w/o disclosing anything confidential of course!) about how bad most people are with their money, especially youngish people like us and trust-funders.

impaire

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1507 on: January 16, 2014, 03:54:00 PM »
"Budgets are for poor people"


I work in an office full of accountants. We see the inner workings of people's financial lives. We should be smarter than this.

Wow!  My husband's a CPA and he frequently comments (generally, w/o disclosing anything confidential of course!) about how bad most people are with their money, especially youngish people like us and trust-funders.

The first time I went to see a financial planner, with my husband, we were considering buying a house (a very silly decision, our location wasn't stable, my employment wasn't stable, the area we were looking at was very expensive... Plus we were already 30 with almost no money set aside). We'd done a little bit of research, the guy was accredited as a CPA and had some kind of qualification as a planner. Our question was, how much of our savings should we stop directing at retirement and use to build up a down-payment?

The "financial adviser," who looked to be in his 50s, answered "oh you should just pretty much put everything you can in the house fund, after all you're young, you have plenty of time to save for retirement."

Thank God he added "Look at me, I'm a financial planner, and I just started saving for retirement now that my kids are done with college! My son is always making fun of me for it!" That pretty much convinced me not to listen to anything he had to say...

AlmostIndependent

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1508 on: January 16, 2014, 05:24:55 PM »
The "financial adviser," who looked to be in his 50s, answered "oh you should just pretty much put everything you can in the house fund, after all you're young, you have plenty of time to save for retirement."
Thank God he added "Look at me, I'm a financial planner, and I just started saving for retirement now that my kids are done with college! My son is always making fun of me for it!" That pretty much convinced me not to listen to anything he had to say...

Sweet Jesus. How are we supposed to function as a society when people who are qualified to give financial advice dispense absolute shit like the above quote. I mean really. Fuck. Really?
« Last Edit: January 16, 2014, 06:42:08 PM by AlmostIndependent »

Bruised_Pepper

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1509 on: January 16, 2014, 06:41:33 PM »
The "financial adviser," who looked to be in his 50s, answered "oh you should just pretty much put everything you can in the house fund, after all you're young, you have plenty of time to save fo
Thank God he added "Look at me, I'm a financial planner, and I just started saving for retirement now that my kids are done with college! My son is always making fun of me for it!" That pretty much convinced me not to listen to anything he had to say...

Sweet Jesus. How are we supposed to function as a society when people who are qualified to give financial advice dispense absolute shit like the above quote. I mean really. Fuck. Really?

I've noticed a recent trend around here suggesting that CPAs have no financial planning savvy.  It's probably just all the bad examples, but they're certainly living up to their "bean counter" reputation in these parts. 

englyn

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1510 on: January 16, 2014, 06:42:47 PM »
Sweet Jesus. How are we supposed to function as a society when people who are qualified to give financial advice dispense absolute shit like the above quote. I mean really. Fuck. Really?
This.

Also, love the reference in the sig.

AlmostIndependent

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1511 on: January 16, 2014, 06:47:20 PM »
I've noticed a recent trend around here suggesting that CPAs have no financial planning savvy.  It's probably just all the bad examples, but they're certainly living up to their "bean counter" reputation in these parts.

It's been my experience that there are morons in every profession. This happens to be a money-centric forum so the money-centric 'professionals' draw a lot of ire from the crowd here when they give less than stellar advice.

impaire

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1512 on: January 16, 2014, 07:01:08 PM »
Well, I've met with other CPAs* and one financial planner since then, and they have all given us good advice (or no advice but been good at what they did). This guy on the other hand, I have to trot him out once in a while because I'm still laughing about the encounter. I hope that he does not do too much damage by giving advice like what he shared with us, honestly we were so naive at the time we may have trusted him if he had not volunteered proof of his moronism...

[*plus my MIL, who is trained as a CPA and can squeeze every single penny of a tax return... and yet is the greatest example of a penny-wise-pound-foolish person I've ever met.]

grantmeaname

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1513 on: January 16, 2014, 07:01:42 PM »
I've noticed a recent trend around here suggesting that CPAs have no financial planning savvy.
Yeah, and physicists make terrible doctors. Musicians can't write poetry for shit, either.

AlmostIndependent

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1514 on: January 16, 2014, 09:03:23 PM »
Also, love the reference in the sig.

It's my favorite quote from one of my favorite books.

Jamesqf

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1515 on: January 16, 2014, 10:01:30 PM »
I dunno, maybe my trips in my friend's bonanza were really unusual, but we hardly ever got above 5000 feet.  This was usually a relatively short hop from FRG to ACY though.

All depends on where you live.  Lot of places hereabouts, getting to 5000 ft MSL requires mining :-)

AlmostIndependent

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1516 on: January 16, 2014, 10:09:59 PM »
I dunno, maybe my trips in my friend's bonanza were really unusual, but we hardly ever got above 5000 feet.  This was usually a relatively short hop from FRG to ACY though.

All depends on where you live.  Lot of places hereabouts, getting to 5000 ft MSL requires mining :-)

I know some people who tried mining in a small airplane. Doesn't usually turn out so well.

odput

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1517 on: January 17, 2014, 06:42:31 AM »
The "financial adviser," who looked to be in his 50s, answered "oh you should just pretty much put everything you can in the house fund, after all you're young, you have plenty of time to save fo
Thank God he added "Look at me, I'm a financial planner, and I just started saving for retirement now that my kids are done with college! My son is always making fun of me for it!" That pretty much convinced me not to listen to anything he had to say...

Sweet Jesus. How are we supposed to function as a society when people who are qualified to give financial advice dispense absolute shit like the above quote. I mean really. Fuck. Really?

I've noticed a recent trend around here suggesting that CPAs have no financial planning savvy.  It's probably just all the bad examples, but they're certainly living up to their "bean counter" reputation in these parts.

I realize that there are good and bad performers in every field, but if your area of "expertise" is money and you SUCK at handling money, shouldn't you get weeded out of that job or something?  Or is the fact that 95% of the people you encounter are worse at it than you are somehow make it OK?

jba302

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1518 on: January 17, 2014, 06:51:03 AM »

I realize that there are good and bad performers in every field, but if your area of "expertise" is money and you SUCK at handling money, shouldn't you get weeded out of that job or something?  Or is the fact that 95% of the people you encounter are worse at it than you are somehow make it OK?

My wife is an amazing accountant and has very little investing knowledge, the finance people do this part. It probably has to do with the fact that they aren't the same thing. Accounting is about past -> current status and reconciliation of accounts, financial planning is current -> future status and such.

grantmeaname

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1519 on: January 17, 2014, 09:00:38 AM »
I realize that there are good and bad performers in every field, but if your area of "expertise" is money and you SUCK at handling money, shouldn't you get weeded out of that job or something?  Or is the fact that 95% of the people you encounter are worse at it than you are somehow make it OK?
I realize that there are good and bad performers in every field, but if your area of "expertise" is physics and you SUCK at administering chemotherapy, shouldn't you get weeded out of that job or something?  Or is the fact that 95% of the people you encounter are worse at it than you are somehow make it OK?

odput

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1520 on: January 17, 2014, 09:13:04 AM »
Not sure I understand the analogy, because all I can think is that its apples and oranges...if you suck at chemo, you get fired (weeded out).  Does that same type of thing not happen in the financial advice industry?

Daleth

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1521 on: January 17, 2014, 09:28:40 AM »
This site says the operating costs for a Bonanza G36 are $109.20/hour and 59 cents per nautical mile:
http://www.what2fly.com/operating_cost/beechcraft/36_bonanza_a36.php

That contrasts VERY VERY favorably with the operating costs of a Learjet 25D, at $1681/hour and $3.66/nautical mile--and the Lear only seats 10 people (2 crew/8 passengers), four more than the Bonanza!
http://www.what2fly.com/operating_cost/learjet/lear_25d.php

Additionally - don't private "jets" have jet engines? The Beechcraft Bonanza doesn't look like any private jets you see CEOs jetting off in...looks like something used for getting to small islands and the like.

Yes, private jets have jet engines. The Beechcraft Bonanza G36 has a service ceiling of 18,500 feet--anything above 10,000 requires oxygen--so it benefits from some of the same low-density air (low drag) as jets do, though certainly not as much. I know people who fly Beechcrafts halfway across the US on a regular basis; a 1500 mile trip would take about 7 hours, which sounds long compared to flying on a commercial jet until you remember that you don't have to allow any time for check-in, getting through security, flight delays etc., and both departure and landing airports can be much closer than a major airport is to where you live/where you're going. And if you feel like breaking the trip into a couple of legs, you can stop anywhere you want--there are small general aviation airports all over the place--because as a smaller plane, you don't need a long runway; you can land in a much shorter distance.

Jets are also a lot more complicated to fly, and you need much more training to fly them--so you'd have to spend a heck of a lot more just becoming qualified to fly one, before you could enjoy the privilege (haha) of spending a lot more to fly them.

AlmostIndependent

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1522 on: January 17, 2014, 09:29:31 AM »
I operate a large ship for a living. There is a certain amount of finesse that is required to dock a ship, it's not something that everyone is good at, even after years on the job. Unless someone screws up and actually damages something it's very hard to fire them. It seems crazy to me, but thats what Ive seen. Eventually most weed themselves out, but it can be a long process. Should they be fired? Probably. Will it happen? Probably not.

Daleth

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1523 on: January 17, 2014, 09:31:21 AM »
Thank God he added "Look at me, I'm a financial planner, and I just started saving for retirement now that my kids are done with college! My son is always making fun of me for it!" That pretty much convinced me not to listen to anything he had to say...

Haha! Omigod. That's kind of like saying, "Look at me, I'm a nurse, and I'm standing here smoking and eating a Big Mac." Oh wait, that happens a lot too, doesn't it... yikes.

chicagomeg

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1524 on: January 17, 2014, 10:08:25 AM »
Not sure I understand the analogy, because all I can think is that its apples and oranges...if you suck at chemo, you get fired (weeded out).  Does that same type of thing not happen in the financial advice industry?

What grant is saying is that, despite what some people here seem to think, there is very little overlap between being a CPA and actual financial planning.

grantmeaname

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1525 on: January 17, 2014, 10:55:25 AM »
Right. People who don't actually administer chemotherapy do not tend to get fired for being bad at administering chemotherapy. CPAs audit publically traded companies and provide tax planning advice (mostly for corporations), and don't do financial planning.

willn

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1526 on: January 17, 2014, 01:02:37 PM »
"Budgets are for poor people"


I work in an office full of accountants. We see the inner workings of people's financial lives. We should be smarter than this.

Wow!  My husband's a CPA and he frequently comments (generally, w/o disclosing anything confidential of course!) about how bad most people are with their money, especially youngish people like us and trust-funders.

The first time I went to see a financial planner, with my husband, we were considering buying a house (a very silly decision, our location wasn't stable, my employment wasn't stable, the area we were looking at was very expensive... Plus we were already 30 with almost no money set aside). We'd done a little bit of research, the guy was accredited as a CPA and had some kind of qualification as a planner. Our question was, how much of our savings should we stop directing at retirement and use to build up a down-payment?

The "financial adviser," who looked to be in his 50s, answered "oh you should just pretty much put everything you can in the house fund, after all you're young, you have plenty of time to save for retirement."

Thank God he added "Look at me, I'm a financial planner, and I just started saving for retirement now that my kids are done with college! My son is always making fun of me for it!" That pretty much convinced me not to listen to anything he had to say...

Look, the guy might have been an unqualified doofus, that didn't manage his own finances according to mustachian dogmatic protocol, and he may have responded a bit flippantly, but on its face, it isn't horrible advice in general to stop contributing to retirement for a short while to pile up a down payment on the house.  It may not be the right advice for you, at that time, or if you want to be an extremely early retiree.

But delaying retirement for two years so that you can meet another important goal isn't unreasonable and works out very well for many people, because they do have lots of time to save.  And people often develop a previously undiscovered savings muscle when they have a big goal together, like a house, so they are then set off on a good path.


impaire

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1527 on: January 17, 2014, 07:43:13 PM »
"Budgets are for poor people"


I work in an office full of accountants. We see the inner workings of people's financial lives. We should be smarter than this.

Wow!  My husband's a CPA and he frequently comments (generally, w/o disclosing anything confidential of course!) about how bad most people are with their money, especially youngish people like us and trust-funders.

The first time I went to see a financial planner, with my husband, we were considering buying a house (a very silly decision, our location wasn't stable, my employment wasn't stable, the area we were looking at was very expensive... Plus we were already 30 with almost no money set aside). We'd done a little bit of research, the guy was accredited as a CPA and had some kind of qualification as a planner. Our question was, how much of our savings should we stop directing at retirement and use to build up a down-payment?

The "financial adviser," who looked to be in his 50s, answered "oh you should just pretty much put everything you can in the house fund, after all you're young, you have plenty of time to save for retirement."

Thank God he added "Look at me, I'm a financial planner, and I just started saving for retirement now that my kids are done with college! My son is always making fun of me for it!" That pretty much convinced me not to listen to anything he had to say...

Look, the guy might have been an unqualified doofus, that didn't manage his own finances according to mustachian dogmatic protocol, and he may have responded a bit flippantly, but on its face, it isn't horrible advice in general to stop contributing to retirement for a short while to pile up a down payment on the house.  It may not be the right advice for you, at that time, or if you want to be an extremely early retiree.

But delaying retirement for two years so that you can meet another important goal isn't unreasonable and works out very well for many people, because they do have lots of time to save.  And people often develop a previously undiscovered savings muscle when they have a big goal together, like a house, so they are then set off on a good path.


Hm, I kept the story a bit short, but it was a horrible idea for us to be buying given the rest of our financial situation. As you write, "at that time", it was not the right advice for us at all. Another example: he gave us the advice to "perhaps cut down on buying clothes," which is perhaps not a bad idea in general... but was totally unadapted in our case, since I hate shopping and at the time my husband was actually borderline frumpy. We however ate out 4-5 times a week (in NYC), but eating out was not even mentioned in the discussion. Ha!

Now, I will say that grantmeaname has a point: we wanted financial advice, and the guy billed himself as a financial planner... but the only qualification I checked for was him being a CPA. I really don't know why I was expecting that to be a relevant criteria :p

ice813

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1528 on: January 17, 2014, 08:52:17 PM »
We just wrapped up a big project so everyone has been working long hours all week. At one point late last night this conversation occurred. (note: cw1 has a newborn)

cw1: So yesterday was the first time i didn't see [insert child's name] all day...
cw2: Oh yeah? That sucks, but it will happen more often than you think.
cw1: Really?
cw2: Sure, it gets even worse when your kids can talk and you get home late and they say "Where have you been? I missed you all day". Sometimes I just want to reply: 'This is what happens when you go to college! You get a job and you have to work all day to pay bills and send your kids to college!'
cw1: hahaha
cw2: hahaha

I just shut my mouth and left the room. I thought the whole thing was really sad...

AlmostIndependent

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1529 on: January 17, 2014, 09:15:26 PM »
We just wrapped up a big project so everyone has been working long hours all week. At one point late last night this conversation occurred. (note: cw1 has a newborn)

cw1: So yesterday was the first time i didn't see [insert child's name] all day...
cw2: Oh yeah? That sucks, but it will happen more often than you think.
cw1: Really?
cw2: Sure, it gets even worse when your kids can talk and you get home late and they say "Where have you been? I missed you all day". Sometimes I just want to reply: 'This is what happens when you go to college! You get a job and you have to work all day to pay bills and send your kids to college!'
cw1: hahaha
cw2: hahaha

I just shut my mouth and left the room. I thought the whole thing was really sad...

My dislike of work is what initially made me want to retire early. I'm still glad I'm headed down that path but for different reasons now. This conversation really drove that home for me. Thanks for sharing.

Miamoo

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1530 on: January 18, 2014, 11:59:17 AM »
Another overheard er actually witnessed this one . . .

Company owner's son was sent with an assistant from Montreal to Chicago to meet with clients at a jobsite last Monday.  Instead of taking a direct flight from Montreal to Chicago said owner's son and pal scheduled the flight to 'stop over' in Denver and spend the night exploring as they had heard it was legal to buy pot there.  They swear they bought some 'good shit' there and yacked about how cool it was.  (Do I believe this?)  Not personal financial irresponsibility but my head is still spinning. 

Nothing any of us could do when this idiot and his assistant spun the story other than sit, nod our heads, smile and tell him what a smart guy he was and "How cool!  How fun!"  (None of us have smoked since high school/college.  Nuttin' wrong with it as far as we're concerned but don't do it on the company's dime when the company is laying off people and no-one's had a raise or bonus in years).  Note:  these 2 are in their early 30's.  Old enough to have more sense.

I'm still furious and me head's a still a spinnin'.  How much a** kissing and pee-pee smooching is required fer cripes sake?

Glad to have a job tho right about now.  Prospects are not good in this area and in our field.  We're maybe 8 - 10 years from FIRE.

AlmostIndependent

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1531 on: January 18, 2014, 01:34:27 PM »
Another overheard er actually witnessed this one . . .

Company owner's son was sent with an assistant from Montreal to Chicago to meet with clients at a jobsite last Monday.  Instead of taking a direct flight from Montreal to Chicago said owner's son and pal scheduled the flight to 'stop over' in Denver and spend the night exploring as they had heard it was legal to buy pot there.  They swear they bought some 'good shit' there and yacked about how cool it was.  (Do I believe this?)  Not personal financial irresponsibility but my head is still spinning. 

Nothing any of us could do when this idiot and his assistant spun the story other than sit, nod our heads, smile and tell him what a smart guy he was and "How cool!  How fun!"  (None of us have smoked since high school/college.  Nuttin' wrong with it as far as we're concerned but don't do it on the company's dime when the company is laying off people and no-one's had a raise or bonus in years).  Note:  these 2 are in their early 30's.  Old enough to have more sense.

I'm still furious and me head's a still a spinnin'.  How much a** kissing and pee-pee smooching is required fer cripes sake?

Glad to have a job tho right about now.  Prospects are not good in this area and in our field.  We're maybe 8 - 10 years from FIRE.

Family businesses are always fun, especially if there are people like that in the mix. Always makes for an interesting work environment.

Nudelkopf

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1532 on: January 20, 2014, 03:03:02 AM »
We had a "welcome back to work" afternoon today.

One lady (about 60) asked how my mum was, and she couldn't believe it when I said they'd retired and moved away to another town. She then made fun of my parents for retiring early (both at 55), and asked if I was going to save up really hard to do the same. I laughed, and said yes. (I didn't tell her I was planning on being retired way before 55!)

The boss was telling us how her daughter recently moved to the big city to go to university. Since she was living right in the city, she found she wasn't able to use her car very much, because living in the city and public transport was too good. So, this year, the daughter is moving to an outer city suburb, simply so she could use her car more. Doh.


Daleth

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1533 on: January 20, 2014, 08:56:18 AM »
The boss was telling us how her daughter recently moved to the big city to go to university. Since she was living right in the city, she found she wasn't able to use her car very much, because living in the city and public transport was too good. So, this year, the daughter is moving to an outer city suburb, simply so she could use her car more. Doh.

WTF?! This is the clearest proof yet that there are aliens in our midst.

Kaspian

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1534 on: January 20, 2014, 11:13:41 AM »
Woman at work this morning complaining that when she retires in 10 years it could be very difficult to live on our (government) pension.  When I asked if she had any investments in RRSPs (401K) she says, "No--those things are a scam!  ...And besides, it could put me in a higher tax bracket."

Errr..  You're worried that you won't have enough, but don't want to have enough because you might pay more in tax?  Somebody please explain this to me?

scarab007

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1535 on: January 20, 2014, 12:20:51 PM »
Another overheard er actually witnessed this one . . .

Company owner's son was sent with an assistant from Montreal to Chicago to meet with clients at a jobsite last Monday.  Instead of taking a direct flight from Montreal to Chicago said owner's son and pal scheduled the flight to 'stop over' in Denver and spend the night exploring as they had heard it was legal to buy pot there.  They swear they bought some 'good shit' there and yacked about how cool it was.  (Do I believe this?)  Not personal financial irresponsibility but my head is still spinning. 

Nothing any of us could do when this idiot and his assistant spun the story other than sit, nod our heads, smile and tell him what a smart guy he was and "How cool!  How fun!"  (None of us have smoked since high school/college.  Nuttin' wrong with it as far as we're concerned but don't do it on the company's dime when the company is laying off people and no-one's had a raise or bonus in years).  Note:  these 2 are in their early 30's.  Old enough to have more sense.

I'm still furious and me head's a still a spinnin'.  How much a** kissing and pee-pee smooching is required fer cripes sake?

Glad to have a job tho right about now.  Prospects are not good in this area and in our field.  We're maybe 8 - 10 years from FIRE.


Reminds of the movie "Horrible Bosses" when the dad dies and Colin Farrell character takes over the company. HAHA

wtjbatman

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1536 on: January 20, 2014, 11:44:53 PM »
The boss was telling us how her daughter recently moved to the big city to go to university. Since she was living right in the city, she found she wasn't able to use her car very much, because living in the city and public transport was too good. So, this year, the daughter is moving to an outer city suburb, simply so she could use her car more. Doh.

WTF?! This is the clearest proof yet that there are aliens in our midst.

It's like those aliens from The Arrival, they're trying to increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and finish the job we started.

HappierAtHome

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1537 on: January 20, 2014, 11:52:58 PM »
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.

Anatidae V

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1538 on: January 21, 2014, 12:56:46 AM »
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.
What comprehensive were you on that it cost you $1000/year? Ouch! Ours is $380, on a brand new car.
But the one-income-no-emergency-fund-and-a-mortgage thing is scary.

HappierAtHome

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1539 on: January 21, 2014, 01:42:08 AM »
Plus I know it's a huge mortgage because she freely admitted she didn't have a 20% deposit...

I've addressed this in more detail in my journal, but basically where I live is TERRIBLE for prangs and your insurance is partly based on how many accidents are reported in your suburb. That was the cheapest rate I ever found for comprehensive, and I did call around.

Fireman

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1540 on: January 21, 2014, 06:10:39 AM »
Prangs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OambG-H3Li8

Prangs?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prang_(architecture)

I'll admit i've never heard that term but i'll assume you're referring to the former rather than the architectural element.

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 think it's *because they have a $28,000 car and a $700,000 house with one income that they don't have an emergency fund.

Anatidae V

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1541 on: January 21, 2014, 06:22:20 AM »
Prangs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OambG-H3Li8

Prangs?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prang_(architecture)

I'll admit i've never heard that term but i'll assume you're referring to the former rather than the architectural element.

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 think it's *because they have a $28,000 car and a $700,000 house with one income that they don't have an emergency fund.

I didn't realise is was specifically Aussie slang. I'll mark that down as "one thing I learned today"

plainjane

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1542 on: January 21, 2014, 06:27:56 AM »
Woman at work this morning complaining that when she retires in 10 years it could be very difficult to live on our (government) pension.  When I asked if she had any investments in RRSPs (401K) she says, "No--those things are a scam!  ...And besides, it could put me in a higher tax bracket."

Errr..  You're worried that you won't have enough, but don't want to have enough because you might pay more in tax?  Somebody please explain this to me?

Well the money you take out of your RRSPs is counted as income, so there is more tax than you would have otherwise and some claw-backs on other benefits you get by being very low income or otherwise mean tested.   This is another place where a TFSA is awesome, because it isn't counted as income or held against you in means testing (at least right now or in the near future).

She's probably concerned because of stuff like this:
http://www.canada.com/finance/moneylibrary/story.html?id=fb5d9d3a-369d-4776-90ca-5ac1e4d623ea

And an article about clawbacks, RRSPs, TFSAs, etc.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/retirement-rrsps/how-to-beat-the-retirement-clawback/article8641085/

grantmeaname

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1543 on: January 21, 2014, 06:29:55 AM »
A prang is a vehicle-pedestrian collision?

Fireman

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1544 on: January 21, 2014, 06:35:46 AM »
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.

Rural

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1545 on: January 21, 2014, 06:44:52 AM »
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.

That sounds like a person who might be interested in doing more if he were better educated about the options. Trouble is, doesn't sound like he's ready to listen to you about it, or at least not yet. Maybe you could "lose" some informational book in his vicinity? You'd find it at a yard sale or thrift store, of course.

Half-Borg

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1546 on: January 21, 2014, 11:48:12 AM »
I think he is ready to be introduced to MMM.
You know you should kind of save, but at some point you have an sufficent emergency fund, you save enough to retire at an normal age and money just piles up under your mattress and you don't know what to do about it.
MMM can be an eye-opener that it is actually possible to put that money to good use by retiering early.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1547 on: January 21, 2014, 11:50:02 AM »
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 think it's *because they have a $28,000 car and a $700,000 house with one income that they don't have an emergency fund.

I doubt it. If they didn't have the car and house they probably would just replace it with some really nice TVs and a boat.

Jamesqf

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1548 on: January 21, 2014, 12:30:40 PM »
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?

Richard3

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #1549 on: January 21, 2014, 12:57:53 PM »
I think prang might even be regional British. I didn't hear it living in the North and have never heard it in NZ.