Overheard at Work

[Elderwood17]

Y'all have some shitty bosses, or you're in very high management positions.

There's "working from home" and there's "feeling sick but answering emails" and there's "taking a day to run errands" but a real vacation means "find people to take over your responsibilities entirely". I've yet to have a boss who doesn't understand this.

Besides which, the reason a company gives you vacation isn't because they're super nice - it's because they need you to occasionally get rest and come back recharged so you can keep working at a high level for years. A non-vacation vacation just means burnout, not giving a fuck, and/or leaving jobs..

I smack my head whenever someone in authority goes on vacation but either doesn't leave the area or stays connected.  I know a lot of folks don't mind staying at home during a vacation, but if you're in the kind of work where they're always trying to get a hold of you it just seems like you're asking for it to keep yourself available.

In my company you do NOT disconnect without some very high permission and for special situations.  People routinely list on their automated out of office messages what time of day they will be checking emails and returning calls.  I don't dare check out for more than a few hours on evenings or weekends but generally only check email twice a day if on vacation....but I am low enough down the chain to get away with it.  My boss routinely conferences in for meetings while on "vacation".  It is only getting worse and I cannot wait to call it quits!

[RyanAtTanagra]

In my company you do NOT disconnect without some very high permission and for special situations.  People routinely list on their automated out of office messages what time of day they will be checking emails and returning calls.  I don't dare check out for more than a few hours on evenings or weekends but generally only check email twice a day if on vacation....but I am low enough down the chain to get away with it.  My boss routinely conferences in for meetings while on "vacation".  It is only getting worse and I cannot wait to call it quits!

Jeez, I wouldn't even wait for FI to get out of that, I'd be looking around today

[MgoSam]

Weighing in on the concept of vacation while working. I'm the VP of a small business, we have a total of 8 employees, half of whom are in the warehouse, so if anyone in the office goes on vacation then it means that everyone has to work harder to make up the other person's duties, and that's ok, we are happy to do so. That said, there are some things that cannot be made up, for instance I receive far more calls on my cellphone than I do on my office phone, and some of those calls are from customers that cannot be put off, if they are looking to order you can either take their order then (or at least try to assist them) or if you call them back the next day, there is a good chance that they have placed an order from your competitor, so vacation for me isn't an issue about myself, it means turning down a lot of money. So yes when I am on vacation or a break, I do keep my cellphone on me to answer quick questions from a customer, and found that it works best to answer their call and patch in someone else from the office to finish it up.

[galliver]

Weighing in on the concept of vacation while working. I'm the VP of a small business, we have a total of 8 employees, half of whom are in the warehouse, so if anyone in the office goes on vacation then it means that everyone has to work harder to make up the other person's duties, and that's ok, we are happy to do so. That said, there are some things that cannot be made up, for instance I receive far more calls on my cellphone than I do on my office phone, and some of those calls are from customers that cannot be put off, if they are looking to order you can either take their order then (or at least try to assist them) or if you call them back the next day, there is a good chance that they have placed an order from your competitor, so vacation for me isn't an issue about myself, it means turning down a lot of money. So yes when I am on vacation or a break, I do keep my cellphone on me to answer quick questions from a customer, and found that it works best to answer their call and patch in someone else from the office to finish it up.

There definitely exist office phone systems that can forward calls to other phones, e.g. your cell phone. If you set that up, you can stop giving out your cell # to customers, and forward your phone to a colleague's phone, etc. while you're gone, removing yourself as the middle man. And allowing you to go camping/out of country/out of phone range. Which is a healthier, more rejuvenating vacation.

[Albert]

Isn't this often about trust? The big boss simply doesn't trust anyone else to make even minor decisions in his/her absence.

[Beaker]

I receive far more calls on my cellphone than I do on my office phone, and some of those calls are from customers that cannot be put off, if they are looking to order you can either take their order then (or at least try to assist them) or if you call them back the next day, there is a good chance that they have placed an order from your competitor, so vacation for me isn't an issue about myself, it means turning down a lot of money. So yes when I am on vacation or a break, I do keep my cellphone on me to answer quick questions from a customer, and found that it works best to answer their call and patch in someone else from the office to finish it up.

Vacation/sanity issues aside that seems like a bad idea. What's going to happen if you drop your cell phone in a river, or end up in the hospital, or are otherwise not able to handle calls? Sounds like your business would take a serious hit at the worst possible time. You should figure a way around that purely for business continuity sake - getting to take an actual vacation is just a nice bonus.

[Albert]

It's not all roses working for a large multinational, but there are also advantages and one big one is being able to take a vacation whenever I wish. Most of the time my boss doesn't care when exactly I'm gone and the same goes for those who report to me.

[HairyUpperLip]

OK, let's go back to stupid names for people's children.  Specifically Kaylee in all its variations.  The legitimate word is Ceilidh (Scots Gaelic) or sometimes Ceili (Irish Gaelic) and it means a party with alcohol and music and dancing and basically having a grand time.  Do the people using this as a girl's name have any clue as to the original meaning?

Guys, please, start a different thread about box colors, it's getting annoying now.

Mkay?

Please

I noticed that there seem to be far fewer names for boys than girls, particularly in the sweet spot we were looking for: not so common that they'll be one of three Thomases in their class, but not so rare that people won't be able to spell it, or so trendy that it'll sound super dated (Jayden) or ethnic/religious for something other than our culture/religion (Mohammed, etc.). We had an easy time finding a girl's name we liked that met that standard, but it's a much harder bar for boy's names. This baby is going to be Matilda if she's a girl and Martin if he's a boy.

As an Indian family in America we wanted our daughter to have a name that would sounds beautiful in both English and the mother tongue and have meaning in both language. It took a lot of effort but we finally found that we loved and used. Sucks that it was considered one of the more popular names from her birth year, found out after, because of the TV shows using it at the time.

But my real point I was trying to make is that we had a much harder time of even thinking of boy's names that worked. Not sure that there is necessarily less choices, but maybe too many bad choices. :-P

[gimp]

This is why startups are generally for young folks. Sure, part of it is age discrimination, and part of it is the reverse - anyone older, especially with a family, really doesn't want to be working 50-60 hours a week without a real vacation for a year and a half. Some startups which are run by non-20-somethings are much smarter about splitting work up and allow people to take a vacation once in a while and work more reasonable hours...

As someone else said, sending things to a cell phone is a system that very much needs a backup solution. For example, sending to a business-owned phone number that is set to redirect to your cell, but can easily be reset to redirect to any other phone number (office, another cell, your coworker to cover you on vacation, etc.)

That, and weaning customers off phones and to a web service.

[MgoSam]

I receive far more calls on my cellphone than I do on my office phone, and some of those calls are from customers that cannot be put off, if they are looking to order you can either take their order then (or at least try to assist them) or if you call them back the next day, there is a good chance that they have placed an order from your competitor, so vacation for me isn't an issue about myself, it means turning down a lot of money. So yes when I am on vacation or a break, I do keep my cellphone on me to answer quick questions from a customer, and found that it works best to answer their call and patch in someone else from the office to finish it up.

Vacation/sanity issues aside that seems like a bad idea. What's going to happen if you drop your cell phone in a river, or end up in the hospital, or are otherwise not able to handle calls? Sounds like your business would take a serious hit at the worst possible time. You should figure a way around that purely for business continuity sake - getting to take an actual vacation is just a nice bonus.

Yeah I hear ya, I have mentioned the office number to nearly all customers, but many of the customers I work with still continue to call my cell. An actual vacation would be awesome, the last thing I had that was close to it was 9 days in Colorado, of which my weekend was spent hiking in Golden, and then spent 4 days on the road writing orders and then spent the weekend in Idaho Springs.

My phone doesn't ring that excessively, I rarely get a call past 6 pm and if I need to ignore it I will. Usually if a customer does want to order something after hours, he'll want to know if I have it in stock, and that's usually a quick phone call to tell him/her yes/no, and that I will call him/her back in the morning. If I need to be alone, I turn my phone on silent.

That said, this is something that does drive me towards retirement, can't wait for the day when I can avoid thinking of work.

[Elderwood17]

Isn't this often about trust? The big boss simply doesn't trust anyone else to make even minor decisions in his/her absence.

I would say that is pretty true for my situation.  I have no trouble trusting my team but cannot control those above me who insist on knowing details I don't even care about.

[lemanfan]

Yeah I hear ya, I have mentioned the office number to nearly all customers, but many of the customers I work with still continue to call my cell.

Give your cell phone to a co-worker to handle these calls during your vacay time. Then get a burner phone and only give the burner phones number to close friends and family and possibly a few trusted coworkers.  :)

[MgoSam]

Yeah I hear ya, I have mentioned the office number to nearly all customers, but many of the customers I work with still continue to call my cell.

Give your cell phone to a co-worker to handle these calls during your vacay time. Then get a burner phone and only give the burner phones number to close friends and family and possibly a few trusted coworkers.  :)

Yeah, I've spoken about this with the owner and he would be open to do this. The sad part is that I haven't had a desire for a vacation in a few years, I have taken weekend trips and other things, and those are generally enough for me to be happy. I haven't had a desire for a foreign vacation in some time, but if I wanted to take a vacation I would do so, but just keep my phone on me and tell anyone that called that "I am on vacation," and I know that nearly all would understand, because I've called my customers when they're on vacation and they'll tell me who at the office to call and speak to, no problems there.

[fartface]

I COULD NOT wait to get home from work and post this.

I am working on a second master's degree in administration and my field supervisor came to visit me today.

He has been in administration for about 35 years (earning six figures for at least 20 of them). He often gets off topic and discusses boring, irrelevant details about his life with me. I'm obligated to listen and nod and put in a minimum amount of hours with him because he serves as a sort of "mentor" to me.

Well today he's droning on and on...."My daughter is getting married in AZ next month....I had surgery on a bone spur last spring...my home and land are valued around 500K (I perked up a little for this)...my wife works at XYZ...I took Hwy 51 here but will probably take 181 home..."

Anyway, I'm just staring at the clock, blank look upon my face, waiting for it to end, wondering when he'll get to a point - ANY point.

Finally, he says to me after all this random blabbering, "And you, you'll likely never be able retire."

I must have given him some sort of LOOK because he paused briefly, blinked at me, then after several long moments, continued on about something else.

My husband was cracking up. He said I should have set the 60+ old fart straight. I said I didn't want to spend another minute with him, let alone the hours and hours it would take explaining FIRE to him. It was easier to just keep my mouth shut, nod along with his rambling, and bike home as fast as I could to post this.

[mining_melancholy]

Half a year ago, before I got my current job, I took a job at a call center. I went through training with a class of other newbies. We would be paid $7.50 an hour for our work there. I heard this in our very first class:

"Man, I can't wait for Friday. I'm going to get my paycheck and roll into the lot and get me a new car!"

[VirginiaBob]

A coworker of mine near retirement was boasting that he had $300k saved in his retirement account, and mentored me that with disciplined savings for many years, I'd be able to achieve the same thing when I retired.   I didn't have the heart to tell him that I hit $300k several years ago.

[LennStar]

A coworker of mine near retirement was boasting that he had $300k saved in his retirement account, and mentored me that with disciplined savings for many years, I'd be able to achieve the same thing when I retired.   I didn't have the heart to tell him that I hit $300k several years ago.

That was right. If he is so near to retirement as it sounds, it would just have made im unhappier if you told him things like that. let him go peacefully (ahem... into retirement I mean ^^ ) You can try to "train" people if they have time, but to talk about FIRE a year before they go is not a good idea.
You could try to go deeper into the "disciplined savings" if you want. You need that in retirement, too.

[Caella]

A coworker of mine near retirement was boasting that he had $300k saved in his retirement account, and mentored me that with disciplined savings for many years, I'd be able to achieve the same thing when I retired.   I didn't have the heart to tell him that I hit $300k several years ago.

Shh, just take the advice and keep with disciplined savings!

Sadly I don't think he is so near retirement if he just have 300k saved after many years =x

[VirginiaBob]

A coworker of mine near retirement was boasting that he had $300k saved in his retirement account, and mentored me that with disciplined savings for many years, I'd be able to achieve the same thing when I retired.   I didn't have the heart to tell him that I hit $300k several years ago.

Shh, just take the advice and keep with disciplined savings!

Sadly I don't think he is so near retirement if he just have 300k saved after many years =x

Luckily, we do have a pretty generous pension, and with SS as well, he actually should be ok, and is probably a lot better off than some of his peers.  Figure SS will be around $2,000-$3,000 per month (including non-working spouse benefit), Pension will be around $1,500-$2,000 per month, the $300K should result in result in another $1,000 per month (with 4% withdrawal).  So he should be pulling in $4,500 to $6,000 per month, and hopefully with a paid off mortgate (not sure if this is the case), he'll be livng ok.  If I wasn't considering ER, being in his situation wouldn't be that awful.

That said, yes, I did keep my mouth shout, but had to fight the smile.

[GardenFun]

Finally, he says to me after all this random blabbering, "And you, you'll likely never be able retire."

I must have given him some sort of LOOK because he paused briefly, blinked at me, then after several long moments, continued on about something else.

My husband was cracking up. He said I should have set the 60+ old fart straight. I said I didn't want to spend another minute with him, let alone the hours and hours it would take explaining FIRE to him. It was easier to just keep my mouth shut, nod along with his rambling, and bike home as fast as I could to post this.

Funny how bosses always think they are in a better financial situation than you.  Had a similar conversation with my former boss when he tried to explain going from two incomes to one was nearly impossible.  Just smiled and continued to turn in my resignation. 

[Malaysia41]

Finally, he says to me after all this random blabbering, "And you, you'll likely never be able retire."

I must have given him some sort of LOOK because he paused briefly, blinked at me, then after several long moments, continued on about something else.

My husband was cracking up. He said I should have set the 60+ old fart straight. I said I didn't want to spend another minute with him, let alone the hours and hours it would take explaining FIRE to him. It was easier to just keep my mouth shut, nod along with his rambling, and bike home as fast as I could to post this.

Funny how bosses always think they are in a better financial situation than you.  Had a similar conversation with my former boss when he tried to explain going from two incomes to one was nearly impossible.  Just smiled and continued to turn in my resignation.

For weeks after I told my boss, "nah, I'll pass on that _____.  I think I'll just stop working.  We've saved enough to live off of," he often commented, "I'm so jealous." 

[Spudd]

Today I overheard 2 co-workers talking. CW1 bikes to work and brings his lunch. CW2 I have never seen before, don't know her.

CW2: So you're still biking to work? That must save a lot of money.
CW1: Yes, it's great.
CW2: The parking fees here are killing me. It's $15 to park for a day, and then $10-15 for lunch on top of that, it's $25-30 a day just to come to the office.
CW1: Yeah....

[Miamoo]

Excessive boring foam.

Indeed.

Indeed again.  Enough with the counting cards and casino nonsense.  Start a different thread for that.  Isn't this thread supposed to be for us to read, be aghast of, amused by (maybe horrified by as well) and make fun of stupid people?

[skunkfunk]

Excessive boring foam.

Indeed.

Indeed again.  Enough with the counting cards and casino nonsense.  Start a different thread for that.  Isn't this thread supposed to be for us to read, be aghast of, amused by (maybe horrified by as well) and make fun of stupid people?

This is the internet! We don't need your rules.

That said the black box thing made me want to gouge my own eyes. Figuratively.

[Pooperman]

Excessive boring foam.

Indeed.

Indeed again.  Enough with the counting cards and casino nonsense.  Start a different thread for that.  Isn't this thread supposed to be for us to read, be aghast of, amused by (maybe horrified by as well) and make fun of stupid people?

This is the internet! We don't need your rules.

That said the black box thing made me want to gouge my own eyes. Figuratively.

You get a black eye if you box yourself, then again, it might be orange.

Or Red.

[HairyUpperLip]

Excessive boring foam.

Indeed.

Indeed again.  Enough with the counting cards and casino nonsense.  Start a different thread for that.  Isn't this thread supposed to be for us to read, be aghast of, amused by (maybe horrified by as well) and make fun of stupid people?

This is the internet! We don't need your rules.

That said the black box thing made me want to gouge my own eyes. Figuratively.

You get a black eye if you box yourself, then again, it might be orange.

Or Red.

hehehehe

[Pooperman]

Category 5 foam

[dude]

A coworker of mine near retirement was boasting that he had $300k saved in his retirement account, and mentored me that with disciplined savings for many years, I'd be able to achieve the same thing when I retired.   I didn't have the heart to tell him that I hit $300k several years ago.

In retirement training a few yeas back, a senior manager who was then 5 years from mandatory retirement confided he had around $100,000 in his TSP.  Guy was always driving a new truck, and sporting flashy suits and watches/jewelry.  Poor bastard.  I think reality set in recently because he's now driving a beater.

[dragoncar]

Excessive boring foam.

Indeed.

Indeed again.  Enough with the counting cards and casino nonsense.  Start a different thread for that.  Isn't this thread supposed to be for us to read, be aghast of, amused by (maybe horrified by as well) and make fun of stupid people?

Uh, ok.  Until you brought it up again, nobody had mentioned casinos for at least 100 posts.  But since we're complaining about ancient off-topic diversions, can we please start a different thread on sexism from page 2?

Anyways, roulette is the best game at the casino.  You should always bet on black orange.

[larmando]

How would they have a season 2? The movie takes place at the end of season 1...

Given that the movie was horrible, just "undo" the movie, and move on!

[VirginiaBob]

A coworker of mine near retirement was boasting that he had $300k saved in his retirement account, and mentored me that with disciplined savings for many years, I'd be able to achieve the same thing when I retired.   I didn't have the heart to tell him that I hit $300k several years ago.

In retirement training a few yeas back, a senior manager who was then 5 years from mandatory retirement confided he had around $100,000 in his TSP.  Guy was always driving a new truck, and sporting flashy suits and watches/jewelry.  Poor bastard.  I think reality set in recently because he's now driving a beater.

What I can't understand is how anyone can pass up on matching funds - that is nuts.  Putting in 5% gets you 5% matching, which will result in 10% savings.  This should be mandatory.  Heck, just putting in the 5%, and investing in only the G fund over a 30 year career, starting 30 years ago at GS-5 and slowing gaining grades only to GS-12, would result in about $330,000.  I'm probably not realizing how much divorce raids the TSP accounts or something.

[Timmmy]

Excessive boring foam.

Indeed.

Indeed again.  Enough with the counting cards and casino nonsense.  Start a different thread for that.  Isn't this thread supposed to be for us to read, be aghast of, amused by (maybe horrified by as well) and make fun of stupid people?

Please stay on topic.  This is the internet and there are rules and regulations you must abide by.  Your posting this contributed nothing to the original topic and therefore is in clear violation of "The Internets Rules and Regulations Vol 2.3" page 63 paragraph 3.4.  Therefore, you lose 2 internet points. 

[gimp]

How would they have a season 2? The movie takes place at the end of season 1...

Given that the movie was horrible, just "undo" the movie, and move on!

You take that back, take it back right now.

[hdatontodo]

Back in 1990 when I worked for a Tech Company that that the Desktop Computer contract for DOD, a salesman told me that his boss just loved it when salespeople came in talking about the new boat or house they just bought. He's said, "that's GREAT." He knew then that the person would be busting their tails to sell sell sell and he'd make HIS bonus.

[horsepoor]

Not at work, by my riding instructor and her husband are self-employed in a different field, and are perpetually broke, despite being in their 50's.  So she and I have been adding alfalfa cubes to our horses' rations, and started talking about splitting a ton, so I checked Craigslist and good quality hay is available for $180 per ton.  She said "Oh, the cubes aren't bad, only $13.xx per bag."  I pointed out that at 40# per bag, that came up to almost $680 per ton, and she had a sudden blank look on her face, then said "But the bag lasts me like a month" to which pointed out that she must be feeding just over a pound, which is not enough to have any nutritional benefit for a 1,300 pound horse, and again the blank look.  She's a great person, and seems to be really happy with life, and generally frugal, but I can definitely see that she doesn't do many calculations, and could probably be living less paycheck-to-paycheck with a little more analysis of where the money goes. 

[MrsK]

At a work event:

"I can't afford to start my diet until January now because I just had to pend $2000 on dialysis for my cat."

When I asked why it cost money to go on a diet, she said because she only wanted to use Medifast . . .

[johnny847]

Not at work, by my riding instructor and her husband are self-employed in a different field, and are perpetually broke, despite being in their 50's.  So she and I have been adding alfalfa cubes to our horses' rations, and started talking about splitting a ton, so I checked Craigslist and good quality hay is available for $180 per ton.  She said "Oh, the cubes aren't bad, only $13.xx per bag."  I pointed out that at 40# per bag, that came up to almost $680 per ton, and she had a sudden blank look on her face, then said "But the bag lasts me like a month" to which pointed out that she must be feeding just over a pound, which is not enough to have any nutritional benefit for a 1,300 pound horse, and again the blank look.  She's a great person, and seems to be really happy with life, and generally frugal, but I can definitely see that she doesn't do many calculations, and could probably be living less paycheck-to-paycheck with a little more analysis of where the money goes.

I was absolutely dumbfounded when this one Youtube video I was watching on top 10 upgrades for your bike (geared towards cyclists who race) said you should take the weight savings of your upgrade, and divide it by the cost of your upgrade when comparing two upgrade options. It then went on to give an example of aluminum -> carbon fiber handlebars vs butyl -> latex tubes.

Isn't this just common sense?? This struck me as incredibly obvious and yet this video was stepping through it like it was a big deal or something.

[Beaker]

I was absolutely dumbfounded when this one Youtube video I was watching on top 10 upgrades for your bike (geared towards cyclists who race) said you should take the weight savings of your upgrade, and divide it by the cost of your upgrade when comparing two upgrade options. It then went on to give an example of aluminum -> carbon fiber handlebars vs butyl -> latex tubes.

Isn't this just common sense?? This struck me as incredibly obvious and yet this video was stepping through it like it was a big deal or something.

Years ago I read an article with a similar topic. But after calculating grams/dollar for the carbon-fiber brake handles and unobtanium-laced brake pads, they also calculated taking some Ex-Lax the day before a race, and just losing a pound of fat. Unsurprisingly, the latter two were quite a bit more cost efficient.

[nawhite]

Not really overheard but seen on the work provided retirement calculator. I put about like 40% of my paycheck towards student loans (variable interest rates suck) but still put about 8% into the 401k. I was on the 401k website last week and saw that they have a little calculator for "will you have enough to retire?" Basically, because I'm so young, that little 8% is enough for me to retire at 60 if I just keep working and saving 8%.

While I'm thrilled that I have that backup plan, seriously how is 8% enough for your average career and so many people have trouble hitting that?

[AlanStache]

"Money" magazine was out on the table at work, cover stories is "Retirement Guide 2015" coworker walking buy said the typical "we dont need that, we will never get to retire."
Me: "speak for yourself and the only guide I need is what beach to put my lawn chair on"
CW: "and that lawn chair will be all that you own"
Me: "not so much", then I give him the concession to politeness with "well I dont have kids".  He does have a kid or two but I think the larger drag on his savings is buying tons of stupid shit, would not surprise me if he had more than three good cordless drills (he is not a contractor).

[johnintaiwan]

Not at work, by my riding instructor and her husband are self-employed in a different field, and are perpetually broke, despite being in their 50's.  So she and I have been adding alfalfa cubes to our horses' rations, and started talking about splitting a ton, so I checked Craigslist and good quality hay is available for $180 per ton.  She said "Oh, the cubes aren't bad, only $13.xx per bag."  I pointed out that at 40# per bag, that came up to almost $680 per ton, and she had a sudden blank look on her face, then said "But the bag lasts me like a month" to which pointed out that she must be feeding just over a pound, which is not enough to have any nutritional benefit for a 1,300 pound horse, and again the blank look.  She's a great person, and seems to be really happy with life, and generally frugal, but I can definitely see that she doesn't do many calculations, and could probably be living less paycheck-to-paycheck with a little more analysis of where the money goes.

I was absolutely dumbfounded when this one Youtube video I was watching on top 10 upgrades for your bike (geared towards cyclists who race) said you should take the weight savings of your upgrade, and divide it by the cost of your upgrade when comparing two upgrade options. It then went on to give an example of aluminum -> carbon fiber handlebars vs butyl -> latex tubes.

Isn't this just common sense?? This struck me as incredibly obvious and yet this video was stepping through it like it was a big deal or something.

I have seen this video as well. I think they need the baby steps in there. I think that cycling is one of those hobbies where people get really excited at first and buy as much crap as they can trying to upgrade their bike.They have no idea what/why/how/if it will help them improve but carbon is better than aluminum right? In reality they need nothing more than simply riding more often. But while that is free it takes work. They would much rather slide their CC and buy something.

[johnny847]

Not at work, by my riding instructor and her husband are self-employed in a different field, and are perpetually broke, despite being in their 50's.  So she and I have been adding alfalfa cubes to our horses' rations, and started talking about splitting a ton, so I checked Craigslist and good quality hay is available for $180 per ton.  She said "Oh, the cubes aren't bad, only $13.xx per bag."  I pointed out that at 40# per bag, that came up to almost $680 per ton, and she had a sudden blank look on her face, then said "But the bag lasts me like a month" to which pointed out that she must be feeding just over a pound, which is not enough to have any nutritional benefit for a 1,300 pound horse, and again the blank look.  She's a great person, and seems to be really happy with life, and generally frugal, but I can definitely see that she doesn't do many calculations, and could probably be living less paycheck-to-paycheck with a little more analysis of where the money goes.

I was absolutely dumbfounded when this one Youtube video I was watching on top 10 upgrades for your bike (geared towards cyclists who race) said you should take the weight savings of your upgrade, and divide it by the cost of your upgrade when comparing two upgrade options. It then went on to give an example of aluminum -> carbon fiber handlebars vs butyl -> latex tubes.

Isn't this just common sense?? This struck me as incredibly obvious and yet this video was stepping through it like it was a big deal or something.

I have seen this video as well. I think they need the baby steps in there. I think that cycling is one of those hobbies where people get really excited at first and buy as much crap as they can trying to upgrade their bike.They have no idea what/why/how/if it will help them improve but carbon is better than aluminum right? In reality they need nothing more than simply riding more often. But while that is free it takes work. They would much rather slide their CC and buy something.

Haha true. Many people would rather throw money at an issue.

[RetiredAt63]

Bob Newhart set the precedent  ;-)

Given that the movie was horrible, just "undo" the movie, and move on!

[eyePod]

That's only counting if you can earn at the rate that your mortgage is.  If you earn higher, naturally you'll end up with even more.

But even if you can't, you may still be better paying the dollar in interest to get the 33 cents back, simply because of the opportunity cost of the money you'd use to pay off the mortgage.

I understand the 'invest money at a higher rate of return than your mortgage', but can you explain that last part of still being worth it even if you can't earn a higher or equal rate of return?

$1 is worth $1, until you use it for something. If you use it to pay off the mortgage, it completely loses it's utility since it's now gone. By electing to pay interest of 4% you are paying 4 cents to use someone else's $1. Now you can do whatever you want with that $1, including just holding it in an emergency fund, investing it, buying something, rolling a joint, etc. But you can only do one thing with it, after that it's gone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost

Not true at all. It's just converted into a less liquid dollar (equity) that also fluctuates in value (home price) and has a fee to get it back (costs associated with selling the house). I don't get why people saying that you're spending money on principal. You're converting it into a super non-liquid investment.  If I were buying lattes, that'd be a different story.

[eyePod]

Now back to the first guy...Yesterday somebody asked him about his sunglasses and he kept going off how they were $400 and all of his sunglasses cost more than $350 and that he won't buy cheap sunglasses ever. Then he started to list off all of the other things that he pays more for and how much he pays because he prefers nicer things.

I wear Oakleys in the summer playing volleyball because they are designed to protect your eyes. They have a cool website looking at people who got into accidents where their faces were all beat up but didn't lose their eyes. Very nice. If you've ever been smashed in the face playing volleyball, you'd understand that cheapo sunglasses (that shatter) can do a ton of damage! I also save up for them and then buy them from the vault, so much cheaper than buying them new at $300+

[VirginiaBob]

Now back to the first guy...Yesterday somebody asked him about his sunglasses and he kept going off how they were $400 and all of his sunglasses cost more than $350 and that he won't buy cheap sunglasses ever. Then he started to list off all of the other things that he pays more for and how much he pays because he prefers nicer things.

I wear Oakleys in the summer playing volleyball because they are designed to protect your eyes. They have a cool website looking at people who got into accidents where their faces were all beat up but didn't lose their eyes. Very nice. If you've ever been smashed in the face playing volleyball, you'd understand that cheapo sunglasses (that shatter) can do a ton of damage! I also save up for them and then buy them from the vault, so much cheaper than buying them new at $300+

I bought some tinted polarized uv protection safety glasses (that suprisingly were quite stylish) on ebay for $1.69 that I use for volleyball.

[eyePod]

It's the best TV show ever made, cancelled after one season. If you have Netflix, watching it is now your number one priority.

Yes. A thousand times yes. Also, if they can get a kickstarter going for salad dressing or whatever, surely they can get one for firefly season 2? Right?

How would they have a season 2? The movie takes place at the end of season 1 and [spoiler alert] they kill multiple major characters in the movie. Any season 2 just wouldn't be the same.

Joss Whedon, the creator, has already said the movie Serenity wouldn't be canon if they restarted Firefly (it'd be like it never happened).

They won't restart it. It's not a money thing at this point - it's been over a decade.

There would be no way to recapture the magic, it'd ruin it.  I wish there was more made at the time, but I don't want more made now.

Those of you who haven't seen it - notice how many people are saying it's the best ever. Not just good, but literally best ever. Watch it!  :)

I feel the same way about Freaks and Geeks (although I didn't watch it when it came out). Ended with a "we're off to a new season" episode but then they got cancelled. I was OK about this since it was still a great TV show that reminded me of high school, and even though it finished kind of open ended, it was better than Pushing Daisies rushed ending.

[FunkyStickman]

I was absolutely dumbfounded when this one Youtube video I was watching on top 10 upgrades for your bike (geared towards cyclists who race) said you should take the weight savings of your upgrade, and divide it by the cost of your upgrade when comparing two upgrade options. It then went on to give an example of aluminum -> carbon fiber handlebars vs butyl -> latex tubes.

Isn't this just common sense?? This struck me as incredibly obvious and yet this video was stepping through it like it was a big deal or something.

Years ago I read an article with a similar topic. But after calculating grams/dollar for the carbon-fiber brake handles and unobtanium-laced brake pads, they also calculated taking some Ex-Lax the day before a race, and just losing a pound of fat. Unsurprisingly, the latter two were quite a bit more cost efficient.

I just stopped bringing it up. The people who buy that stuff aren't interested in saving money. I used to do group rides with guys on $5000 Cervelos and whatnot, carbon aero tubular wheels, the whole 9 yards.

I just got sick of them going on and on about it, and poking fun at my mustachian steel touring bike. I ride either by myself, or with my buds on old beater mountain bikes.

[johnintaiwan]

I just stopped bringing it up. The people who buy that stuff aren't interested in saving money. I used to do group rides with guys on $5000 Cervelos and whatnot, carbon aero tubular wheels, the whole 9 yards.

I just got sick of them going on and on about it, and poking fun at my mustachian steel touring bike. I ride either by myself, or with my buds on old beater mountain bikes.

I was on a ride a while back and got passed by a group of about 8. In the mix i noticed a really nice bike complete with all the bells and whistles. Brand new gear and everything. it looked really impressive. He must have had at least 5K in the bike alone plus another thousand or so in gear. The rest of the pack had nice professional bikes (which are pretty cheap since they are made here).

About an hour later I came across the guy on the fancy bike. He was walking along the road, he told me he couldnt keep pace with the others and was waiting to get picked up.

[HairyUpperLip]

I was absolutely dumbfounded when this one Youtube video I was watching on top 10 upgrades for your bike (geared towards cyclists who race) said you should take the weight savings of your upgrade, and divide it by the cost of your upgrade when comparing two upgrade options. It then went on to give an example of aluminum -> carbon fiber handlebars vs butyl -> latex tubes.

Isn't this just common sense?? This struck me as incredibly obvious and yet this video was stepping through it like it was a big deal or something.

Years ago I read an article with a similar topic. But after calculating grams/dollar for the carbon-fiber brake handles and unobtanium-laced brake pads, they also calculated taking some Ex-Lax the day before a race, and just losing a pound of fat. Unsurprisingly, the latter two were quite a bit more cost efficient.

I just stopped bringing it up. The people who buy that stuff aren't interested in saving money. I used to do group rides with guys on $5000 Cervelos and whatnot, carbon aero tubular wheels, the whole 9 yards.

I just got sick of them going on and on about it, and poking fun at my mustachian steel touring bike. I ride either by myself, or with my buds on old beater mountain bikes.

I don't know anything but riding in groups (besides as a kid)... but wouldn't you rather ride with those nicer bikes and remind them how your cheap bike can hang just as good? :)