Overheard at Work

[arebelspy]

My mom is a public school teacher, and she's heard some odd names over the years. One that always sticks with me is Lord Dorian. That whole thing is his first name, by the way. His mother "didn't want him to be disrespected". I don't think she was aware of what middle school kids are like.

Talk about unintended consequences...

An actual example of irony (not as its used today, to mean coincidental)!

[music lover]

Turns out they paid ONLY interest for 7 YEARS. OMG!!!???

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?
You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.
If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.
It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

I actually told one of my friends to do this. He, in spite of contrary advice from several people who knew better, built a house that ended up costing far too much (that's another story). Now, he is 50 with a HELOC that he has no hope of paying off in his lifetime.

My advice...sell, take a small loss, and then move into a less expensive place, or stay in your new home and simply pay the monthly interest on the HELOC, which is less than renting an apartment.

[Strawberry]

Turns out they paid ONLY interest for 7 YEARS. OMG!!!???

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?
You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.
If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.
It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy. This is not strategy, however, and they haven't saved anything. They're now in a market where they are stuck and have no assets. But, I see your point.

[nobodyspecial]

You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.
If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.
It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy.

Of course it only works in some liberal socialist country where you can walk away from the mortgage and let the banks worry .
Here on the harsh Canadian capitalist frontier the mounties would always get their man.   

[forummm]

Turns out they paid ONLY interest for 7 YEARS. OMG!!!???

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?
You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.
If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.
It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy. This is not strategy, however, and they haven't saved anything. They're now in a market where they are stuck and have no assets. But, I see your point.

You're out interest and taxes and insurance and maintenance. And your ability to get credit for 7 years. And it only works in a non-recourse state.

[Travis]

Car commercial heard on the radio this week:  "$350 a week in income, we'll finance up to $30k!!"

[Sam E]

Car commercial heard on the radio this week:  "$350 a week in income, we'll finance up to $30k!!"

I've heard this from Kia ads in my area. In those ads they also give you a Buy One Get One on loan approvals and leases, at no discount for the second car.

[forummm]

Car commercial heard on the radio this week:  "$350 a week in income, we'll finance up to $30k!!"

I've heard this from Kia ads in my area. In those ads they also give you a Buy One Get One on loan approvals and leases, at no discount for the second car.

I heard an ad that gave the price of a lease by the week. "Only $62/week..."

[marty998]

You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.
If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.
It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy.

Of course it only works in some liberal socialist country where you can walk away from the mortgage and let the banks worry .
Here on the harsh Canadian capitalist frontier the mounties would always get their man.

Love it. Brilliant NS.

[Psychstache]

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?

Okay - how about Stelmo for a little girl we know of? Our own children have old fashioned names so I can't laugh and point fingers. ;) Didn't want our kids to have any of the top 50 (especially the top 10) current names. I was one of those kids way back when. When they called my name about four or five of us all jumped to attention.  :)

Oooh! I'm a school teacher, I've taught some doozies!

My favourites:

• Doobie (female)
• Shoushan (female)
• Dorsey ('door-see')(male)
• Jacqualee ('ja-kah-lee') & Jamarlee (they're brothers)
• Teniqua, Tanika, & Tamika (all in the same class)
• Shonkiqua & Shaniqua (in the same class)
• Tyreke and Tireek (again, in the same class)(and then I got a 'Tyreece' this year)
• Phyia ('fire')(male)

There's lots more, but they get less funny.

Bloody Queenslanders. Can't even name their kids properly :)

I may have posted this before but friend of a friend knows a poor girl out there named "Abcde" (ab-see-de)

Didn't have the heart to ask if the surname was "Fghij"

Haha, I've heard the Abcde one before - is it real, though?

I've got some more: Jyiah (female), Shakotta (female), Shimayher (female) and several variations of Khoya/Kioha/Quoya/Saquioa.

I don't have any cool foreign names that sound funny in English. I just have random ghetto names.

I once searched our district to see if we really had a student named Abcde. There were several.

Some interesting ones I've seen working in schools:

Qyvyn (Kevin)
Sha'Vodka
Lord ____ and Lady _____ (fill in blank with common name)

[dragoncar]

My mom is a public school teacher, and she's heard some odd names over the years. One that always sticks with me is Lord Dorian. That whole thing is his first name, by the way. His mother "didn't want him to be disrespected". I don't think she was aware of what middle school kids are like.

Talk about unintended consequences...

An actual example of irony (not as its used today, to mean coincidental)!

Doncha think?

[theadvicist]

Turns out they paid ONLY interest for 7 YEARS. OMG!!!???

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?
You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.
If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.
It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy. This is not strategy, however, and they haven't saved anything. They're now in a market where they are stuck and have no assets. But, I see your point.

But if the market has risen overall, they're still up aren't they?

If you borrowed $500K and only paid interest on it, and then sold 10 years later for $750k you effectively 'paid rent' for 10 years (as your mortgage interest payment) and walked away with 250k, no? It's not like they will hand the keys back and get nothing in return - they will get the increase in the value of the property.

[marty998]

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?

Okay - how about Stelmo for a little girl we know of? Our own children have old fashioned names so I can't laugh and point fingers. ;) Didn't want our kids to have any of the top 50 (especially the top 10) current names. I was one of those kids way back when. When they called my name about four or five of us all jumped to attention.  :)

Oooh! I'm a school teacher, I've taught some doozies!

My favourites:

• Doobie (female)
• Shoushan (female)
• Dorsey ('door-see')(male)
• Jacqualee ('ja-kah-lee') & Jamarlee (they're brothers)
• Teniqua, Tanika, & Tamika (all in the same class)
• Shonkiqua & Shaniqua (in the same class)
• Tyreke and Tireek (again, in the same class)(and then I got a 'Tyreece' this year)
• Phyia ('fire')(male)

There's lots more, but they get less funny.

Bloody Queenslanders. Can't even name their kids properly :)

I may have posted this before but friend of a friend knows a poor girl out there named "Abcde" (ab-see-de)

Didn't have the heart to ask if the surname was "Fghij"

Haha, I've heard the Abcde one before - is it real, though?

I've got some more: Jyiah (female), Shakotta (female), Shimayher (female) and several variations of Khoya/Kioha/Quoya/Saquioa.

I don't have any cool foreign names that sound funny in English. I just have random ghetto names.

I once searched our district to see if we really had a student named Abcde. There were several.

Some interesting ones I've seen working in schools:

Qyvyn (Kevin)
Sha'Vodka
Lord ____ and Lady _____ (fill in blank with common name)

Qyvyn!!! OMG OMG OMG

OMG imagine if someone named their kid OMG...

Does anyone remember that NZ couple who named their kid "Talulah does the Hula in Hawaii". She was 9 when the courts ordered the parents to change her name...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2452593/Talula-Does-The-Hula-From-Hawaii-not-a-girls-name-New-Zealand-court-rules.html

He (the judge) also voiced concern over other names given to New Zealand children, such as Violence, Midnight Chardonnay and Number 16 Bus Shelter.
A set of twins was named Benson and Hedges, after the cigarette brand and some children had been named after six-cylinder Ford cars. There has ever been a case of a child being named after the entire All Blacks side.

Brian Clarke, the registrar general of Births, Deaths and Marriages, told the New Zealand Herald that the law did not allow names that would cause offence to a reasonable person, that are more than 100 characters or that include titles, military ranks, punctuation or numerals.
Names rejected by the office include Fish and Chips, Yeah Detroit, Stallion, Twisty Poi, Keenan Got Lucy and Sex Fruit.

[ShoulderThingThatGoesUp]

Do you guys realize you're basically making fun of others for cultural differences?  It doesn't even have anything to do with finance.  I'm all for going off topic, but this is just showing the wrong colors for this forum.

+1

This foam is embarrassing and boring.

This.

[zephyr911]

trash with money

Who the fuck names their kid Trig?

I see what you did there

[Sibley]

Overheard on the train on the way to work, so it counts.

Woman sitting next to me and talking when I'd rather be reading (with the book open in my lap).

-not usually on the early train, and is grumpy that she has to be
-two days a week she works downtown, the rest of the week WFH
-they got a puppy last fall
-she's allergic to dogs, and knew it when they got the puppy
-got the dog because she wanted the kids to grow up with a pet
-the puppy is insane when they all get home because of not enough exercise. To combat this, the trainer recommended doggy day-care for the days she works downtown.

The only positive thing I got out of this was at least the dog was being well cared for.

[zephyr911]

I may have posted this before but friend of a friend knows a poor girl out there named "Abcde" (ab-see-de)

Haha, I've heard the Abcde one before - is it real, though?

I once searched our district to see if we really had a student named Abcde. There were several.

There was an Abcde at my high school in Hawaii in the 1990s. I never actually met her but I did see her name on some official lists, etc. So, not a joke.

[mtn]

Overheard on the train on the way to work, so it counts.

Woman sitting next to me and talking when I'd rather be reading (with the book open in my lap).

-not usually on the early train, and is grumpy that she has to be
-two days a week she works downtown, the rest of the week WFH
-they got a puppy last fall
-she's allergic to dogs, and knew it when they got the puppy
-got the dog because she wanted the kids to grow up with a pet
-the puppy is insane when they all get home because of not enough exercise. To combat this, the trainer recommended doggy day-care for the days she works downtown.

The only positive thing I got out of this was at least the dog was being well cared for.

Metra or CTA? If Metra, and you get on early enough, upper deck FTMFW.

[Papa Mustache]

Okay, you had me until the last sentence.  Describe "always".  Does she not get sick time, holidays, vacation days?  Does she work 60-70 hours a week?

THIS drives me nuts. Your kids are only young once. I would not exchange my time with my wife and kids for anything. I have a great number of peers who value their income over their time with their children. It isn't about keeping food in the fridge and the lights on - it's about having large sums of money to spend on "toys" for themselves. $5K vacations to Disney, skiboats, four wheelers or $10K "side by sides", etc. They are trading their time with their young children for a bigger paycheck. While I'll certainly say that this is their prerogative - it isn't what I choose to do. And I'm not here to lecture anyone.

I was working for a company where the only way to career advance was exchange your life for the paycheck. I had coworkers who were working 80-90 hrs per week multiple times per year, and 60 hour weeks normally. It was in a custom industrial design business.

One day "fate" showed me a way out. The company was going through a downturn back during the "Great Recession" and I told my wife I was going to start looking for something else because i felt my job was not secure.

It wasn't always that way but when the fellow that hired me left - and took some of the cream of the crop senior engineers with him - I noticed (I was very green at that point and wished he'd hired me away too). Then the company I was working for began laying off good guys - better than the more senior guys they were making room to back slide. Then I figured my time might be short. As it turned out I would have been safe b/c the position was always filled. I happily left for better everything - life/work balance, pay, benefits, stability, etc. In retrospect I realized that the people I was working closest with were a bunch of snakes. They went on to do wrong many of the people I used to work with. Glad I left on my own terms.

The company that emerged from the recession is a profitable one but one that can't be counted on by it's employees. LOTS of turnover. Guys hired on and led to believe that they have a long career ahead of them only to be let go as soon as their project is complete. Woe are the engineers who take on debt during their short time there.

[Papa Mustache]

Okay, you had me until the last sentence.  Describe "always".  Does she not get sick time, holidays, vacation days?  Does she work 60-70 hours a week?

It's not easy being a working parent in the US, especially at higher paid positions. There are (in my opinion) absurd expectations placed on you. You have to work the standard forty hours, plus more if your company needs you, and once you get higher up, your company always needs you. The pay is really great, but unless you run your personal life on a tight ship, I don't know if it's worth it.

One of my middle-aged peers is flirting with heart trouble b/c of his upper level position. His wife (also a professional) can't work and would like to but can't b/c his job transfers them all over. Well paid but at the expense of the rest of his life.

[SunshineAZ]

I may have posted this before but friend of a friend knows a poor girl out there named "Abcde" (ab-see-de)

Haha, I've heard the Abcde one before - is it real, though?

I once searched our district to see if we really had a student named Abcde. There were several.

There was an Abcde at my high school in Hawaii in the 1990s. I never actually met her but I did see her name on some official lists, etc. So, not a joke.

A guy I went to high school with named his daughter "Abcde", and to make matters worse she is autistic and has a service dog, and he has a huge chip on his shoulder about anyone paying any attention to or asking questions about the service dog.  (It is a pit, and appears to be very well behaved.)  For the longest time, I though he was typing "Abcde" to protect her identity and I only recently found out that it was her real name.  Oh and I just remembered, last christmas, his daughter made the news when the mall santa refused to pose with his daughter because of the pitbull. 

[Papa Mustache]

I don't know any actors here so I can't comment on that at all, but if you are above average musician here you can make a pretty good living. Some of that is because there are a lot of rich people here who support arts. Most of the musicians I know earn part of their money by giving private lessons or working in a music school. Private cello lessons by the way go for 120-130 $/hour here.

As with so many things in life - you might make $130 per hour but only work 2-3 hours per week b/c there just isn't enough demand. My handful of artists in my social circle are much like the ones mentioned earlier - most cobble an income together from multiple sources including working in coffee shops and restaurants. 

[mtn]

I don't know any actors here so I can't comment on that at all, but if you are above average musician here you can make a pretty good living. Some of that is because there are a lot of rich people here who support arts. Most of the musicians I know earn part of their money by giving private lessons or working in a music school. Private cello lessons by the way go for 120-130 $/hour here.

As with so many things in life - you might make $130 per hour but only work 2-3 hours per week b/c there just isn't enough demand. My handful of artists in my social circle are much like the ones mentioned earlier - most cobble an income together from multiple sources including working in coffee shops and restaurants.

This. There is a reason that my little brother isn't going into music, even though that is what he loves and is best at.

[boyerbt]

Email received today:

"Normal payday is scheduled for Monday July 6, but we decided to pay everyone this Friday July 3 so you can enjoy the weekend."

What does this mean "So you can enjoy the weekend?" Are you promoting spending your entire paycheck as soon as it is deposited?

[vivophoenix]

Email received today:

"Normal payday is scheduled for Monday July 6, but we decided to pay everyone this Friday July 3 so you can enjoy the weekend."

What does this mean "So you can enjoy the weekend?" Are you promoting spending your entire paycheck as soon as it is deposited?

thats quite the leap you've made there.

getting paid three days early might cheer some people up and allow them to meet financial obligations sooner. I dont hear this and think oh cause all these slobs must have spending issues. sometimes i think people over read into situations. getting paid early makes me smile

[boyerbt]

Email received today:

"Normal payday is scheduled for Monday July 6, but we decided to pay everyone this Friday July 3 so you can enjoy the weekend."

What does this mean "So you can enjoy the weekend?" Are you promoting spending your entire paycheck as soon as it is deposited?

thats quite the leap you've made there.

getting paid three days early might cheer some people up and allow them to meet financial obligations sooner. I dont hear this and think oh cause all these slobs must have spending issues. sometimes i think people over read into situations. getting paid early makes me smile

I don't think that it is a huge leap, it is definitely a pessimistic attitude, but that was what came to mind for me. Almost all of my financial obligations as well as deferrals are automatically dispersed so moving the day that money is direct deposited by +/- a day or two really doesn't make a difference to me.

Just my $0.02.

[zephyr911]

I always enjoy my weekend more when I've prefunded my investments for the coming week(s). Don't you? ;)

[Sam E]

Email received today:

"Normal payday is scheduled for Monday July 6, but we decided to pay everyone this Friday July 3 so you can enjoy the weekend."

What does this mean "So you can enjoy the weekend?" Are you promoting spending your entire paycheck as soon as it is deposited?

thats quite the leap you've made there.

getting paid three days early might cheer some people up and allow them to meet financial obligations sooner. I dont hear this and think oh cause all these slobs must have spending issues. sometimes i think people over read into situations. getting paid early makes me smile

I don't think that it is a huge leap, it is definitely a pessimistic attitude, but that was what came to mind for me. Almost all of my financial obligations as well as deferrals are automatically dispersed so moving the day that money is direct deposited by +/- a day or two really doesn't make a difference to me.

Just my $0.02.

I would say most people don't automatically deposit their paychecks anywhere but their checking account. I know I don't. I prefer to manually pay all my bills to make sure I know how much I'm paying and can notice and check on any discrepancies. Though I also am paid hourly so my paychecks aren't identical week to week and that limits automatic depositing as well.

I enjoy getting paid because it means I now HAVE that money and can put it away where it needs to go. Getting paid early is a nice feeling that would add to the niceness of a long holiday weekend. It really does feel good to get my bills paid, especially if it means my next paycheck goes 100% into my savings (currently debt reduction, technically).

That's not to say there aren't probably people in your workplace who intend to spend more money on the holiday due to getting a paycheck beforehand, or who define their enjoyment with frivolous spending. In fact, there are probably many. But I think it's important to be careful when interpreting someone's intentions not to jump to extreme conclusions too quickly.

[vivophoenix]

Thought I'd toss this on the pile - a coworker and I were discussing cutbacks at a local auto plant and how they would affect her family since her husband works there.

Well, we had to go out and get a new truck before anything happens, he might lose his employee discount, so we bought a new one with the chrome package, extended cab, short box, 4X4, etc. etc. while we can still save the money. It meant trading in our (2 year old, very big) SUV, but at least we will have this one for a long time.

Insert facepalm.

[slugline]

Thought I'd toss this on the pile - a coworker and I were discussing cutbacks at a local auto plant and how they would affect her family since her husband works there.

Well, we had to go out and get a new truck before anything happens, he might lose his employee discount, so we bought a new one with the chrome package, extended cab, short box, 4X4, etc. etc. while we can still save the money. It meant trading in our (2 year old, very big) SUV, but at least we will have this one for a long time.

Insert facepalm.

The math -- it burns!!

[zephyr911]

Thought I'd toss this on the pile - a coworker and I were discussing cutbacks at a local auto plant and how they would affect her family since her husband works there.

Well, we had to go out and get a new truck before anything happens, he might lose his employee discount, so we bought a new one with the chrome package, extended cab, short box, 4X4, etc. etc. while we can still save the money. It meant trading in our (2 year old, very big) SUV, but at least we will have this one for a long time.

Insert facepalm.

HAHAHAHA! Yeah, I'm getting laid off... better take on more debt ASAP! Because truck! :P

[cripzychiken]

Thought I'd toss this on the pile - a coworker and I were discussing cutbacks at a local auto plant and how they would affect her family since her husband works there.

Well, we had to go out and get a new truck before anything happens, he might lose his employee discount, so we bought a new one with the chrome package, extended cab, short box, 4X4, etc. etc. while we can still save the money. It meant trading in our (2 year old, very big) SUV, but at least we will have this one for a long time.

Insert facepalm.

HAHAHAHA! Yeah, I'm getting laid off... better take on more debt ASAP! Because truck! :P

come on, that old SUV would have - idk blew up or something? Plus the like 5% employee discount will easily overcome the 15% depreciation on both the 'old' SUV and the brand new truck.  Plus - discount on all the extras.  The 4x4 upgrade was only like $5000 after the discount.  So worth it.

Plus, when this "long time" is up (I'm thinking like 3 years, that's long, right?) he'll probably have a new job and can get his discount back.

[forummm]

Thought I'd toss this on the pile - a coworker and I were discussing cutbacks at a local auto plant and how they would affect her family since her husband works there.

Well, we had to go out and get a new truck before anything happens, he might lose his employee discount, so we bought a new one with the chrome package, extended cab, short box, 4X4, etc. etc. while we can still save the money. It meant trading in our (2 year old, very big) SUV, but at least we will have this one for a long time.

Insert facepalm.

HAHAHAHA! Yeah, I'm getting laid off... better take on more debt ASAP! Because truck! :P

It makes sense. You won't be able to get a huge new loan if you don't have a job.

[Ferrisbueller]

This foam is fucking hilarious my $0.02

[nobodyspecial]

This foam is fucking hilarious

Special MMM foam - it's a shaving product AND a desert topping

[ShoulderThingThatGoesUp]

Thought I'd toss this on the pile - a coworker and I were discussing cutbacks at a local auto plant and how they would affect her family since her husband works there.

Well, we had to go out and get a new truck before anything happens, he might lose his employee discount, so we bought a new one with the chrome package, extended cab, short box, 4X4, etc. etc. while we can still save the money. It meant trading in our (2 year old, very big) SUV, but at least we will have this one for a long time.

Insert facepalm.

HAHAHAHA! Yeah, I'm getting laid off... better take on more debt ASAP! Because truck! :P

It makes sense. You won't be able to get a huge new loan if you don't have a job.

I know a guy who made sure he got his mortgage before he quit his good-paying but bad-for-health job, because he wouldn't qualify with his new job. My suggestion that the bank might have a point was not appreciated.

[lbmustache]

Thought I'd toss this on the pile - a coworker and I were discussing cutbacks at a local auto plant and how they would affect her family since her husband works there.

Well, we had to go out and get a new truck before anything happens, he might lose his employee discount, so we bought a new one with the chrome package, extended cab, short box, 4X4, etc. etc. while we can still save the money. It meant trading in our (2 year old, very big) SUV, but at least we will have this one for a long time.

Insert facepalm.

Haha, my friends and I always joke about this kind of thing. "Spend it while you have it"/"Spend it before it's gone" mentality.

[frozzie]

CW : I need to change my car (2 years old BMW 1, drives around 10k km a year)
Me : I'm selling my 2001 Forester if you want (switching to a more economical used Prius)
CW : thanks but I need something more reliable to commute
Me : Never had a problem in the 12 years I've own that one ...
CW: and something bigger ...
Me: bigger than the forester? but you don't have a partner, kids or family around ?
CW: I'm done with small cars that breaks every year or two so I'll get a SUV X5 or Q7
Me: ah ok ... makes perfect sense to commute all by yourself in a big fricking tank!
CW: ahaha it's not that big and quite economical with diesel
Me: ah ok (rapidly firing up MMM website for emergency relief)

[Strawberry]

Turns out they paid ONLY interest for 7 YEARS. OMG!!!???

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?
You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.
If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.
It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy. This is not strategy, however, and they haven't saved anything. They're now in a market where they are stuck and have no assets. But, I see your point.

But if the market has risen overall, they're still up aren't they?

If you borrowed $500K and only paid interest on it, and then sold 10 years later for $750k you effectively 'paid rent' for 10 years (as your mortgage interest payment) and walked away with 250k, no? It's not like they will hand the keys back and get nothing in return - they will get the increase in the value of the property.

Yes, they're still up if they considered 7 years of payments rent and the house values have gone up that much. Putting aside that they moved from paying cheaper rent in SF so they could "own" in the suburbs for a moment, I think they've actually broken even. The house was actually around 500K. I'm not so sure it's worth too much more than that if they sell it now... but. If we assume they paid in about 250K over the seven years and the values went up similarly, they come out even and basically got free rent for 7 years. Now I'm curious how much the home is worth today, but I won't given into my baser instincts and troll on zillow. Let's see if I can convince him that he's brilliant. After all, my main issue is that he's so bitter about buying a house. If you flip the perspective like this, maybe he's in better shape. I worry he just likes to feel victimized, though. I really do like the guy, but I wish he'd see how freaking fortunate we all are to be having these discussions in the first place. 

[SweetLife]

Talking to a CW about my return to work ... we all ended up with cheques from a recent contract (lost severance). Before going on maternity this CW had been talking about getting a motorcycle (Harley used) with his check ... I asked him if he got his Harley - he said Yeah and paid cash for it (hurray)!! But it is a little hard to wash he says ... I said OH? yeah ... he ended up buying NEW and then  financed a new fifth wheel (that the Harley parks INSIDE) and that he prefers to his house (I said sell the house!) ... THEN had to pay $5000 for upgrades on his MASSIVE 350 truck because it "needed more power" ... and he will never retire because he has two children to put through school he says.

Nicest guy ever... but with better decisions both he and his wife (making together over $170,000 per year) could have been retired comfortably long ago ...so sad. I am afraid he will turn out like one of my other bosses from years ago ... another great man, and hard worker ... spend long hours at the office, in towns far from family and made so many plans for "when he retired at 60 he would spend time with his wife and they would travel everywhere" - he adored his wife - and he was the accountant so I assumed he was making all the proper investments etc so they could do this ... he was 55yrs old ... unfortunately his wife was diagnosed with a rapid type of cancer and died within 3 months ... he is still working, must be 64yrs old by now :(  and all those years lost NOT spent with family.

[abuzzyisawesome]

We are on a government vendor contract at my office - so our state hasn't passed a budget and we may miss a few checks (possibly over a month w/o pay) until money flows again. Our boss explains we may miss checks and to prepare for it until we are fluid. TWO of my coworkers went out and financed new Harley Davidsons last week.

[MishMash]

My fountain of overly consumeristic bullcrap of a coworker (the one that wanted a bigger house so she had more room to store her clothes that she no longer fit into from earlier in the forum) quit several months ago so things have been pretty quiet around here.  We've hired in a bunch of new people and things were looking good, most of them were bringing lunch to work, nothing fantastically stupid said etc....Until this morning (and I had SO much faith in this new group)

CW1: man, my car DIED on the way home yesterday, I threw a rod through the engine
Me:  How old was it?
CW1: 14 years, had that thing through college, I kind of wanted to cry a little on the side of 66
Me:  *Thinking YAY!  Good on you for keeping a car that long etc
CW1:  Now I need a new car, they said it would be a fortune to fix it.  I think I want a Jeep
CW2:  Oh man, you TOTALLY need a Jeep, I just got a brand new Wrangler unlimited and it is SWEET
CW1:  Oh really!  can I see it? 
CW2:  Sure...guys go down to the parking lot come back in talking cars and I hear this conversation

CW2: Yea bro, my wife almost killed me when I came home with this one, my other one was only a year old so I was upside down on the loan.  I had to roll almost 9k of the old debt into the loan for this one, but the rate was only 5% this time around so it kind of evened out (me thinking how bad is your damn credit if 5% was low and wtf was he paying before).  I'm not sure why she was so mad, it was almost the same montly payment.  My dads friend is a car salesguy so he was able to get me that sweet deal (book was like 40k I ONLY paid 35), you want his number?

Me to CW2:  How long was the loan on the second one for?
CW2: 7 years I think
Me: How long was the old one for?
CW2:  Uuhh, I think it was a little shorter
Me:  I don't blame your wife for wanting to kill you
CW2:  It's OK, I told her she could skip getting me anniversary presents and birthday presents this year...
CW1:  Yea give me that guys number and I'll Uber over to see him this afternoon.

Mind you this kid has been here 3 months, was unemployed for 6 months before that, has a new baby and a wife that desperately doesn't want to work but is to meet the bills.  He also doesn't have the drive his sales position requires so I don't see him lasting here long.  So much faith...GONE.

[vivophoenix]

My fountain of overly consumeristic bullcrap of a coworker (the one that wanted a bigger house so she had more room to store her clothes that she no longer fit into from earlier in the forum) quit several months ago so things have been pretty quiet around here.  We've hired in a bunch of new people and things were looking good, most of them were bringing lunch to work, nothing fantastically stupid said etc....Until this morning (and I had SO much faith in this new group)

CW1: man, my car DIED on the way home yesterday, I threw a rod through the engine
Me:  How old was it?
CW1: 14 years, had that thing through college, I kind of wanted to cry a little on the side of 66
Me:  *Thinking YAY!  Good on you for keeping a car that long etc
CW1:  Now I need a new car, they said it would be a fortune to fix it.  I think I want a Jeep
CW2:  Oh man, you TOTALLY need a Jeep, I just got a brand new Wrangler unlimited and it is SWEET
CW1:  Oh really!  can I see it? 
CW2:  Sure...guys go down to the parking lot come back in talking cars and I hear this conversation

CW2: Yea bro, my wife almost killed me when I came home with this one, my other one was only a year old so I was upside down on the loan.  I had to roll almost 9k of the old debt into the loan for this one, but the rate was only 5% this time around so it kind of evened out (me thinking how bad is your damn credit if 5% was low and wtf was he paying before).  I'm not sure why she was so mad, it was almost the same montly payment.  My dads friend is a car salesguy so he was able to get me that sweet deal (book was like 40k I ONLY paid 35), you want his number?

Me to CW2:  How long was the loan on the second one for?
CW2: 7 years I think
Me: How long was the old one for?
CW2:  Uuhh, I think it was a little shorter
Me:  I don't blame your wife for wanting to kill you
CW2:  It's OK, I told her she could skip getting me anniversary presents and birthday presents this year...
CW1:  Yea give me that guys number and I'll Uber over to see him this afternoon.

Mind you this kid has been here 3 months, was unemployed for 6 months before that, has a new baby and a wife that desperately doesn't want to work but is to meet the bills.  He also doesn't have the drive his sales position requires so I don't see him lasting here long.  So much faith...GONE.

i honestly in this moment didnt realize that 84 month car loans are a thing now.

[cloudsail]

Turns out they paid ONLY interest for 7 YEARS. OMG!!!???

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?
You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.
If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.
It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy. This is not strategy, however, and they haven't saved anything. They're now in a market where they are stuck and have no assets. But, I see your point.

But if the market has risen overall, they're still up aren't they?

If you borrowed $500K and only paid interest on it, and then sold 10 years later for $750k you effectively 'paid rent' for 10 years (as your mortgage interest payment) and walked away with 250k, no? It's not like they will hand the keys back and get nothing in return - they will get the increase in the value of the property.

Yes, they're still up if they considered 7 years of payments rent and the house values have gone up that much. Putting aside that they moved from paying cheaper rent in SF so they could "own" in the suburbs for a moment, I think they've actually broken even. The house was actually around 500K. I'm not so sure it's worth too much more than that if they sell it now... but. If we assume they paid in about 250K over the seven years and the values went up similarly, they come out even and basically got free rent for 7 years. Now I'm curious how much the home is worth today, but I won't given into my baser instincts and troll on zillow. Let's see if I can convince him that he's brilliant. After all, my main issue is that he's so bitter about buying a house. If you flip the perspective like this, maybe he's in better shape. I worry he just likes to feel victimized, though. I really do like the guy, but I wish he'd see how freaking fortunate we all are to be having these discussions in the first place.

Where in the Bay Area is a house worth only 500K??  East Palo Alto??

[TRBeck]

I may have posted this before but friend of a friend knows a poor girl out there named "Abcde" (ab-see-de)

Haha, I've heard the Abcde one before - is it real, though?

I once searched our district to see if we really had a student named Abcde. There were several.

There was an Abcde at my high school in Hawaii in the 1990s. I never actually met her but I did see her name on some official lists, etc. So, not a joke.

Mi'Precious is my all-time favorite. I have had some terrific names come through my classes, but none that could automatically conjure up LOTR for me in the middle of an otherwise drab, dreary day in a dank, windowless classroom? I should have written that mom a thank you.

[NoraLenderbee]

Turns out they paid ONLY interest for 7 YEARS. OMG!!!???

Isn't this actually a brilliant stratergy ?
You pay 1/2 price "rent" on a property while you live there.
If the price goes up you sell and pocket the profit, if the price drops too far you give the keys back to the bank and walk away.
It's like a $1M free options contract on a REIT - with discount accommodation thrown in !

Sure, if that is your strategy. This is not strategy, however, and they haven't saved anything. They're now in a market where they are stuck and have no assets. But, I see your point.

But if the market has risen overall, they're still up aren't they?

If you borrowed $500K and only paid interest on it, and then sold 10 years later for $750k you effectively 'paid rent' for 10 years (as your mortgage interest payment) and walked away with 250k, no? It's not like they will hand the keys back and get nothing in return - they will get the increase in the value of the property.

Yes, they're still up if they considered 7 years of payments rent and the house values have gone up that much. Putting aside that they moved from paying cheaper rent in SF so they could "own" in the suburbs for a moment, I think they've actually broken even. The house was actually around 500K. I'm not so sure it's worth too much more than that if they sell it now... but. If we assume they paid in about 250K over the seven years and the values went up similarly, they come out even and basically got free rent for 7 years. Now I'm curious how much the home is worth today, but I won't given into my baser instincts and troll on zillow. Let's see if I can convince him that he's brilliant. After all, my main issue is that he's so bitter about buying a house. If you flip the perspective like this, maybe he's in better shape. I worry he just likes to feel victimized, though. I really do like the guy, but I wish he'd see how freaking fortunate we all are to be having these discussions in the first place.

Where in the Bay Area is a house worth only 500K??  East Palo Alto??

7 years ago, you could find 500K houses in less scary places than EPA.

[Nudelkopf]

Thought I'd toss this on the pile - a coworker and I were discussing cutbacks at a local auto plant and how they would affect her family since her husband works there.

Well, we had to go out and get a new truck before anything happens, he might lose his employee discount, so we bought a new one with the chrome package, extended cab, short box, 4X4, etc. etc. while we can still save the money. It meant trading in our (2 year old, very big) SUV, but at least we will have this one for a long time.

Insert facepalm.

HAHAHAHA! Yeah, I'm getting laid off... better take on more debt ASAP! Because truck! :P

It makes sense. You won't be able to get a huge new loan if you don't have a job.

I know a guy who made sure he got his mortgage before he quit his good-paying but bad-for-health job, because he wouldn't qualify with his new job. My suggestion that the bank might have a point was not appreciated.

My mum did this. Bought a car with a loan (it was only like, 2%). Then promptly retired the next week.

[bzzzt]

i honestly in this moment didnt realize that 84 month car loans are a thing now.

Well, you'll be shocked to hear they have 96 month loans then.

To some, term doesn't really matter since you can refinance an auto loan. I had a buddy who refinanced his truck at about 48 months in to a 72 month loan. This eased his budget while he was laid off. When he went back to work, did he pay it off? Nope, saved the extra cash for a lift and huge tires... he got laid off again literally two days after picking up the truck from getting it lifted. *facepalm*

[Taran Wanderer]

i honestly in this moment didnt realize that 84 month car loans are a thing now.

Well, you'll be shocked to hear they have 96 month loans then.

To some, term doesn't really matter since you can refinance an auto loan. I had a buddy who refinanced his truck at about 48 months in to a 72 month loan. This eased his budget while he was laid off. When he went back to work, did he pay it off? Nope, saved the extra cash for a lift and huge tires... he got laid off again literally two days after picking up the truck from getting it lifted. *facepalm*

Uggh, these stories are depressing!

[EricL]

Not really an "Overheard at Work" but I visited a friend overseas who works for a successful entrepreneur.  The entrepreneur is a larger than life personality.  I won't mention his name or even the country.  It's small enough some posters from there would recognize him.  Anyway, he make a ton of money and immediately spends it on expensive stuff.  To a degree it's understandable.  His personality drives his diverse businesses through aggressive networking. He must put on a show with an expensive car, clothes, and mansion to business partners and clients.  This isn't a problem since he's got plenty of money for it.  But he also spends outrageous amounts hoarding assorted art and personal interest items which nobody but him ever sees.  Some of it's really cool, some of it's junk but unlike hoarders he has a warehouse for it.  He listens to preditory "financial advisors" who've soaked him for millions and really has no sensible investments at all.  My friend says he's like a shark.  He's a big, bad money making machine. But if he ever stops swimming, he's dead.