Author Topic: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons  (Read 14808 times)

talltexan

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #50 on: June 29, 2016, 12:57:29 PM »
Long-time follower of Penelope Trunk here. She grew up in a wealthy family, cashed out of her first start up in her late 20's. Making money is easy for her. I've seen credible estimates that her blogging businesses and business coaching earn her $600,000/year. Mustachianism wouldn't apply to her.

More interestingly, she's the reason I first learned about JD Roth.

talltexan

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #51 on: June 29, 2016, 12:59:23 PM »
Here's another (well-written) post of Penelope's about finances. Mustachians won't find a lot in common with her.

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2013/01/09/8-new-ways-to-think-about-financial-security/

jinga nation

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #52 on: June 29, 2016, 01:00:19 PM »
For a Trunk, she sure got a lot of junk.

Jack

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #53 on: June 29, 2016, 01:12:40 PM »
Here's another (well-written) post of Penelope's about finances. Mustachians won't find a lot in common with her.

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2013/01/09/8-new-ways-to-think-about-financial-security/

Wow, she's like Bizarro-MMM. Or MMM as viewed through a funhouse mirror, or as interpreted by Picasso or something.

I mean, some of that is almost Mustachian, but coming at it from a completely different direction (and I'm talking about a weird direction, like climbing out of an ACME portable hole). For example, her conclusion that "...my ability to live in a house with an unfinished room is my credit card" is almost sorta kinda similar to MMM's philosophy about buddhism / stoicism / "luxury is a weakness" etc., except for the fact that her room is unfinished only because she decided to quit working on it halfway through and do a bunch of other shit (including planting 20,000 flower bulbs) instead!

talltexan

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #54 on: June 29, 2016, 02:05:42 PM »
Jack, she does develop other themes (skill acquisition; minimalism) that are indeed mustachian; but she is the ultimate outsourcer as well.


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ltt

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #55 on: June 29, 2016, 09:33:17 PM »
Please note the author states she has Asperger's.  People with Asperger's tend to think in parts and they don't really see or view a situation in its entirety, nor do they view others around them as having needs, feelings, wants, etc.  And, yes, their writing can seem disjointed.   

SoccerLounge

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #56 on: June 29, 2016, 09:56:17 PM »
There are other folks out there who can make money as easily as Penelope Trunk. But they don't come across as such an absolute trainwreck, so they have less of a following. (Of course, they don't need as much of a following, maybe, what with having kept a bunch of their money and all.)

MoneyCat

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #57 on: June 29, 2016, 10:09:10 PM »
This woman does not have Asperger's Syndrome (or High-Functioning Autism or whatever they call it these days.) This is someone making others suffer because of her Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I hate how Asperger's is being used as an excuse for people being horrible. I know people with Asperger's and while they are really socially awkward and often blunt in their speech, they aren't purposefully horrible to people who care about them like this writer. Jeez, what a train wreck.

MrsTuxedocat

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #58 on: June 29, 2016, 10:48:46 PM »
I keep thinking to myself, why does she have so many followers on  the blog? Craziness

aasdfadsf

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #59 on: June 29, 2016, 11:32:46 PM »
Making money is easy for her. I've seen credible estimates that her blogging businesses and business coaching earn her $600,000/year.

I find that impossible to believe. A person who made anywhere near that much money a) would not need to buy a car financed with her husband's credit, b) would not need to worry about cashflow keeping her from making regular car payments via automatic withdrawal, much less missing four payments in a row, c) would have so few things to spend it on living in a rural area that the money would be piling up in the storage shed, and d) would not be seriously in debt and write about how she mentally negates the gaping financial hole she's dug herself, even if she never made any attempt to save and build wealth.

It all adds up to a person who may have made some big scores in the past or the occasional windfall, but nowhere near this kind of regular income. And she's far too stupid to manage what she does bring in. 
« Last Edit: June 30, 2016, 01:43:22 AM by aasdfadsf »

Jack

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #60 on: June 30, 2016, 07:31:53 AM »
Jack, she does develop other themes (skill acquisition; minimalism) that are indeed mustachian; but she is the ultimate outsourcer as well.

Minimalism, eh? Let me guess -- she was moving house one day, got bored driving the damn U-Haul and abandoned it leaving all her stuff inside? Or did she manage to misplace the entire truck by accident?

It couldn't be that she made a considered decision to reduce her possessions; that would make too much sense!

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #61 on: June 30, 2016, 08:13:31 AM »
Please note the author states she has Asperger's.  People with Asperger's tend to think in parts and they don't really see or view a situation in its entirety, nor do they view others around them as having needs, feelings, wants, etc.  And, yes, their writing can seem disjointed.

We can and do learn to write coherently, to look at a situation from more than one perspective, and to be considerate of others. These are skills that can be learned.

onehair

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #62 on: June 30, 2016, 09:05:48 AM »
I am convinced that blog is trolling people on a massive scale.  No one that unbalanced can be in charge of family finances.

AH013

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #63 on: June 30, 2016, 09:19:30 AM »
Making money is easy for her. I've seen credible estimates that her blogging businesses and business coaching earn her $600,000/year.

I find that impossible to believe. A person who made anywhere near that much money a) would not need to buy a car financed with her husband's credit, b) would not need to worry about cashflow keeping her from making regular car payments via automatic withdrawal, much less missing four payments in a row, c) would have so few things to spend it on living in a rural area that the money would be piling up in the storage shed, and d) would not be seriously in debt and write about how she mentally negates the gaping financial hole she's dug herself, even if she never made any attempt to save and build wealth.

It all adds up to a person who may have made some big scores in the past or the occasional windfall, but nowhere near this kind of regular income. And she's far too stupid to manage what she does bring in.

My personal experience is that "entrepreneur" people with bad money management skills confuse revenue with income.  Billionaire Richard Branson even admitted he has trouble understanding gross vs net income.  I.e. "I made $75,000 selling Etsy last year! (before $5,000 of purchase processing fees, on products that you bought for $45,000, plus $4,000 that you spent marketing your business, and never mind the $5,000 of junk you bought from other friends to have them return the favor and buy stuff from you)"  No, you didn't earn $75k, you earned $16k.

Some of her endeavors are less savvy business skill, and more sheer luck / right-time-right-place.  She boasts of a website business she sold for $600k...the domain was "math.com".....a short .com domain like that is probably worth $600k by itself.

slugline

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #64 on: June 30, 2016, 09:19:52 AM »
Wow, she's like Bizarro-MMM. Or MMM as viewed through a funhouse mirror, or as interpreted by Picasso or something.

I'm thinking this is more like Ramit Sethi's personal finance philosophy viewed through a funhouse mirror.

JZinCO

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #65 on: June 30, 2016, 09:20:54 AM »
I've been enjoying this site so much.

Quote
My son said, “Mom, doesn’t our house look weird with the porch sort of blowing in the wind?”

“Yeah,” I said. “It does.”

And then I bought more bulbs.

hahaha. I feel like it is purposefully written in a disjointed manner. I don't buy that the writer has a mental disorder, and even if it is, there is no slack to be given. If someone is paid on contract (like most writers) to produce widgets and 50% of widgets are defective, they don't get full payment. Maybe widget making isn't there destiny?

But, for comedy's sake I hope the writing continues.

edit: If Pete wrote this, he would have followed the sons' comment with a monologue, waxing poetic about the virtue of crafting an elegant wooden structure followed by admonishment of our society for outsourcing deck building and working with one's own hands. Bizarro-MMM indeed.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2016, 09:23:20 AM by JZinCO »

madmax

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #66 on: June 30, 2016, 02:04:21 PM »
I've been enjoying this site so much.

Quote
My son said, “Mom, doesn’t our house look weird with the porch sort of blowing in the wind?”

“Yeah,” I said. “It does.”

And then I bought more bulbs.

hahaha. I feel like it is purposefully written in a disjointed manner. I don't buy that the writer has a mental disorder, and even if it is, there is no slack to be given. If someone is paid on contract (like most writers) to produce widgets and 50% of widgets are defective, they don't get full payment. Maybe widget making isn't there destiny?

But, for comedy's sake I hope the writing continues.

edit: If Pete wrote this, he would have followed the sons' comment with a monologue, waxing poetic about the virtue of crafting an elegant wooden structure followed by admonishment of our society for outsourcing deck building and working with one's own hands. Bizarro-MMM indeed.

+1, I've subscribed to her blog in my RSS reader and filed it under "entertainment".

RocketSurgeon

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #67 on: June 30, 2016, 02:10:42 PM »
+1, I've subscribed to her blog in my RSS reader and filed it under "entertainment".
Alternatively: "Advice for people I don't like."

JZinCO

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #68 on: June 30, 2016, 02:11:56 PM »
I've been enjoying this site so much.

Quote
My son said, “Mom, doesn’t our house look weird with the porch sort of blowing in the wind?”

“Yeah,” I said. “It does.”

And then I bought more bulbs.

hahaha. I feel like it is purposefully written in a disjointed manner. I don't buy that the writer has a mental disorder, and even if it is, there is no slack to be given. If someone is paid on contract (like most writers) to produce widgets and 50% of widgets are defective, they don't get full payment. Maybe widget making isn't there destiny?

But, for comedy's sake I hope the writing continues.

edit: If Pete wrote this, he would have followed the sons' comment with a monologue, waxing poetic about the virtue of crafting an elegant wooden structure followed by admonishment of our society for outsourcing deck building and working with one's own hands. Bizarro-MMM indeed.

+1, I've subscribed to her blog in my RSS reader and filed it under "entertainment".
OH, classic there, their..

Also I read porch as deck.. I'm as lazy as a reader as the writer is lazy. woops!
« Last Edit: June 30, 2016, 02:14:17 PM by JZinCO »

stoaX

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #69 on: June 30, 2016, 02:17:07 PM »
Minimalism, eh? Let me guess -- she was moving house one day, got bored driving the damn U-Haul and abandoned it leaving all her stuff inside? Or did she manage to misplace the entire truck by accident?

It couldn't be that she made a considered decision to reduce her possessions; that would make too much sense!

Too funny!

Josiecat

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #70 on: July 01, 2016, 09:03:22 PM »
Clearly they cannot afford this car.  The whole post was to cover that fact that they're broke.  That way when people ask what happened to the BMW, she can point them to this witty gem.  Ha-de-dah.... It's not that we are broke, I just FORGOT to pay the bill..... for four months.  Bullshit.

Elle 8

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #71 on: July 02, 2016, 09:35:22 AM »
Wow, I barely got though that article, it was so hard to follow.  I could only assume people who read the blog regularly could understand it with context from the other articles?  I will not be going back to that website.

frugledoc

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #72 on: July 02, 2016, 11:34:11 AM »
I'm not a psychiatrist but I don't think she seems aspergic.  She definitely has some kind of personality disorder and she has labelled herself as aspergers to excuse her behaviour.

I don't understand how she would get people to pay her 350 dollars an hour for coaching.  I guess that is another lie?

Khaetra

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #73 on: July 02, 2016, 02:15:19 PM »
Wow...I really am speechless after reading...WTF did I just read??  You 'forget' to pay on your car and they repo it while your at the airport, and you act like it's not a big deal??  And to show it's no big deal you sit down to shave your legs in it?!?  I really hope that dude wises up and dumps her ass before he loses the farm!

Nederstash

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Re: The $1100 car payment for cello lessons
« Reply #74 on: July 02, 2016, 05:33:42 PM »
You need a car for a cello?