Author Topic: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)  (Read 5086484 times)

SwordGuy

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4600 on: January 21, 2018, 09:12:15 PM »
  On Friday ay 3:00 when the stock market closed, I had $6,501 in stock market gain, my daughter called at 3:05, her tuition payment of $6,278, needs to be paid. Leaving my with $223.00. I didn't even have time to savor the warmth!

@BTDretire, it could have been worse.  The market could have been down instead!  :)

Back in the 1990s the company I worked for in the state of Georgia hired Blue Cross/Blue Shield (BC/BS) for insurance.  They were awful.  So bad that the employees all asked for something different.  So, a year later, our employer changed insurance companies. 

However, in that year time frame, BC/BS announced they wanted to switch from a non-profit status to a for-profit status.  The only way they were allowed to do it required that they offer current policy holders 5 shares of stock.   They sent us a form to fill out and I did so.   Apparently most people just tossed the form in the trash.  I figured it would be worth enough to buy lunch with or, if I were really lucky, a special dinner date with my wife.

Three years go by.   I've forgotten all about the stock and had never received anything more about it.   I was moving to another state and had to come up with $6000 cash for a down payment on the house and another $6000 in cash to pay the movers.   The first $6000 wasn't a problem, but the 2nd was going to be rough without taking cash out of our 401K and paying the penalty.

Then a check showed up in the mail for $5983 for that BC/BS stock.   It had been held up in the courts for 3 years because the people who didn't fill out the forms were mad they wouldn't get stock.   

Sure made handing the $6000 to the movers easier...

But I'm right there with you on regretting how quickly that cash disappeared!

LeRainDrop

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4601 on: January 21, 2018, 11:07:41 PM »
Then a check showed up in the mail for $5983 for that BC/BS stock.   It had been held up in the courts for 3 years because the people who didn't fill out the forms were mad they wouldn't get stock.   

Sure made handing the $6000 to the movers easier...

But I'm right there with you on regretting how quickly that cash disappeared!

Awesome story, SwordGuy!  I'm in Georgia but my firm used BC/BS of Illinois :-)

dragoncar

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4602 on: January 22, 2018, 12:21:37 AM »
That reminds me that I missed out on hundreds in class action settlements for LCD panels and Harbor Freight.  Don't be like me, check a site like http://www.classactionrebates.com/ every once in a while.  I often find settlements that I'm legitimately a part of but wasn't notified

Astatine

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4603 on: January 22, 2018, 03:20:42 AM »
DH has a credit card (that he had for years before he met me - I've never had one). We use it to smooth out cash flow as it has 55 days interest free, and the rewards are points to spend at Myer (an Australian department store). We have >$100 worth of points to spend at Myer, even after using some points to buy a couple of kid's Christmas presents.

We've twice wandered through two different Myer's shops and have not found anything we wanted to spend the points on. The only things we need to buy (a new kitty litter tray to replace one which has a crack in it, aqua shoes for me to protect my feet at the beach and charger cables) aren't available at Myer.

Yay for switching off our consumerism, boo for Myer not having anything useful for us.

Fresh Bread

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4604 on: January 22, 2018, 03:55:09 AM »
DH has a credit card (that he had for years before he met me - I've never had one). We use it to smooth out cash flow as it has 55 days interest free, and the rewards are points to spend at Myer (an Australian department store). We have >$100 worth of points to spend at Myer, even after using some points to buy a couple of kid's Christmas presents.

We've twice wandered through two different Myer's shops and have not found anything we wanted to spend the points on. The only things we need to buy (a new kitty litter tray to replace one which has a crack in it, aqua shoes for me to protect my feet at the beach and charger cables) aren't available at Myer.

Yay for switching off our consumerism, boo for Myer not having anything useful for us.

That's a tough one. Do they expire before next xmas? I think I'd maybe stock up on birthday/ occasion cards and see if they've got any fancy foods left from xmas or in for easter. They have xmas hampers and relishes and stuff so at least you could get food. Everything there is so overpriced so it's annoying. I'd get Jockey undies because I like them best but they are quite expensive. Are the points valid in the cafe? Probably not.

Sibley

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4605 on: January 22, 2018, 11:10:06 AM »
Then a check showed up in the mail for $5983 for that BC/BS stock.   It had been held up in the courts for 3 years because the people who didn't fill out the forms were mad they wouldn't get stock.   

Sure made handing the $6000 to the movers easier...

But I'm right there with you on regretting how quickly that cash disappeared!

Awesome story, SwordGuy!  I'm in Georgia but my firm used BC/BS of Illinois :-)

Fun facts: there's around 37 different companies behind BCBS. It's actually a license. The BCBS Association (in Chicago) sells the licenses to the different companies and oversees various things. BCBSIL is Health Care Service Corp, or HCSC, along with NM, MT, TX, and OK. Anthem Blue Cross is huge, they've got like 17 states.

So it is 100% possible to have really GREAT insurance and service from BCBS. It's also 100% possible to have really terrible service. Just depends on which company your insurance is with. Some of them aren't great.

If you're curious, the Association's website has more info. It might break your brain though.

Fresh Bread

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4606 on: January 22, 2018, 03:18:22 PM »
@Astatine Can you use the points to buy Coles-Myer gift cards and then spend the points at Coles? And then change credit cards to one that has a better range of rewards!

Jsn

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4607 on: January 23, 2018, 05:15:07 PM »
I called out the checkout clerk at my local Safeway today. He was ringing up green onions at $1.28 a bunch, and I marched back to the produce section to retrieved the 99 cent price tag. He was so startled by my attention to the price of every item, he decided to give me the onions for free.

Was he startled, or does that store/location have 'Scanning Code of Practice'?  We have that in [some parts of] Canada - if something rings up for too much, you can have it for free up to a max $10 off. In reality, only certain stores follow it and you have to TELL THEM you know about the policy. Otherwise they just fix the price an let you go on your merry way.

I honestly don’t know. He may have been following policy, but if so the discount was given in a quiet, almost sotto voice. Also, he made no effort to make note of the discrepancy, letting me return the price tag without comment.

Also, you know what the price of those green onions is today? $1.28.

From Google: here's the page for BC (not where I live, but the first search hit that matches) https://www.consumerprotectionbc.ca/2014/07/scanning-code-of-practice-what-you-need-to-know/

Aelias

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4608 on: January 24, 2018, 10:12:23 AM »
Well, this is a new one for me.  Apparently because I'm a highly compensated employee per the IRS non-discrimination rules, and not enough lower paid employees are contributing to our company's plan, my contributions will be capped at 10% and I won't be able to take advantage of the full $18,500.

So, I'm going to be getting extra money in my next paycheck.  And I'm more than a little annoyed.

http://time.com/money/3898903/retirement-high-income-401k/

Sibley

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4609 on: January 24, 2018, 10:31:13 AM »
Well, this is a new one for me.  Apparently because I'm a highly compensated employee per the IRS non-discrimination rules, and not enough lower paid employees are contributing to our company's plan, my contributions will be capped at 10% and I won't be able to take advantage of the full $18,500.

So, I'm going to be getting extra money in my next paycheck.  And I'm more than a little annoyed.

http://time.com/money/3898903/retirement-high-income-401k/

Can you push to make signups automatic for everyone unless the specifically opt out? That would increase the number of people contributing. My company auto enrolls you at 6%, then it increases by 1% every year up to 10%. I'm sure some people opt out, but it's less than the number of people who never opt in.

Aelias

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4610 on: January 24, 2018, 10:48:49 AM »
Well, this is a new one for me.  Apparently because I'm a highly compensated employee per the IRS non-discrimination rules, and not enough lower paid employees are contributing to our company's plan, my contributions will be capped at 10% and I won't be able to take advantage of the full $18,500.

So, I'm going to be getting extra money in my next paycheck.  And I'm more than a little annoyed.

http://time.com/money/3898903/retirement-high-income-401k/

Can you push to make signups automatic for everyone unless the specifically opt out? That would increase the number of people contributing. My company auto enrolls you at 6%, then it increases by 1% every year up to 10%. I'm sure some people opt out, but it's less than the number of people who never opt in.

It's a big company, and I wouldn't feel comfortable advocating for something like that solely for my own benefit.   Honestly, it's not a ton of money.  We'll just throw it in the taxable accounts.  It just never occurred to me that this was an issue.

afuera

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4611 on: January 24, 2018, 10:59:37 AM »
Well, this is a new one for me.  Apparently because I'm a highly compensated employee per the IRS non-discrimination rules, and not enough lower paid employees are contributing to our company's plan, my contributions will be capped at 10% and I won't be able to take advantage of the full $18,500.

So, I'm going to be getting extra money in my next paycheck.  And I'm more than a little annoyed.

http://time.com/money/3898903/retirement-high-income-401k/
That's awful!  We have the same highly compensated employee rules but they cap ours at 40%.  10% seems like such a ridiculously low cap!  I can't imagine how low participation must be in order to justify it.

Aelias

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4612 on: January 24, 2018, 12:21:06 PM »
Well, I feel silly.  Taking another look, it specifies "after-tax contributions" will be capped, meaning anything over and above the $18,500.  Which we don't do.

Nothing to see here, folks.  Move along.

https://www.lifetimebenefitsolutions.com/news-room/401-k-news/plan-design-and-after-tax-contributions/


Hirondelle

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4613 on: January 24, 2018, 12:43:30 PM »
I'm impatiently waiting for my next paycheck. Not to pay for anything, but so I can invest another $1000 and post an update in the race to 100k thread :)

Sibley

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4614 on: January 24, 2018, 01:50:34 PM »
Well, this is a new one for me.  Apparently because I'm a highly compensated employee per the IRS non-discrimination rules, and not enough lower paid employees are contributing to our company's plan, my contributions will be capped at 10% and I won't be able to take advantage of the full $18,500.

So, I'm going to be getting extra money in my next paycheck.  And I'm more than a little annoyed.

http://time.com/money/3898903/retirement-high-income-401k/

Can you push to make signups automatic for everyone unless the specifically opt out? That would increase the number of people contributing. My company auto enrolls you at 6%, then it increases by 1% every year up to 10%. I'm sure some people opt out, but it's less than the number of people who never opt in.

It's a big company, and I wouldn't feel comfortable advocating for something like that solely for my own benefit.   Honestly, it's not a ton of money.  We'll just throw it in the taxable accounts.  It just never occurred to me that this was an issue.

It really wouldn't be just for your benefit though. It's in everyone's benefit to save for retirement, so setting it up automatically is a safety net for the lazy and ignorant.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2015/08/13/auto-enrollment--401k-plans/30203375/

urover

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4615 on: January 24, 2018, 07:16:09 PM »

I take dates out in a 23 year old truck with 508,000 miles on it

No, you don't. The man on the 1st page of this thread does.

Luckyvik

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4616 on: January 24, 2018, 07:28:48 PM »

I take dates out in a 23 year old truck with 508,000 miles on it

No, you don't. The man on the 1st page of this thread does.
Well spotted!


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dragoncar

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4617 on: January 24, 2018, 11:48:08 PM »
Chuck Norris borrows money from me

the_fixer

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4618 on: January 25, 2018, 07:17:46 AM »
Net pay for 2 weeks of work with 1.5 hours of OT

$298 USD

91.5% saving rate

Maxing your $18,500 401k pretax limit for the year in 7 paychecks = priceless



I was kind of expecting HR to call me and say that I owe them money :o

Without the OT I am guessing my bi-weekly pay check will be closer to $198

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BTDretire

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4619 on: January 25, 2018, 08:59:48 AM »
Well, this is a new one for me.  Apparently because I'm a highly compensated employee per the IRS non-discrimination rules, and not enough lower paid employees are contributing to our company's plan, my contributions will be capped at 10% and I won't be able to take advantage of the full $18,500.

So, I'm going to be getting extra money in my next paycheck.  And I'm more than a little annoyed.

http://time.com/money/3898903/retirement-high-income-401k/

 

Can you push to make signups automatic for everyone unless the specifically opt out? That would increase the number of people contributing. My company auto enrolls you at 6%, then it increases by 1% every year up to 10%. I'm sure some people opt out, but it's less than the number of people who never opt in.

Dan Ariely has a interesting book Titled 'Predictbly Irrational', The hidden forces that shape our Decisions.
 I can't locate the exact numbers, but two European countries with similar culture, one has an organ donation rate twice that of the other. The difference, one is on opt-in, the other opt-out.
 Some of it deals with other aspects of money, spending, value, etc.
Ariely was a burn victim, one section is about treatment and weather it was tailored for comfort of the treating nurses or comfort of the patient.
 I'm not a big reader, but I bought the book after seeing an interview of him. I thought it important enough to have both my kids read it.

Editorial Reviews,

From Publishers Weekly
Irrational behavior is a part of human nature, but as MIT professor Ariely has discovered in 20 years of researching behavioral economics, people tend to behave irrationally in a predictable fashion. Drawing on psychology and economics, behavioral economics can show us why cautious people make poor decisions about sex when aroused, why patients get greater relief from a more expensive drug over its cheaper counterpart and why honest people may steal office supplies or communal food, but not money. According to Ariely, our understanding of economics, now based on the assumption of a rational subject, should, in fact, be based on our systematic, unsurprising irrationality. Ariely argues that greater understanding of previously ignored or misunderstood forces (emotions, relativity and social norms) that influence our economic behavior brings a variety of opportunities for reexamining individual motivation and consumer choice, as well as economic and educational policy. Ariely's intelligent, exuberant style and thought-provoking arguments make for a fascinating, eye-opening read. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“This is a wonderful, eye-opening book. Deep, readable, and providing refreshing evidence that there are domains and situations in which material incentives work in unexpected ways. We humans are humans, with qualities that can be destroyed by the introduction of economic gains. A must read!”

kaypinkHH

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4620 on: January 25, 2018, 10:17:22 AM »
MPP of the day:

Closing on a profitable house sale today (Moved from HCOL to L/M COL), and walking away with more money than most people my age would ever dream of, let alone people older than me.

Can't brag about it to anyone in real life :P...must keep the illusion that I have no money so people don't expect me to live a fancy pants life!!

Dollar Slice

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4621 on: January 25, 2018, 12:05:25 PM »
MPP: Being heartbroken at waste and inefficiency. I stopped at the grocery store yesterday in part because they were having a good sale on ground beef. I live in Manhattan and the store I go to is VERY busy, and when they have sales like this I'll often have to wait for them to grind the meat because they sell it faster than they can make it at a busy time of day. Yesterday I was pleased to see that they still had about a fifth of a tray of the ground beef I wanted in the display case, and it looked, as always, very fresh. As I stepped up, one of the workers took the whole tray of meat out and took it into the back room. Another worker asked what I wanted, and I said "well, I was going to get some of that ground beef, but he just took the tray away for some reason!" And he told me that they were throwing it away because "it was oxidizing." I was flabbergasted. The meat looked perfect and I'd be shocked if it had been in the case for more than an hour with the traffic at that store. And I'm not the dumpster-diving type, I am super picky about getting really fresh and good quality food.

If I were ten seconds earlier I would have purchased 2 lbs of it and saved it from the trash :-( Hell, if I knew it was destined for the trash I might have bought all of it and put it all in the freezer. I actually hope they were secretly funneling it somewhere else, even stealing it, because it's so depressing to think of that kind of waste. And most especially meat since it's such a big environmental impact, and the idea that you killed an animal just to trash it because no one bought it within an hour... uuuugh. I kind of want to write a letter to the store manager and ask what their policies are.

Astatine

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4622 on: January 25, 2018, 02:35:41 PM »
@Astatine Can you use the points to buy Coles-Myer gift cards and then spend the points at Coles?

Hmm, that's a really good question. Next time we're in the vicinity of a Myer we'll go in and ask. (maybe. Myer's staff to customer ratio is usually pretty shite, so it will be 'ask if we can actually find someone to ask')

Dicey

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4623 on: January 25, 2018, 11:37:05 PM »
I don't know if I would go as far a getting riled up, but I would not like someone telling me to park in my garage to stop thieves. 

1.  I am not in the wrong for not parking in my garage, the thieves are in the wrong and are being scummy people.
2.  My garage is a woodshop.  It is the main reason why I live in a house instead of an apartment. 
3.  Few things are worse than being a thief.

Ah you beat me to it. I judge people who park in the garage. Where do you put your table saw, welder, engine hoist, et al? You just have an entire building just to put a car in? What a waste.
Nah man, the garage is for the chest freezers, squat rack, and dog grooming table.

Replace dog grooming table with bicycles, and we have the same garage =P Well, those and the gymnastics rings.
We've actually got our bicycles in the garage too.  Sadly no gymnastics rings though.  (One-car garage by the way.)
Ha! This made me laugh. Our clown house has a 1050 s.f. three-car garage. We've owned it for five years and never parked a car in it. There are multiple reasons, inside and out.

Outside, cars in the driveway are a deterrent. It looks like somebody's home. Break-ins are an issue here. We are a family of four adults with three vehicles. DH walks to work, so his truck is always home. Yesteday, he needed to drive so there were literally no cars in the driveway for a few hours, which made me nervous. We don't keep much inside the cars, but we'd rather risk a car break-in than a house burglary. Prior to this house, I have always parked in a garage, so it was a challenge to get in the habit of locking my car at night. (MPP)

Inside is an interesting mix. I'm in CA, where basements don't really exist. We store quite a bit of stuff that reflects our community involvement. A dozen A-frame signs for the Friends of the Library's quarterly book sales? Six more A-frames for community food drives? More signs for the annual Community Service Day? Yes, yes, yes. Supplies for another community group that I do the hospitality for? Yup, one whole gorilla rack full. Eight folding tables used for various functions, including our own parties? Yes. A baker's dozen wooden folding chairs for various events (all thrifted/inherited/scrounged)? Yes. A badass workshop for DH, including table saw, tile saw, professional painting gear (generator, compressor, spray gun, loads of drop cloths, etc.) and plenty o' tools? Yes. Four bicycles? Yes. An upright freezer, a refrigerator and a boss kitchen pantry made from hand-me-down cabinets? Yes.

You might think it's a cluttered mess, but everything is neatly stowed. Last year when we rebuilt our retaining walls and installed a 2500sf paver driveway, we also put seventeen full pallets of stones inside, so we could build the driveway from the garage out. Now that the project's finished, we love, love, love the floorspace we've regained, but we have no immediate plans to park cars in there, ahem.

This is not our forever home, and many people in our HCOLA don't have a lot of extra space, so we're happy to share ours with our community while we have it and to have a place for our numerous DIY endeavors. Total MPP's and we're damn grateful to have them, lol!

LennStar

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4624 on: January 26, 2018, 02:16:34 AM »
@Dicey: Whats that A-Frame you talk about? Some standard size of box?

LennStar

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4625 on: January 26, 2018, 02:16:59 AM »
I can't locate the exact numbers, but two European countries with similar culture, one has an organ donation rate twice that of the other. The difference, one is on opt-in, the other opt-out.

Likely Germany and Switzerland.

Germany has opt-in, Switzerland opt-out.
Switzerland has 10 times as much organ donations (per head).

NevermindScrooge

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4626 on: January 26, 2018, 02:41:56 PM »
My MPP:

We have saved enough to buy our first house without additional loans, BUT now have to start saving all over again to FIRE. Break out the tiny violins, especially as saving will be faster with property than with the cheap house we rented. (Counting repayments of the principal as saving and only the interest part as an expense)

Dicey

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4627 on: January 26, 2018, 05:02:34 PM »
@Dicey: Whats that A-Frame you talk about? Some standard size of box?
Think Realtor's Open House signs, which is what they originally were. Double sided, roughly 24" × 24" for the message board, plus the legs, so a somewhat bulky item. Lots of them.

Dicey

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4628 on: January 26, 2018, 05:06:59 PM »
My MPP:

We have saved enough to buy our first house without additional loans, BUT now have to start saving all over again to FIRE. Break out the tiny violins, especially as saving will be faster with property than with the cheap house we rented. (Counting repayments of the principal as saving and only the interest part as an expense)
This makes no sense to me. What are you trying to say in the last sentence? Sounds like you might be shooting yourself in the foot. Where is @boarder42 when you need him...? Car42, where are you?

boarder42

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4629 on: January 27, 2018, 03:16:07 AM »
My MPP:

We have saved enough to buy our first house without additional loans, BUT now have to start saving all over again to FIRE. Break out the tiny violins, especially as saving will be faster with property than with the cheap house we rented. (Counting repayments of the principal as saving and only the interest part as an expense)
This makes no sense to me. What are you trying to say in the last sentence? Sounds like you might be shooting yourself in the foot. Where is @boarder42 when you need him...? Car42, where are you?

It makes sense. So if they were paying 2k to rent. And now pay 1500 to mortgage and 400 of that is principal. Previously the whole 2k was going out the door now they can say they are saving 900 more a month if you count house principal paydown as savings. That being said. Please don't party your mortgage down faster than the term bc investing will put you ahead of extra principal paydown

Morning Glory

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4630 on: January 27, 2018, 08:40:48 AM »
This is my favorite thread!!!
I finally have one: yesterday I forgot some coupons when I went grocery shopping. I didn't realize until I had been walking around with frozen stuff in my cart for a while and it seemed like an asshole move to put it all back, so I wasted $10 plus the time I spent printing the coupons and was mad at myself the entire day.

Izybat

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4631 on: January 27, 2018, 01:29:35 PM »
I'm sad because I just switched our 401k contributions from being almost maxed out to just meeting the minimum for company matching. We're likely going to be moving in the next six months, and I want to make sure we have enough cash on hand for all related expenses (fixing our current house, selling it, buying a new one). I know the money is still coming in to our accounts, but I also know it's now going to be taxed, so that our net worth isn't' going to go up as much as it has been.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4632 on: January 28, 2018, 10:41:33 AM »
Friday we went out in the city. I went to order a drink. Too late, I discovered that they also had a place where you could tap iced water into a plastic glass. Instead I ordered white wine and got the tiniest amount in the tiniest glass and it cost a fortune. For my second drink, I drank the water.

NevermindScrooge

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4633 on: January 28, 2018, 02:09:05 PM »
My MPP:

We have saved enough to buy our first house without additional loans, BUT now have to start saving all over again to FIRE. Break out the tiny violins, especially as saving will be faster with property than with the cheap house we rented. (Counting repayments of the principal as saving and only the interest part as an expense)
This makes no sense to me. What are you trying to say in the last sentence? Sounds like you might be shooting yourself in the foot. Where is @boarder42 when you need him...? Car42, where are you?

It makes sense. So if they were paying 2k to rent. And now pay 1500 to mortgage and 400 of that is principal. Previously the whole 2k was going out the door now they can say they are saving 900 more a month if you count house principal paydown as savings. That being said. Please don't party your mortgage down faster than the term bc investing will put you ahead of extra principal paydown

Thanks for your comments! As a first time home-owner and a novice to investing this is all very confusing. I'm sorry if I shared my confusion with you.
What I meant to say is that - like boarder42 said - I considered our rent to be money thrown out the window, whereas paying down the principal of our mortgage will be an accumulation of net worth. The interest of the mortgage is in my eyes money thrown at the bank. However, I have learned yesterday that it is better not to count property as part of the amount needed to FIRE, that it should only be (relatively) easily accessible funds. So you can basically ignore my previous post, sorry guys!

To further explain: I live in Europe and somehow I don't 'get' the 7% average on our investments. Maybe that is because I'm too conservative, and has nothing to do with geographical location and a difference in tax systems. Like I said, I'm a novice and I'm just finding out how much I don't know. Last year I managed 2.2% on my investments (ETFs and index funds) which is still way better than interest on savings. As our mortgage will have an interest rate of about 2.3% I'm finding it difficult to suppress the urge to throw all surplus money at the mortgage. My spreadsheet tells me that we will be paying the bank over 100k in interest and that makes me slightly nauseous.

Imma

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4634 on: January 28, 2018, 03:04:29 PM »
My MPP:

We have saved enough to buy our first house without additional loans, BUT now have to start saving all over again to FIRE. Break out the tiny violins, especially as saving will be faster with property than with the cheap house we rented. (Counting repayments of the principal as saving and only the interest part as an expense)
This makes no sense to me. What are you trying to say in the last sentence? Sounds like you might be shooting yourself in the foot. Where is @boarder42 when you need him...? Car42, where are you?

It makes sense. So if they were paying 2k to rent. And now pay 1500 to mortgage and 400 of that is principal. Previously the whole 2k was going out the door now they can say they are saving 900 more a month if you count house principal paydown as savings. That being said. Please don't party your mortgage down faster than the term bc investing will put you ahead of extra principal paydown

Thanks for your comments! As a first time home-owner and a novice to investing this is all very confusing. I'm sorry if I shared my confusion with you.
What I meant to say is that - like boarder42 said - I considered our rent to be money thrown out the window, whereas paying down the principal of our mortgage will be an accumulation of net worth. The interest of the mortgage is in my eyes money thrown at the bank. However, I have learned yesterday that it is better not to count property as part of the amount needed to FIRE, that it should only be (relatively) easily accessible funds. So you can basically ignore my previous post, sorry guys!

To further explain: I live in Europe and somehow I don't 'get' the 7% average on our investments. Maybe that is because I'm too conservative, and has nothing to do with geographical location and a difference in tax systems. Like I said, I'm a novice and I'm just finding out how much I don't know. Last year I managed 2.2% on my investments (ETFs and index funds) which is still way better than interest on savings. As our mortgage will have an interest rate of about 2.3% I'm finding it difficult to suppress the urge to throw all surplus money at the mortgage. My spreadsheet tells me that we will be paying the bank over 100k in interest and that makes me slightly nauseous.

Hi, fellow Dutchie! :) For tax purposes, I always subtract the approx. 1,5% vermogensrendementheffing (tax) from the rate of safe return (so, 4% - 1,5% = 2,5% ). This is a fairly conservative estimate, which means you need to have 40 x yearly earnings to be able to FIRE. In reality, taxes will probably be slightly lower but it's difficult to be very precise.

I think 2,2% on your investments over 2017 is rather low though. I think I got around 7% on average, and that's because I'm conservative and keep 25% of my stash in bonds (obligaties) rather than stocks. I invest through Meesman. Just because you're in this country, doesn't mean your returns should be any lower than anyone else's (if you're investing in global funds). What makes FIRE more difficult in our country is that wealth is taxed year after year and our after-tax incomes are much lower. I see a lot of fairly young people making more than $100k on here, that seems to be much easier than making €85k in our country. Of course there are a disproportionate amount of high earners in STEM jobs around, but I know lots of those in my private life and they don't make €85k in their 20s. Of course, we don't have to deal with high health care costs and massive student loans, so I'm not complaining.

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4635 on: January 28, 2018, 03:40:35 PM »
I finally have one: yesterday I forgot some coupons when I went grocery shopping. I didn't realize until I had been walking around with frozen stuff in my cart for a while and it seemed like an asshole move to put it all back, so I wasted $10 plus the time I spent printing the coupons and was mad at myself the entire day.

Not all is lost! Next time you go to the grocery store, bring your coupons and your receipt with you, and then go to the customer service desk. Chances are good that they will process your coupons and give you the money back (or at least a store credit/gift card). I've done that several times :-)

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4636 on: January 28, 2018, 05:02:14 PM »
My MPP:

We have saved enough to buy our first house without additional loans, BUT now have to start saving all over again to FIRE. Break out the tiny violins, especially as saving will be faster with property than with the cheap house we rented. (Counting repayments of the principal as saving and only the interest part as an expense)
This makes no sense to me. What are you trying to say in the last sentence? Sounds like you might be shooting yourself in the foot. Where is @boarder42 when you need him...? Car42, where are you?

It makes sense. So if they were paying 2k to rent. And now pay 1500 to mortgage and 400 of that is principal. Previously the whole 2k was going out the door now they can say they are saving 900 more a month if you count house principal paydown as savings. That being said. Please don't party your mortgage down faster than the term bc investing will put you ahead of extra principal paydown

Thanks for your comments! As a first time home-owner and a novice to investing this is all very confusing. I'm sorry if I shared my confusion with you.
What I meant to say is that - like boarder42 said - I considered our rent to be money thrown out the window, whereas paying down the principal of our mortgage will be an accumulation of net worth. The interest of the mortgage is in my eyes money thrown at the bank. However, I have learned yesterday that it is better not to count property as part of the amount needed to FIRE, that it should only be (relatively) easily accessible funds. So you can basically ignore my previous post, sorry guys!

To further explain: I live in Europe and somehow I don't 'get' the 7% average on our investments. Maybe that is because I'm too conservative, and has nothing to do with geographical location and a difference in tax systems. Like I said, I'm a novice and I'm just finding out how much I don't know. Last year I managed 2.2% on my investments (ETFs and index funds) which is still way better than interest on savings. As our mortgage will have an interest rate of about 2.3% I'm finding it difficult to suppress the urge to throw all surplus money at the mortgage. My spreadsheet tells me that we will be paying the bank over 100k in interest and that makes me slightly nauseous.

Hi, fellow Dutchie! :) For tax purposes, I always subtract the approx. 1,5% vermogensrendementheffing (tax) from the rate of safe return (so, 4% - 1,5% = 2,5% ). This is a fairly conservative estimate, which means you need to have 40 x yearly earnings to be able to FIRE. In reality, taxes will probably be slightly lower but it's difficult to be very precise.

I think 2,2% on your investments over 2017 is rather low though. I think I got around 7% on average, and that's because I'm conservative and keep 25% of my stash in bonds (obligaties) rather than stocks. I invest through Meesman. Just because you're in this country, doesn't mean your returns should be any lower than anyone else's (if you're investing in global funds). What makes FIRE more difficult in our country is that wealth is taxed year after year and our after-tax incomes are much lower. I see a lot of fairly young people making more than $100k on here, that seems to be much easier than making €85k in our country. Of course there are a disproportionate amount of high earners in STEM jobs around, but I know lots of those in my private life and they don't make €85k in their 20s. Of course, we don't have to deal with high health care costs and massive student loans, so I'm not complaining.

“Vermogensrendementheffing” is my new favorite word.

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4637 on: January 28, 2018, 07:31:53 PM »
I like how in parenthesis it's just "tax." From about 400 letters to 3. :D

TomTX

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4638 on: January 28, 2018, 07:47:05 PM »
I like how in parenthesis it's just "tax." From about 400 letters to 3. :D

I presumed that the rest of it is just cussing about the tax in Flemish. It ends in "effing" after all.

fuzzy math

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4639 on: January 28, 2018, 08:16:29 PM »
Pressure cooking black beans and the instant pot is squeaking like there's something wrong with the seal. Had to abort the cooking process and now they're going to be messed up. Will try to salvage and recook but ugh if they're not quite right its going to be so difficult to throw them away.

NevermindScrooge

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4640 on: January 29, 2018, 12:17:12 AM »
My MPP:

We have saved enough to buy our first house without additional loans, BUT now have to start saving all over again to FIRE. Break out the tiny violins, especially as saving will be faster with property than with the cheap house we rented. (Counting repayments of the principal as saving and only the interest part as an expense)
This makes no sense to me. What are you trying to say in the last sentence? Sounds like you might be shooting yourself in the foot. Where is @boarder42 when you need him...? Car42, where are you?

It makes sense. So if they were paying 2k to rent. And now pay 1500 to mortgage and 400 of that is principal. Previously the whole 2k was going out the door now they can say they are saving 900 more a month if you count house principal paydown as savings. That being said. Please don't party your mortgage down faster than the term bc investing will put you ahead of extra principal paydown

Thanks for your comments! As a first time home-owner and a novice to investing this is all very confusing. I'm sorry if I shared my confusion with you.
What I meant to say is that - like boarder42 said - I considered our rent to be money thrown out the window, whereas paying down the principal of our mortgage will be an accumulation of net worth. The interest of the mortgage is in my eyes money thrown at the bank. However, I have learned yesterday that it is better not to count property as part of the amount needed to FIRE, that it should only be (relatively) easily accessible funds. So you can basically ignore my previous post, sorry guys!

To further explain: I live in Europe and somehow I don't 'get' the 7% average on our investments. Maybe that is because I'm too conservative, and has nothing to do with geographical location and a difference in tax systems. Like I said, I'm a novice and I'm just finding out how much I don't know. Last year I managed 2.2% on my investments (ETFs and index funds) which is still way better than interest on savings. As our mortgage will have an interest rate of about 2.3% I'm finding it difficult to suppress the urge to throw all surplus money at the mortgage. My spreadsheet tells me that we will be paying the bank over 100k in interest and that makes me slightly nauseous.

Hi, fellow Dutchie! :) For tax purposes, I always subtract the approx. 1,5% vermogensrendementheffing (tax) from the rate of safe return (so, 4% - 1,5% = 2,5% ). This is a fairly conservative estimate, which means you need to have 40 x yearly earnings to be able to FIRE. In reality, taxes will probably be slightly lower but it's difficult to be very precise.

I think 2,2% on your investments over 2017 is rather low though. I think I got around 7% on average, and that's because I'm conservative and keep 25% of my stash in bonds (obligaties) rather than stocks. I invest through Meesman. Just because you're in this country, doesn't mean your returns should be any lower than anyone else's (if you're investing in global funds). What makes FIRE more difficult in our country is that wealth is taxed year after year and our after-tax incomes are much lower. I see a lot of fairly young people making more than $100k on here, that seems to be much easier than making €85k in our country. Of course there are a disproportionate amount of high earners in STEM jobs around, but I know lots of those in my private life and they don't make €85k in their 20s. Of course, we don't have to deal with high health care costs and massive student loans, so I'm not complaining.

Hi Imma, thanks for your insightful remarks! I'll look into my investments more closely to figure out what caused the low numbers. Perhaps I'm mistaken and read the data wrong. I've calculated the return on investments in a spreadsheet as I invest in two places and wanted to know what the weighted average (gewogen gemiddelde) is. I'm investing through Binck as their fees are quite low and they allow me to invest in Think ETFs which are exempt from the dividend tax, and the other part I invest at my bank, but that is just a small amount so I can test the differences between Binck and the bank. I'm the kind of person that learns through doing, not through reading. So perhaps that is a cause of the low return as the fees of the bank are higher.

Summary of what I've learned: I should be able to get 7% return on global stocks (yay! thanks Imma for that one), I will keep investing my money and not throw it at the mortgage (thank you Border42!).

I have so much to learn! Thanks to everyone for allowing me to say stupid things and correcting me. This place has taught me more about life and money than the rest of the internet combined.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4641 on: January 29, 2018, 12:58:47 AM »
My MPP:

We have saved enough to buy our first house without additional loans, BUT now have to start saving all over again to FIRE. Break out the tiny violins, especially as saving will be faster with property than with the cheap house we rented. (Counting repayments of the principal as saving and only the interest part as an expense)
This makes no sense to me. What are you trying to say in the last sentence? Sounds like you might be shooting yourself in the foot. Where is @boarder42 when you need him...? Car42, where are you?

It makes sense. So if they were paying 2k to rent. And now pay 1500 to mortgage and 400 of that is principal. Previously the whole 2k was going out the door now they can say they are saving 900 more a month if you count house principal paydown as savings. That being said. Please don't party your mortgage down faster than the term bc investing will put you ahead of extra principal paydown

Thanks for your comments! As a first time home-owner and a novice to investing this is all very confusing. I'm sorry if I shared my confusion with you.
What I meant to say is that - like boarder42 said - I considered our rent to be money thrown out the window, whereas paying down the principal of our mortgage will be an accumulation of net worth. The interest of the mortgage is in my eyes money thrown at the bank. However, I have learned yesterday that it is better not to count property as part of the amount needed to FIRE, that it should only be (relatively) easily accessible funds. So you can basically ignore my previous post, sorry guys!

To further explain: I live in Europe and somehow I don't 'get' the 7% average on our investments. Maybe that is because I'm too conservative, and has nothing to do with geographical location and a difference in tax systems. Like I said, I'm a novice and I'm just finding out how much I don't know. Last year I managed 2.2% on my investments (ETFs and index funds) which is still way better than interest on savings. As our mortgage will have an interest rate of about 2.3% I'm finding it difficult to suppress the urge to throw all surplus money at the mortgage. My spreadsheet tells me that we will be paying the bank over 100k in interest and that makes me slightly nauseous.

Hi, fellow Dutchie! :) For tax purposes, I always subtract the approx. 1,5% vermogensrendementheffing (tax) from the rate of safe return (so, 4% - 1,5% = 2,5% ). This is a fairly conservative estimate, which means you need to have 40 x yearly earnings to be able to FIRE. In reality, taxes will probably be slightly lower but it's difficult to be very precise.

I think 2,2% on your investments over 2017 is rather low though. I think I got around 7% on average, and that's because I'm conservative and keep 25% of my stash in bonds (obligaties) rather than stocks. I invest through Meesman. Just because you're in this country, doesn't mean your returns should be any lower than anyone else's (if you're investing in global funds). What makes FIRE more difficult in our country is that wealth is taxed year after year and our after-tax incomes are much lower. I see a lot of fairly young people making more than $100k on here, that seems to be much easier than making €85k in our country. Of course there are a disproportionate amount of high earners in STEM jobs around, but I know lots of those in my private life and they don't make €85k in their 20s. Of course, we don't have to deal with high health care costs and massive student loans, so I'm not complaining.

Hi Imma, thanks for your insightful remarks! I'll look into my investments more closely to figure out what caused the low numbers. Perhaps I'm mistaken and read the data wrong. I've calculated the return on investments in a spreadsheet as I invest in two places and wanted to know what the weighted average (gewogen gemiddelde) is. I'm investing through Binck as their fees are quite low and they allow me to invest in Think ETFs which are exempt from the dividend tax, and the other part I invest at my bank, but that is just a small amount so I can test the differences between Binck and the bank. I'm the kind of person that learns through doing, not through reading. So perhaps that is a cause of the low return as the fees of the bank are higher.

Summary of what I've learned: I should be able to get 7% return on global stocks (yay! thanks Imma for that one), I will keep investing my money and not throw it at the mortgage (thank you Border42!).

I have so much to learn! Thanks to everyone for allowing me to say stupid things and correcting me. This place has taught me more about life and money than the rest of the internet combined.

I have also used the 7% as a brutto gain. In my excel sheet I have taken the 7% and withdrawn the expected inflation (2,5%) from it, which leaves a sum pretty close to 4%. Therefore I use the 4% rule to take money out (which is a parameter, so I can also experiment with 3,5%). So from my stash, I withdraw 4% and then I apply all taxes on all my expected income and tax. Here in Norway I need to pay tax on additional income, and 30% on profits from stock, and 1,5% over my total stash. So all of that is in my Excel sheet and is withdrawn from the 4% withdrawal income and any additional income we might generate.
I am afraid that you need to the same as I did and incorporate all your taxes and rates in your spreadsheet. Make sure to use parameters, because they change the rates frequently.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2018, 02:09:41 AM by Linda_Norway »

LennStar

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4642 on: January 29, 2018, 01:42:29 AM »
Summary of what I've learned: I should be able to get 7% return on global stocks (yay! thanks Imma for that one), I will keep investing my money and not throw it at the mortgage (thank you Border42!).

Do not forget that the 7% is average. In the next crash the prices will probably drop by 50%. Do not panic sell!

Also if you have a varying interest rate on your mortgage, you may think in still doing that first (maybe not today, but in near future like year end). You don't pay taxes on repaying mortgages and currently the stock prices are relativly high.
But as always, it depends on personal situation and what the future will bring. 

UncleX

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4643 on: January 29, 2018, 03:37:34 AM »
For tax purposes, I always subtract the approx. 1,5% vermogensrendementheffing (tax) from the rate of safe return (so, 4% - 1,5% = 2,5% ). This is a fairly conservative estimate, which means you need to have 40 x yearly earnings to be able to FIRE. In reality, taxes will probably be slightly lower but it's difficult to be very precise.

VRH is more like 0.95% (2018/couple/500k euros) or 1.1% (2018/couple/1 million euros), I would not call this slightly below 1.5%. It's really not very difficult to be accurate about VRH if you know how to use Excel a bit. But let's not discuss that here, there is a thread for Dutchies already. Let's meet over there and discuss.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2018, 03:49:12 AM by UncleX »

Imma

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4644 on: January 29, 2018, 04:02:14 AM »
Summary of what I've learned: I should be able to get 7% return on global stocks (yay! thanks Imma for that one), I will keep investing my money and not throw it at the mortgage (thank you Border42!).

Do not forget that the 7% is average. In the next crash the prices will probably drop by 50%. Do not panic sell!

Also if you have a varying interest rate on your mortgage, you may think in still doing that first (maybe not today, but in near future like year end). You don't pay taxes on repaying mortgages and currently the stock prices are relativly high.
But as always, it depends on personal situation and what the future will bring.

Also, at some point because of vermogensrendementheffing ( :D  ) it might be a good idea to pay off your mortgage instead of investing because any wealth tied up in your primary residence is exempt from taxes. This mainly applies during an economic downturn when you're losing money on your investments rather than making money and you have some cash (I don't advocate selling investments when they're low). Because you pay tax regardless, no matter if you make profits or not, you can lower your total wealth by paying off your mortgage or by spending that money on improving your house - I mean the kind of improvements that will end up making your money like solar panels, insulation, a heat pump, or building an extension.

As for the word vermogensrendementheffing, I don't even think there's an English word for such a stupid tax. It's a very complicated wealth tax. As a finance professional it's even hard for me to explain exactly how it works and they've just made it even more complicated so it's supposedly more fair now.

Imma

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4645 on: January 29, 2018, 04:03:01 AM »
For tax purposes, I always subtract the approx. 1,5% vermogensrendementheffing (tax) from the rate of safe return (so, 4% - 1,5% = 2,5% ). This is a fairly conservative estimate, which means you need to have 40 x yearly earnings to be able to FIRE. In reality, taxes will probably be slightly lower but it's difficult to be very precise.

VRH is more like 0.95% (2018/couple/500k euros) or 1.1% (2018/couple/1 million euros), I would not call this slightly below 1.5%. It's really not very difficult to be accurate about VRH if you know how to use Excel a bit. But let's not discuss that here, there is a thread for Dutchies already. Let's meet over there and discuss.

Great idea :)

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4646 on: January 29, 2018, 05:19:55 AM »
MPP of the day:

Closing on a profitable house sale today (Moved from HCOL to L/M COL), and walking away with more money than most people my age would ever dream of, let alone people older than me.

Can't brag about it to anyone in real life :P...must keep the illusion that I have no money so people don't expect me to live a fancy pants life!!

Congratulations! I've enjoyed your posts about your choice to stay with family while looking for the right place, so please keep us informed about how it goes with settling in. Now go celebrate by programming your new home's thermostat to a sensible mustachian temperature and then warm yourself with a dance of joy in each room in your new place!

@Sun Hat you get me :D.

barbaz

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Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4647 on: January 29, 2018, 07:46:34 AM »
As for the word vermogensrendementheffing, I don't even think there's an English word for such a stupid tax. It's a very complicated wealth tax. As a finance professional it's even hard for me to explain exactly how it works and they've just made it even more complicated so it's supposedly more fair now.
Germany’s Kapitalertragsteuer also was reformed this year to make it fairer, but it’s an incomprehensible mess at this point. I don’t even know yet if I will be paying more or less than before.

Edit: my MPP: I can’t even ask or discuss this tax with others because no one I know has capital gains above the tax exemption threshold.
« Last Edit: January 29, 2018, 07:51:28 AM by barbaz »

gaja

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4648 on: January 29, 2018, 12:01:23 PM »
Norwegian "formueskatt" is at .85% for net property above 1.48 mill NOK, but your house is counted at 25 % of its real value. Most people have enough in debt to balance out the taxable funds. Pension funds don't count, rental property and stocks/funds only count as 90% of real value.

jengod

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Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #4649 on: January 29, 2018, 01:14:29 PM »
We are doing so well financially that it's increasingly hard to deny ourselves some of the finer things.

We recently did a slight upgrade to the kitchen (new Formica countertops to replace cracked tile, new deeper sink without leaking faucet, new dishwasher) and we picked out one of the most expensive models of dishwasher ($800 v $300).

I found a vintage Louis Vuitton bag at a thrift store for $25 and when the well-used strap finally broke, I splurged on getting it completely refurbished by LV.

After years of hacking a blade coffee grinder to grind coffee beans for my preferred French press (which requires a rough grind), I recently splurged on a burr grinder. I will continue using the blade grinder for spices and flaxseed.

We can afford grass-fed butter (FYI, it's cheaper at TJ's than at Sprouts).

We can afford to travel more than we used to.

As much as these are modest to large outlays of cash, they are tiny proportions of our overall net worth, or even our annual increases in net worth.

Balancing hedonism and stoicism during our time on earth is a wild challenge. That is all.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!