Author Topic: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)  (Read 5086876 times)

Imma

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3193
  • Location: Europe
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8150 on: December 16, 2020, 12:53:39 PM »
My SIL is hosting brunch on xmas day and has requested that everyone wear xmas pajamas.  I don't wanna.  I have plenty of pajamas and don't feel the need to go out any buy any to wear for a single day.  Bah Humbug.
And I thought those only existed in crappy sitcoms.
My SIL is hosting brunch on xmas day and has requested that everyone wear xmas pajamas.  I don't wanna.  I have plenty of pajamas and don't feel the need to go out any buy any to wear for a single day.  Bah Humbug.

I would tell her that I normally sleep naked even on christmas.

The ones I impulse bought at Target because my single pair of winter PJs ripped are actually fabulously comfortable, weirdly enough.

Years ago on a beach vacation, my grandfather and his... er, partner? lady friend? companion of his twilight years? were given the ground floor master. It had a "crappy little room" attached which had a double bed, and beds were scarce, but this room could be reached only by walking through the larger bedroom.

So Grandfather let it be known that he and his companion slept naked, and that was the end of any thought of using the crappy little room.


Good for grandpa and I totally understand your decision.

Are people supposed to drive/walk over in the pyjamas or do they change when they arrive?

Maybe I'm a prude but I would certainly never leave the house in nightwear! I'd politely decline the invitation.

Dicey

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 22281
  • Age: 66
  • Location: NorCal
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8151 on: December 16, 2020, 01:05:28 PM »
I’d say covid gives you a good reason to skip the brunch and the PJs.
+300,000

Plina

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 663
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8152 on: December 16, 2020, 01:14:11 PM »
My SIL is hosting brunch on xmas day and has requested that everyone wear xmas pajamas.  I don't wanna.  I have plenty of pajamas and don't feel the need to go out any buy any to wear for a single day.  Bah Humbug.
And I thought those only existed in crappy sitcoms.
My SIL is hosting brunch on xmas day and has requested that everyone wear xmas pajamas.  I don't wanna.  I have plenty of pajamas and don't feel the need to go out any buy any to wear for a single day.  Bah Humbug.

I would tell her that I normally sleep naked even on christmas.

The ones I impulse bought at Target because my single pair of winter PJs ripped are actually fabulously comfortable, weirdly enough.

Years ago on a beach vacation, my grandfather and his... er, partner? lady friend? companion of his twilight years? were given the ground floor master. It had a "crappy little room" attached which had a double bed, and beds were scarce, but this room could be reached only by walking through the larger bedroom.

So Grandfather let it be known that he and his companion slept naked, and that was the end of any thought of using the crappy little room.


Good for grandpa and I totally understand your decision.

Are people supposed to drive/walk over in the pyjamas or do they change when they arrive?

Maybe I'm a prude but I would certainly never leave the house in nightwear! I'd politely decline the invitation.

I might go out the yard to pick up something but I would neither drive or walk around in pyjamas othervise. As I have never been invited to a brunch with christmas pyjamas I was curious how you do? I didn’t actually know that there existed special christmas nightwear.  We get the presents in the afternoon after dinner so no opening of presents in nightwear as in american movies.

GuitarStv

  • Senior Mustachian
  • ********
  • Posts: 23048
  • Age: 42
  • Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8153 on: December 16, 2020, 01:22:27 PM »
Can you send an email asking which Christmas pajamas are preferred for the occasion?  Like maybe you have several to choose from . . .


shelivesthedream

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6740
  • Location: London, UK
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8154 on: December 16, 2020, 02:04:50 PM »
I also fail to understand the logistics of the pyjama party. If I did attend, I would wear my big fleecy dressing gown over my normal buttoned-up pyjamas and have underwear on underneath. And slippers. I just cannot fathom feeling comfortable otherwise. And, as I would have to travel on public transport, I would have to change when I arrived. My ordinary clothes are perfectly comfortable - if they were uncomfortable, I would replace them.

Maybe I just don't move in the right social circles...?

Poundwise

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2076
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8155 on: December 16, 2020, 04:36:03 PM »
How about wearing regular clothing and bringing a robe and slippers? Throw a bit of tinsel around your neck or pin a ribbon to your lapel to make it festive.

Sugaree

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1657
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8156 on: December 17, 2020, 05:48:31 AM »
I also fail to understand the logistics of the pyjama party. If I did attend, I would wear my big fleecy dressing gown over my normal buttoned-up pyjamas and have underwear on underneath. And slippers. I just cannot fathom feeling comfortable otherwise. And, as I would have to travel on public transport, I would have to change when I arrived. My ordinary clothes are perfectly comfortable - if they were uncomfortable, I would replace them.

Maybe I just don't move in the right social circles...?

I'm sure this is just a photo op for my SIL (who is obviously my parents' favorite child).  I'm half expecting a pregnancy announcement.  Luckily, I can see my parents' house from mine, so it wouldn't be the first time I've walked over there in my pajamas.

Loren Ver

  • CM*MW 2023 Attendees
  • Handlebar Stache
  • *
  • Posts: 1221
  • Location: Midwest USA
  • I Retired. Yah!
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8157 on: December 17, 2020, 09:00:40 AM »
Okay this is totally what my husband calls a Loren people problem.  Then he boohoos me and makes crying motions.  I think you all will understand though.

So being FIREd we work to keep our income pretty low, mostly for ACA purposes.  When the market was wobbling up and down early in the year due to Covid, we made sure to liquidate enough to cover our income minimums just in case everything tanked out for the year.  Well, I did not expect to have several of our investments to go totally growth bonkers and payout gobs of short and long term capital gains.  Sure this happens on occasion (one of them did it once in the past 20 years) and it is generally manageable, but this is kind of ridiculous.

Now granted, I'll take this MASSIVE(!!!) growth with its gains issues any year,  it is pretty awesome.  But it is pretty funny in a year we decided to play it safe and cash out early to make sure to hit our minimum just to maybe hit the subsidy income maximum and maybe even owes some taxes.  Craziness. 

Grow growth funds, grow!

SwordGuy

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8944
  • Location: Fayetteville, NC
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8158 on: December 17, 2020, 10:24:57 AM »
We generally use USAA for our insurance products.   It's a good company.   But there's been a minor annoyance with their website and its billing information for some years.

We have auto insurance, plus our home insurance, plus multiple rental property coverage.

It's important to pay the auto and home insurance out of our personal account and the rental property insurance out of our property LLC company account.
I pay each premium in full when it comes due because that's simpler on our bookkeeping than each month having to calculate how many pennies go against which policy for which property.

All of that is fine and good.

Except that their website is screwy.    When I enter the website there's a list of policies on it.   Plus there's a line that says "Auto & Property Insurance" with a $ balance on it.    That $ balance is NOT what I owe right now, it's what I'll owe at some point over the next few months as the various policies come due.     Personally, I think that's confusing as hell.

If I click on that line it takes me to a new page.  That new page showed the payment history, the policy amount due history, and also the up-coming future policy due information, all in one glorious jumble.   The actual billing statement was also there which showed the current amount due (not the "will be due sometime in the future" number from the first page.

It's rather a pain in the butt to sort it all out but the rest of the service is so good that I've ignored it.

However, about 3-4 weeks ago I went online to check my statement to see what I owed.   The front page showed I owed $2284 and change, but as we now all now, that means that I don't necessarily owe that much.   Maybe I owe that amount, maybe less.

The detail page just has a couple of sentences that says my account balance is being updated and check back later.   No other detail.   It's been that way for 3-4 weeks so we're not talking about me checking it during the few moments that it's updating my account balance.

So I call to sort it out.   Of course, there's no automated menu option to handle this so I have to get a human, who naturally will be in the wrong department and have to shuffle me off to someone else.   It takes awhile before the very nice person understands that I have two problems, I need to know how much I owe right now and I need the website fixed.   

It turns out that I don't owe anything right now.  I actually have a negative balance because USAA issued every auto policy holder a credit.  Their claims are way down because people are driving so much less.   I think that's the third time this year they've issued a credit.   So I have a negative balance.

After getting handed over to the web team and getting them to understand the problem, I'm told it's working as designed because I have a negative or zero balance.

I tell them that's crazy and the design needs to be changed.

It makes no sense to tell me on one web page that I owe thousands of dollars and then refuse to show me my payment and billing history, plus my current statement, because I actually have a credit balance.    If they want to prevent me from paying money due to the credit balance, they should disable the payment button, not hide my transaction history!  And if that's their intent, the message should say that and not that the account is being updated and check back later.   That design is crazy and needs to be changed.

There was a long silence.   I now have an incident number for it because it's being escalated upwards because the design was totally indefensible.   

I'm curious to see if they get a smarter person to decide what it should do than the current one.

If I just paid the minimum each month and didn't have rental properties, I wouldn't have this problem. 

La Bibliotecaria Feroz

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 7112
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8159 on: December 17, 2020, 10:52:29 AM »
My Mustachian-before-it-was-cool grandfather (AKA The Frugal Patriarch) left, in addition to stocks and real estate and whatnot, six figures worth of US Treasury bonds. The kind with maturity dates and whatnot.

My mother wanted to put these in my name and my sister's. Are you shocked to hear that the website is not user-friendly? You have to enter your password with a virtual keyboard that you click with your mouse. BUT, when you create your password, you do that with your actual keyboard, and are required to use a capital, a lowercase, a number, and a special character.

My favorite detail about this is that the virtual keyboard is not case-sensitive.

CptCool

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 251
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8160 on: December 17, 2020, 11:30:18 AM »
My Mustachian-before-it-was-cool grandfather (AKA The Frugal Patriarch) left, in addition to stocks and real estate and whatnot, six figures worth of US Treasury bonds. The kind with maturity dates and whatnot.

My mother wanted to put these in my name and my sister's. Are you shocked to hear that the website is not user-friendly? You have to enter your password with a virtual keyboard that you click with your mouse. BUT, when you create your password, you do that with your actual keyboard, and are required to use a capital, a lowercase, a number, and a special character.

My favorite detail about this is that the virtual keyboard is not case-sensitive.

Most (all?) banks don't use case sensitivity when actually entering your password. Their "requirements" might require it when you create it, but when actually entering it into their website or app it doesn't matter.

RWD

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6499
  • Location: Arizona
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8161 on: December 17, 2020, 12:04:47 PM »
My Mustachian-before-it-was-cool grandfather (AKA The Frugal Patriarch) left, in addition to stocks and real estate and whatnot, six figures worth of US Treasury bonds. The kind with maturity dates and whatnot.

My mother wanted to put these in my name and my sister's. Are you shocked to hear that the website is not user-friendly? You have to enter your password with a virtual keyboard that you click with your mouse. BUT, when you create your password, you do that with your actual keyboard, and are required to use a capital, a lowercase, a number, and a special character.

My favorite detail about this is that the virtual keyboard is not case-sensitive.

Most (all?) banks don't use case sensitivity when actually entering your password. Their "requirements" might require it when you create it, but when actually entering it into their website or app it doesn't matter.

No, this is not all or even most banks. It got a lot of attention a few years back when Wells Fargo and a few other major banks were caught. This is a major problem because in addition to lowering the security against brute force attempts it means they are not hashing the passwords (e.g. stored in plaintext) which means that in the case of a data breach the passwords will be exposed. Or nefarious employee with access to the database could just look up passwords.

NumberJohnny5

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 780
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8162 on: December 17, 2020, 01:21:32 PM »
No, this is not all or even most banks. It got a lot of attention a few years back when Wells Fargo and a few other major banks were caught. This is a major problem because in addition to lowering the security against brute force attempts it means they are not hashing the passwords (e.g. stored in plaintext) which means that in the case of a data breach the passwords will be exposed. Or nefarious employee with access to the database could just look up passwords.

It's possible to do that in a secure way. When the user creates a password, create a hash of that exact password plus a hash of that password after converting to all lower-case. When the user accesses the site via a method that has a virtual keyboard, check against the hash of the password that was converted to all lower-case. When the user accesses their account via a method without a virtual keyboard (such as a mobile app), check against the hash of the actual password.

On the user side, there's really no way to tell if it's being done the "correct" way or if your password is being stored for all to see.

sherr

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1541
  • Age: 38
  • Location: North Carolina, USA
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8163 on: December 17, 2020, 01:31:12 PM »
No, this is not all or even most banks. It got a lot of attention a few years back when Wells Fargo and a few other major banks were caught. This is a major problem because in addition to lowering the security against brute force attempts it means they are not hashing the passwords (e.g. stored in plaintext) which means that in the case of a data breach the passwords will be exposed. Or nefarious employee with access to the database could just look up passwords.

It's possible to do that in a secure way. When the user creates a password, create a hash of that exact password plus a hash of that password after converting to all lower-case. When the user accesses the site via a method that has a virtual keyboard, check against the hash of the password that was converted to all lower-case. When the user accesses their account via a method without a virtual keyboard (such as a mobile app), check against the hash of the actual password.

On the user side, there's really no way to tell if it's being done the "correct" way or if your password is being stored for all to see.

It's possible to do that without storing in plaintext, yes. There's also a far simpler way than storing two copies: force the password to all uppercase or all lowercase before it is hashed on all clients.

But there's really no reason for it; people can type capitals on mobile devices. It's a bad idea. And if they implemented a bad idea they probably also are incompetent enough to have done it the wrong way with plain-text passwords.

sherr

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1541
  • Age: 38
  • Location: North Carolina, USA
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8164 on: December 17, 2020, 01:37:14 PM »
But there's really no reason for it; people can type capitals on mobile devices. It's a bad idea. And if they implemented a bad idea they probably also are incompetent enough to have done it the wrong way with plain-text passwords.

Ah, I take it back. :( :( :( :(

If they have some sort of phone authentication option, eg typing in your password with a phone numberpad, then there's no distinction between upper and lowercase and they have to do some weird things to allow the call-in customers authenticate.

Anyone want to try typing your Wells Fargo password as the phonepad equivalent and see if it works?

dragoncar

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9918
  • Registered member
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8165 on: December 17, 2020, 02:08:00 PM »
The virtual keyboard is to combat keyloggers

CptCool

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 251
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8166 on: December 17, 2020, 02:29:23 PM »
My Mustachian-before-it-was-cool grandfather (AKA The Frugal Patriarch) left, in addition to stocks and real estate and whatnot, six figures worth of US Treasury bonds. The kind with maturity dates and whatnot.

My mother wanted to put these in my name and my sister's. Are you shocked to hear that the website is not user-friendly? You have to enter your password with a virtual keyboard that you click with your mouse. BUT, when you create your password, you do that with your actual keyboard, and are required to use a capital, a lowercase, a number, and a special character.

My favorite detail about this is that the virtual keyboard is not case-sensitive.

Most (all?) banks don't use case sensitivity when actually entering your password. Their "requirements" might require it when you create it, but when actually entering it into their website or app it doesn't matter.

No, this is not all or even most banks. It got a lot of attention a few years back when Wells Fargo and a few other major banks were caught. This is a major problem because in addition to lowering the security against brute force attempts it means they are not hashing the passwords (e.g. stored in plaintext) which means that in the case of a data breach the passwords will be exposed. Or nefarious employee with access to the database could just look up passwords.

Just tried on wellsfargo and americanexpress from my laptop and both work just fine changing any combination of letters between upper & lower case. Chase didn't work. Didn't bother continuing the test with other banks

LennStar

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3672
  • Location: Germany
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8167 on: December 18, 2020, 03:58:45 AM »
The virtual keyboard is to combat keyloggers
mouseloggers.

sherr

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1541
  • Age: 38
  • Location: North Carolina, USA
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8168 on: December 18, 2020, 08:40:05 AM »
The virtual keyboard is to combat keyloggers
mouseloggers.

IDK if you're making a joke or not, but while that's technically possible its much, much more difficult. Keyloggers are relatively simple because the program simply has to record what keys are being pressed, and then someone later can look at the results and try to parse out usernames/passwords from the whole thing.

While it's possible to listen for mouse movement/clicks in the same way, the program has to not only record them it has to pair them up with what's being displayed on the screen and interpret the result as "oh the user clicked on 'k' on an on-screen keyboard". And there is much, much more "noise" (non-password-related mouse movements / clicks) in that data. And on-screen security keyboards are much rarer anyway, so there's much less incentive to bother with the whole thing.

dragoncar

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9918
  • Registered member
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8169 on: December 18, 2020, 02:22:12 PM »
I’m pretty sure you used to be able to use a numeric code to login to fidelity.  Like the numbers corresponding to entering your password on a telephone keypad.  So instead of like 10 alphanumeric case sensitive letters, complexity was reduced to just a 10 digit number.  I just checked and it looks like they fixed that, but I wonder if they still use that when calling in.

Alternatepriorities

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1632
  • Age: 43
  • Location: Alaska
  • Engineer, explorer, investor
    • Alternate Priorities
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8170 on: December 18, 2020, 02:40:54 PM »
Turns out I don't need to worry about capitalization at my bank either... I find the arbitrary password rules at different institutions mildly annoying, more so now that I know they are just to look safer anyway.


Mighty Eyebrows

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 238
  • Location: Vancouver Island, Canada
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8171 on: December 18, 2020, 08:56:25 PM »
I’m pretty sure you used to be able to use a numeric code to login to fidelity.  Like the numbers corresponding to entering your password on a telephone keypad.  So instead of like 10 alphanumeric case sensitive letters, complexity was reduced to just a 10 digit number.  I just checked and it looks like they fixed that, but I wonder if they still use that when calling in.

Tangerine Bank (Canada) has a maximum password of 6 numerical digits only. Truly the worst online password policy I have ever seen.

Alternatepriorities

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1632
  • Age: 43
  • Location: Alaska
  • Engineer, explorer, investor
    • Alternate Priorities
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8172 on: December 18, 2020, 09:04:37 PM »
I’m pretty sure you used to be able to use a numeric code to login to fidelity.  Like the numbers corresponding to entering your password on a telephone keypad.  So instead of like 10 alphanumeric case sensitive letters, complexity was reduced to just a 10 digit number.  I just checked and it looks like they fixed that, but I wonder if they still use that when calling in.

Tangerine Bank (Canada) has a maximum password of 6 numerical digits only. Truly the worst online password policy I have ever seen.

I think I’d close an account there over that if there were anywhere else to bank.

dragoncar

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9918
  • Registered member
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8173 on: December 19, 2020, 03:06:17 AM »
I’m pretty sure you used to be able to use a numeric code to login to fidelity.  Like the numbers corresponding to entering your password on a telephone keypad.  So instead of like 10 alphanumeric case sensitive letters, complexity was reduced to just a 10 digit number.  I just checked and it looks like they fixed that, but I wonder if they still use that when calling in.

Tangerine Bank (Canada) has a maximum password of 6 numerical digits only. Truly the worst online password policy I have ever seen.

I think I’d close an account there over that if there were anywhere else to bank.

Way ahead of you... I already closed your account!  Next time use something different than the combination to my luggage

Alternatepriorities

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1632
  • Age: 43
  • Location: Alaska
  • Engineer, explorer, investor
    • Alternate Priorities
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8174 on: December 19, 2020, 12:33:52 PM »
I’m pretty sure you used to be able to use a numeric code to login to fidelity.  Like the numbers corresponding to entering your password on a telephone keypad.  So instead of like 10 alphanumeric case sensitive letters, complexity was reduced to just a 10 digit number.  I just checked and it looks like they fixed that, but I wonder if they still use that when calling in.

Tangerine Bank (Canada) has a maximum password of 6 numerical digits only. Truly the worst online password policy I have ever seen.

I think I’d close an account there over that if there were anywhere else to bank.

Way ahead of you... I already closed your account!  Next time use something different than the combination to my luggage

Thank for taking care of that for me!

Mighty Eyebrows

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 238
  • Location: Vancouver Island, Canada
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8175 on: December 19, 2020, 11:59:44 PM »
Way ahead of you... I already closed your account!  Next time use something different than the combination to my luggage

Ha, you would also need to know that my first dog's name was Rover! Very secure, no-one will ever find that out.

Alfred J Quack

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 419
  • Location: Netherlands
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8176 on: December 20, 2020, 02:06:03 AM »
MPP for this year, had to cash our modest investments because we had a number of large expenses (both planned and unplanned) and the service that did our low-cost investment only does weekly withdrawels that take about 2 weeks to proces.

The alternative would have been a HELOC type loan but we didn't want to go there because SIL has a business that was heavily hit by the lockdowns this year. SIL asked for a loan, and got it, but that pretty much cleared us out of a comfortable savings account (still some left but nearly 0 after all expected expenses the next month). We did make it clear that this would be the only substantial loan we could provide, and I made it clear to DW beforehand that this would be a loan we should not expect to be payed back.

On the plus, SIL had an offer for a takeover of her business (which is a third more than she payed for herself), which she refused because it wasn't enough...

Mighty Eyebrows

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 238
  • Location: Vancouver Island, Canada
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8177 on: December 20, 2020, 03:21:47 PM »
On the plus, SIL had an offer for a takeover of her business (which is a third more than she payed for herself), which she refused because it wasn't enough...

That would be the Endowment Effect (thanks Dan Ariely):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endowment_effect

ixtap

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4553
  • Age: 51
  • Location: SoCal
    • Our Sea Story
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8178 on: December 21, 2020, 11:03:31 AM »
I was trying to be generous for the holidays and send out money to friends and family who are regularly short or particularly affected by the pandemic. Somehow, I chose the wrong person on PayPal, so when I got a thank you from an old colleague (who was indeed quite affected, but not someone I have interacted with in quite some time), I had to send out another payment yet. I know this Christmas sucks for a lot of people, but I just keep thinking of more people to try to cheer up.

okisok

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 764
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8179 on: December 21, 2020, 06:25:50 PM »
I'm glad to get out of extended family holiday celebrations. Coming up with gifts to give people that I only see this one time a year and dealing with the gifts they give me. I hate the travel and the overeating and the obligatory gifts. I'm so relieved to not do any of it this year. I've mailed gifts to close friends and family and will do a short trip to visit immediate family only. If I mention any of these silver linings to Covid, people are horrified.

(I've tried to get them to not do gifts. Both writing a letter in the fall one year and asking everyone to not do gifts, and just flat out not getting any of them gifts one year. They resisted every attempt.)

Steeze

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1205
  • Age: 36
  • Location: NYC Area of Earth
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8180 on: December 21, 2020, 07:55:12 PM »
Bonus season! Usually the craziest budgeting month of the year. How to allocate all this irregular cash? What accounts to fill, lump some or DCA?!?

MPP: although bonus time also falls on triple paycheck month this year, it still will not be as crazy as November gains. Little disappointing in a way? Just deposit check, transfer to brokerage and done. No scheming, no plotting, no numbers to run, no forecasts to update... just doesn’t bring the excitement it used to.

Yay! My net worth went up 1.25%!?

ixtap

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4553
  • Age: 51
  • Location: SoCal
    • Our Sea Story
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8181 on: December 21, 2020, 08:43:38 PM »
Bonus season! Usually the craziest budgeting month of the year. How to allocate all this irregular cash? What accounts to fill, lump some or DCA?!?

MPP: although bonus time also falls on triple paycheck month this year, it still will not be as crazy as November gains. Little disappointing in a way? Just deposit check, transfer to brokerage and done. No scheming, no plotting, no numbers to run, no forecasts to update... just doesn’t bring the excitement it used to.

Yay! My net worth went up 1.25%!?

I haven't become that jaded. I still find a 1% increase impressive. Heck, I can still get pretty excited over a .1% windfall!

shelivesthedream

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6740
  • Location: London, UK
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8182 on: December 22, 2020, 12:13:04 AM »
Whoever mentioned the bulldog clip toothpaste thing : THANK YOU. Changed my life.

Fomerly known as something

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1625
  • Location: CA
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8183 on: December 22, 2020, 05:00:00 AM »
Logged into my bank this morning to see if a purchase had cleared.  Forgot I had started to move money from my HYSA that is earmarked for funding my IRA on January 1.  Was totally surprised by the amount in my checking account.

Adventine

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2422
  • Location: Memphis, USA
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8184 on: December 22, 2020, 05:57:54 AM »
Whoever mentioned the bulldog clip toothpaste thing : THANK YOU. Changed my life.

@shelivesthedream that was me. Happy to serve ;)

Freedomin5

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 6462
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8185 on: December 24, 2020, 05:59:05 AM »
We don’t have a TV. No cable. No streaming services. Nothing. But sometimes I want to watch movies on a screen larger than my laptop screen. But I don’t want to pay a thousand dollars (or whatever a TV costs) just so I can hook my computer to it and watch a movie on it once or twice a year.

Morning Glory

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4863
  • Location: The Garden Path
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8186 on: December 24, 2020, 06:04:22 AM »
We don’t have a TV. No cable. No streaming services. Nothing. But sometimes I want to watch movies on a screen larger than my laptop screen. But I don’t want to pay a thousand dollars (or whatever a TV costs) just so I can hook my computer to it and watch a movie on it once or twice a year.
Around here, people just give away TVs if they aren't the super thin flat screens.

Trifle

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 5877
  • Age: 57
  • Location: Outside, NC, US
    • In The Garden
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8187 on: December 24, 2020, 06:15:57 AM »
We don’t have a TV. No cable. No streaming services. Nothing. But sometimes I want to watch movies on a screen larger than my laptop screen. But I don’t want to pay a thousand dollars (or whatever a TV costs) just so I can hook my computer to it and watch a movie on it once or twice a year.

Same here!  We have no TV or cable, nothing but laptops, and I've wondered what we may be able to buy that's bigger, just for watching a movie once in a while.  Maybe just a big computer monitor?  I looked at those and most seem to run in the range of $100 - $500.  I wonder if anyone sells decent used ones . . .

Tigerpine

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 491
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8188 on: December 24, 2020, 07:00:08 AM »
We don’t have a TV. No cable. No streaming services. Nothing. But sometimes I want to watch movies on a screen larger than my laptop screen. But I don’t want to pay a thousand dollars (or whatever a TV costs) just so I can hook my computer to it and watch a movie on it once or twice a year.

Same here!  We have no TV or cable, nothing but laptops, and I've wondered what we may be able to buy that's bigger, just for watching a movie once in a while.  Maybe just a big computer monitor?  I looked at those and most seem to run in the range of $100 - $500.  I wonder if anyone sells decent used ones . . .
Estate sales have lots of used stuff.

Mighty Eyebrows

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 238
  • Location: Vancouver Island, Canada
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8189 on: December 24, 2020, 02:37:55 PM »
Around here, a new 32" TV costs less than $200 CAD, but you can probably find an old computer monitor or TV in a thrift store (or craigslist) for much less.

LennStar

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 3672
  • Location: Germany
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8190 on: December 27, 2020, 10:09:14 AM »
We don’t have a TV. No cable. No streaming services. Nothing. But sometimes I want to watch movies on a screen larger than my laptop screen. But I don’t want to pay a thousand dollars (or whatever a TV costs) just so I can hook my computer to it and watch a movie on it once or twice a year.

Same here!  We have no TV or cable, nothing but laptops, and I've wondered what we may be able to buy that's bigger, just for watching a movie once in a while.  Maybe just a big computer monitor?  I looked at those and most seem to run in the range of $100 - $500.  I wonder if anyone sells decent used ones . . .
Just mentioning that a TV screen and a computer screen are often fairly different affairs. Of course it still shows a picture, but one is made to blur, one to be sharp to read text.
That is less an issue if you pay four digits, but you aren't doing it.
So, if you want to watch TV, get a TV, not a computer screen. Should be easier, too.

Mighty Eyebrows

  • Stubble
  • **
  • Posts: 238
  • Location: Vancouver Island, Canada
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8191 on: December 27, 2020, 11:15:20 AM »
Just mentioning that a TV screen and a computer screen are often fairly different affairs. Of course it still shows a picture, but one is made to blur, one to be sharp to read text.
That is less an issue if you pay four digits, but you aren't doing it.
So, if you want to watch TV, get a TV, not a computer screen. Should be easier, too.

Not really true. We have used a (smallish) samsung TV as a computer screen for one of our house computers for about 8 years. The only thing you need to think about is resolution, it runs just fine at 60 Hz. Most of the young people I know watch their movies on their computers. TV vs Computer screens should not matter to most people unless you do video editing, photo colour-work, high-refresh gaming, or end up with an oversized TV that is only 1080p hooked up to your computer.

Uturn

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 889
  • Age: 54
  • Location: Raleigh, NC
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8192 on: December 27, 2020, 12:24:10 PM »
I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase. 

Steeze

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1205
  • Age: 36
  • Location: NYC Area of Earth
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8193 on: December 27, 2020, 01:02:50 PM »
I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

APowers

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 1762
  • Location: Colorado
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8194 on: December 27, 2020, 02:33:38 PM »
Just mentioning that a TV screen and a computer screen are often fairly different affairs. Of course it still shows a picture, but one is made to blur, one to be sharp to read text.
That is less an issue if you pay four digits, but you aren't doing it.
So, if you want to watch TV, get a TV, not a computer screen. Should be easier, too.

Not really true. We have used a (smallish) samsung TV as a computer screen for one of our house computers for about 8 years. The only thing you need to think about is resolution, it runs just fine at 60 Hz. Most of the young people I know watch their movies on their computers. TV vs Computer screens should not matter to most people unless you do video editing, photo colour-work, high-refresh gaming, or end up with an oversized TV that is only 1080p hooked up to your computer.

This is what I found in my research as well. The differences between tv and monitor are largely technicalities that mostly matter in edge cases. Are you gaming at a serious level, like, competitively ranked in something? Then yeah, a monitor will make sense for you. Doing photoshop? Monitor. Are you building a hi-fi home theater? Then yeah, a tv is the better call. But 99% of all the situations in between? Buy the cheapest one that works, it'll be fine.

dragoncar

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9918
  • Registered member
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8195 on: December 27, 2020, 08:19:57 PM »
I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

If you sell something worth $300 and receive $300 cash, your net worth doesn't change.

You need to sell something worth $300 to some sucker for $600

Adventine

  • Handlebar Stache
  • *****
  • Posts: 2422
  • Location: Memphis, USA
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8196 on: December 27, 2020, 08:24:50 PM »
I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

If you sell something worth $300 and receive $300 cash, your net worth doesn't change.

You need to sell something worth $300 to some sucker for $600

Not too late to holiday guilt trip some unsuspecting relatives for $300 worth of gifts, either!

dragoncar

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 9918
  • Registered member
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8197 on: December 28, 2020, 01:24:07 AM »
I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

If you sell something worth $300 and receive $300 cash, your net worth doesn't change.

You need to sell something worth $300 to some sucker for $600

Not too late to holiday guilt trip some unsuspecting relatives for $300 worth of gifts, either!

Look, if anyone needs a $300 NW boost, I'll happily provide a revocable gift.  Please allow 4 days for delivery and if you don't get it, consider the gift revoked!

Morning Glory

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4863
  • Location: The Garden Path
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8198 on: December 28, 2020, 03:17:15 AM »
I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

If you sell something worth $300 and receive $300 cash, your net worth doesn't change.

You need to sell something worth $300 to some sucker for $600

Can you cash out some points for $300? Or clean out all your cash back apps, if you use them.

 There are some bank bonuses that pay out almost immediately (sofi is the best one, also chime, varo and stash paid out within days.)

Plina

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 663
Re: Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)
« Reply #8199 on: December 28, 2020, 04:48:50 AM »
I just ran the year end numbers and I'm $300 short of a milestone NW increase.

There is still time to sell something for $300 this week!

If you sell something worth $300 and receive $300 cash, your net worth doesn't change.

You need to sell something worth $300 to some sucker for $600

That would depend on if you count the 300 worth of stuff that is sold to your networth. I would guess that most of the people don’t count their stuff when they are counting their networth.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!