Mustachian People Problems (just for fun)

[LennStar]

15% on a real estate deal?

If that was true, the banks would shoot each other with cannons to be allowed to throw money at it. Can't say if it's a scam or a "lottery" though, but definitely not something someone should do who still needs to work for money.

My only investing in "real estate" is (in very short) PV refinancing in 3rd world countries. That's normally 6-7% interest and even that is last level debt - if the company goes bankrupt, I don't need to bother trying to get anything back.
I see it more as carbon reduction than investment, so the risk is secondary, but what must it be for 15% in a developed country?
Office space for Facebook?

[Alternatepriorities]

As far as I can tell those real estate “deals” are just confusing leverage for genius. If you put down 5% of the value of a 4plex as an owner occupied place I can see where you might get 15% returns on your investment if nothing goes horribly wrong… but it’s leverage and things most certainly can go very wrong. Especially for as Lennstar put it “people who still need to work for money”. I was part of a local real estate group for a while and left when I realized the people who got paid commissions (loan brokers and RE agents) could not or would not see the difference between a good deal and a highly leveraged deal that was only good if nothing went wrong.

[Metalcat]

As far as I can tell those real estate “deals” are just confusing leverage for genius. If you put down 5% of the value of a 4plex as an owner occupied place I can see where you might get 15% returns on your investment if nothing goes horribly wrong… but it’s leverage and things most certainly can go very wrong. Especially for as Lennstar put it “people who still need to work for money”. I was part of a local real estate group for a while and left when I realized the people who got paid commissions (loan brokers and RE agents) could not or would not see the difference between a good deal and a highly leveraged deal that was only good if nothing went wrong.

Exactly, 15% on a leveraged real estate investment sounds pretty reasonable to me. I made 30% in cash flow alone on my duplex, plus another 200% in appreciation. But a key element of real estate investing, as you said, is that someone really needs to know the risks.

I was just looking at a property that would be over 100% return annually in cash flow alone, but after speaking to a rental manager in the area realized the "too good to be true" deal was indeed too good to be true, because the 4-plex was always being rented by industrial staff, and the local industry was likely to be relocated within the next few years, which would likely suffocate the village.

Small villages here get abandoned all the time, so I could be left with a literally worthless building.

But someone could very easily package that property up as part of a real estate investment proposal for clueless investors and make it look like a great prospect.

We've seen a few of these real estate investment companies fall apart in Canada after the feeding frenzy of them buying for cash every frickin' multi family they could get their hands on in working class regions.

I was bidding against them back when I was looking for a duplex. It was insane. But I was out there, boots on the ground, understanding how a single block could make a huge difference, where the homeless shelters and halfway houses were, how the position of the highway through the city divided things, etc, etc.

Which is why my lovely tenants are young families and not like the tenants a few blocks down who set fire to their unit.

Now that I have some real estate investing experience, I can't imagine being comfortable investing with one of these companies that just buys up rentals indiscriminately.

[Tempname23]

One thing I will never understand is waiting in a long drive through line for coffee for 15-20 minutes.  The line for the Dunkin near me spills out into the street some mornings.

Drive throughs, probably the most mysterious thing in the US for me. After the gun and religious nuts, that is.

 Last night, my wife and I went to a Sonic for a shakes, the car in front of us at the drive thru bought a bag of ice, at a Sonic! On a corner that had three gas stations to buy ice.
My wife said, "I guess they just didn't want to get out of their car and go into a store."
 On another note, a f'ing medium Oreo blast is $6.79, the large is $7.50. I would not have went, except my wife wanted their special the $2.99 strawberry shortcake snowball.

[PMG]

Sonic ice has a bit of a following. Good crunch. Definitely better in many drinks and for eating than gas station ice.

(Hi, yes. I did happen to have anemia through two pregnancies.)

[Sugaree]

Sonic ice has a bit of a following. Good crunch. Definitely better in many drinks and for eating than gas station ice.

(Hi, yes. I did happen to have anemia through two pregnancies.)

I had a countertop ice maker that made that ice.  It was the best thing ever.  For like a year until it quit working, which I found was not entirely uncommon for those machines.  I really, really want another one, but just can't justify paying $300-500 for it to only last a year.

[ChpBstrd]

Sonic ice has a bit of a following. Good crunch. Definitely better in many drinks and for eating than gas station ice.

(Hi, yes. I did happen to have anemia through two pregnancies.)

I had a countertop ice maker that made that ice.  It was the best thing ever.  For like a year until it quit working, which I found was not entirely uncommon for those machines.  I really, really want another one, but just can't justify paying $300-500 for it to only last a year.

I was once getting scuba certified and had excruciating tooth pain if I went below 6 feet deep. The dentist told me I had an air bubble under my tooth from crunching on ice, and to never, never, never crunch on ice again or Very Bad Things would occur. I took the advice, quit the habit, and the problem went away.

[Alternatepriorities]

Now that I have some real estate investing experience, I can't imagine being comfortable investing with one of these companies that just buys up rentals indiscriminately.

Yeah that doesn’t seem to have gone well for Zillow and single family homes either. From a strictly economic perspective, I’m really curious to see how the current housing snafu works itself out. It looks to me like we’re trying to inflate the price of everything else to catch up with asset prices rather than bring down asset prices… maybe housing prices will just float steady for a while as neither buyers nor sellers are particularly motivated?

DW and I are in an 80% solution house, a couple years ago I probably could have found a 100% solution for 40% more, but wasn’t willing to delay retirement for that last 20%… Now it would probably double our housing cost and that makes even less sense.

[Sugaree]

My MPP for today is that I'm finally getting around to updating my spreadsheet from using VLOOKUP to XLOOKUP (it's a slow day at work).  There are *so many* VLOOKUPS to replace.  I know my spreadsheet is a little on the extra side, but I'm starting to realize how ridiculous it actually is. 

[Valley of Plenty]

I haven't been paying much attention to the real estate market lately, but I am more than a bit curious what my $45,000 triplex is worth now.

Not quite curious enough to pay for an appraisal though. Plus I don't want to risk having my property taxes get quadrupled if it turns out the place is actually worth what I suspect it is.

Will be nice if once I hit FIRE I can just sell the triplex and move out of state into a nice SFH bought with cash from the triplex sale.

[Catbert]

I haven't been paying much attention to the real estate market lately, but I am more than a bit curious what my $45,000 triplex is worth now.

Not quite curious enough to pay for an appraisal though. Plus I don't want to risk having my property taxes get quadrupled if it turns out the place is actually worth what I suspect it is.

Will be nice if once I hit FIRE I can just sell the triplex and move out of state into a nice SFH bought with cash from the triplex sale.

Zillow, realtor.com and similar should give you a rough idea.  Maybe very rough.  Well, at least I assume they cover triplexes as well as SFH and condos.

[Valley of Plenty]

I haven't been paying much attention to the real estate market lately, but I am more than a bit curious what my $45,000 triplex is worth now.

Not quite curious enough to pay for an appraisal though. Plus I don't want to risk having my property taxes get quadrupled if it turns out the place is actually worth what I suspect it is.

Will be nice if once I hit FIRE I can just sell the triplex and move out of state into a nice SFH bought with cash from the triplex sale.

Zillow, realtor.com and similar should give you a rough idea.  Maybe very rough.  Well, at least I assume they cover triplexes as well as SFH and condos.

It's hard to find comps in my area. It's a fairly small town so not many homes for sale at any given time to begin with. When I bought the place the bank was only able to find two other triplexes that had sold in the previous 6 months to use for comps, and even those weren't really similar to my property in any way other than the fact that they were triplexes.

[Siebrie]

Husband has a company car (very common in Belgium) with a tank card valid for Belgium. The tank card expired in June, and it took the new card 2 weeks to arrive, on 1 July. Not nerve-wrackingly late, but something to keep an eye out for. And then it was the wrong card! It was for rest-of-Europe and cannot be used in Belgium.
It took us the whole week to figure out where the Belgian card was (at the Reception desk of his employer; husband is a Consultant who only ever visits his employer on the mandatory social event once a year - not in July). Husband is currently not in Europe, and won't return until 11 august, so I drove there yesterday to pick up the card; we didn't want to risk it taking 2 weeks to get to us by post.
So, last week, I made sure the company car was electrically loaded at all times (it's a BMW with 50km of electric driving when charged), took the e-bicycle or walked places. Thank goodness we picked a home within cycling distance of my job (14km).
Unintended benefit: apparently, we prepaid a European tank card 3 years ago, but it never seemed to work; the money is still on the card and I will use it next week, when visiting my Mum in the Netherlands.

[ChpBstrd]

Husband has a company car (very common in Belgium) with a tank card valid for Belgium. The tank card expired in June, and it took the new card 2 weeks to arrive, on 1 July. Not nerve-wrackingly late, but something to keep an eye out for. And then it was the wrong card! It was for rest-of-Europe and cannot be used in Belgium.
It took us the whole week to figure out where the Belgian card was (at the Reception desk of his employer; husband is a Consultant who only ever visits his employer on the mandatory social event once a year - not in July). Husband is currently not in Europe, and won't return until 11 august, so I drove there yesterday to pick up the card; we didn't want to risk it taking 2 weeks to get to us by post.
So, last week, I made sure the company car was electrically loaded at all times (it's a BMW with 50km of electric driving when charged), took the e-bicycle or walked places. Thank goodness we picked a home within cycling distance of my job (14km).
Unintended benefit: apparently, we prepaid a European tank card 3 years ago, but it never seemed to work; the money is still on the card and I will use it next week, when visiting my Mum in the Netherlands.

Is it common for people in Europe to use a company-owned car for personal trips? In the U.S. that's a fire-able offense (actually, a relative just got fired for this reason!). I'd be interested to know if company cars are "benefits" in Europe.

[pasadenafr]

Husband has a company car (very common in Belgium) with a tank card valid for Belgium. The tank card expired in June, and it took the new card 2 weeks to arrive, on 1 July. Not nerve-wrackingly late, but something to keep an eye out for. And then it was the wrong card! It was for rest-of-Europe and cannot be used in Belgium.
It took us the whole week to figure out where the Belgian card was (at the Reception desk of his employer; husband is a Consultant who only ever visits his employer on the mandatory social event once a year - not in July). Husband is currently not in Europe, and won't return until 11 august, so I drove there yesterday to pick up the card; we didn't want to risk it taking 2 weeks to get to us by post.
So, last week, I made sure the company car was electrically loaded at all times (it's a BMW with 50km of electric driving when charged), took the e-bicycle or walked places. Thank goodness we picked a home within cycling distance of my job (14km).
Unintended benefit: apparently, we prepaid a European tank card 3 years ago, but it never seemed to work; the money is still on the card and I will use it next week, when visiting my Mum in the Netherlands.

Is it common for people in Europe to use a company-owned car for personal trips? In the U.S. that's a fire-able offense (actually, a relative just got fired for this reason!). I'd be interested to know if company cars are "benefits" in Europe.

I don't know for Belgium, but in France there are two types of company-owned cars: those that are solely for work, usually given for people who drive to intervention sites and the like - they're mostly a way for the company to save money on miles, gas and stuff that would otherwise need to be reimbursed (not commuting). They sometimes don't have back seats to prevent personal use lol.

And those that are part of the employee's compensation. Usually given to higher-ups and consultants that often commute to customer's sites. The latter is considered a full benefit and can be used for personal use. During my last job back home, I had one of those and it was my only car. I did pay for my own gas, and I paid income taxes on it (paycheck deduction). The company paid for maintenance and insurance.

[LennStar]

Husband has a company car (very common in Belgium) with a tank card valid for Belgium. The tank card expired in June, and it took the new card 2 weeks to arrive, on 1 July. Not nerve-wrackingly late, but something to keep an eye out for. And then it was the wrong card! It was for rest-of-Europe and cannot be used in Belgium.
It took us the whole week to figure out where the Belgian card was (at the Reception desk of his employer; husband is a Consultant who only ever visits his employer on the mandatory social event once a year - not in July). Husband is currently not in Europe, and won't return until 11 august, so I drove there yesterday to pick up the card; we didn't want to risk it taking 2 weeks to get to us by post.
So, last week, I made sure the company car was electrically loaded at all times (it's a BMW with 50km of electric driving when charged), took the e-bicycle or walked places. Thank goodness we picked a home within cycling distance of my job (14km).
Unintended benefit: apparently, we prepaid a European tank card 3 years ago, but it never seemed to work; the money is still on the card and I will use it next week, when visiting my Mum in the Netherlands.

Is it common for people in Europe to use a company-owned car for personal trips? In the U.S. that's a fire-able offense (actually, a relative just got fired for this reason!). I'd be interested to know if company cars are "benefits" in Europe.

In Germany it's failry common benefit to get a company car that you can also use privately. The employee only has to account for 1% of the list price per month - basically it's cheaper than buying the same car yourself. It's one of the constant bickering points between "greens" and "conservatives".

A few years ago a similar scheme (with a roundabout to private companies that lease you the bike) was therefore implemented for bikes, but as you can imagine the economics of buying price scale not so good, especially with the 3rd party in between that also has no interest in offering you the cheapest bikes, like the 1000€ pedelacs from ALDI. The lowest level seems to be 1700€ for those companies. 
 

[Uturn]

Is it common for people in Europe to use a company-owned car for personal trips? In the U.S. that's a fire-able offense (actually, a relative just got fired for this reason!). I'd be interested to know if company cars are "benefits" in Europe.

I don't know if the US tax laws have changed, but back in the late 90's I had a company car, and could use it for personal use.  I just had to report the personal miles, and pay tax on that personal use.  I don't recall the tax rate.  I had coworkers who did not own a personal vehicle. 

[PhilB]

The UK is similar to France.  Work only cars that are tax free, or cars to more senior staff as a taxable benefit.  When I first qualified for the latter option, it would have cost me about Ł2k pa in extra tax to take the car, but they offered a Ł5k pa cash equivalent instead - on which you would still pay Ł2k in tax.  I was the only one to choose a third way - have the Ł5k paid into my pension instead and use the Ł2k pa of tax saved to run an older second hand car :)

Years ago my Dad was in a really weird position.  He was going to retire on a pension based on his final salary, and the value of the car was treated as part of that salary.  His car was 2.5 years old and wouldn't qualify to be replaced with a newer, more expensive one until after his retirement date - unless it exceeded a certain mileage.  He had a card for free fuel (not taxed in those days), so he spent all his weekends for about three months just aimlessly driving round the motorway system to be able to get the pension boost!

[dragoncar]

Is it common for people in Europe to use a company-owned car for personal trips? In the U.S. that's a fire-able offense (actually, a relative just got fired for this reason!). I'd be interested to know if company cars are "benefits" in Europe.

I don't know if the US tax laws have changed, but back in the late 90's I had a company car, and could use it for personal use.  I just had to report the personal miles, and pay tax on that personal use.  I don't recall the tax rate.  I had coworkers who did not own a personal vehicle.

It exists in the us (think Michael Scott) but my understanding is in other countries there are significant tax advantages and in the us you would probably just increase salary and the employee can buy their own car

Non monetary advantages exist in positions where you want the employee to project a certain image such as sales positions where the employee might be expected to drive clients somewhere.  You can’t really put it in the job description “must own a Mercedes” so of course you provide it and hey why not let them use it all the time vs trying to manage some kind of vehicle pool for client meetings

[BicycleB]

Is it common for people in Europe to use a company-owned car for personal trips? In the U.S. that's a fire-able offense (actually, a relative just got fired for this reason!). I'd be interested to know if company cars are "benefits" in Europe.

I don't know if the US tax laws have changed, but back in the late 90's I had a company car, and could use it for personal use.  I just had to report the personal miles, and pay tax on that personal use.  I don't recall the tax rate.  I had coworkers who did not own a personal vehicle.

It exists in the us (think Michael Scott) but my understanding is in other countries there are significant tax advantages and in the us you would probably just increase salary and the employee can buy their own car

Non monetary advantages exist in positions where you want the employee to project a certain image such as sales positions where the employee might be expected to drive clients somewhere.  You can’t really put it in the job description “must own a Mercedes” so of course you provide it and hey why not let them use it all the time vs trying to manage some kind of vehicle pool for client meetings

This is an excellent plan until the local dragon uses the Mercedes as dessert or something. (furrows brow, stares pointedly)

[dragoncar]

Common misconception.  We don’t eat the whole car.  Only the tailpipe.

[ATtiny85]

Hmmm, so not a fan of EV. Better find some other part to snack on. The next Cash for Clunkers might really put a dent.

[cleverscreenname]

as indicated by his avatar. Or maybe it's an actual photograph.

   I've always wondered what the kids will look like!



  You'll never look at the avatar the same.

Was there another way to look at that avatar?

I’ve always assumed a dragon is polishing the car’s finish in that photos… I might not ever look at it the same way now…

Dragoncar, don't let this cause you to change your avatar, I love it!

Hmmm, so not a fan of EV.

How shocking, right?

[ixtap]

I identified a thing I thought would make my life easier (a yoga mat sling). I had to go to three stores before I actually found one (and only one), which meant I used more gas than usual and didn't feel comfortable waiting until the beginning of August to reset the BoA card to a gas category...

Somehow, that bugs me more than the ongoing costs of the new yoga studio, which for the two of us represents a nearly 10% increase in our monthly base expenses!

[ixtap]

I just cancelled a credit card I haven't been using. The CSR commented that I had "quite a high limit." It was actually my second lowest limit of all my cards....

Looks like I have been fiddling with my credit cards a lot lately, given the previous post.

[ChpBstrd]

My credit card problem is quite a connundrum:

On a new card I get a $200 cash bonus if I can manage to spend $500 in 90 days. However, I have another card where I get 6% cash back on groceries and another where I get 3% cash back on gas. I keep using these cards on groceries and gas and telling myself I'll use the new card for other things, but I'm running out of time to spend the $500. Thus, I need to bite the bullet and endure the pain of passing up 6% cash back on groceries for a couple of weeks so that I don't miss out on the $200.

[midweststache]

RE: Credit Cards

We just recently paid off DH's student loans and decided to cancel the credit card affiliated with that. (Loan was through SOFI, we had a credit card through them that got double points on our childcare spending if we put it toward his student loan.) We were looking at a few flat cash back CCs, but ended up going with AMEX for the 6%/3% categories (I assume this is the card you recently got @ChpBstrd?), which is essentially 95% of our non-housing/childcare spending, and moving our childcare spending to an extant 1.5% flat cash back card.

We were approved for a credit limit of more than $25K. Like, what are we even going to EVER need that high of a limit for?

MPP: We now have a super-duper low credit utilization score, which was always the thing "bringing our credit score down" (800+), but we have a paid-off car and low mortgage rate, so we have nothing we need to have a credit check run for... :)

[LennStar]

Umm... excuse me,

A low credit score is a "bad" thing, right?
And you lower your score by having not much credit aka debt?

Shouldn't be "is in deep financial trouble" be the thing that lowers your score instead of "will have an easy time serving the credit"?

[midweststache]

Umm... excuse me,

A low credit score is a "bad" thing, right?
And you lower your score by having not much credit aka debt?

Shouldn't be "is in deep financial trouble" be the thing that lowers your score instead of "will have an easy time serving the credit"?

Yup! Low credit scores are not good; low credit utilization (how much of your available line of credit you use) IS good.

Our credit utilization score was always 10-15%, which 'brought our credit score down' (all our other factors for our credit score were excellent, and our credit score was still always super-high).

Now that our credit utilization score will be, like, 3% of our available credit, we'll have an even higher credit score - which doesn't matter now, because we need to buy a house or a car or anything.

Sorry if my post was confusing!

[dragoncar]

Umm... excuse me,

A low credit score is a "bad" thing, right?
And you lower your score by having not much credit aka debt?

Shouldn't be "is in deep financial trouble" be the thing that lowers your score instead of "will have an easy time serving the credit"?

I’m starting to hit this “problem” as my old loans have been falling off my credit report.  No car loan, no mortgage (in my name).  Just credit card history at this point

[Sibley]

My credit card problem is quite a connundrum:

On a new card I get a $200 cash bonus if I can manage to spend $500 in 90 days. However, I have another card where I get 6% cash back on groceries and another where I get 3% cash back on gas. I keep using these cards on groceries and gas and telling myself I'll use the new card for other things, but I'm running out of time to spend the $500. Thus, I need to bite the bullet and endure the pain of passing up 6% cash back on groceries for a couple of weeks so that I don't miss out on the $200.

Your problem is you're not doing the math.

6% of $500 is $30. You are FAR better off getting the $200. Put the other cards in the drawer until you've gotten the $200 bonus.

[Freedomin5]

Umm... excuse me,

A low credit score is a "bad" thing, right?
And you lower your score by having not much credit aka debt?

Shouldn't be "is in deep financial trouble" be the thing that lowers your score instead of "will have an easy time serving the credit"?

I’m starting to hit this “problem” as my old loans have been falling off my credit report.  No car loan, no mortgage (in my name).  Just credit card history at this point

We had this problem recently. We rarely use our credit card, we have no car loan (actually we don’t have a car), and we paid off our mortgage almost seven years ago. It wasn’t so much that we had bad credit as it was the fact that we had no credit history. Luckily, we qualified for our new mortgage for our second home/investment property, which should help build our credit. Next time, I won’t wait so long to buy our next property; we need to buy our next property before the current mortgage  falls off the credit report.

[Alfred J Quack]

My credit card problem is quite a connundrum:

On a new card I get a $200 cash bonus if I can manage to spend $500 in 90 days. However, I have another card where I get 6% cash back on groceries and another where I get 3% cash back on gas. I keep using these cards on groceries and gas and telling myself I'll use the new card for other things, but I'm running out of time to spend the $500. Thus, I need to bite the bullet and endure the pain of passing up 6% cash back on groceries for a couple of weeks so that I don't miss out on the $200.

Your problem is you're not doing the math.

6% of $500 is $30. You are FAR better off getting the $200. Put the other cards in the drawer until you've gotten the $200 bonus.

On the other hand, you do need to spend the $500 otherwise you'd miss out on both. Personally, I'm not very keen on spending just to get the $200.

[Tempname23]

Umm... excuse me,

A low credit score is a "bad" thing, right?
And you lower your score by having not much credit aka debt?

Shouldn't be "is in deep financial trouble" be the thing that lowers your score instead of "will have an easy time serving the credit"?

Yup! Low credit scores are not good; low credit utilization (how much of your available line of credit you use) IS good.

Our credit utilization score was always 10-15%, which 'brought our credit score down' (all our other factors for our credit score were excellent, and our credit score was still always super-high).

Now that our credit utilization score will be, like, 3% of our available credit, we'll have an even higher credit score - which doesn't matter now, because we need to buy a house or a car or anything.

Sorry if my post was confusing!

 I was once chastised, on one of the FIRE groups, for only having $11k limit on our main credit card, I've had the same $11k for over 30 years, never needed more or really even half that much. I also had my credit score at 800, until I open took $100k out on Heloc for 9 months. My score went to the mid 830s, then I made a short term loan to pay taxes, (rather then sell mutual funds) I repaid that in a couple months, today my score is 841. I'm not sure how utilization is calculated, but if it's on credit cards only, we run under 4%, if on total credit available, it's under 1/2%. When I retired 7 years ago, I thought I would never need to borrow money so didn't care about my credit. Then my kids needed short term financing for a fixer upper home and then I messed up my withdrawals and owed $35k more in taxes than I expected. So, I have used credit more than I expected.

[jinga nation]

.

[ChpBstrd]

My credit card problem is quite a connundrum:

On a new card I get a $200 cash bonus if I can manage to spend $500 in 90 days. However, I have another card where I get 6% cash back on groceries and another where I get 3% cash back on gas. I keep using these cards on groceries and gas and telling myself I'll use the new card for other things, but I'm running out of time to spend the $500. Thus, I need to bite the bullet and endure the pain of passing up 6% cash back on groceries for a couple of weeks so that I don't miss out on the $200.

Your problem is you're not doing the math.

6% of $500 is $30. You are FAR better off getting the $200. Put the other cards in the drawer until you've gotten the $200 bonus.

On the other hand, you do need to spend the $500 otherwise you'd miss out on both. Personally, I'm not very keen on spending just to get the $200.

Yea I'm certainly not spending another $500 on stuff I don't need because of this card. The conundrum is how I must either give up (500*0.06=) $30 in cash back on my Amex card to get the $200 bonus on the new card if I spend the $500 on groceries. Yes, the math works in favor of being 100% sure to earn that bonus. Problem is, I'm such a cheap bastard I don't want to miss out on the $30 either, so I'm trying to spend the $500 in categories that are not groceries, which is harder, but doable. I also have 3% cash back deals on gas, streaming/internet, restaurants, and a few other categories, plus a 5% cash back card on home improvement. I can't pay for my mortgage or utilities with a CC so that leaves very few spending categories where I'm not cannibalizing one of my other deals. I'm already earning the maximum available CC reward for almost all my spending, but must deviate from the plan in the most optimal way to be sure to receive that bonus.

This is the level above 1st world problems. Zeroeth world problem?

[Sibley]

My credit card problem is quite a connundrum:

On a new card I get a $200 cash bonus if I can manage to spend $500 in 90 days. However, I have another card where I get 6% cash back on groceries and another where I get 3% cash back on gas. I keep using these cards on groceries and gas and telling myself I'll use the new card for other things, but I'm running out of time to spend the $500. Thus, I need to bite the bullet and endure the pain of passing up 6% cash back on groceries for a couple of weeks so that I don't miss out on the $200.

Your problem is you're not doing the math.

6% of $500 is $30. You are FAR better off getting the $200. Put the other cards in the drawer until you've gotten the $200 bonus.

On the other hand, you do need to spend the $500 otherwise you'd miss out on both. Personally, I'm not very keen on spending just to get the $200.

Yea I'm certainly not spending another $500 on stuff I don't need because of this card. The conundrum is how I must either give up (500*0.06=) $30 in cash back on my Amex card to get the $200 bonus on the new card if I spend the $500 on groceries. Yes, the math works in favor of being 100% sure to earn that bonus. Problem is, I'm such a cheap bastard I don't want to miss out on the $30 either, so I'm trying to spend the $500 in categories that are not groceries, which is harder, but doable. I also have 3% cash back deals on gas, streaming/internet, restaurants, and a few other categories, plus a 5% cash back card on home improvement. I can't pay for my mortgage or utilities with a CC so that leaves very few spending categories where I'm not cannibalizing one of my other deals. I'm already earning the maximum available CC reward for almost all my spending, but must deviate from the plan in the most optimal way to be sure to receive that bonus.

This is the level above 1st world problems. Zeroeth world problem?

30 < 200 < 230

Get the most you can with regular spending. But if you only get $30 because you're stubborn, then you did that to yourself and you get no sympathy.

[Dollar Slice]

Yea I'm certainly not spending another $500 on stuff I don't need because of this card.

Buy gift cards to a store that you know you'll eventually use (Amazon, Walmart, Costco, pharmacy chain, etc.). Or buy gifts/gift cards for the holidays way in advance if you have some generic stuff you always buy for nieces/nephews/employees/etc. Or pay ahead on some services you use (like a year's subscription instead of paying month to month).

Or even find a friend who will give you cash for a (fill in the blank) gift card at a discount. You get $200, he gets 5% off his (whatever store) purchases. Maybe someone who's doing renovations and shopping at Home Depot, or about to buy a big TV at Best Buy or something.

[rantk81]

Make an early, partial property tax payment, or make an estimated income tax payment to the IRS or your state with the credit card.  These places will likely charge you a fee from 2-3%... but you'll come out way ahead anyway.

[Catbert]

Or see if your utility companies will take a credit card.  My gas and electric charges a small flat fee ($2.50?) regardless of how much you charge.  You can pay way ahead if you want. Water doesn't accept cards in any way.  Maybe you could pay ahead on utilities.

I sometimes buy gift cards to get credit card rewards, but only ones that can be immediately credited to an account (e.g., Amazon, Starbucks, Netflix).  I don't want to have active gc that can be drained by someone other than me.

[Dollar Slice]

Or see if your utility companies will take a credit card.  My gas and electric charges a small flat fee ($2.50?) regardless of how much you charge.  You can pay way ahead if you want.

When I was a freshman in college, my dad called up and asked if he could pay my room and board all four years in advance (I had a full tuition scholarship so there was nothing to pay there). It was for tax reasons, but they wouldn't let him do it, or couldn't. Mustachian people problems, for sure.

[Alfred J Quack]

Or see if your utility companies will take a credit card.  My gas and electric charges a small flat fee ($2.50?) regardless of how much you charge.  You can pay way ahead if you want.

When I was a freshman in college, my dad called up and asked if he could pay my room and board all four years in advance (I had a full tuition scholarship so there was nothing to pay there). It was for tax reasons, but they wouldn't let him do it, or couldn't. Mustachian people problems, for sure.

I'd expect that they can't account for future changes in pricing. On the other hand, institutions aren't known to be flexible...

So, I use a brand of shampoo which is anti-dandruff and not too expensive. It's hard to come by and the only local shop which had it at a reasonable price went out of business. So, my supply ran out and I googled. Found a webshop which sells smaller bottles for €1,- each (still cheaper than the shop) so I wanted to buy 10.
As I got to the checkout page, I noted €6,75 shipping. Damn, now it's more expensive than the shop. So I poked around a bit and appearently you can get free shipping on orders over €35,-. Since they didn't have anything else I needed, I'm now stuck with 35 bottles of shampoo :D

To get back to this point, I still have about 3 bottles left. Looking around a bit there's a 2 for 1 discount but they've limited the amount of bottles so I can't get free shipping. It's free to pick up at a local store though so that's OK too :D

Looking at the total price per bottle it's only a couple of cents more per bottle, not bad for a 4 year gap :) 

[LennStar]

I feel you!
I have the same shampoo problem (I tested 10 different brands, that was by far the best for me), only one chain (LIDL) has it and the next store is 20km away and I have no other reason to go there. Not to mention that half of the time they don't have it in stock.

So I told my mother (who has 2 of those stores in her town) that every time she visits, she has to bring some.

[TomTX]

My credit card problem is quite a connundrum:

On a new card I get a $200 cash bonus if I can manage to spend $500 in 90 days. However, I have another card where I get 6% cash back on groceries and another where I get 3% cash back on gas. I keep using these cards on groceries and gas and telling myself I'll use the new card for other things, but I'm running out of time to spend the $500. Thus, I need to bite the bullet and endure the pain of passing up 6% cash back on groceries for a couple of weeks so that I don't miss out on the $200.

Prepay a utility.

[ixtap]

DH's manager and director are both leaving: he doesn't know who to volunteer to for the upcoming layoffs.

[oneday]

This is something mostly only mustachians can relate to for sure. Posted briefly in someone's journal, but the full tale is below for your momentary diversion:

I wanted to open a CD at a new credit union for the high rate. I had $X in a savings account that had been churned for the bonus, but was waiting for the time to pass so there was no account closing fee and the bonus wouldn't get yoinked back.

The CU requires a $5 minimum balance at all times in the savings account (this is common) and I was prepared for that, so sent a paper check in the postal mail* for $5. Later, when the new account was opened and the old account could be closed, I would EFT the $X and open the CD.

Well, the check finally arrived at the CU two weeks later and they put a hold on it, as is common for new accounts. At this place, the hold time is 9 business days. Before the check arrived, and during the 9 days, I'd executed numerous transfers** from the bank the check was written on for $500 (transfer limit), adding up to waaaaay more than the check amount. And still there was a hold. On the 8th day, finally all the funds were in the new bank, but! There was still a hold on the check for $5.00. There was also a different kind of hold on another $5.00, because the minimum balance has to be met with "cleared" funds.

So my total balance was $X+5, but the available balance was $X-5. Dammed*** if I'm going to open a CD for $x,995. So I called* and they released the hold (a whole day early, lol). And lo, the CD was finally opened. There was much rejoicing. Huzzah!




*so old fashioned!
**to avoid wire transfer fee
***yeah, I'm a bit stubborn

[getsorted]

@oneday MPP for sure! But hooray for your success!

[oneday]

Hooray! That was the work of my inner bulldog. He was *not* going to let me lose the higher rate (this all happened just before 7/31; rates *could* have changed), pay any fees, or open the CD for an odd dollar amount. Sometimes he is exhausting.

[zolotiyeruki]

My MPP: I have a teenage kid who wants to contribute to the 401k at his work, in order to get the match. Unfortunately, he can't, because the plan excludes people under 21, since they tend to not be long term employees

[mspym]

My MPP: I have a teenage kid who wants to contribute to the 401k at his work, in order to get the match. Unfortunately, he can't, because the plan excludes people under 21, since they tend to not be long term employees

We have a related one: we've been investing on behalf of the kids for the last 10 years because you have to be 18+ to invest in your own name here. We are moving overseas and had to settle up our holdings here. So of course the one who can open their own account has not much drive to do it and the one who can't yet is the one who really wants to.