[username]

(04-23-2016 04:11 PM)churros Wrote:  

Hang on – you are blaming this on ancient history and Shakespeare? Please.

He didn't blame anything on Shakespeare. What he was saying is that any subject imaginable is taught in schools and colleges except for basic financial literacy.

Most people do not understand really basic stuff like loans, interest rates, loan principal, etc. Yet these same people are making often life long decisions about these things without any knowledge!

[The Black Knight]

(04-23-2016 04:11 PM)churros Wrote:  

(04-23-2016 03:52 PM)The Black Knight Wrote:  

2. Basic spending self-discipline/money understanding is non-existent in the US. The sense of entitlement is rampant and no one can do basic financial analysis anymore. For as important as money is, the fact that many high schools offer no basic personal finance course is pathetic. I can waste 4 years learning about ancient history, Shakespeare, and high level math that has no practical application but there isn't universal agreement to have at least a mandatory semester course on money? So stupid.

Hang on – you are blaming this on ancient history and Shakespeare? Please. Since I moved the US, I get credit card offers in the mail every other day. The whole financial system is geared towards debt and credit, and eradicating the last remnants of culture will not change that one bit.

I suppose they don't offer Reading Comprehension courses in your country of origin. My sympathies. You should look into Hooked on Phonics.

[RatInTheWoods]

Always have a years costs in the bank.

I call it my "fuck off fund".

If you don't like a job, or you have some unforeseen drama, you have a year to get back on your feet.

[Macumazahn]

On the subject of credit cards and looking after your funds.

I agree credit cards can be an emergency fall back but I have one because of the additional guarantees some of your transactions get under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act.

This only applies in the UK, I don't know how other countries handle it.

[Samseau]

Quote:

Because I made too much money for the girls to get more than meager scholarships, but too little money to afford to pay for their educations in full, and because—another choice—we believed they had earned the right to attend good universities, universities of their choice, we found ourselves in a financial vortex. (I am not saying that universities are extortionists, but … universities are extortionists. One daughter’s college told me that because I could pay my mortgage, I could afford her tuition.) In the end, my parents wound up covering most of the cost of the girls’ educations. We couldn’t have done it any other way. Although I don’t have any regrets about that choice—one daughter went to Stanford, was a Rhodes Scholar, and is now at Harvard Medical School; the other went to Emory, joined WorldTeach and then AmeriCorps, got a master’s degree from the University of Texas, and became a licensed clinical social worker specializing in traumatized children—paying that tariff meant there would be no inheritance when my parents passed on. It meant that we had depleted not only our own small savings, but my parents’ as well.

2 generations of savings so your girl could go to college, get fucked by 20 guys, then help children?

[trainwreck]

I sometimes wonder how people on the red pill can hate on the "elites" so much, instead of how figuring out how to become part of it.

Banging girls requires the exact same skills that salesmanship requires: Knowing your client, striking the right emotional points, good timing. So many people could use these skills to become great salesmen or just great company owners, yet many just choose to complain about it.

Exact the same thing as complaining about this one guy who always gets laid, instead of becoming the guy who always gets laid. If you don't like the fact that America is probably the most capitalist country around, then GTFO to North Korea or how about you head to Feminazi capital Scandinavia where everyone is happy and milk and honey flows?

Get your own "Fuck you fund" going. By the time you're 25 you should have at least 1 years worth of salary in your savings account.

[churros]

(04-24-2016 02:36 AM)username Wrote:  

(04-23-2016 04:11 PM)churros Wrote:  

Hang on – you are blaming this on ancient history and Shakespeare? Please.

He didn't blame anything on Shakespeare. What he was saying is that any subject imaginable is taught in schools and colleges except for basic financial literacy.

Most people do not understand really basic stuff like loans, interest rates, loan principal, etc. Yet these same people are making often life long decisions about these things without any knowledge!

I'm happy to grant I mischaracterised the original point. The abuse above is unwarranted.

Finance classes are moot. Even without such classes, personal debt hardly compares in the EU. Why? Credit is not so easy to access. Loans are not commonplace for education etc. So either you can blame the poor and uneducated, or the credit card companies who exploit them. You might have an ideological preference, but ultimately it's just easier to regulate credit cards than to transform the educational system.

[JacksonRev]

(04-24-2016 09:04 AM)trainwreck Wrote:  

I sometimes wonder how people on the red pill can hate on the "elites" so much, instead of how figuring out how to become part of it.

Banging girls requires the exact same skills that salesmanship requires: Knowing your client, striking the right emotional points, good timing. So many people could use these skills to become great salesmen or just great company owners, yet many just choose to complain about it.

Exact the same thing as complaining about this one guy who always gets laid, instead of becoming the guy who always gets laid. If you don't like the fact that America is probably the most capitalist country around, then GTFO to North Korea or how about you head to Feminazi capital Scandinavia where everyone is happy and milk and honey flows?

Get your own "Fuck you fund" going. By the time you're 25 you should have at least 1 years worth of salary in your savings account.

Some people were born with empathy.

[General Stalin]

People talking about how they don't teach financial responsibility in schools. Why should they?

Schools don't teach you how to shop for a car, negotiate a mortgage, pick up girls, etc. That's life shit your parents, friends, and plain old life-experience teaches you. Schools teach you about history, science, and how to read, write, and do math. Money management isn't part of academia. It never has been, but somehow people got by perfectly fine in previous generations.

As I said in my first post, the problem is our culture of rampant spending. It's not economic disparity. It's not poor financial education. It's that people just buy all kinds of shit all the time. We live in a culture of high consumerism where everyone is obsessed with material shit and spending exorbitant amounts of money on a lot of unnecessary things.

[trainwreck]

(04-24-2016 09:34 AM)JacksonRev Wrote:  

(04-24-2016 09:04 AM)trainwreck Wrote:  

I sometimes wonder how people on the red pill can hate on the "elites" so much, instead of how figuring out how to become part of it.

Banging girls requires the exact same skills that salesmanship requires: Knowing your client, striking the right emotional points, good timing. So many people could use these skills to become great salesmen or just great company owners, yet many just choose to complain about it.

Exact the same thing as complaining about this one guy who always gets laid, instead of becoming the guy who always gets laid. If you don't like the fact that America is probably the most capitalist country around, then GTFO to North Korea or how about you head to Feminazi capital Scandinavia where everyone is happy and milk and honey flows?

Get your own "Fuck you fund" going. By the time you're 25 you should have at least 1 years worth of salary in your savings account.

Some people were born with empathy.

Some people don't blame the government for their own shortcomings.

Even homeless guys do decently financially. Funny thing is they are financially probably better off than people working minimum wage, because they know how to hustle and won't live above their means, which is 95% of the problem of Americans.

Get a raise? Get an expensive car. Get anothe raise? Get a more expensive house. Get another raise? Let's propose to the about to blow up wifey.

How about you just get a raise and.... save?

O yeah, nobody thinks about that.

[samsamsam]

(04-24-2016 09:32 AM)churros Wrote:  

(04-24-2016 02:36 AM)username Wrote:  

(04-23-2016 04:11 PM)churros Wrote:  

Hang on – you are blaming this on ancient history and Shakespeare? Please.

He didn't blame anything on Shakespeare. What he was saying is that any subject imaginable is taught in schools and colleges except for basic financial literacy.

Most people do not understand really basic stuff like loans, interest rates, loan principal, etc. Yet these same people are making often life long decisions about these things without any knowledge!

The abuse above is unwarranted.

A piece of unsolicited advice. You probably shouldn't have made this comment. All it does is open you for more jokes/comments. username didn't say anything that was particularly offensive. Have you seen some of the other threads on this forum?

Teasing and joking is part of what we do here. In some cases, yes, people are particularly aggressive. For some being behind a keyboard, there is less reason for restraint.

You can't be too sensitive on this board. Do you know how many times I have cried over being made fun of by boxing cats? A lot, almost every night. thread-45455...pid1224010

Edit: Sometimes, you don't swing at the pitch. It is a bad ball, or it will make you look funny when you miss. I am not saying I am some example to follow, if anything avoid asking stupid questions about wannabe street fighting, but there are times, when I too have had to let my better angels guide me in not getting into something on this forum. The beauty of being on the internet is you don't have to respond as soon as you see something. You can wait and think about it.

[GoldHawkStar]

The reality is that there's two factors that make up the problem.

On one hand, the cost of living in America has gone up, the 1% are getting more wealthy, and and the average American is getting less wealthy.

On the other hand, our evolving culture is leading people to feel entitled to things they can't afford, living the opposite of a minimalist lifestyle, and overall making shitty financial decisions that end up fucking them over.

People need to learn good saving habits early on in their life. I have literally been saving money since I was in Kindergarten getting fifty cents allowance a week, and it's just stuck with me throughout my life. It's like a hobby for me at this point ("collecting money", if you will), and now I now have thousands saved up being only twenty. Unlike my brother who has had the same financial handouts as me throughout his life and has always lived paycheck to paycheck. He always thinks short-term; He spends rather than saves (like most Americans), and he faces the consequences.

Lucky for him, our parents are generous. He has to borrow money constantly from them (being almost 24). If anything out of the ordinary happens like having to lay down $100 for a car repair, he has to call up mommy and daddy for help. The money he borrows helps to pay off these payments, sure, but in all reality it just enables him to live his irresponsible lifestyle.

It actually got to the point where he couldn't pay off his last loan from them, so they're making him come over on the weekends now to help around the house to pay it off. Sad.

It all comes down to responsibility, really.

Tl;dr From a macro point of view, the financial system of America is crooked, but from a micro point of view that's just an excuse. Almost everyone has the power to thrive nonetheless.

[mogsy]

Having a years salary in the bank is definitely a good idea to aim for if you want to have some options and freedom if needed. For most normal people imp it isn't such an easy accomplishment especially with the cost of living and if you want to have your own place and live a busy social life as it can be hard to save.

It's ideal not to be a debt slave but it's far too easy to get credit in the UK and it can be too easy to spend it thinking it's free money or can be paid back at a later date.

[Ensam]

I think having a years worth of salary sitting in a checking account is silly. I keep about a months worth of expenses (~5k) on hand to cover anything that might come up. Everything else goes into the Roth IRA (the principal can be tapped at anytime), then my employers retirement 40x(x) (which I can borrow against at reasonable rates - and I pay the interest back to myself), and finally my external investment accounts. If I have known expenses on the 6 - 12 month horizon I'll use money markets or CDs depending on the predictability/interest rates available.

It's all about hedging risk. It's very difficult for me to imagine a scenario where I'd need more than a few hundred dollars in cash within less than a business day. The only thing I can think of is bailing myself or a friend out of jail (false accusations happen and they're most likely to be of the domestic dispute nature - which means you're probably getting arrested). I can tap my credit card cash advances if I need to do that and then pay them off within 2-3 business days from my less liquid accounts. All the other emergencies I'm likely to face have longer time horizons. If I suddenly need new housing I have enough in my checking account to put down first and last months rent. Car repairs can be put on a credit card and paid off within the grace period of the card. Medical bills can be paid off over longer periods of time and I have an HSA to cover those kinds of expenses. If I'm unemployed for a significant period of time I can slowly unwind my investments as needed without doing too much damage.

[Kona]

The people that say they can't find the $400 probably responded to the survey using their iPhone 6's.

Aloha!

[el mechanico]

This thread is great but a similar thread could be greater.

"What people will do to get 500 in case of an emergency"

[Hannibal]

(04-23-2016 12:42 PM)JacksonRev Wrote:  

Forum Results: 6% Difficult, 94% Not Difficult

This forum is decidedly better than average.

If women make 85% of consumer purchases, then that means they spend almost 6 times as much.

Since men make more money because we work more hours at harder jobs and we spend less, it stands to reason that most of us will have $400 kicking around if you get car trouble and it needs to get fixed now.

This is also a forum where (hopefully) none of the members have parasitic girlfriends who spend all their money, so I'm not surprised by the results.

[Veloce]

$400 is a nice night out for me. For a genuine emergency I wouldn't flinch at dropping $10k. I don't make a lot either. I'm firmly middle class.

One major factor here I think is the fact that so many people live in cities now and spend a disproportionate amount on rent. Starting about 5 years ago I learned how to budget and refused to pay more than 33% of my take home on rent. If that meant I lived in a tiny studio in L.A. then so be it.

I've got friends that still live there, paying $2600 to rent a perfectly average condo. 2600! That's insane to me.

In Vegas my mortgage payment is about 25% of my take home but in L.A. it would easily be 3x that much for this place. I don't have a TV or cable, I opt for cheap internet, I eat 90% of my meals at work (one of the perks of this industry), so I'm able to sock away a good amount on top of making extra payments against the principal on my house.

I agree about the concentration of wealth in this country but if you can't even put together $400 for an emergency then there's something wrong with you. Either learn to hustle, work harder, or spend way less.

[Chevalier De Seingalt]

(04-24-2016 09:04 AM)trainwreck Wrote:  

I sometimes wonder how people on the red pill can hate on the "elites" so much, instead of how figuring out how to become part of it.

It is possible to want to be, and to work hard towards being, as successful and wealthy as possible, while still recognizing that in the long run living in a society which is dominated by an independent middle class is far superior to living in a society where the slave/owner dynamic predominates. We as a country have been moving closer and closer to that slavery-style economy which in world history is the rule rather than the exception. The fact that half the people in this country apparently would have difficulty coming up with $400 is another symptom of that movement.

[tanner]

Capitalism was never about elitism or monopolies. I believe it was more about encouraging competition between medium and small local businesses.

Monopolies are the biggest socialists around. They get bailed by govt money if needed and they cooperate with other monopolies to set price levels.

Elites often get their wealth by inheritance or some illegal means.

Notice the shame tactics used to silence the middle class --even on this thread.

trainwreck Wrote:

"I sometimes wonder how people on the red pill can hate on the "elites" so much, instead of how figuring out how to become part of it."

Not everyone wants to part of the elite. A healthy middle class is the engine that runs the ship. Destroy the middle class -- like what is presently occurring, and the ship sinks. Everyone goes down.

[samsamsam]

Dupe. Hate that.

[samsamsam]

(04-25-2016 09:10 AM)samsamsam Wrote:  

It isn't a secret, well maybe to most it is, that enslavement through debt is a real thing. Look at how countries control other countries through debt. Rather than military wars/conflicts they are financial.

Of course, a healthy middle class is important to the balance of a society. But for all the redpill attitudes on this forum, no one ever gripe about shit like citizen United or other BS the wealthy pull off to increase their influence.

In theory, capitalism forces compeition at all levels and is supposed to deliver the best products at the best price. Or products people want and are willing to pay for. But mergers and such have taken competitive pricing out of some markets. Such as airlines and banking. The average consumer doesn't know or care because, most people are idiots and easily amused by nonsense. You can't make everyone smart, even with free college. You can't force someone to be intellectually curious.

Shame tactics? Because we are having a discussion? Why don't you just defend your points rather than pulling victim SJW language? The one thing on this forum we don't do is encourage men to feel like victims. It saps reponsibility. And being a responsible human being is one of the driving forces to being successful in life.

[trainwreck]

(04-25-2016 06:48 AM)tanner Wrote:  

Capitalism was never about elitism or monopolies. I believe it was more about encouraging competition between medium and small local businesses.

Monopolies are the biggest socialists around. They get bailed by govt money if needed and they cooperate with other monopolies to set price levels.

Elites often get their wealth by inheritance or some illegal means.

Notice the shame tactics used to silence the middle class --even on this thread.

trainwreck Wrote:

"I sometimes wonder how people on the red pill can hate on the "elites" so much, instead of how figuring out how to become part of it."

Not everyone wants to part of the elite. A healthy middle class is the engine that runs the ship. Destroy the middle class -- like what is presently occurring, and the ship sinks. Everyone goes down.

The simple fact of there being an elite doesn't take away from a strong middle class either. That's why they're called the Elite. It's because its just a few inbetween. And there will always be a need for the few inbetween who lead the country in whatever policies it needs.

[TheBulldozer]

Some of the commentary on spending and education has been absolutely top notch. Well done.

I would firmly agree that we are primed for disruption of the higher education field. It almost makes too much sense not to. The internet has created the opportunity to bypass the 'brick and mortar' gateways needed for knowledge and network.

What you'll see in the coming years is a strong pivot on global recruitment of students. I think you'll see an increasing minority of students from the West in Western universities. Demand is already great and is increasing as Asia's middle class develops. Even a generation ago, Western study was limited to a small percentage of Eastern families. Universities will move to accept even more of these students because they know they'll get the full sticker price from these students every time.

[tanner]

Quote:

The simple fact of there being an elite doesn't take away from a strong middle class either. That's why they're called the Elite. It's because its just a few inbetween. And there will always be a need for the few inbetween who lead the country in whatever policies it needs.

There are two kinds of elite. Genuine and pseudo. The genuine are a tiny minority and they achieve their status by genuine talent and effort.

Prince for example could be considered an example. Perhaps that is why there is such a big outpouring for his death.

The pseudo elite achieve their status by often means that were not genuine and even unethical.

In the US, the pseudo elite far outnumber the genuine. They bring little value and as a result the middle class declines.