Good Natured Advice Thread (improving a business wardrobe)

[in stitches]



Yup. It's just a different world in the Far East. They look at debt differently. 
Anyhow, there's no way I am going to pay off a mortgage, especially when I pay only 3.25%!!! B!tches!
Naw, I don't want his money. But now that I think of it, his mother left him a fortune and now he's rich...wtf?!

Well, you are in AMURIKA!! Paying off your house would be absurd.


I want everyones money.

 

[Murlsquirl]

My credit card should have the NMWA logo on it....it's the only thing it's used for. I'm going to pay off my house too.......in 27 years!

 

[The Noodles]

I am just gonna keep using the equity on the house!
Shoot, I'll be dead in 30 years LOL!!!

EDIT: Cr@P - I will be only 62! Add 30 more! I want to live until I am 92!

 

[in stitches]



My credit card should have the NMWA logo on it....it's the only thing it's used for. I'm going to pay off my house too.......in 27 years!

I have no idea when I will pay off my house. Ill probs refi when I need cash to marry of kids, G-d willing.

 

[Murlsquirl]

My kids can pay for their wedding and earn their own education like I had too. Life's tough.

 

[Claghorn]

Debt is only good if you have investments that return more than the debt's interest rate (or the tax write offs balance the interest). I hate debt. Paid off 60k in student loans (and that's with half of it paid by scholarship) in a little under 3 years. I'll do debt month to month(because yay credit card points), but I won't run a balance. Car was paid cash. We'll probably be moving around a bit for the next decade, so by the time we're ready to settle down, we're buying my parents' house (a combination of cash and interest free debt to my parents). The only debt my parents ever carried was their mortgage.

I think had it not been for my student loan debt (plus upbringing), I wouldn't have such a negative view of debt. I can see feeling alright owing money on a car loan and thinking "alright, but I have this," something physical to show for the debt, and feeling ok about it. The same with a house. But my first experience heavily colored how I viewed it. Large chunks of my income were going towards paying off more intangible than a house or car.

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Noodles, it's awesome your in-laws are going the Buffet route. I think it would be good if they opened up a college fund for their grandkids first. I grate my teeth every time I hear people refer to their parents' money as "my inheritance." Mine have been taking yearly trips to Europe for years and when they retire, they'll be doing it 2-3 times a year. They also spend a lot on furniture and art (which is sweet, because they just give what they get tired of to my sister and I...it's how I ended up with a small 6k couch and some neat lamps). It's their money and I want them to enjoy it.

 

[Monkeyface]

At the moment debt is very good. If you want to buy a house, get a mortgage now, and do it fast, because money is virtually free. This is literally an unprecedented situation. As soon as interest rates start rising, mortgages rates will start rising as well. At the moment, the market is pricing the first Fed rate hike to be around October-November 2015, with hikes of about 25bps every other month. I wouldn't be surprised if the Fed starts a couple of months earlier though.

Anyway, don't get me start started on the state of the economy/financial markets. I have quickly found out that the way it works in theory is not how it works in reality. The US and the UK are in a slightly better state than the EU, Japan and China, but don't think it won't affect the US or UK when it all goes to **** everywhere else.

There's very much a sense among the major market players that we're living on borrowed time here, and barring any major structural reforms, **** will hit the fan again, and probably much worse than 2008. If only the politicians/general public would realise this.

 

[in stitches]



My kids can pay for their wedding and earn their own education like I had too. Life's tough.

This is not an option for me. teh jews pay for their kids weddings. Education, we will see how much cheddar I have.

Debt is only good....

I disagree with so much of this, man I wish I had time to elaborate.

 

[EFV]



... If only the politicians/general public would realise this.

Politicians don't have much to gain from instilling fear of financial collapse into the public, but I don't think any minister of finance is unaware of this. The general public is still too groggy from the last recess to even want to acknowledge it could get worse.

 

[Claghorn]



This is not an option for me. teh jews pay for their kids weddings. Education, we will see how much cheddar I have.
I disagree with so much of this, man I wish I had time to elaborate.

I see debt good for the following:
- buying a house
- financing an investment (education, new business, even real estate)
- when a large purchase would prevent a person from being able to cover expenses in case of an emergency (better a car loan than credit card debt to pay for an emergency room visit)

and unless cash is going toward some investment which pays a higher return than the interest, I can't imagine wanting to hold on to it. In the months after I graduated, my debt weighed on me like an obese Italian sitting on my chest.

I'd say that's my time in East Asia talking, but I think my upbringing had lots to do with it.

 

[Monkeyface]

This is not an option for me. teh jews pay for their kids weddings. Education, we will see how much cheddar I have.
I disagree with so much of this, man I wish I had time to elaborate.

Agreed, if I'm fortunate enough to have kids and the funds to pay for their education, I would certainly do it. I'd give up a lot of things, holidays, nice suits, whatever, in order to make sure they can go to any school they want to.

Of course, the costs of education in the US are insane, but that's what you get when the government lends as much money as necessary to students. It becomes a vicious cycle of the schools raising their tuition and students having to borrow a little more every single year, because there's no one who says no to them.

In most European countries it's very hard to borrow as much as you want as a student, which keeps the tuition costs in check. If I had wanted to borrow $40k/year, the government would have said no, that's not going to happen, which means universities can't raise their tuition. And the higher tuition costs really don't make for better education. I've studied at the top university in my own country ($2k/year), at a top 3 university in the UK ($10k/year), and a top 3 university in the US ($45k/year), and there's virtually no difference.

I read there's people in the US who are paying off student debt well into their retirement, which is a very sad situation if you ask me. Anyway, enough finance for now.

Politicians don't have much to gain from instilling fear of financial collapse into the public, but I don't think any minister of finance is unaware of this. The general public is still too groggy from the last recess to even want to acknowledge it could get worse.

Agreed, they're certainly aware of it, but they're not going to do anything about it. Improving the economy would mean major reforms would have to be made to the labour market, pensions, benefits, and of course the government itself. This would hurt badly, very badly. Everyone would be affected negatively for at least the next decade, if not longer, but in the end we'd be ok. Of course, this means that anyone who suggests this would instantly lose all of his voters.

The current solution: let's print as much money as we like, buy assets, and artificially prop up the economy. This is not something that can last forever, and when it ends, it'll end very badly. It's only directed at the symptoms, but not at the core of the problem. The ECB started with buying sovereign bonds, has just started buying asset backed securities and covered bonds, and might start buying corporate bonds next. The current joke going around is that they'll start buying second hand cars next.

 

[TM79]

Student loan debt is almost assuredly the next bubble to pop. We'll see some private colleges who put all their eggs in one basket go out of business if and when this all goes down.

I'm happy to say I have exactly $100 in credit card debt and my only other debt is a car payment that's very manageable. Took a bit to get there but I did and have no intentions of going backwards. I buy all my clothes in cash so if i can't do that, I don't buy it.

Re: Running purchases by SO's ... my own opinion is that it's pretty disrespectful not to unless both people have agreed well ahead of time that it doesn't need to be done. I don't need a permission slip but I'm also not going to either get packages delivered behind her back or have boxes showing up at the house and let her find out that way that I've been spending. Just doesn't seem right to me.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

There's very much a sense among the major market players that we're living on borrowed time here, and barring any major structural reforms, **** will hit the fan again, and probably much worse than 2008. If only the politicians/general public would realise this.

Yup. That's what most of the academic political economists I know think too.

BTW, not to rub it in too much, but house prices are so low around where I live in Canada that we paid off our mortage in five years. Mind you we have a little old one and half storey place with an acre of land on an island. And when I say an island, it's not exactly Manhattan...

 

[EFV]



...
Of course, this means that anyone who suggests this would instantly lose all of his voters...

QFT

Yup. That's what most of the academic political economists I know think too.

BTW, not to rub it in too much, but house prices are so low around where I live in Canada that we paid off our mortage in five years. Mind you we have a little old one and half storey place with an acre of land on an island. And when I say an island, it's not exactly Manhattan...

If we sold our apartment now and moved back to the north of Sweden, where I'm originally from, we could do this as well. They actually sell mansions there at the same price as 2 room apartments in Stockholm. The down side of this is that you'd have to live in a place where almost everyone's moved away and where it's freezing cold and pitch dark almost year round (except for in the summer time when the sun never sets).

 

[FlyingMonkey]

QFT
If we sold our apartment now and moved back to the north of Sweden, where I'm originally from, we could do this as well. They actually sell mansions there at the same price as 2 room apartments in Stockholm. The down side of this is that you'd have to live in a place where almost everyone's moved away and where it's freezing cold and pitch dark almost year round (except for in the summer time when the sun never sets).

It's not quite as dark or as bleak here - and by Canadian standards, fairly warm and populated (there is no further south to go without being in the USA!).