When I was a student I kept my books beside my bed on the floor. Got hammered one night, went to bed, felt sick and ended up being sick on all of my books on the floor. Probably about £500 worth of books which is a lot when you’re a broke ass student.
As an IT-worker, it’s not uncommon to test technology and scrap it due to bad results or unfit implementation. Usually this isn’t considered a waste, since there are a lot of things to learn in the process.
However, this one system which was designed for testing applications was a bit different. From the day we were told about it, basically every developer knew that this would be unfit. However the customers were firm on that it should be implemented. I’m not sure if it was because of the looks of the sales person or if it was a genuine incompetense that the decission was landed, but I felt a bit too junior to stand up against it. So about a month of work with 2 developers went down on something that every other developer knew would be scrapped. 2 devs at ~$100/hour, 4 weeks of 40 hours, so roughly $32,000.
The lesson was that I need to be more direct and firm when things like that is decided.
Not to buy a game’s merchandise from the other side of the world (shipping price was around the same price if not more expensive than the product itself)
All my friends know: The moment I get a zombie apocalypse or similar confirmed, I’m ransacking and then burning down the customs building. They’re criminals and I want them to die first with the fall of society
I was in vacation in Japan. We ended our trip in Tokyo because my partner and I are into gaming and I knew we’d buy stuff. One thing we bought was bigger and a bit of a hassle to pack. I wondered how much it would have been if I had bought it online and shipped it. Turns out I lot of the newer stuff we bought we could have bought from Amazon Japan and shipped directly home for a reasonable rate (probably less than the cost of the overpriced duffle bag we bought).
Personally I disagree. They come with their own set of problems and admittedly probably require specific character traits on both sides, but they can be worth as much as any other relationship!
It really depends. I did long distance for years during college and we got a place together after college and have been happily together for a very long time now.
After having 3500 dollars worth of stuff stolen by my shit landlord. I went to court. Again And again And again And again.
Not accounting for my time, gas, parking, I spent over 5000.amd even after I “won” I still wound up goj back to court several times because this scum sucking asshole claims to be 100000 in debt to the government.
I hate the legal system more then I hate the guy who stole from me!
College only makes sense economically if you have a plan.
If you’re a naive, idealistic, scatterbrained, autistic, traumatized, brainiac redneck raised into terrible character by a spineless single parent who drove off the good one, like I was, then your best bet after high school is some entry level job, heath insurance, and therapy for a few years.
I was like “sweet! big journey!” and the kids from healthier backgrounds and I got along fine, and they got their shit done and I mostly tore my hair out and cried and took super long walks and experimented with drugs. I had been led to believe that the journey through life was like driving through a country. I didn’t realize that traveling in this journey meant transforming the self. I had no conception of self transformation as an aspect of life, of directed growth, of evolving consciously. All I had was this feeling that life was like a river and I was kayaking down it seeing new stuff.
I don’t really know how to say what the lesson was. It was the most expensive lesson I ever learned, because not only did it cost me a huge amount of money, it also cost me about twenty years of my life.
I have similar experience with you, and boy do I waste so much money on that. Wish I could afford therapy, because managing myself emotionally was a long, expensive and heartbreaking experience I wish I could skip over.
Don’t buy salvaged vehicles unless you are dead sure you gonna keep it for life. And don’t cotumise it if you intend not loosing that money. I’ve bought my Harely salvaged 10 years ago, put a lot of work and money on that. Now I want to sell it and I just can’t, even taking a 20% loss on the market price. And that is without adding the parts money I’ve spent. Bike original goes for 40K. I’ve put around 12K on parts and upgrades. I’m asking 32K and can’t sell it. Furthermore, the dealership don’t accept that bike on a trade cause of the salvage mark it has.
The VIN is on the frame. If you swap it to a new frame that doesn’t have a salvage title, it’s not the same vehicle anymore. You need to make sure you get a clean title with the new frame, but that’s actually not as hard as it sounds.
There are also ways to launder rebuilt vehicles. Some states don’t track rebuilt title, and will give you a clean title (but a digital check will reveal that it’s rebuilt)
Whasing it is Highly illegal where I live. Furthermore, it’s extremely unethical. I’d not like to buy a vehicle that was salvage without knowing it previously.
Changing frames would be OK, but I’m pretty sure that a new legal frame in good shape plus documentation and labor swaping it would be more expensive than the amount of money I’d be able to recover upon selling.
Bought a car with a clean NY title a few years ago, drove it for 4 years. Wonderful car. Sold it because I was moving overseas, buyer did a vin check, and it was salvage but washed. Wound up selling for the same amount anyways, found a buyer who didn’t care.
Salvage vehicles are those that wore at some point Involved in some kind of accident that has inflicted considerable damage to it. It has different degrees of damage, going from minor to severe. Although the vehicles are able been repaired to it’s full functionality and safety, they’ll have it’s documentation marked as salvage forever. Mine was marked as minor damages, I got it already repaired, if one is curious.
Anything that’s been damaged past where insurance would pay to have it fixed. Water damaged/flooded vehicles, frame damage etc. Serious damage that was more costly than insurance wanted to deal with.
It’s pretty well known not to touch one. Which is why this person is having trouble unloading it.
The insurance will figure a value for your car if it’s been involved in an accident, stolen, or gets damaged by some crazy storm or something. They use the cars age and mileage to figure this out. If the appraiser looks at the damage and sees that fixing it (parts and labor and paint) is going to cost more than the value they gave it…well then it is totaled.
A totaled car will retained by the insurance company and they pay you out according to your policy.
Those totaled cars can be sold for a residual value (see copart.com). And be built back up and driven. But the title is now branded as a salvaged vehicle. Anyone who buys a totaled car will get a branded title either salvage, flood title, idk what all different states have for the name of it. That branded title is tied to the vehicle by its vin number forever. That’s why you see the commenters saying they should frame swap the motorcycle to get a different vin number on it.
Stock market is all gambling. You just gotta choose a bunch - some indexes, like Dow/S&P, some bonds, and then a few stocks you “like”. Then hold them for decades, and check in only a couple times a year. Otherwise you’ll most likely lose money.
It was all a bit of a blur, but I recall there were lots of lapdances, champagne, and getting in a hot tub with a bunch of strippers and doing karaoke.
Seriously, even if you can technically afford it, if you’re not still flush with cash after close, it’s just infinite stress.
The main issue is that you are now locked into the area around your home. Unless you’re making so much to be able to afford a house AND appartment rent, your job opportunities have become that much more limited since remote job offerings are on the decline. Relocation assistance is a thing, but if your house purchase is at all recent, still a good chance that selling will put you in the red.
You also have to pay for any repairs or improvements in the event that the only house you could afford is old and not up to safety regulations. In my case, I also have interest rates to worry about. I bought my house while they were on the rise and locked in above my comfort zone (not in a “i’m about to bankrupt myself” kinda way, don’t worry) in hopes that they’d go down and I could refinance, but obviously they havent, so what should be a comfortable payment for me at 3% (~$1100) is instead a “wow I can literally never have fun anymore” payment of $1850 at 6.5%, and will remain so for the forseeable future. Also: Because the only affordable place was like an hour from my job, gas money’s eating a hole through my soul as well.
Alternatively, buy a plot of land from an area less desired by the general public. Have the house built yourself, and move in. House buying is not smart unless you are pressed for time, which is not a smart way of handling it as you should take your time with houses.
Buying a house or land in an area that is saturated with demand is also unwise. Live within your means. Most who are able to afford land and house are more than capable of affording more time away from the job or remotely work. If your job requires a lot of your time, then it is more wise to just rent a small room and take vacations outside the area. There are a lot of factors in place when you consider a house, and you made great examples.
I am sorry about the interest rate. A 6.5% rate is not the worst but disadvantageous because, historically, most ROI for safe investments are 5%. This means it is more beneficial to pay off the house than it is to diversify while you are paying the house. Which is bad because you should be diversifying your portfolio. My sister has a 2% interest rate, she is so lucky and I tell her to diversify instead of putting all her money towards paying off the house.
I get you, but the other option is to burn money every month on rent. I think a lot of your issues are solved it you can work remote and have a good home owners warranty.
Our mortgage brokers, we had a broker that told us it would be best to go with variable because you always end up paying less. We had a choice between 1.35% variable or 2.05% fixed. We had 1.35% for 2 months and it is 6.1% now. We could be putting so much against our principal but instead we are paying 3k+ in interest and 1200 in principal.
Do you have any recommendations of who to trust? I’m in a good place in my career but mostly do everything myself. It’s very basic stuff but I think I could be doing better. I just don’t know what the next step is.
Their general advice about diversification is not wrong, but the products they sell are in my experience not good.
Where to get better products? Do the legwork, understand how the cost is structured and what the goals and risks of a product are, where you save or pay taxes, and then become frustrated, get a depot and buy a cheap world ETF.