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USA edition:
If you’re a billionaire: vote Republican.
If you’re not a billionaire: vote Democrat.
(*) may not apply in elections where the Republican wants to start a profit-conflagarating civil war
War is a racket.
Brilliant book. Still relevant.
Smedley Butler was a great American.
And either way, you still get to be poor. Great system we have here.
Pop quiz! What was cumulative inflation for the last 4 years, and what was the change in working class wages?
Basically what I’m asking is, did people get more poor, or less poor? Were there any specific government actions that led to this outcome?
Unfortunately the official inflation number doesn’t represent real world price increases on necessary goods, which often outpace inflation.
This is a common talking point, totally dishonest in this case. What are you claiming the real inflation number should be, and why are you saying the prices of what real world goods went up by that amount? Like with citations and precise numbers.
69
At least you get to be poor with some basic human rights
This is what Democrats would put on their campaign signs if they were an honest party.
Me, LGBT: hahahahaha… oh you were serious? HAHAHAHAHA no.
What are you on about? Gay marriage was literally legalized by democrats.
(rant in general, not directed at you)
Straight, cis people: “you can do one thing, isn’t that enough? why do you have to be in the spotlight all the time?”
Me, standing with my trans+enby friends, after being fired for who we fuck and what we look like, and regularly treated like dogshit in public: “…”
Marriage is a decent start, but especially bullshit like “right to work” states where employers can sack you for literally anything, and LGBT not being a universally protected thing, is shit. Yeah yeah “sex” is by law but I direct you to the first half of that sentence, and you’ll see the issue. Progress, yeah, but being the solution to our many issues, marriage is just a piece of the pie.
Hell, my best friend had to go through some gymnastic-bureaucratic bullshit because the state they live(d) in was putting up unnecessary requirements just to change their sex on their drivers license. This was after months of them seeing a therapist, hrt, physical changes, etc - but still wasn’t good enough for the state. So it was easier to get their transition accepted via their birth state (I think by altering the birth record? Not totally sure, I didn’t want to pry), where they had much more sane requirements, and then come back to the state they live(d) in with a ‘see here bitch, now change my shit’. Took a month or so all-told, but they got it done.
Plus things like raising a family (adoption especially), being passed up for employment or promotions, denied housing… but we have marriage, so it’s all good, right?
We didn’t need that.
Make a budget, each month.
Write down your expected expenses. Keep it simple. Use paper and a calculator.
Rewrite the list, in order of priority, to you.
I’ve met so many people who are scared to do this, yet would be pleased if they did.
And compare your expected expenses to your actual expenses. Those occasional small things here and there can add up.
For bills that are due on a regular basis but not monthly (car registration, oil changes, pet’s annual check up, HVAC check ups if you own a home, etc) - figure out how much each costs per year, add them all up, divide by 12, and set up an auto-transfer to a savings account for that amount every month. Don’t forget to include that amount in your monthly budget too.
This x100. I literally never worry about bills anymore.
Actually it’s x12
Invest in tennis balls. They have a high rate of return.
Serious version. Probably mostly US-centric:
Credit cards are a tool. Just like any other tool, they can be useful or they can cause damage when improperly used. Educate yourself on how to wield a credit card effectively.
Credit cards are a tool. Just like any other tool, they can be useful or they can cause damage when improperly used. Educate yourself on how to wield a credit card effectively.
What he’s trying to say is, learn to use them like ninja stars - shuriken. They’re sharp and deadly if scaled properly.
When I worked at Barnes&Noble as a teen (~2007-2008), my coworker and I would just whip gift cards around at each other. Was a good three months.
Maybe like nunchucks. Use them wrong and they’ll whack you in the nuts.
Inherit your wealth!
Look up how cumulative interest works, then start investing in ETFs or index funds that follow MSCI World or S&P 500 for example. Then wait.
It’s been 4 hours. What’s supposed to happen?
Line go up
Your returns start producing their own returns and eventually it snowballs.
You’re supposed to learn how to check back in a few decades instead of hours.
To add to this, also research ETF and mutual fund fees! Sooooo many are more than willing to charge a “small” 1% fee that will cost you thousands of dollars or more. Others are bold and charge even more. Look for fees in the 0.01% - 0.03% range for your trusty index and targeted retirement funds. Some even have 0%, though those harder to come by.
Think of playing a 4x video game, focus every day on building your economic engine. Everything you spend should have some economic engine return (school, books, computer, etc)
Play this like 50 times https://buildyourstax.com/
Avoid debt.
Use the FASFA (in the us), if your under 25 marry another student (then your EFC is 0). Don’t pay for grad-school, only join programs that pay you.
Networking, and Experiences are more important then over-time alone. Building your network is part of building your engine. Join the club, go to the networking parties, improv group, show up sometimes to the toastmasters, NETWORKING IS WORTH THE TIME AND MONEY. But, always make sure your networking with people who inspire you, and don’t drag you down. It’s ok to hangout with the down group, just not habitually.
It’s ok to say no! No, really - you can say no to things. Nobody gives a shit about your phone, or car.
Learn how to use a spreadsheet (or just do the math by hand), get the TOTAL cost of all commitments over the life of the commitment (total cost of car, or house, etc), including all the one time origination fees. The only number that matters is the total cost, all the other numbers move around, but the total cost should drive your decisions.
Learn about your credit, and keep it clean (credit wise is good enough here)
Read Debt: The first 5000 years, appreciate the power of liquidity and opportunity costs.
Subscriptions are traps, avoid them as much as possible.
The game won’t let me put money into savings account on mobile for the first year :(
Sounds like a rendering issue. The buttons are on the bottom of the square. Try desktop mode
That site was pretty fun.
If you want to increase your credit score and are financially responsible, switch over to using a credit card.
Diversify your portfolio: Instead of putting everything into savings, split some of it into stocks and shares.
I’ve heard that they amount you should be putting into your pension is a percent of your income equal to half the age you were when you started saving. Not sure how accurate that is.
If you do happen to be well off and/or have a good job, spend your money on things you like rather than hoarding it.
Donating to charity and supporting small businesses is usually morally correct. If you have the means, tip your instance admin or developers of software you use.
Be careful when buying things that the seller can remove from you at any time. But don’t use that as an excuse to not buy things you’ll enjoy while you have them.
If you can use credit cards responsibly, look into credit card churning for points. I fly business class for any extended flight and I pay less than what economy would cost.
Absolutely this, people paying cash and with debit cards end up just subsidizing points redemptions. Merchants aren’t eating card fees (typically 1.5-3% of a purchase), they just baked it into prices.
With a stable income, watching what you spend, and auto-pay, carrying a card balance is super easy to avoid these days.
Have no social life, it’s much cheaper.
But in all seriousness, if you have to have a social life, limit your spending on that stuff. Restaurant and bar tabs can add up quickly. Budget, limit your drinking, and if you don’t wanna limit your drinking, at least do some cheap drinking at home first.
We used to drink a quart of cheap beer in the parking lot before we went to the nightclubs. We had spares in the trunk for later if we sobered up too much.
If your retirement fund isnt 7 figures or larger, you probably aren’t going to retire in your own home. “The old folks home” ain’t cheap, and they WILL take it all to pay for it.
What if you own your home?
You can find just about anybody’s Social Security number. (Equivalently, they can find yours.) Amazingly, some institutions still use knowledge of this number as proof of identity for purposes of extending credit to a stranger.
Yeah, I get a letter in the mail like once a week because some fucking company lost it accidentally, and their penance is sending apology letters.
So yeah, monitor your credit, I guess. Just sucks when it’s credit karma or the like who lose your info.
Freeze your credit at all 3 major credit reporting agencies! Do it now, if you haven’t already. And don’t let them trick you into paying money to do it. It is 100% free everywhere.
It takes a few minutes and could save you lots and lots of time and money, since it makes opening new lines of credit in your name near impossible even if they know your SSN.
Avoid having more than one large loan at at time ($10000 or more). Pay off your loans early by paying to principal. Pay off your credit card(s) every month. Drive slowly to spend less on gas. Buy goods in solid form, no liquids, to save money. Ditch fast foods, do meal prep instead. Eat less meat, like maybe once or twice a week.
Also instead of savings, put the money into a no fee index fund. Something that tracks the market like vtsax or similar.
Instructions unclear: Dying of dehydration.
Use credit cards as cash, and pay off the balance weekly. This protects your bank account from fraud, as chargebacks and fraud are more easily dealt with on credit, and they tend to have better account monitoring and security than banks and credit unions. Even better if you have a cash-back/points card, that’s basically free money.
This also makes it easy to track spending if you have specific purpose credit cards. E.g, one card for groceries and gas, another for recurring bills or service payments, another for frivolous stuff, etc.
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Even if you have no other investments, open a high yield savings account and keep the bulk of your funds there, other than what you need for a general emergency fund and monthly bills. Current yields are over 4%, generally better than inflation, without any risk.
Every luxury takes work to pay for. Even a fancy car for people making well over six figures is a financial ball and chain. Think long and hard about the stuff you buy.
Every expense delays your retirement. If you need $60k per year to retire, and you buy a $60k car in your 30’s, congratulations, you just delayed your retirement by over a year. Very few people think about that stuff in their 20’s and 30’s, but I promise that your 40’s and 50’s are just around the corner, and you’ll be thinking about it a lot by then.
When I was younger, cars were unreliable pieces of shit. I’d never buy a car between four and eight years old, that’s when they really started needing work. After that, most dodgy bits had been replaced and rust was the biggest killer.
Now, even cheap cars are astonishingly reliable, and will easily last 20 years if taken care of.
Manufacturers know this,and have spent the last decade convincing people they need to lease a brand new car every three years
They’ve convinced mugs that cars are a subscription service
