Random Comments/Stream of Consciousness Thread

[Dolso]

Thank you all for restoring my faith in the collecting community!!

I'm also a baby boomer that figured SS probably wouldn't be around by the time I got ready for it. I've been buying rental Real Estate since I was in my 20's (early 1970's) & that has enabled me to 'retire' in my early 50's. To me, 'Retire' doesn't mean sitting on the couch watching re-runs,,,,,,,,,, it's more like not punching a clock for someone else and being able to do what you WANT to do (prob like David & Betts), not what you HAVE to do. The housing bubble has hurt my rental income a little but we're not extravagant anyway so get along ok.

Seems like part of the current problem is the grasshoppers are uniting against the ants! I think everyone (especially politicians) should be required to read ATLAS SHRUGGED.

Just my opinion........not intended to start a fight with anyone!!!

[Sir_Boomme]

For The Thing.... told you I had a book signed by you...

[Nerak]

what strikes?

Apparently the French government is moving the retirement from age 60 to age 62. The workers are revolting!

http://www.france24.com/en/france

Consider themsleves lucky. Those born in the USA in 1960 or later need to be 67 to enjoy "full benefits". In reality for many Americans it is a work until you die economy. I don't see how a person can live on ~$1,600 a month (Gross).

uh yeah...I make $1386 a month...ask me...it's VERY hard!!!

AND...I WAS defaulted on my student loans til the government took my tax return this year to pay it off. Which is a good thing...but my poor family could have used it more than the fuckin government!!!!

just a thought, but wasn't it a loan, not a giveaway?... it's not the government's money, the loan comes from other people's taxes...

I went to school twice, ate lots and lots of meals of just rice... but paid my way with no loan... I worked.

Yeah, I know it was just a loan. And I did sign a paper saying I would pay it back...but when you are struggling to support a family and the government wants to collect it all at once...it just feels like a B I G kick in the ass! I am so glad it's over!!

[Ari_Racing]

Well...here in Argentina we've been dealing with crisis and alikes for the past...mmm....lifetime?

Jokes aside, you learn from a very young age not to trust in goverments. My father turns 62 this year and even when he'll start getting his retirement money next year (he worked 30 years in a bank), he'll continue working in his shop (a flower shop) until he cannot move (as he says).

The best to do here is to save and adquire houses and apartments. Next month I'll finish paying my apartment (yeap...no more installments, no more half of my salary going to pay it!) and with my girlfriend we plan to start looking for a house next year.

If one can have 3 houses/apartments, here, unless something really bad happens, you know you won't have to depend on the goverment when you retire.

[Tito_Villa]

For The Thing.... told you I had a book signed by you...

Haha that ACE!!!!

[John Blaze]

Seems like part of the current problem is the grasshoppers are uniting against the ants! I think everyone (especially politicians) should be required to read ATLAS SHRUGGED.

Just my opinion........not intended to start a fight with anyone!!!

I like you already. I'm no Hank Rearden, but I've tried to model my work ethic on that guy.

[Randall Flagg]

For some reason the You Tube link won't work on this computer here at the hospital. But if that is the cartoon I was talking about I will very much be looking forward to seeing it again and be grateful to you for finding it. It will be interesting to see how closely it matches my memory. Thanks!

I think it is interesting that in the the 1930's the message from the movie is 'put your nose to the grindstone, be diligent, save for a rainy day' etc.
Had the cartoon been made in the Wall Street 1980's era the message might have been very different.

[Rahfa]

It is an Aesop's Fable, so this is not exactly a new message...people have been squandering opportunities and resources since....oh, since there were people.

Bottom line:

Democrats will take your money, but maybe when things go off the rail for you, you'll get some of it paid back to you.

Republicans will take your money.

All I know, is I'm ever given the choice between saving humanity or bunny rabbits...get used to Peter Cottontail.

[Bethany]

I'm so full of cheery thoughts this morning...

I'm sure many of you saw the recent statistic that the amount of student loans outstanding is now greater than all the credit card debt in the US.


.

My daughter has a "full" scholarship and still had to take out 2 student loans this year. I'm still trying to figure out how a single income (state employee at that) family with three kids did not qualify for a dime of grants.

[Emily]

Thinking about my student loans makes me want to vomit.

[Ricky]

Thinking about being a student makes me want to vomit.

[John Blaze]

thinking about vomit makes me want to vomit.

[Sir_Boomme]

thinking about vomit makes me hungry

[Patrick]

... I fear the ENORMOUS number of baby boomers who will reach 60+ over the next 10-15 years are ill prepared financially to even attempt to retire. And who will support these aged boomers? There is a scary mismatch between the number of younger workers and the sheer size of the boomer population. ...

This is why we need more people like the Gosselins and the Octomom - working hard to bolster the future workforce.

[alkanto]

Thinking about my student loans makes me want to vomit.

Likewise...plus added on is the pressure to figure out my study abroad plans.
I know I want to do it for a full semester, but I can't decide where, and don't know how I will choose without visiting each university (impossible given travel restrains) and making it all fit into my "4 year plan" my college is making us fill out....

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

Parents. When your kids reach 15, send them out to work and take all their pay off them. You can give give them a few cents back in pocket money, if you are feeling generous. If they need money to survive, they can get a second job.





That's how it was for me.

[Sir_Boomme]

Parents. When your kids reach 15, send them out to work and take all their pay off them. You can give give them a few cents back in pocket money, if you are feeling generous. If they need money to survive, they can get a second job.

That's how it was for me.

BRAVO!!!!! I love you man! a person after my own heart.

I started working at the age of 15 (Dairy Queen) worked for 3 years through high school... maximum hours allowed during school and 40 hours week during summers. took a full load course including advance placement classes like chemistry 2, latin 2, advance physics, trig. (this was in the 70's when advance classes were just coming into being)
I was in band, never missed marching in a football game or a band practice or a day of high school, and had a 92 average over the 4 years.

bought and paid for my first car (at 15) and my own insurance and gas...

when I graduated, I got a different higher paying job and paid for my own college 100% - no loans, no grants, no scholarships, zero $'s from my parents.
It meant I had to take an extra year and a half (working 40+ hours and taking a lighter load at school... after trying 17 hours the first semester and learning that wouldn't work)

then I did it all again in the 1990's in my late 30's (to get my engineering degree)

It wasn't easy, I ate in (lots of rice and beans), didn't spend my money on partying and beer... but guess what, I did it and had zero student loans when I finished and I didn't owe mom and dad either.

When you do that you definitely make the most of every class you're in.

Now I'm not saying that is the path for everyone... but if you get scholarships and grants... consider yourself very fortunate and make the most of them. if mom and dad help out, be sure to show your thanks a hundred times over by studyng hard and making something of yourself (and don't take advantage of their generousity). And for heavens sake, if you take out a loan (usually at way below average interest rates), treat it like a loan, which means it has to be paid back in a timely fashion like any loan does. it's called being responsible.

I hear people all the time talk about the government's money... it's not the government's money.... it's the taxpayer's money. Every dollar you receive via the government is a dollar someone else pays in. So essentially if you get a student loan, you're borrowing money from me.... so I appreciate it when you pay me back.

Disclaimer note: Before anyone gets offended... when I use the word "you", I'm not speaking to anyone here specifically... it's for the generic general public at large and meant for anyone that fits into the specified situation.

[herbertwest]

Sorry J. It's now 47 years as your government has raised the retirement age, and sent in the Special Forces to break up the strikes.

WTF!

that is the reason i said "45+" ;-)



Good job ARI on finishing paying your flat!
It wont happen to me... anytime soon... or even later :s


My gf have a loan of about 20K to the bloody british student loan company...
I am lucky and so far, I dont have any loan at all...
However i plan on moving in about 1-2 years n start buying a flat... Rent is such a waste of money...
Hopefully, my gf would have a full time job and one that she likes...

[different_seasons]

This spring will be my 4th year at UMA. I started on the GI Bill and have been paying cash for the last year or so. I don't want a loan but at this rate I won't graduate for another 4 years at least. A loan for me would speed up the process but I'm also hesitant to go that route as I am happy with my current job and am not in a hurry.

[jhanic]

I got married four weeks after I returned from Vietnam in 1967. I worked that summer at Ohio Bell Telephone. I went back to school on the GI bill that fall. My wife was working as a teacher at first, then she got pregnant and had to quit. We had $260 a month coming in--that had to cover rent, food, books, tuition, etc. I also worked as a casual laborer at a trucking firm in the warehouse where I was on-call 24/7. My wife did typing for students. We had minimal savings, and our parents refused to help us (her parents told her that if she ever wanted to leave me, there was always room back home for her, and later for her and our little girl.) We had lots of hungry days toward the end of the month--we'd buy those one gallon cans of green beans, etc. and had lots of plain spaghetti. But we made it, with no loans or grants. Later, we discovered we would have qualified for food stamps, but no-one then told us that.

I put my daughter through four years of college and one year of law school. My son didn't want to go to college, so we paid for him to get a CDL so that he could drive trucks. My daughter had a double major in math and economics, so she's now working as a clerk at the Post Office! My son drives hazardous materials. They both seem fairly happy, but those are not the futures I would have wanted for them.

John

[herbertwest]

3 weeks of holidays for me! And paid as i had days off that i didnt take... :-)

[Patrick]

John and Terry, thank you for sharing your personal stories. I feel like I know you better now and I appreciate that.

[e_taylor]

Just for Halloween:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94NWczSXdOM&feature=related"]YouTube - Buck 65 vs. Barnes & Barnes[/ame]

[Rahfa]

George Steinbrenner is dead and so are the Yankees...it's morning in America!

[carlosdetweiller]

George Steinbrenner is dead and so are the Yankees...it's morning in America!

Eliminated from this year's post-season play, yes, but hardly dead. Now starts a very interesting time of the year.... the "hot stove" season. It will be interesting to see what Cashman (and Epstein, for that matter) can accomplish in the off season. Only 111 days until pitchers and catchers report. Whoop!