Schools Teaching Finances?

[jeep45238]

I briefly considered just letting my cash rewards build up indefinitely to serve as an additional emergency fund.

But then I decided that a custom built Mk12 Mod-H and OCM-5 suppressor was an emergency.

End of the day, there is no savings - it's either current spending, or future spending. What you're talking about is a form of budgeting called a sinking fund (build it up, with the intent of drawing it down after you can afford the thing you want). Nothing at all wrong with treating yourself, if we don't live our lives, then what's the point?

First thing one morning I looked at my phone and there were warning emails about what turned out to be about $20k in fraud. Good thing I was already sitting on the throne, and good thing it was all on credit and not debit.

Thread Drift: Speaking of cash back cards, mine has a big ass cash advance fee, and I learned this the hard way. I linked the card to Venmo to buy a raffle ticket to benefit a friend's son's traveling baseball team. It woulda been nice if I won something, since I spent $50 for one ticket ($20 + $30 cash advance fee).

Same. Except I was going to bed and saw a fraud charge for over $7k. It's also helped with some gun parts places that never shipped parts, and just denied everything (email transcripts as evidence is all that was needed).

Cash back fees suck, and I have a feeling that high% back setups makeup for it a little bit by charging for the "service." It attracts more people, but tempers how much of it is used. Using advances pretty much always bite the user in the butt, be it a points/cash back or a pay-day loan service.

Personally, I use a Fidelity rewards card that gives 2%, treat it like cash, and the cash back goes into my IRA.

I think banks make millions, maybe billions every year from people that use a credit card as a payday loan or cash advance. Carrying a lot of debt is more or less accepted as part of the economy now. I Remember Donald Trump said he was the king of debt.

Debt is a tool, and credit card interest is approaching 30% - a rate where you won't be able to get any headway if doing the minimum monthly payments.

Carrying debt is vastly different than credit card use, and paying off in full. I personally know that paying off monthly doesn't work for me, but paying it off every single paycheck, along with having a reasonable budget and tracking expenses, means I haven't paid interest or fees in quite some time yet get fraud protection, electronics warranties, travel rewards, and IRA contributions for free. This is obviously subsidized by those who carry a balance and pay interest.

An example where debt let me do some nice things is pretty easy to highlight. I have a personal loan used for some home improvements (that dropped my electric usage by literally 35%), and I paid 3% up front - I did have the ability to pay it in cash. I don't have a monthly accumulation of interest, and my savings account is paying me over 4%, with CD's in the 4.5% range. I matched a short term debt of 3% to a short term gain of 4%, which compounds monthly, giving me a gain of 1% for doing nothing. It's a unique time with interest rates, so I'll take a little bit of gain while I can.

It isn't always a numbers game - debt can allow you to do life more comfortably in the moment, earlier, when you can't pay for things in full. And that trade off is something everyone with a mortgage and car loan has done.

The problem is people are so conditioned into cashflow alone that they don't know how underwater they are on the aggregate, turning into mini-Keynesians for their personal life built upon a house of cards on a sandy beach during hurricane season.