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Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

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Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#101

Post by CalRobert »

tootie wrote: post #20
cs137 wrote: post #12

I worked in a grocery store in the late '90s, and the older customers (who grew up in the Great Depression) always carried penny pouches, because they remembered a time when one had to keep track of cents to survive. This is how I know that, even if we miraculously fixed our medical system tomorrow and outlawed private health insurance by a constitutional amendment, we'll still have, thirty years from now, 60-year-ol…

My grandma did this. Never left a penny on the sidewalk, always took the bread from a breadbasket home. Even my parents absorbed some of that behavior despite being born in the next generation.

We were surprised to discover after her death (in the late 80's) that my great grandmother kept $1,000 in a pouch in her bra. I can understand not trusting the banks and wanting to always have some sort of cash on your person.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#102

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #40
manuelabeledo wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Charging for saving lives. Price discriminating to save lives. Most first world countries have a solution for this already. It is baffling that the US does not.

>Most first world countries have a solution for this already. Even second and third world countries have implemented this solution.

Part of the cost is equipment, too. Have you seen the regulations that medical equipment must meet? And the certifications that equipment requires? I’m not talking about big ticket items like MRI machines. I mean just blood pressure cuffs.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#103

Post by deathanatos »

dymk wrote: post #64
tyleo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m a very well off millennial. My fiancé and I both have high paying tech jobs. We easily make the income of multiple families. That being said we are strained to buy a 3-bedroom house like that of my single Mother who only has a high school education to her name. Given our success, we don’t have the “burn it all down” mentality but I fear it building in many of my friends and totally understand the sentiment of thi…

Depends on where you want to buy. SF? Probably not going to happen. Almost anywhere else? Houses are plenty affordable.

I'm not in SF. The last listing I looked at was 800 sq ft, run down, literally "as-is" property: $500k valuation from Zillow (it's listed for less … but not by much). That's about $2500/mo, in mortgage alone.

Decent properties, in suburban areas, at ~$1M.

Ir rural areas, yeah, they're cheaper … and salary would get "adjusted" the moment I try that.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#104

Post by twoquestions »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #2

Being poor in general, during your childhood, scars you for life. It makes you penny wise and pound foolish, adverse to taking risks in your career and investments, can destroy your confidence in yourself, while always having to look over your shoulder monetarily speaking. Habits that even after you remove poverty from your live, you still feel the the anxiety and triggers in your head.

True facts, this. My spouse never had to wonder where the electric or gas money was coming from, even though their family is really frugal despite making really good money, and I'm still surprised at their decisions that I irrationally describe as extravagant even though they're better decisions all told.

Even though I have a great job now and have for years, I still find myself shying away from good things that I really can afford, or buying cheap shoes when dropping a Benjamin is better even in the immediate term.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#105

Post by bsagdiyev »

deathanatos wrote: post #103
dymk wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on where you want to buy. SF? Probably not going to happen. Almost anywhere else? Houses are plenty affordable.

I'm not in SF. The last listing I looked at was 800 sq ft, run down, literally "as-is" property: $500k valuation from Zillow (it's listed for less … but not by much). That's about $2500/mo, in mortgage alone. Decent properties, in suburban areas, at ~$1M. Ir rural areas, yeah, they're cheaper … and salary would get "adjusted" the moment I try that.

Jesus where do you live? I moved from San Diego to Raleigh, didn't get a pay adjustment and even that place wouldn't be anywhere near that cost here.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#106

Post by duncan_idaho »

sokoloff wrote: post #63
snarfy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll never have another credit card. Frequent flyer miles, what are those? The whole industry can go fuck themselves.

If you're able to live without the credit aspects of the credit card, why not take the 1-2% discount on nearly everything consumable that you buy? If you pay it off every month, credit cards have a negative cost (to you) and a fair amount of convenience (for renting cars, hotels, booking flights, etc).

That 1-2% is what they pay you for all your data. Credit cards are a key component of data brokers.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#107

Post by charlieflowers »

deathanatos wrote: post #103
dymk wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on where you want to buy. SF? Probably not going to happen. Almost anywhere else? Houses are plenty affordable.

I'm not in SF. The last listing I looked at was 800 sq ft, run down, literally "as-is" property: $500k valuation from Zillow (it's listed for less … but not by much). That's about $2500/mo, in mortgage alone. Decent properties, in suburban areas, at ~$1M. Ir rural areas, yeah, they're cheaper … and salary would get "adjusted" the moment I try that.

Everyone sells 30 years of their future for a house, so you’re competing with that. On top of that, when prices rise people can leapfrog into more expensive houses, and you’re competing with that. Finally there’s a lot of corporate and private investing money in single family housing. It’s fucked up. But many do predict a decline or even crash soon.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#108

Post by dmux »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #24
doix wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It makes you penny wise and pound foolish while always having to look over your shoulder monetarily speaking. Could you explain what you mean? I grew up pretty poor, single income PhD student/post-doc salary family with two kids. Eventually my father got a proper position at a university, but until then we were pretty poor. My parents used to sleep on the floor, we had almost no furniture(I remember playing footbal…

>Could you explain what you mean? Sure. I realize I waste a lot of time in supermarkets, shops or online stores, browsing/walking around and comparing prices just to penny pinch on low value things, when the savings I would make would have no meaningful impact on my yearly net worth, but the time and mental energy wasted browsing/walking around comparing prices could have better return on investment if used on other…

>So I just hoard cash like an idiot as that makes me feels safe and lets me sleep well at night.

If you haven't already, look into Certificates of Deposit ("CD") at your local bank. They're FDIC insured (so if the bank goes under, you're covered, up to something like $250k) and you don't have to worry about losing the principal amount you put in. If you ever need to withdraw that money in case of an emergency, you only risk losing out on the interest. Instead of dumping a ton of money into a single CD, look into CD laddering wherein you setup multiple CDs that expire in 3 months, 6 months, etc or some other cadence that you're comfortable with.

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#109

Post by SilasX »

quartesixte wrote: post #73
Markoff wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> always took the bread from a breadbasket home Care to explain it to non native speaker from Europe? Is it some bakery chain and she took home some cheap/free leftover bread?

Some restaurants give a free basket of bread with a meal as a sort of appetizer. Most people either consume all of it or just leave the leftovers.

Ah so like a mild version of this xkcd:

https://xkcd.com/1499/

Re: Price shocks in formative years scar consumption for life

#110

Post by pea »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #24
doix wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It makes you penny wise and pound foolish while always having to look over your shoulder monetarily speaking. Could you explain what you mean? I grew up pretty poor, single income PhD student/post-doc salary family with two kids. Eventually my father got a proper position at a university, but until then we were pretty poor. My parents used to sleep on the floor, we had almost no furniture(I remember playing footbal…

>Could you explain what you mean? Sure. I realize I waste a lot of time in supermarkets, shops or online stores, browsing/walking around and comparing prices just to penny pinch on low value things, when the savings I would make would have no meaningful impact on my yearly net worth, but the time and mental energy wasted browsing/walking around comparing prices could have better return on investment if used on other…

Strangely, I've observed the same behaviour with people on the exact opposite side of the spectrum too (i.e. UHNW).

A friend of mine worked on superyachts which were £400k a week to rent. He said that without fail the owners would be penny pinching at the end over a few £ here and there (on food, drink, suncream etc.) Same with upper-class Brits who had hundreds of years of intergenerational wealth but won't turn their heating on until November.

Not sure what to make of this; I've often wondered if it is a form of bell curve.

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