Live data from Hacker News

I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

beanlog.vercel.app

391–400 of 512 posts

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#391
post #14

If I ever feel an urge to try out test cases on banking apps, hopefully I'll think of this story and stop.

This is what gets me. I would *never* send $10k just to see what happens in that scenario. Why would I want to risk that something goes awry???

If I were rich, sure. $10k for Me is like $0.10 for Bezos.

But with your last $10k? That's just stupid (or fiction)

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there aren’t alternate inflation calculations But there are. Institutions such as the IMF also have their own economic measurements.

I don’t think the IMF publishes US inflation numbers using their own methods.

https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2022/04/19/wo... page 144

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#393
Ok you purchase $25 then you purchase $10,000 instead of $9975. Are we sure based on the message that they in that scenario that they are refunding the entire purchase of $10,000 or just the excess $25?

If that was so it would make perfect sense that the third transaction to purchase $9975 would fail because you already purchased your limit in the second transaction. In that case user would expect 2 refunds 25 and 9975 NOT 10,000 and 9975.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, what the hell. Acting like this guy is blowing his future on a roulette wheel by getting some savings bonds. Is anybody else just sick to death of the term "emergency fund"? If you go to /r/personalfinance, every other comment is reminding people to stock up their emergency fund. Towelie says, "Don't forget to bring a towel!" I'll tell you about my real "emergency fund": In an actual, living emergency, eve…

I agree, I get downvoted merciless on r/personalfinance when I say that my only conceivable true “emergency” is a job loss. Anything else I can use credit to income smooth and cash flow. I keep one month of bills in savings More specifically, I have a HELOC and I’m always getting low and no interest balance transfer options from my bank.

It is also worth understanding when you situation is far more stable than most people. If you've got a stable job and considerable assets then you can basically self insure. Yes, if you surprise need $40,000 and the market is down it will suck to sell a bunch of investments from your taxable brokerage account or rapidly get a HELOC but that case is rare enough that you are willing to eat the loss in that case for additional expected growth.

Almost nobody has this. The r/personalfinance memes exist largely as "the very basics for people who don't have the first idea how to plan for their financial future."

This is just another one of those benefits of being wealthy. On average, self-insuring saves money. But for a lot of people an emergency fund is a critical thing because they don't have access to liquid assets without gargantuan 401k penalties.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Felt like a wallstreetbets post. Inflation is only at "8%" (still remember back in 2021 calling this a conspiracy), so 8 / 12 = ~0.7% = 700 USD loss / month on 10k deposit.

Of course the only place you can get 8% return on savings is at treasury and he already maxed that out. He’s lucky to get 1% return on a high yield savings so he lost 1/12 = .08%/month so if it takes two months for a refund he lost $16.66 in interest from where he has it parked. My bank’s high yield interest only returns .05% so if I had acted stupidly and made the same mistake I would have missed out on 83 cents for…

> He’s lucky to get 1% return on a high yield savings

To match inflation, all one has to do is to buy nonperishable components of the CPI: fuel, real estate (through a REIT), food, commodities, and so on.

If banking can't keep up with that, it speaks volumes about the competence of the financial system.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are desperate about the future. Gone are the times when having a good job, paying a reasonable mortgage for a reasonably paid house, saving a reasonable amount for retirement, while keeping a reasonable amount for emergencies (rare, before lay-offs become the knee jerk reaction of MBAs to fatten their bonuses). Due to the increasing financialization of the economy, more and more people feel like they need to b…

>Gone are the times Those times never existed for the vast majority of people. Minorities, single women, most men...... None of them had this rose colored past. Statistically, more people now have more income in the US than ever before. Each income level is higher, some more than others (and this is a static snapshot, most people move around income quintiles throughout a career), options for goods are higher, items a…

> Those times never existed for the vast majority of people. Minorities, single women, most men...... None of them had this rose colored past.

I don't know about that. My minority, immigrant, non-English speaking grandparents and their siblings (several are still alive and in their 90's) all own their homes and are still collecting pensions from their blue-collar private sector jobs. Some of them worked in factories sewing ladies undergarments, purses, and shoes. Some of them worked on road construction crews. And one was a janitor in an office building.

Re: I accidentally loaned all my money to the US government

#398

I've been in the US for 4 years and it seems like the government is just like a computer that you cannot talk to or get issues fixed somehow. It's like, if something goes wrong you're fucked. If USPS loses your documents or even your car's title, or your immigration approval notice, you're fucked, you might need to wait 2 months, or 6, or 8, and nobody cares, nobody will help you. There's no one that can help you. At…

In general, the solution to your problem is to hire an attorney. They're expensive and overkill for most things, but they know how to "talk" to the government. And just as you'd expect from Vogons, it's painful to watch. Otherwise you're effectively left as your own lawyer, having to know tricks of how to communicate/escalate and doing online research to find out. In general if you can get a government agency on the…

The immigration system is apparently designed to do as much damage as possible. It certainly is destroying a huge portion of the global economy and polity.
Post reply on HN