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Bubble Up and Bubble Down....

Bubble Up: Work declared a snow day- so working from home today!

Bubble Down: It's a coworkers last day, and I wanted to say goodbye properly, but snow day means we're all at home.

(To be honest, there isn't much snow, just enough to make the roads slick and give you the worry that some bad driver that's not paying attention will come sliding into you- that fear is escalated when you're on a motorbike. ๐Ÿ˜… But since we're a software company, there is no need to really be in the office anyway except for meetings, which I'm quite glad to get out of.)

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Math problem!

soco wrote:

Change the second transaction to any other animal and you'll see what I mean.

I got 20 as well, but I have no idea what you mean by this?

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Money / debt help.

Thatโ€™s all great if youโ€™ve got the money in the bank to forward for house upgrades, or truly own the property you live on. But when you live paycheck to paycheck, you canโ€™t afford to drop ANY sum of cash on an upgrade- even those that will save you money in the long run. So loans can help in those situations, but it all comes down to handling it responsibly. Donโ€™t take a loan you know you wonโ€™t be able to pay back or make payments on. Donโ€™t spend money on a credit card that you donโ€™t and wonโ€™t have, etc. the problem with credit is that people struggle to use it properly. The point of credit cards is to build interest and burn you- but that system is easily abusable to work in your favor. You play the system like they try to play you and you win. Find the 0% APR cards, charge them up and pay it off before the intro comes in. Then let sit and do a small charge every couple of months on it so that it doesnโ€™t cancel and pay it off immediately. No interest accrues when you pay it off before the next cycle. Having multiple lines of credit builds your score quickly. Which, like most scores, is a game. You can play it if youโ€™re careful, but there is definitely a risk that you have to be careful with.

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Bubble Up and Bubble Down....

Bubble up: I ordered a new desk and chair and they arrived today! This is my first time actually buying office furniture for myself which is crazy seeing as I spend 90% of my waking hours at a desk/computer.

Bubble down: The chair is too high and the desk is too low. It's manageable, but makes this purchase fall short of a perfect decision.

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Money / debt help.

Big-Al-One wrote:

If it could force every person they ever brainwashed to stop using credit, I would. Every person should look at credit as something beneath them - because it is.

Try like he!! to get your debts paid off.

There is no such thing as "responsible" credit or debt. People who think "they've got this," are kidding themselves and toying with fire - period. If what they claim is true, then they should manage all of their basic costs without debt or credit to begin with.

What would you prefer? To go without certain things for a time while you save your earnings, OR deliver the full sum of your financial life to the corporate banking system?
There's no in between.

Actually, I disagree with this to a degree. There ARE ways to responsibly handle credit/debt.

For example, if you take out a loan to replace the HVAC system in your house, which is currently running heavy and using WAY more energy than necessary- it's a loan, but you're actually saving more money than the interest on the loan, as long as you make reasonable payments. (i.e., responsible debt management.)

Another case is "buying" a house. Yes, it's a HUGE amount of debt, but now you save a ton of money by skipping the middle man (a renter/landlord, which is essentially a lender). Paying off a mortgage is MUCH cheaper than paying rent. (Because your landlord is paying the mortgage, AND they want a little extra for pocket change/insurance in case the renter fails to make payments or trashes the house...)

And finally, the last case is debt consolidation. Like Sophie said- having a little bit of debt in many many places is recipe for disaster. Not only do you have to financially manage all of this, but mentally having to juggle all of those places is difficult. Even if you're paying small amounts in each place, which feels better than a large sum dropping from your bank account- the small amounts add up FAST. Plus, if you aren't able to pay each place- you now suffer a fee from every collector on top of the interest. If all of your debt is in one company- even if you can't make the minimum payment, the fee is generally a flat rate and won't hurt as much as the fees from multiple places.

---

All of that said, you might think it's better to avoid all debt in general, but life is full of surprises. You can't always be prepared for every situation. Building up a credit score will give you a softer cushion when the unexpected happens. So by putting yourself into "responsible" debt, you build up that cushion.

Responsible debt basically means you utilize credit cards and loans and such, but you never spend money you don't have. It's not something you can/should do if you're already IN debt- it's a way for a paycheck-to-paycheck person to build up credit and get that cushion. Somebody that's in debt already needs to follow the debt-consolidation and pay it down as much as possible, even if it means living a more than broke lifestyle.

I DO agree that banks and lending/collecting institutions are harsh and enforce harsher than necessary fees and such that essentially prey on making the weak weaker, but credit itself is essential for survival in a world that revolves around money. (Which I hate and wish we could change, but the fact is that's the world we live in.)

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Post closed.

CaraMia wrote:
Pepper, I am so sorry that this happened to you!!
The best thing that I have seen someone use is https://www.diatomaceousearth.com
She, too, invited in a new room mate and wham! They were totally infested.
She used this stuff for a while and now they are totally gone.
Every other pest that finds its way in as well...it is good stuff.
She gave me some of it but I have never opened it.
She got it at WalMart.
Might be a good idea to go ahead and lay some down now before it gets too bad.
It is supposed to be the safest thing around...and it works.
I stayed with my friend for a couple of days,and never saw or felt anything in her home.
I hope you find some peace of mind as well.
And Nix is so right!
Why wait for the tax return and why didn't your new room mate exterminate their own home....

Can confirm! Diatomaceous Earth is basically just small-ish powdered dirt. Small insects breathe it in and suffocate on it- but larger creatures (like pets and humans) don't have a problem breathing it in because it's so small.

We used it extensively a few years back when my mom got bed bugs. Had 2 cats and a dog at the time and had no issues with them.

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Bubble Up and Bubble Down....

PepperJ wrote:
Okay.... new day.

Let's hear your bubble ups and bubble downs for today โ˜บ

My bubble down: husb is sick with a bad cold

My bubble up: after years of not doing so, I started back up with a gym membership in Nov. I've been going REGULARLY since first week of Jan. Went to buy some new jeans yesterday, and they are a size smaller. Granted, they're "stretchy jeans," but still.... ๐Ÿ˜Š

Congrats!!

Itโ€™s still too early to have many ups and downs yet. ๐Ÿ˜„

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Bubble Up and Bubble Down....

soco wrote:
Good job with the HOA. See, it helps to take your nose out of a book once in awhile.

Actually- I REALLY need to get my nose back into a book. I used to read a book a day. Now it's been years since I've cracked one open. :(

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Bubble Up and Bubble Down....

Bubble up: Had a meeting with my HOA community, actually spoke up and said a thing and people agreed with me. (That's a good step. I don't do well in front of people.)

Bubble down: I cut my hair line a little higher than I prefer and it might look awful. ๐Ÿ˜„

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Job Fairs.

Sherlock wrote:
It still seems that you need to "know someone" to get a job--even in the 21st century, even with the Internet.

You still have to get your resume out of HR and in front of a hiring manager. HR people are so lazy that they all have cats to do their breathing for them.

I was in a church once and some people there were in a position to help me get a job with their firms. Did they? No. One of them later regretted taking no action--and was very apologetic.

My daughter recently applied for an "intern position" with a police department. Guess what? The internships all went to minority candidates--who had less experience and education and fewer accomplishments than she had. Affirmative action programs further complicate the job hunting situation for non-minority applicants. You can be the best candidate out there--but you're not going to get hired because you got the wrong genes and the wrong chromosome. (PS - I hate discrimination in all forms, including reverse discrimination.)

It's really tough on young people these days. They get a university degree, and end up waiting tables or working some dead-end retail job. When I was young, anyone who wanted a decent job could get one.

Not any more.

๐Ÿ™‹โ€โ™‚๏ธ Question!

How do we fix this?

(The โ€œmarketโ€ - discrimination is easy to fix but people are too afraid of being seen as racist so they reverse discriminate.)

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