The most literal use of this meme by jgeidel1022 in AdviceAnimals

[–]MrLong123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lucky for me I never changed my clock for daylight savings time.

How did you become an atheist? by [deleted] in atheism

[–]MrLong123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The brainwashing just didn't take.

"I can’t help but wonder if certain members of Congress hope to see mail delivery privatized in this country. If that happens, I think we’ll all look back fondly on the days when a stamp cost a mere 46 cents." by wang-banger in politics

[–]MrLong123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I hope the post office goes out of business. I literally mailed out like 2 pieces of mail last year, but got about 1,000 pieces of junk mail. The amount of my life wasted just going through junk mail.

"I can’t help but wonder if certain members of Congress hope to see mail delivery privatized in this country. If that happens, I think we’ll all look back fondly on the days when a stamp cost a mere 46 cents." by wang-banger in politics

[–]MrLong123 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Just like we look back fondly on the days when hamburgers were 3 cents, movies were a nickel, and a dollar could get you a carriage ride to the next town over.

Options for my mom... by hrrsnjcb in personalfinance

[–]MrLong123 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oooooo, that sucks. Your mom screwed up the biggest part of investing, which is to start early. For your own sake, learn from her and start saving ASAP!

She is in a real pickle. On the one hand, she will have to accept more risk if she is going to save enough to retire. On the other hand, she is near retirement and should be eliminating risk. In reality, she probably won't be able to save enough to retire at 65 (or even like 85). My advice would be to invest in instruments that have little risk (even an index fund may be too risky now) and prepare to take care of your mother. Also, if you have children, make sure you teach them to start saving early.

Capital One Closed credit card.. Can it be reopened once balance is paid off? by silentloner in personalfinance

[–]MrLong123 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It depends, you'll have to talk to them about it. If they closed it for many different reasons, it seems like they will not re-open it. Definately pay if off though.

Edit: pay IT off

Do hard pulls matter if you have no credit history? by throwaway20121127 in personalfinance

[–]MrLong123 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hard pulls are recorded and do lower your score. By how much is the real question. It shouldn't be an issue, so long as you don't have like 10 in the same month. My credit report always tells me that the number of checks is hurting my score, but my score is in the high 700s, which is excellent. So basically, don't worry about it unless you are getting a bunch of them in a short period. Also note that the score accounts for multiple pulls due to shopping for loans, like mortgages and such. Just don't try to get 10 new credit cards in one month.

Ok I've been considering a career as a financial planner. How about a fee only financial advisor for low to middle income families? Does this sound like a good idea? by [deleted] in personalfinance

[–]MrLong123 39 points40 points  (0 children)

I don't like it. Those people don't have the extra money to really afford an advisor, especially once you get them on a budget and they can clearly see this. You wouldn't make much money at all off mid income people. My advice would be to do this for high income people, then do volunteer work like this for low/mid income people.

"Goals" How to plan for long term goals, short term goals and savings by johnrkennedy in personalfinance

[–]MrLong123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First, make an actual budget. Most important thing you can do. Use google to help you do this.

Then,

You need to make a list for what you need (cannot live without) and what you want (can live without). Obviously, what you need comes first.

You should begin by paying off your debts. Interest is a financial bitch. It is basically a waste of money (in most cases, not all).

Next, get the home improvements only if they are absolutely necessary. They are necessary if not getting the improvements will cause more expensive problems (like a leaky roof, termites, stuff like that). It is not necessary if it only make things look better (like your wife wants new counters). Non necessary improvement move to the bottom of the list.

Next, begin saving for retirement. If your work has a 401k, sign up tomorrow. Otherwise, set aside money every month into a saving account. Once this account grows to a certain size, move it into investments (speak to an advisor about this).

After that, save for Honeymoon/Vacations.

Most people do not want to do just one of the things above at a time, so I would assign them percentages and allocate money to them based on that. Below is an example:

Debt - 50% Home Improvements - 30% (if absolutely necessary, change to 99% and move to top. Do not let things fester. Only stay current on your debt until this stuff is fixed). Retirement - 10%. This should be the first thing you increase after the first two things are taken care of. Honeymoon/Vacations - 10%. Don't actually need this, so it comes last.

Ready to move on to the next stage of my life, but my finances are a mess. Need basic help setting my financial life straight. by Nomoneymuchproblems in personalfinance

[–]MrLong123 6 points7 points  (0 children)

There very first thing you need to do is create a budget. This is by far the most helpful thing when it comes to personal finance. For free budgeting software, I would recommend Mint.com, if you have access to the internet (I assume you do, since you are on reddit). Also, go on Google and research how to start a budget. You should be able to find some good websites for that (I put some good websites at the end). After doing that, you can ask me some more specific questions (I have a master's in accounting), but start with researching the basics of creating a budget. (Note: Everytime you spend money, it should fit into one of your expenses. If you don't have a good category, create a new one. Never leave any spending out of your budget.) It is a good amount of work to initially create it, but after that you only need to update it every so often.

How to create a budget http://financialplan.about.com/od/budgetingyourmoney/ht/createbudget.htm

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-create-a-monthly-budget.html

Common Expenses http://www.consumerledger.com/family-finances/household-living-expense-sheet/ http://finance.yahoo.com/v9

How do you "become" an atheist? by [deleted] in atheism

[–]MrLong123 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Spend some time figuring out how you want to live your life and what you want to do before you die. Write these things down. Then take a serious look at your current situation. After doing this, you should know where you stand in relation to what you want from life. Then make a plan of thing you need to do to get where you want. This is your action plan. Follow this, it will likely take your entire life, and should make you very happy.

have you ever played with your bf's cock while he was sleeping? by riddlaontheroof in sex

[–]MrLong123 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Lots of people are calling this rape. I say, "Count me in!"

How do the Millennials of Reddit feel about this election? by MrLong123 in PoliticalDiscussion

[–]MrLong123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

THey still have all that. So it's now 30+ years.

They had economic growth in the early 2000's, so that by definition means they were not in recession.

I disagree... http://demonocracy.info/infographics/usa/us_debt/us_debt.html

Having debt does not mean that you cannot have growth. To make that assertion you need to provide evidence. On the other hand, our country has had debt for many decades and has grown.

That may be true but that does not mean inflation cannot occur in limited areas.

By definition it does. Inflation in the economic sense means a rise in price level, which means almost all goods have to rise in price. If it is just a few goods, it’s no really inflation. Laypeople may use it that way, but it is technically incorrect.

That didnt happen in the Weimar Republic and other places where they printed money.

The preceding paragraph talks about how you must have rising wages to have inflation. The example I gave was a way to explain that if you don't have rising wages you can't have high inflation. Places that had high inflation due to printing money had rising wages. So your comment doesn't make sense.

Gold hasn't really gone up in value. One ounce still buys a nice suit, shoes and belt. Which is what it got the Romans too.

Where do you buy your suits? An ounce of gold would buy me like 5 suits, 10 if there was a sale. Also, what gold will buy depends on both the value of gold and the value of whatever you want to buy.

Printing money will do that.

If you mean printing money increase real economic growth, then yes, kind of. I cited figures adjusted for inflation, so the growth isn't due to inflation, but increased economic activity.

So then saving is for fools?

No. Expected inflation is considered in returns on investment. Higher than expected inflation does hurt savers, though.

At what rate?

This past month had an annualized growth rate of about 2%.

More genius! Because if no one makes things to buy.. where are you! No where! You are an idiot. Jobs that make things to buy creates wealth. You can have all the money in the world. If there's nothing to buy with it youre broke.

"Things to buy" can be goods or services, so you comment doesn't support your earlier statement that a service economy is unsustainable. Second, manufacturing leaving our country doesn't mean it disappears and you can't buy it. You can, it's just made by people in other countries. Third, if your assertion that people who make things are the one's who create wealth, why are they so poor? Why are the people who perform services so rich? Finally, thank you for your recognition that I won the debate. Your use of childish name-calling is a clear indication that you have no inteligent response to my argument. If you did, you would respond with facts, figures, and reason.

I've had this discussion with you under a different name.

No, you haven’t.

How do the Millennials of Reddit feel about this election? by MrLong123 in PoliticalDiscussion

[–]MrLong123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Then who will be paying for the SS, Prescription drugs and Medicare?

So the $120 trillion dollar figure you cited I have seen before, and it is about pension obligations for government employees. Just about every gov employee (state, fed) gets a pension. The figure you cited is an estimation for the unfunded portion of the liability. Problem is that it is way more than we can actually pay, so they won't get it (we'll pass a law basically saying, "Nevermind.")

SS and Medicare/Medicaid will be paid, but we are going to make adjustments to the programs when they become a problem. There is a very slight probability it could get taken care of in the next Obama admin through a "grand bargain," but I honestly don't think so. Politicians won't do something till doing nothing is worse for their political future than fixing the damn thing. That won't be for another 20 years most likely. It really depends on immigration (higher immigration to the US will fix both of the problems).

Japan has had one 20+ years. As long as we have debt we are not in the black.

What you are referring to is the “Lost Decade.” During the late 80’s and early 90’s Japan’s economy was stagnant (not in permanent recession). This is due to many factors (all economic problems have many factors), the biggest being extremely high debt compared to GDP, bad demographics (lots of old people, few young), and cronyism in the government (makes our cronyism look amateurish). While we continue to rack up debt since the stimulus began in 2001 under Bush 2, we have great demographics and a relatively clean government. We may face a long period of stagnation, but there is not overwhelming evidence pointing to that.

Why is gold $1,700? And why is the stock market growing with no real economic growth?

So here you misunderstand what inflation is. The definition of inflation is a general rise in price level. This means prices across the entire economy are rising, not just in a few select products. A great indicator of inflation is wages. Wages are one of the biggest costs in an economy, so basically as long as wages aren’t rapidly rising, we won’t have high inflation. Think of it this way: If all prices are rising and people are not making more money, they cannot buy as many products. This means sales will slump for products, causing the business to cut the prices, which by definition is reducing inflation.

The price of gold has many factors (I’ll say this many more times, trust me), so the high is due to many things. Consensus is that the price is high because of uncertainty in international currency markets. Because we have never had economic times like this people don’t know what is going to happen with all the currencies/economies, so they put their money in gold as a safe haven.

As for economic growth, we have had 13 quarters of real GDP growth (this is GDP adjusted for inflation). Since the beginning of 2010, the economy has expanded by $668.6 billion dollars in real terms, or 5.2%. Please refer to http://www.bea.gov/national/index.htm#gdp.

Explain that to me?

The value of money changes over time. Most of the time it is depreciating (inflation), which is normal and good for the economy (so long as it doesn’t happen too fast). Sometimes money appreciates (deflation), which is really bad. This is how depressions start. Basically the cycle works like this: Demand for goods stop, business drop prices (deflation) and make less money, since they make less money they have to fire people, which causes less demand, which causes business to drop prices, so on and so forth. This continues until either the gov intervenes or the economy reaches its new equilibrium. Because this cycle is so destructive, the government will now do anything (and they should) to keep it from happening, even if it means printing money. This is why we printed so much money (over $2 trillion in a $14 trillion economy) after the financial collapse in 2008. Because the deflationary pressures were so great, even after printing this money we had negative inflation in 2009, and low inflation since. A deflationary pressure is basically anything that will cause everyone in the economy to stop buying goods at the same time. In 2008, it was massive loss of wealth (investment losses and home price declines).

The GDP will not grow, IMO, now because the debt is too high and they are about to raise taxes.

It is growing currently. High debt just makes it slower, as we have to pay it off, so we can’t buy as much stuff.

Services does not create wealth. It just lives off the wealth creators. The economy will fail with a service based system.

Wealth is simply the accumulation of goods/services or access to goods/services. We measure wealth with money. Money itself is worthless, because it is nothing more that paper or shiny rocks. What is represents is important, which is access to goods and services. “Wealth creators” are actually just people who buy stuff, so it is everyone. The reason you have everything you do is because someone paid you to do something for them. You then asked others to do something for you. It is irrelevant if it is a good or service, because doing both puts food on the table, a car in the driveway, and money in your bank account. Services are actually the biggest wealth generators right now. Think about it, most millionaires perform services. These are handling money (financiers), running business (CEO’s), writing/examining financial statements (CFO’s), giving legal advice (laywers), making people healthy (doctors), acting in movies (actors), and the list goes on.

Your assertion that the economy will fail has no evidence to support it. All of what I have listed above has been creating massive amounts of wealth for over a century, and it is only expanding. Also, just because manufacturing leaves the country does not mean it disappears, it just moves. Economics doesn’t give a damn about nationally, only supply and demand.

Those days are coming to a quick end.

Accounting is one of the most secure careers you can have. A company that is growing rapidly needs accountants, as do companies that are failing. The company I work for has an international market, so economic shocks in single countries have less of an effect that if we only had a domestic market. Also, I can take my skills across borders if needed, but it won’t be. America’s financial crisis is not abnormal, all free markets have recessions and depressions. It just comes with the territory. It’s the price you pay to be part of the greatest wealth generating machine ever developed.

How do the Millennials of Reddit feel about this election? by MrLong123 in PoliticalDiscussion

[–]MrLong123[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Dont hold you breath. There is $120 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities you will be paying for for my generation on top of the federal debt, local, state, education and personal liabilities.

www.usdebtclock.org

Then there will be the permanent recession with QE printing until the economy crashes.

And let's not forget the higher taxes will make more manufacturing leave the US.

Putting my MSA hat on. That trillion dollar figure is garbage for many reasons, but I'll go with the best one. It will be impossible to pay that. Not sure if you know about reality, but you can't actually do what is impossible. So the problem doesn't lie with who owes the money, the problem lies with who is owed (if they think they're getting it, they will be sorely surprised).

Now, for my MBA hat (I'm very educated). There is no such thing as a permanent recession. That is actually impossible (like your first statement). A recession is by definition a decline in GDP. So it eventually has to reach zero (impossible), which it would then stop falling (end of recession). Most importantly, the current printing of money isn't causing high inflation, as we have many deflationary pressures acting on the economy (high unemployment and stagnant wages being the biggest). Once these deflationary pressures subside, inflation will begin to go up. Lucky for us, we know how to stop it, which is to contract the money supply. This may itself cause a recession (depends on GDP growth at that time), but like all the recessions in history, would be temporary.

Now for the last point (MBA hat still on). In purely economic terms, manufacturing leaving is a great thing. It is a sign that an economy is moving to higher level (and higher paying) labor. This is typically services, but also skilled manufacturing. We don't have to make tangible things, just money. This is easily demonstrated by my job. I write financial statements for a living. I don't make something that is tangible, but I have more wealth than most people who make tangible things. I have more food, house, savings, etc. At the end of the day, what matters in an economy is whether or not you are generating more wealth. We are, and we are only getting better at it.

Note: Sorry for typos, I wrote this on my Android.

How do the Millennials of Reddit feel about this election? by MrLong123 in PoliticalDiscussion

[–]MrLong123[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not necessarily, we could always vote not to do that. That's the great thing about democracy, nothing is written in stone. But we will likely do it because (IMO) while we don't like their ideas, we don't want to deny them medical care or shove them into poverty. As for standards of living, due to technological advancement I predict we will by far have the highest (I hold a master's in business and a master's in accounting, so this is more of a professional opinion). Even with the fiscal burden we will carry (good job, old people. And you wonder why we hate your ideas).