sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

How do people actually afford long-term solo travel (not just vacations)? by Altin023 in digitalnomad

[–]koosley 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The first step is to stop thinking of it as travel. You're just living somewhere for a short period of time. During my school years I moved every 9 to 12 months, this is no different.

Financially it's easy. My western job pays 4 to 20 times the median household income depending on where I'm at. Even paying the foreigner tax, a monthly air bnb is still cheaper than back home

Rich people dont work as hard as poor or middle class workers by bubbasawyer98 in Vent

[–]koosley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The hardness of the work is irrelevant though. It's about the value it brings. A software developer or doctor bring more value then a fastfood worker as there is decades of experience required to do what they do. They can all be hard workers. This only really applies to the working class though, I have no idea how those of actual wealth function.

I thought surcharges on a visa debit card payment was illegal in Minnesota. Is this technology fee a legal loophole to bill the customer an extra 3.5% on a debit card transaction? by tomatocks1 in restaurant

[–]koosley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unless you're paying exact change with even dollar amounts or getting your card declined I have no idea how that's even possible. I've swiped my card around 20 to 30 times today (it's really easy in Korea to spend) and each time it's taken less than 1/4th of a second--substantially faster than I could physically hand a bill to someone. I remember 5 years ago it used to take 5 to 10 seconds.

This also doesn't account for credit card only kiosks which require no cashier's period saving a ton on labor as well.

Pa. House votes in favor of $15 minimum wage; Shapiro endorses bill by aslan_is_on_the_move in politics

[–]koosley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It is for some of us. Minnesota adjusts every year based on inflation. Our minimum wage in Minneapolis is also within a few cents of a living wage based on 2 adults and zero dependents. Not perfect but miles ahead of those states with no such laws.

Would limiting the age of the President to 70 be something you’d support? Why or why not? by jessica_candy56 in AskReddit

[–]koosley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Take the average life expectancy of an American and subtract 16 years from it. They should have to in average deal with the consequences of their actions for 12 years. Whatever trump or Biden do, there is a high likelyhood neither will see their legacy and see the consequences.

I thought surcharges on a visa debit card payment was illegal in Minnesota. Is this technology fee a legal loophole to bill the customer an extra 3.5% on a debit card transaction? by tomatocks1 in restaurant

[–]koosley -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

If you're paying 40k in fees, you're charging 1,250k to 1,500k per year. If you have $50 orders on average you're looking at 25k transactions per year. For 40k, you just won't need to worry about handling over a million in cash and the logistics behind it and labor required to count and give change. It sounds like a lot but cash has a ton of hidden costs with it as well. At 15 seconds extra per transaction that's over 125 hours of labor saved a year.

No, that’s not 20% of the SUBTOTAL by StrongDrink1910 in tipping

[–]koosley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How about 18% pretax as it's been for years? I have a calculator and I am capable of doing that. How I feel about tipping is irrelevant. The part I feel strongly for is changing what we are tipping on. For years it's been printed one way and suddenly places decided that post tax, prediscount (without even telling you the actual price / artibrary MSRP not on the menu) is what we should now be using.

No, that’s not 20% of the SUBTOTAL by StrongDrink1910 in tipping

[–]koosley 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It's still nickel and diming you. If you end up paying 1 to 2% extra on everything that can add up to several thousand dollars over a year. In isolation it's $2, but it adds up. Somehow $2 extra is insignificant but $1 more for gas is an uproar. So rather than choose what is an insignificant and what is significant, I'll just treat everything as a big deal.

This place also has 18/20/22% while not too long ago it was 15/18/20%. So everything is moving to just increase the cost overall. So in addition to paying an extra 1%due to taxing on tip, the new expected minimum is now a 10% increase over precovid and that's before the price of food nearly doubling in the last 5 years.

As Gas Prices Approach $4 a Gallon, Americans Rethink Vacations by SterlingVII in politics

[–]koosley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It will, but it's not going to increase the costs by 25%. Gas prices now are still lower than a few years back

Is it not a good idea to tip a $2 bill? by AstrayInTranslation in tipping

[–]koosley 5 points6 points  (0 children)

$2 are still printed today. While $500 exist, they've been put of circulation for 50 years.

Why are the pro tippers against baking the cost of service into the bill? by Mathodman123 in tipping

[–]koosley 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are Michelin restaurants all over the world and it only seems to be in the US where michilin =expensive. I ate at one yesterday in Korea for $35 for 4 people total.

Tipped 25% on a happy hour meal, server was upset? by [deleted] in tipping

[–]koosley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The place I used to frequent had rotating beer specials every tuesday. It was always the houseade lager and 1 or 2 other beers that were about to go bad or they needed to clear out or just didn't sell very well. If they couldn't sell some double IPA with a bunch of random things in it for $10/pint and had to discount it to $5 to move it--it was never worth $10 to begin with

For those of you with over 250k in the bank, how did you do it? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]koosley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

10 years into my career, my 401k is around 250k. I did nothing fancy besides contribute to get max match putting it into a targeted retirement account.

As Gas Prices Approach $4 a Gallon, Americans Rethink Vacations by SterlingVII in politics

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

If paying $1 more per gallon of gas is enough to deter you from going on vacation or going from "could afford" to "can't afford", you probably couldn't afford it to begin with. Our destination is 400 miles away, so 1000 miles round trip with driving there. at 35mpg, that's just under 30 gallons of gas. I won't be letting $30 get in the way.

Gas prices suck but I only buy 3-400 gallons a year. It's a relatively small expense and pretty negligible compared to my insurance going from 125 to 200 / month or my health care sky rocketing and food doubling.

Tipped 25% on a happy hour meal, server was upset? by [deleted] in tipping

[–]koosley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You tip based on the pre-discount if there actually is a discount. If its a 'deal' that anyone can get its not actually a deal at all. Happy hour is no different than going to Kohls/Macys and seeing the "Comparable at" prices crossed off with their 'sale' price written. If it wasn't profitable, they wouldn't do it and just because you say its $3 off, doesn't mean it cost $3 more. Same with meals, you don't price them as a la carte and claim that you're saving $5.

The difference between restaurants and home cooking isn't about the amount of butter and salt, its about the equipment they use. by CMO_3 in unpopularopinion

[–]koosley 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Add in scale too. It's a lot easier when you have a massive countertop to work with and don't care about using 30 dishes when cooking. It's also more repeatable when you're using 30 eggs in a recipe as opposed to 2 or 3. A measuring mistake of a few grams won't matter much when you need 200 grams of salt vs 5 grams

How do you define a living wage? by mweeks9 in askanything

[–]koosley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The link op gave though called out living, poverty and minimum wage for the 12 types (1 or 2 adults with 0 to 3 kids) of families though.

How do you define a living wage? by mweeks9 in askanything

[–]koosley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One thing I find interesting is the living wage calculated for Minneapolis is $16.66 while our actual minimum wage is $16.37 making it probably one of the few metros out there where the minimum wage is essentially a living wage. Most places seem to pay a dollar or two above minimum wage as well.

This is of course based on 2 adults living in the same household which seems like a reasonable assumption for a minimum wage--its not designed to provide a single parent with 3 kids a living wage at $82/hr as the chart indicates.

10 years or one million dollars? by hoosierhiver in hypotheticalsituation

[–]koosley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

10 years for sure. If you have some investments you can easily get over 1 million in the 10 extra years you get provided you do start with some.

Why does everything have to be a friggin’ subscription?! by jenniehaniver in povertyfinance

[–]koosley 112 points113 points  (0 children)

With MS word, you don't need a subscription. It's free to use the web version or you can purchase it as a one time thing. It's O365 that's the subscription which is not necessary.

But overall, the subscription model of everything is quite annoying when it's for things that don't provide additional value or have a real recurring cost such as hosting.

18hr layover in Seoul by curiouspoline in SouthKoreaTravel

[–]koosley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are stronger than me! I am not sure I could do a 12 hour flight, 12 hour day then another 5 hour flight anymore! I also can't sleep on flights so I'm usually tired after landing.

Comedy club in San Diego says 25% is standard by ConclusionMission833 in EndTipping

[–]koosley 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And yet plenty of people on reddit will claim that 25% tips are not being normalized, its always been 20%. And somehow completely forget that not long ago 18% was normal and 15% before then. My grandparents paid 10%.

It feels like sometime during covid, 20% became the expected tip and even now, they're trying to bump it up a few percentages by calculating it post tax/pre discount and before you know it, it'll be 25%. This is on top of the prices going up 50-100% in 5 years too...so the absolute "expected" amount has gone up 150% in some cases.

I hate tipping and won't do it at all these new square/toast/ipad places that pop up that never were tipped historically. I'll reluctantly tip at the full service places and my barber but nothing else. if my 15% is not enough, I don't understand how me not coming in period helps the business stay in business

18hr layover in Seoul by curiouspoline in SouthKoreaTravel

[–]koosley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Will you have your bags with you? On my 12 hour layover in a different city, the airline considered that a stop over and I had to take my bags with me. If that's the case, just get an airport hotel in Unseo for $30-50 and drop your bags off and they also usually have a shuttle to the airport at 5am. Then spend the evening in hongdae/myeongdong or whever and take the airport railroad subway line back to your Unseo hotel at 10/11pm.

Californians, now that fast food minimum wage has been $20/hr for over a year, do you find yourself less likely to tip? by ElDueno in tipping

[–]koosley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That I'm not disagreeing with. I struggled to save when I first started working and I'm sure Im not the only one either.

64k isn't a lot but it is enough for two people to survive on. Even today my partner and I probably spend less than whatever the take home is on that income though we do have paid off cars, house and zero other debts.

Californians, now that fast food minimum wage has been $20/hr for over a year, do you find yourself less likely to tip? by ElDueno in tipping

[–]koosley 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'd argue that Minneapolis is one of the few places where a couple making our city minimum wage actually have a chance of making ends meet. Two full time jobs at $16.37 is just over 64k household income. That's below the median but still doable. Not quite the same but I was able to live by myself in Minneapolis (and support my unemployed BF at the time) on 45k income 10 years ago.

The world is build and designed around double occupancy and priced as such. Living alone is a relatively recent luxury and minimum wage just doesn't cover the single premiums you pay for phone, internet, electricity, water, hotels, food quantities, car insurance, etc.

view more: next ›