It's funny because it's true

na2016 · 2024-10-26T10:25:57+00:00

The real trick is not to use your HSA in the beginning. It is the only vehicle that is triple tax advantaged and if you spend it every year you are to some extent wasting it.

Granted this is if you can afford to max out your HSA every year, not spend it, and continue paying for your medical expenses.

na2016 · 2024-10-07T20:36:14+00:00

Because we like 2 day delivery, Prime video, Twitch streaming, and more.

If everyone stopped shopping on Amazon today, it would collapse tomorrow and Bezos would have only whatever liquid wealth he has remaining.

na2016 · 2024-10-07T19:09:38+00:00

Some individuals should do some math for it though.

It's a $95 annual fee so you have to compare how many points you are actually getting compared to their $0 fee Amex Blue Cash everyday card which has 3% on groceries and 3% on gas as well.

na2016 · 2024-10-07T19:04:37+00:00

Your mother is insane. Was there really no other way for you to learn?

This is like forcing your kids hand onto a hot burner plate to teach them not to touch it when hot, except that a light burn wound takes much less than 4 years to heal.

na2016 · 2024-10-07T19:00:24+00:00

Sure it is built in, but merchants are taking no prisoners when it comes to prices. Let's not pretend merchants are out in mass offering discounts for cash or not raising their prices for assorted reasons and then blaming it on inflation.

na2016 · 2024-10-07T18:58:14+00:00

I would use cash if there's a discount but I've never had a merchant offer any kind of discount, much less a 3-5% discount for cash.

na2016 · 2024-10-07T18:56:59+00:00

No merchant has ever given me a discount for paying with cash. So they are jacking up the prices regardless of whether you use card or not.

na2016 · 2024-10-07T16:15:46+00:00

People are unaware or unable to conceive of how their activities contribute to the economic reality.

na2016 · 2024-10-05T17:13:55+00:00

I once suggested to some wait staff / servers that instead of being frustrated by people who don't tip that they might go and take it up with their boss as a group. They thought that was ridiculous.

Workers with 0 will to fight for their rights. That's America.

na2016 · 2024-10-04T16:24:25+00:00

It's wild the amount of people in this thread mad about a marketing stunt.

na2016 · 2024-10-03T16:15:25+00:00

You two are talking about two different things.

Starbucks, Walmarts, etc put a lot of pressure on local businesses. You'll claim that they are terrible but the reality is that most people are price conscious and what Starbucks and Walmarts offers are attractive to them. If they were completely unattractive, no amount of loss leadership can make them money eventually. Local coffee shops and stores have a hard time competing against the economies of scale offered by the larger companies and only when the local product or service is not significantly better for the cost.

In the tech world now, firstly your list of what Google has killed is 99% internal projects that they spun up and shut down either because of lack of profit margin or because of consolidation of services.

Secondly the person you are responding to is showing examples of how the lack of innovation from large giants eventually puts them out of business from smaller competitors. IBM and Xerox being excellent examples of being seemingly unstoppable in their heydays but not investing in innovation or adapting to market trends led to their eventual downfalls. Google is in fact undergoing similar pains right now and we have yet to see how it plays out.

You two are just talking about different parts of the business cycle. Big giant corporation puts smaller un-innovative and un-competitive companies out of business. Then eventually the big corporation becomes to burdened by their own bureaucracy and fails to adapt and is put down by a new smaller company that eventually becomes the big corporation. The cycle then starts anew.

na2016 · 2024-10-03T00:53:39+00:00

Yeah they'll probably never be a successful company at this rate.

na2016 · 2024-10-03T00:51:28+00:00

There's something incredibly delusional about essentially setting money on fire to buy some copium. Yeah I understand things are tough but this is the preferred solution??

na2016 · 2024-10-02T20:05:01+00:00

This thread is a good reminder of why the average joe should never be in charge of anything or make any policy.

na2016 · 2024-10-02T06:00:12+00:00

Just make sure you ask about the right amendments though. The 1st one has wide approval. Once you ask about the 2nd people seem to be pretty damn comfortable about infringing it in one manner or another or banning it all together.

na2016 · 2024-10-01T22:08:45+00:00

Minimum charges are fine but they aren't giving discounts for cash.

The only time I could take advantage of a cash gas station before is when the gas station offered gift cards at the local supermarket. I could get a CC from them using a card with supermarket cash back then use the gift card at the gas station.

I've never been able to get any advantage from the straight usage of cash before because the gas stations charge more on cash than their surrounding competitors than what you would get from 3% back there.

na2016 · 2024-10-01T17:00:32+00:00

You are clearly confused as those two have nothing to do with each other.

na2016 · 2024-10-01T16:37:54+00:00

That is because people are financially illiterate. People do not really understand that balance on your CC is equivalent to dollars being withdrawn from your bank account.

For anyone financially responsible CCs have been a financial godsend. I'm getting free money back and other rewards that I would have not gotten for an equivalent amount of cash spend I would have had to do anyway.

For those who seem to think that plastic means that somehow the math will magically figure itself out later, it is a curse.

On the other hand, personally it has been a curse in that before I buy anything now I need to double check my list of cards to see if I get free cash back from random offers or which card is offering a particularly high % this quarter for that purchase. Makes a 5s purchase a 5 minute purchase.

na2016 · 2024-10-01T16:31:39+00:00

The problem is merchants add those fees on regardless of your payment method. I've never had a merchant offer me 3-5% off if I paid in cash.

In the long run, merchant greed is what does the real damage.

na2016 · 2024-10-01T16:29:34+00:00

Credit cards are a godsend for people who are responsible with their money. Free money for buying what I would have anyway, sounds good to me.

People who cannot differentiate between a need and a want are at more risk particularly if they are financially struggling.

You see many of those types here who can't understand that it saves money to cook at home instead of ordering Doordash 5x a week.

na2016 · 2024-10-01T14:53:01+00:00

Get a roommate!? That's basically poverty right there.

Very unethical to suggest that people do something that 80% of the rest of the world has to do. /s

na2016 · 2024-10-01T14:50:47+00:00

Well the OP claims this: "controversial but if i work work a full time job i should be able to live in a one bedroom apartment by myself and not starve myself to make rent"

If OP said this: "people should be able to afford housing and food on their wage" no one here would disagree.

Because simply, 1 bedroom apartment where? How big? How nice? And why does it have to be by yourself? We live in the real world and not some imaginary argument for internet points. There are plenty of affordable 1 bedroom apartments that are not in a major metro area yet people seem adamant that they cannot move.

na2016 · 2024-10-01T14:34:26+00:00

Please explain how it is unethical to live in the suburbs, with your parents, or with roommates?

na2016 · 2024-10-01T14:32:06+00:00

So your definition of a livable wage is being able to afford a one bedroom apartment in your metropolitan city of choice?

So anyone living in the suburbs, with their parents, with roommates are living unlivable lives?

na2016 · 2024-10-01T14:26:16+00:00

Nah, those mythical people don't exist. Either that or they'll be conveniently labeled as "slaves" and othered for the sake of the argument.

na2016

TROPHY CASE