Financial Survival

[OLDNEWBIE]

I have not had a credit card in over 15 years. And I do not have the faintest idea idea what our credit score is, nor do I care.

How do you rent a car without a credit card?

 

[CoastRange57]

I have 2 debit cards. They charge me a $ 250 deposit when I pick the car up, and then refund me the balance between that and what I owe them in about 2 days. The $ 250 deposit is no big deal to me, I have enough resources it is not a problem.

Been using the same rental agency for 10 years as well.

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

Oh, didn't know you could do that.

 

[NoFlinch]

.......When we need to go farther than about 75 miles in one way, we rent a car. The last rental was 5 days and cost us $ 153 for a nice Chrysler 200 4 door.

I have not had a credit card in over 15 years. And I do not have the faintest idea idea what our credit score is, nor do I care.

I agree with a lot of what you say.

Question; I thought it was MANDATORY to have a credit card to rent a car.

Not a problem for me, but my bro couldn't rent one a few years ago because of lack of one.

I have thought about renting a car for a vacation I'm planning, but with a LARGE dog, I'd have to "sneak" him in..

Oh, and by the way, because of the availability of Google and other sites, and thanks to my drone, your credit score is estimated to be 721

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

I make a little money on my cards, buy almost everything with them and pay off my balance every month.
My Cabelas Visa is going to eventually pay for my next gun. $130 in points and I haven't even Christmas shopped with it yet!

 

[SHPD_Retired]

It was a direct order from Clinton.

FWIW, what killed the economy was the housing bubble, not what happened thereafter.

As for "bleeding hearts" in Washington enabled bad loans - it was both people (home buyers/sellers, real estate pros) who pushed through the lessening of rules on loans, not the pols. Of course, the banks ran with it, and where there is money, there is corruption - the more money, more corruption.

 

[CoastRange57]

Oh, and by the way, because of the availability of Google and other sites, and thanks to my drone, your credit score is estimated to be 721

Don't be expecting that drone back any time soon. The noise was annoying and it did not take that load of
# 4 real well trying to get away, and what is left of it is being picked at and discarded by some hungry geese.

 

[The Heretic]

It was a direct order from Clinton.

People tend to ignore their own parties role in such things:

<broken link removed>

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/21/business/21admin.html?pagewanted=all

Not saying Bush alone was at fault.

Clinton had a major hand in it too.

But this was all at bequest of the citizens and real estate industry.

Then there were all the people who further fueled this with loans that shouldn't have made muster even under the relaxed rules, lied to lenders and so on.

 

[NoFlinch]

Hear me now, and believe me later;
THIS is something I know about.
It was the fault of the Republocrats, and NO ONE ELSE.....

I was going to start a new Bank about this time.
It had been a lifetime dream, and I was ready.
I needed to raise 15 M.

I raised 5 of that, and then had a meeting with someone who had started a bank that was eventually bought by WAMU (those of you who know what I'm talking about know who I'm talking about).

He convinced me that my goals were faulty, that the new rules & regs coming down would cause many banks to fail.

LUCKILY, I heeded his advice.

 

[The Heretic]

I tend not to blame politicians - nor give them credit - for the economy.

They (pols) and the media and people in general, love to either blame them or give them credit for economic failures or successes or this or that economic issue. Clinton did this, Bush did that, the "Obama economy", etc.

In general, government, especially the White House (regardless of who is in office) has very little to do with economic issues, or jobs.

The "market" is what drives the economy, and that is people - no small part of which is "Wall Street" and banks and so on, but mostly people like you and me.

Nobody (not liberals, not conservatives) seems to want to take personal responsibility anymore. People always like to blame someone else - often the opposing political party.

If politicians did something that has an economic impact (like lessen regulations on housing loans), it was because we asked them to. Nobody forced people to go out and buy houses at inflated prices. Nobody forced people to put bogus info on their loan apps. Nobody forced people to buy a house they couldn't afford. But a LOT of people did. And then they turned around and blame the government for doing exactly what they asked them to do.

Today they complain about all the hoops they have to go through to get a house loan, when those very same people were screaming to clamp down on the loan process right after the bottom fell out.

I was lucky. For years I told people the bottom was going to fall out, that the rate of appreciation and increasing cost of housing was unsustainable. People told me I was crazy, that it "would go on forever". They were delusional - nothing goes on forever.

I myself eventually bought into that delusion; I waited and waited and waited. The market kept going on and on. Just before it crashed, I had paid off all my debt, I had saved up a little bit of money, I had just got a raise with a good performance review, I thought I had a secure job (my bosses said all was well with the company). So I started shopping for a house.

Just about the time I was ready to start actually making appts. to tour houses I was interested in, I got laid off. This was just right before the bubble burst (which was no coincidence - one of our major investors Goldman Sachs, was one of the big wall street investors in the real estate market, but was actually betting the market would fall out, and it did).

So I lucked out, in a way - not that I was particularly happy with being lied to by my bosses (nor the way they handled letting me go), but it worked out in the end - no real thanks to them are due though.

My point is, it would have been my fault if I had been sucked into that market. I did not heed my own warnings.

 

[NoFlinch]

I need some financial advice/insight.

Where should I go for such advice?

I Know!

A gun web site!!

 

[Just Jim]

I tend not to blame politicians - nor give them credit - for the economy.

They (pols) and the media and people in general, love to either blame them or give them credit for economic failures or successes or this or that economic issue. Clinton did this, Bush did that, the "Obama economy", etc.

In general, government, especially the White House (regardless of who is in office) has very little to do with economic issues, or jobs.

The "market" is what drives the economy, and that is people - no small part of which is "Wall Street" and banks and so on, but mostly people like you and me.

Nobody (not liberals, not conservatives) seems to want to take personal responsibility anymore. People always like to blame someone else - often the opposing political party.

If politicians did something that has an economic impact (like lessen regulations on housing loans), it was because we asked them to. Nobody forced people to go out and buy houses at inflated prices. Nobody forced people to put bogus info on their loan apps. Nobody forced people to buy a house they couldn't afford. But a LOT of people did. And then they turned around and blame the government for doing exactly what they asked them to do.

Today they complain about all the hoops they have to go through to get a house loan, when those very same people were screaming to clamp down on the loan process right after the bottom fell out.

I was lucky. For years I told people the bottom was going to fall out, that the rate of appreciation and increasing cost of housing was unsustainable. People told me I was crazy, that it "would go on forever". They were delusional - nothing goes on forever.

I myself eventually bought into that delusion; I waited and waited and waited. The market kept going on and on. Just before it crashed, I had paid off all my debt, I had saved up a little bit of money, I had just got a raise with a good performance review, I thought I had a secure job (my bosses said all was well with the company). So I started shopping for a house.

Just about the time I was ready to start actually making appts. to tour houses I was interested in, I got laid off. This was just right before the bubble burst (which was no coincidence - one of our major investors Goldman Sachs, was one of the big wall street investors in the real estate market, but was actually betting the market would fall out, and it did).

So I lucked out, in a way - not that I was particularly happy with being lied to by my bosses (nor the way they handled letting me go), but it worked out in the end - no real thanks to them are due though.

My point is, it would have been my fault if I had been sucked into that market. I did not heed my own warnings.

You could see the bottom was going to fall out when you went into the new housing developments in the towns of Independence and Monmouth and the cheapest house was $350 K and the average was $500k. The market had lost reality. What ever you buy you have to ask who is the next guy to own it and will he pay more than you did to live in that area.

I do blame all our politicions, they have the power to make things right but don't do it.

 

[CoastRange57]

I need some financial advice/insight.

Where should I go for such advice?

I Know!

A gun web site

Oh..I think that some of the stuff I read here today beats the hell out of some of the so called " Financial Advisors" actually get paid to dispense for their victims.

 

[The Heretic]

I do blame all our politicions, they have the power to make things right but don't do it.

As I said, people tend to blame others and not accept responsibility for their own actions.

Politicians have much less power than people give them credit for.

That said, they do share the blame - they could have tried to "do the right thing".

However, expecting that of a politician is naive in the extreme.

Politicians seek power, they do not seek to "do the right thing" - if they do the latter, it is not intentional, but rather by chance - or at least, that is not their motivation.

"The right thing" is what good leaders do - not politicians. Do not conflate the two - they are two different positions of power, almost universally mutually exclusive.

We have very few halfway decent leaders in power, and no good ones. That is our fault; good leaders tell the truth, but we keep electing politicians who tell us the lies, the same old lies, we want to hear. We don't seek out the truth, we couldn't handle it if we found it.

 

[Just Jim]

As I said, people tend to blame others and not accept responsibility for their own actions.

Politicians have much less power than people give them credit for.

That said, they do share the blame - they could have tried to "do the right thing".

However, expecting that of a politician is naive in the extreme.

Politicians seek power, they do not seek to "do the right thing" - if they do the latter, it is not intentional, but rather by chance - or at least, that is not their motivation.

"The right thing" is what good leaders do - not politicians. Do not conflate the two - they are two different positions of power, almost universally mutually exclusive.

We have very few halfway decent leaders in power, and no good ones. That is our fault; good leaders tell the truth, but we keep electing politicians who tell us the lies, the same old lies, we want to hear. We don't seek out the truth, we couldn't handle it if we found it.

I ask them to take responsibility for the job they were voted in to do. Saying we should all share in the blame is just flat wrong to me. For instance I never owned a slave but am expected to feel guilty because some have in the past, horse hockey Problem is our leaders are corrupt, I don't see how we the voters are to blame for that.

We wouldn't be here worrying about our finances if they did their job. It's their rules and regulations that ruined our economy, the corruption runs deep. If people want to spread the blame then they have to prove to the rest of us it is our fault and the only way to do that is to oust the corrupt ones and see what happens then.

Deal is this new budget is a financial killer. They take money from our soldiers and give it to the illegals. They are giving billions away still and have increased spending. That's not my fault or yours, it corrupt politicions.

 

[Just Jim]

I need some financial advice/insight.

Where should I go for such advice?

I Know!

A gun web site!!

I guess we could start a cooking thread if that helps

 

[OLDNEWBIE]

I need some financial advice/insight.

Where should I go for such advice?

I Know!

A gun web site!!

I'm certain you'll get better financial advice here than an anti-gun web site! Those people are just wacky.

 

[The Heretic]

I ask them to take responsibility for the job they were voted in to do. Saying we should all share in the blame is just flat wrong to me. For instance I never owned a slave but am expected to feel guilty because some have in the past, horse hockey Problem is our leaders are corrupt, I don't see how we the voters are to blame for that.

a) They are politicians, not leaders. We don't, we won't, elect leaders. Anybody who tells the truth automatically disqualifies themselves from the process.

b) The voters elected them, despite repeated lying and failure to deliver by politicians. Who else would you blame for putting them in office?

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me over and over and over and over again - call me a friggin moron - errr, uh - "voter".

We wouldn't be here worrying about our finances if they did their job.

You give them WAY too much credit.

I try not to plan my life and finances around the promises of a profession that is elected based on a popularity contest where the general populace (of morons) elects them based on their hairdo and how well the politician tells a lie. The general populace then absconds, pretending they no longer have any responsibility for the results of their actions.

It's their rules and regulations that ruined our economy, the corruption runs deep. If people want to spread the blame then they have to prove to the rest of us it is our fault and the only way to do that is to oust the corrupt ones and see what happens then.

Deal is this new budget is a financial killer. They take money from our soldiers and give it to the illegals. They are giving billions away still and have increased spending. That's not my fault or yours, it corrupt politicions.

They are simply doing what we elected them to do.

 

[Just Jim]

a) They are politicians, not leaders. We don't, we won't, elect leaders. Anybody who tells the truth automatically disqualifies themselves from the process.

b) The voters elected them, despite repeated lying and failure to deliver by politicians. Who else would you blame for putting them in office?

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me over and over and over and over again - call me a friggin moron - errr, uh - "voter".



You give them WAY too much credit.

I try not to plan my life and finances around the promises of a profession that is elected based on a popularity contest where the general populace (of morons) elects them based on their hairdo and how well the politician tells a lie. The general populace then absconds, pretending they no longer have any responsibility for the results of their actions.



They are simply doing what we elected them to do.

Back in the 80's I was doing very well. I had just finished a 90 million dollar project and was moving on to something bigger. Then the politicions decided to crash the economy by saving the spotted owl. They destroyed work and my standard of living for years. Projects put on hold or canceled meant I had to leave my then pregnant wife and live in my pickup 400 miles away to find work.

That was my first real lesson about what a politician can do to screw up a life. I always vote to hold them accountable.

Have you figured out what obamacare is going to do to your life and finances?Who voted for that?

 

[The Heretic]

Have you figured out what obamacare is going to do to your life and finances?Who voted for that?

Congress.

The President can't make or pass laws. Only sign them and implement them.

The people in turn vote for Congress and let Congress know what laws they want passed.

We get the government we vote for.