Been driving with a fob for over 10 years… Plus button start and touch entry. Driving the wife’s Town and Country to Montana and have to use a traditional key. And every time I get in, the key for the ignition is in my pocket… lol!!!
I don't get to travel on big trips too often, mostly because we are hockey parents. I've had what I consider 5 bigger budget trips planned over the last 20 or so years.
A trip to Asia with a buddy was drastically altered due to the tsunami that hit the Pacific in 2003 or 2004. We ended up going to Alaska, which was great, but not at all the trip I had been planning for.
Our family trip to Maui in 2000 was cancelled due to the pandemic.
We now have another trip planned to Maui in March (booked VRBO last week) and I see they are now having a hurricane wind fueled wildfire in the main town we are staying by (Lahaina). The town is a beach version of downtown Stillwater where buildings are tightly packed together. They can't get helicopters in to help due to the 80 mph winds and the fie departments aren't equipped to handle a whole town going up in flames.
The fires in Lahaina are devastating the area, so sad.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Facebook groups... someone asks a question and it get's answered, not once, not twice, not 3 times, but dozens among dozens of times. Added to the in-depth answer of people trying to out do the others. I'm apart of two Glacier Nat'l Park groups and I find it very entertaining and sometimes educational. I very seldom answer questions, cause by time I see the question, it's been answered. I'll occasionally correct people with false info. Though mostly I just post rare facts and info of GNP along with fun pics of GNP.
The following I had over 2,000 likes and comments. If you're familiar with Glacier Nat'l Park, its the top of GNP at Logan Pass. The visitor center/parking lot, the pathway/hike back to Hidden Lake and at the top of the photo is Lake McDonald. My folks flew in a private plane with a friend of theirs over GNP.
That was the first question my wife asked me as well.... No. I did have to use a few extra bullets to send the skunk over the rainbow bridge because I stood farther back than normal. I have had skunks get caught in live traps before, but it is unusual for them to get caught in the paw traps. Must be the week though, as I caught a possum in one a few days ago along with my usual assortment of raccoons.
I'm 50% factual and 50% sarcastic. When you get to know me, you will know which is which.
My uncle did this once and dragged the trap into his pond. No spray.
Unfortunately it was a paw trap with about a 2 foot chain attached. No way I'm attempting to get that close to unhook the trap from the post and drag it anywhere. I made sure I was far enough away before I shot it.
I'm 50% factual and 50% sarcastic. When you get to know me, you will know which is which.
Reminds me of the time I was in the fields shooting gophers (Gophers are a menace to wheat and barely fields) with a .22 pistol and rifle. I came across a badger and probably put 6 bullets in it. And each time it got madder and madder. Luckily I was in the bed of the pickup. If I was on foot, it probably would have attacked me. Almost guarantee it went to his hole and died. My dad was not a fan of me shooting badgers... badgers eat gophers... lol!!!
My uncle did this once and dragged the trap into his pond. No spray.
Unfortunately it was a paw trap with about a 2 foot chain attached. No way I'm attempting to get that close to unhook the trap from the post and drag it anywhere. I made sure I was far enough away before I shot it.
Yeah. I think my uncle learned from previous experience to have a nice long rope attached. He used live traps (I think). But he also had a pond nearby which was convenient in these situations.
Reminds me of the time I was in the fields shooting gophers (Gophers are a menace to wheat and barely fields) with a .22 pistol and rifle. I came across a badger and probably put 6 bullets in it. And each time it got madder and madder. Luckily I was in the bed of the pickup. If I was on foot, it probably would have attacked me. Almost guarantee it went to his hole and died. My dad was not a fan of me shooting badgers... badgers eat gophers... lol!!!
Correct me if I'm wrong Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers they'll lock me up and throw away the key.
Facebook groups... someone asks a question and it get's answered, not once, not twice, not 3 times, but dozens among dozens of times. Added to the in-depth answer of people trying to out do the others.
This is why I quit the "Beer People" Group on FB. I don't need 15+ posts telling me the new Surly Darkness (or whatever) is out. No one reads back to previous posts, even the one that was JUST posted. The 2-3 groups I'm in now are pretty good about that.
When you tell somebody somethin', it depends on what part of the United States you're standin' in... as to just how dumb you are.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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These last few months, when I go to balance my checkbook every week or so, I am getting more and more depressed.
I never thought my wife and I, with Master's degrees, would be living paycheck to paycheck. I exaggerate, but that is honestly how it feels. I cannot remember the last month I didn't have to pull out of savings to help cover our bills, thankfully we have a savings to be able to pull from.
I am thankful, we have no debt other than our house. We both drive older, paid off cars, we were able to finish paying off our student loans a few years ago. We are healthy and have a lot to be thankful for. We just have so many friends and family calling to tell us about their European vacations, or the new pontoon/SUV/camper they just bought and my wife and I sit and stare at each other like what did we do wrong.
In 2012 we bought a $220,000 house. We refinanced in 2021 to a 2.625% interest rate, but took off term to keep the payment the same. (still on schedule for a 2042 pay-off) However our home owner's insurance has more than tripled since we moved it . What was just over $1,200 annually, is now just shy of $3,875 annually, with the biggest increases coming in the last 2 years. (We've shopped, and they are all about the same right now.) Our property taxes have gone from $2,600 annually to over $4,400 annually. There is no way we can house shop right now. Trying to get a house with a similar mortgage payment right now would be a significant downgrade. I seriously don't know how people are buying in the current market.
Our daycare, since 2020, has gone up 9%, 16%, and 11% each year. For our toddler and summer care for our Kindergartener we are currently paying $1,285 every 2 weeks for daycare so we can work. We've shopped around and it is one of the cheapest in the area. A lot of in-homes around us have closed, have no openings, or are saving their openings for one of their families who is currently pregnant. I am told once we stop paying for daycare it just goes to other things (529s, activates & sports, etc.) so it isn't like we will have some big windfall when daycare is over.
Our 13 year old dog is about $250 a month to keep alive right now with all the medicine and vet visits. The cost of her medicated food has doubled in the last 3 years. Going from $45/bag to now just shy of $90 per bag. Pills are similar story, have roughly doubled in the past 3 years. Her quarterly vet visits went from about $150 in 2020 to $350 now, same work, just a new price. I half expect next time I go in the vet will turn the screen around and say "It's just going to ask you a question..."
We have P.O.S. cell phones, costing less than $300 each. Having small kids who smash things makes me not want to have a nice phone, nor do I need one. We go out to eat maybe twice a month, we don't eat fast food hardly ever. We were trying to save up to replace one of our vehicles that is 11 years old, but had to replace our furnace and A/C and it emptied that account costing about $17,000 to do so.
We work hard and have good paying jobs, we put 10% in our 401ks, we give a little to church, but the money is going out faster than it is coming in WITHOUT debt and buying any fancy or going on wild vacations. My 2nd job as an official had always been a "slush fund" for us, and we used that to take a nice family trip each year. This past year we had to tap into most of that to pay other commitments.
I am just absolutely blown away at the number of brand new pick-ups and SUVs in my neighborhood (these are $60k or more vehicles right now), with then huge campers and/or boats parked in the driveway next to them, and a dumpster at the end for the huge remodel project they are doing. Are there that many households pulling in $200,000 a year or more? Just a guess, I have no idea what income level it takes to afford those toys.
In 2020, we had one kid and I felt pretty comfortable, we could pay our bills and tuck a little into savings each month. In 2023 with 2 kids and runaway inflation I am completely stressed out and feel like I am losing control of our finances. Keeping up with the Jones' is a losing game, and we aren't trying to do that. I just wonder how the heck other people ARE doing in.
Sorry for the long post, just feel like I need to vent. The current pace of things is not sustainable, and my work is slowing down and I fear layoffs on the horizon... I really worry about bills then... Maybe it will just be time for daddy daycare then. Truly a first world problem, I know. As there are many in not just the US, but the world, far worse off than I am.
Kids off of formula, kids out of diapers, and kids out of school (we went the private route) where the biggest raises I ever got. Older cars, old/modest house, saving a lot. I remember it. Our only "extra" expense was buying our cabin, which we purchased from my wife's parents, to ensure it stayed in the family due to health her fathers mounting health issues, and it was not at market price. But still.....not easy.
I remember having similar feelings, especially when our kids were young, and it's not fun but we never wavered from our savings plan and it worked....not always fun but it worked. Hang in there.....you doing smart things.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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@fightclub30 I could have written that almost word for word. My kids are older than yours (15 & 14), but you're right. Any relief you get from not having daycare/diaper/etc expenses just gets eaten up by other things. Example: I think my daughter's 15U hockey bill last season was $2,400.
My wife and I have almost daily conversations about what we're doing wrong. Both of us have decent jobs. We live in a 55 year old house that we bought 15 years ago for $279,000 (at half of today's interest rate). Single family homes in our city are now in the 500-700k range, so moving is out of the question. We drive 10 year old Nissan's that are paid off. No cabins, boats, campers, or other toys. Take a domestic vacation about once every 2 years. Have old cell phones. We have some savings and are doing fine, but since the 2020 inflation spike, I feel like we're just treading water.
Meanwhile, neighborhoods with $600k+ homes are sprouting up like weeds in my city. Who is buying these? There can't be that many people that make $200k+ a year. If there are, what do they do, and how do I get one of those jobs? I just don't get it. I feel sorry for my kids. I have no idea how they'll ever afford to buy a house.
The median retirement savings per age group is: Under 35: 13K; 35-44: 60K; 45-54: 100K; 55-64: 134K.
Using this as a guide, I would say most people are getting it wrong.
I've seen numbers like this before. I think it is a little misleading in that there are a large number of government employees with pensions that don't have or need retirement savings in the bank.
My wife works in the schools and she puts away less in her 403B than I do in my 401K. She will have a decent pension when she retires, I will have only my 401K. Then there are a whole lot of poor people who just can't put extra money away.
I'd be interested to see the same retirement saving data for people making $75K-$500K, who don't have a pension.
There has to be quite a few people spending cash on toys and vacations and not planning for retirement. Maybe refinancing their houses every 5 years and going back to 30 year term? No equity and no savings for too many people.
The security of government pensions probably does tend to reduce savings; however, I would suggest that the retirement savings balances are still way too low.
The evidence of elderly workers everywhere seems to support this.
@fightclub30 I could have written that almost word for word. My kids are older than yours (15 & 14), but you're right. Any relief you get from not having daycare/diaper/etc expenses just gets eaten up by other things. Example: I think my daughter's 15U hockey bill last season was $2,400.
My wife and I have almost daily conversations about what we're doing wrong. Both of us have decent jobs. We live in a 55 year old house that we bought 15 years ago for $279,000 (at half of today's interest rate). Single family homes in our city are now in the 500-700k range, so moving is out of the question. We drive 10 year old Nissan's that are paid off. No cabins, boats, campers, or other toys. Take a domestic vacation about once every 2 years. Have old cell phones. We have some savings and are doing fine, but since the 2020 inflation spike, I feel like we're just treading water.
Meanwhile, neighborhoods with $600k+ homes are sprouting up like weeds in my city. Who is buying these? There can't be that many people that make $200k+ a year. If there are, what do they do, and how do I get one of those jobs? I just don't get it. I feel sorry for my kids. I have no idea how they'll ever afford to buy a house.
Short term people can afford those homes...long term it will bite them in the butt because it is all but a guarantee the property values will tank at some point. The amount of those people that are truly "house poor" is more than you think...and some of them might not even know it yet. Many are spending and not doing enough to stave off the inevitable rainy day.
(I am so glad my SO and I never wanted kids)
Now I admit that we got lucky, we got our house in a neighborhood that is not only never going to really lose value (it isn't inflated in any way, is in a solid district and is surrounded by other good suburbs) and we got it at a sick interest rate with the lowest tax rate in the area at an undervalued price for multiple reasons. (renters next door, owners had it on the market so long they were highly motivated because they had to move to knew house...etc.) Even after we refied we built back the equity pretty quickly so even though our payments and taxes are rising we are in solid positions. We could sell this house tomorrow for a massive profit (even after a 30k kitchen upgrade) but never will. Even when the correction happens our place will hold and rebound quick. At the time we bought (2015) we could have gone to a neighborhood that was "up and coming" or highly sought after because the prices were growing but we went with stability over growth and long term it will serve us better. Those neighborhoods we were advised to move to (and no lie the SO wanted to move to) are going to get hit hard as things race back towards normality on interest rates. (they were way too low for way too long)
All this to say, the issues you all are talking about are awful, but they aren't because you are doing anything wrong its actually because you are doing things right. In the long run you will end up in better positions than those people around you with 60k trucks and 500k houses. It just sucks right now and is unfair. When I was a kid in the 80s I watched lots of parents go through similar stuff including my own...my parents losing our house in 3rd grade is why I never get FOMO when people buy McMansions in Plymouth or wherever.
I'm one of the ones doing things right. Only buy what I can afford (or in the case of a residence, what I actually want, which is renting an apt), don't touch any retirement stuff. A lot of people have the "I'll pay it off later" mentality, and they never get out of debt. I have one heck of a retirement plan, would prefer not to get into details on here, but I'll be more than set when I actually retire. Granted, I won't be rich, but I'll have nothing to worry about.
FTR: for a 1BR in Minnetonka, near Ridgedale, still only paying $1100/mo, simply because I moved in so long ago. Some current residents, I have found, are paying that for a studio in the same building, since they moved in much later. New residents at my building are paying $1450 for the same sq ft that I have.
When you tell somebody somethin', it depends on what part of the United States you're standin' in... as to just how dumb you are.
The U's booth at the state fair was a major disappointment this year. They had the Axe there (which is cool) plus the men's and woman's trophies on display. Otherwise it was an unattended ticket counter, some sorry looking merch and, well, really nothing else. No displays from the school or interactive activities like they've had in the past.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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The U's booth at the state fair was a major disappointment this year. They had the Axe there (which is cool) plus the men's and woman's trophies on display. Otherwise it was an unattended ticket counter, some sorry looking merch and, well, really nothing else. No displays from the school or interactive activities like they've had in the past.
Agreed. They have added another building a little further north that shows all the research activities at the U. I feel like they haven’t figured out to do with the empty space in the main building. Either make it a merch spot and actually put more than 4 hangers in there or promote all the athletics. As it stands, it is a sad building.
The U's booth at the state fair was a major disappointment this year. They had the Axe there (which is cool) plus the men's and woman's trophies on display. Otherwise it was an unattended ticket counter, some sorry looking merch and, well, really nothing else. No displays from the school or interactive activities like they've had in the past.
Agreed. They have added another building a little further north that shows all the research activities at the U. I feel like they haven’t figured out to do with the empty space in the main building. Either make it a merch spot and actually put more than 4 hangers in there or promote all the athletics. As it stands, it is a sad building.
Interesting; I missed the other building.
“When your best friend is the son of God, you get tired of losing every argument.”
― Christopher Moore, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
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Can I borrow your crystal ball when you're done with it?
Trust me it ain't hard to figure this stuff out...I just play a low risk game. That is why I put money in I-bonds and such as opposed to playing the market trying to hit big...though even if I did I would buy blue chips not try and be Jim Cramer.
People’s grocery store etiquette. I watched a woman digging through the open bags of grapes at cub. She’d pick a wad out of one, look at it, put it in her bag of grapes, change her mind, throw it into a random bag, then dig through other open bags and pick another bunch. I watched her do this for almost five minutes. I’m sure she touched every single grape on the display.
Gross.
I’ve watched people routinely touch every piece of produce before picking one. Or one dude who opened a container of cilantro, literally touch his nose to it to smell it, then put it back. Not to mention the oodles of folks who sneeze on their hands or let their snotty nosed kids touch everything. I shudder at what’s on the food I eat. ?
Sadly the last three years seem to have taught people nothing when it comes to communicable diseases.
Has anyone else been bombarded with emails from supposed trivia sites? I hate to hit the unsubscribe and let them know I’m a real address but that’s been the only way to make them stop otherwise I’ve been getting several a day from multiple sites. Just got a new site sending me stuff today. I don’t know who is giving out my email address and I’m sure it’s all scamware but even checking my junk email for things it’s annoying to find 30 emails in three days from these places. I suppose it’s the world we live in now, can hardly trust anything digital anymore.
Not so much in my inbox. I have 4 email accounts for various reasons. Though one of them, the junk mail geta a lot. And I have to sift through just to make sure I'm not overlooking a email I need to be aware of.
Has anyone else been bombarded with emails from supposed trivia sites? I hate to hit the unsubscribe and let them know I’m a real address but that’s been the only way to make them stop otherwise I’ve been getting several a day from multiple sites. Just got a new site sending me stuff today. I don’t know who is giving out my email address and I’m sure it’s all scamware but even checking my junk email for things it’s annoying to find 30 emails in three days from these places. I suppose it’s the world we live in now, can hardly trust anything digital anymore.
I just had a similar problem. Wasn’t bombarded. Just one a day. First it was a words trivia. I unsubscribed. Then a few days later a records trivia. I unsubscribed. A few days later a movie trivia email. I unsubscribed. Been quiet since. I have been trying to unsubscribe from as many unnecessary emails as I can lately. It doesn’t seem to be stopping the amount of emails I get.
Anyone else hate this cliché phrase that I got in a group e-mail this morning? "Please be on time. Early is on time. On time is late".
Listen here A-Hole. First of all, we're not in middle school. I'm quite capable of managing my time without being preemptively scolded. Secondly, my time is important to me. I'll be there for your seminar, but if you want me there 15 minutes early to sit around doing nothing, that's not happening.
