Your Age?

[mimico_polak]

The link to his homeless period is in his signature.

Quit our jobs, sold our home and everything in it, gone riding...

Hey GTAM, Neda and I got our motorcycle licenses together in spring of 2004, as an engagement present to ourselves. We thought it would be a neat thing to do. We took day trips, hung out at motorcycle meets, rode on group rides, did track days, took longer motorcycle trips, rode dirt...

www.gtamotorcycle.com

Ya. Tough times for @Lightcycle and his wife. Really happy it worked out and they were able to pull it together near the end there.

 

[FullMotoJacket]

I went on a date once with someone in their mid 20's that lived their entire life downtown and had never gotten a license or driven. So weird and far from my life.

I have a friend I've known since high school that has never driven a car. It's not unusual. Ian Anderson was an avid motorcycle collector, and has never had a driver's license.

 

[Lightcycle]

Me : things you own...end up owning you

Also Me: Ohhh Multistrada Shiny!

I hear you.

I fight the urge to buy a new motorcycle every single day. Especially now as the weather is starting to warm up. I feel like this is a battle I'm going to lose...

In a good way, though...

But also in a bad way.

 

[Wingboy]

Also Me: Ohhh Multistrada Shiny!

Huh?

 

[Scuba Steve]

Huh?

Not the ugly ones calm down

Sent from my KFONWI using Tapatalk

 

[bigpoppa]

When I see the OG multistradas :

https://imgur.com/5QpPMYA

 

[GreyGhost]

Not the ugly ones calm down

Sent from my KFONWI using Tapatalk

Ugly girls deserve loving too.

 

[Relax]

Yup same here. Went on a date with a girl from downtown.
she asked if I have a problem with her not having a car or driving ever. I told her as long as she’s willing to

I really though this was going in a different direction.

 

[Katatonic]

Ugly girls deserve loving too.

Ya, but they gotta pay.

 

[Mad Mike]

No you still don't even know what a NeXT Registered Developer was.

I remember going to a Next developer recruiting fair in Palo Alto, in the late 80s. I was developing video, rs232 serial interface, and keyboard drivers for CP/M at the time.

Next was a cool idea, but it’s was stillborn from a marketing perspective. Too costly, too closed, and too much applesauce

 

[Relax]

I remember going to a Next developer recruiting fair in Palo Alto, in the late 80s. I was developing video, rs232 serial interface, and keyboard drivers for CP/M at the time.

Next was a cool idea, but it’s was stillborn from a marketing perspective. Too costly, too closed, and too much applesauce

I remember lusting over a NeXTstation in University. The U of T bookstore of all places was an authorized reseller.

 

[Trials]

I remember going to a Next developer recruiting fair in Palo Alto, in the late 80s. I was developing video, rs232 serial interface, and keyboard drivers for CP/M at the time.

Next was a cool idea, but it’s was stillborn from a marketing perspective. Too costly, too closed, and too much applesauce

Nobody understood the technology that was being offered.

 

[nobbie48]

Sat down with a former co-worker a couple years ago... figured out they were spending between $90-130 PER WEEK on Lattes and specialty coffees.
They had no idea that 20% of their take home pay was being spent on coffee. They rolled it back to 1 per day. 6 months later, fancy vacation, year after that, downpayment on new car...

So, yes, a crazy coffee habit *CAN* prevent you from saving a downpayment on a car/house/whatever.

It may sound wacky but when we were trying to pay off our mortgage I told myself that every unnecessary dollar I spent was borrowed because it could have been used to pay down the mortgage. Basically I was mortgaging a coffee.

That didn't mean we never bought coffees or went out to eat but it put things in perspective.

Multiple Starbucks and a pack a day habit = $15,000 a year

 

[nobbie48]

Pre-Covid I worked in the core, and going for a coffee/latte/espresso was a common thing to do on a break. It was a 'cheap' purpose/reason to get out of the office, but it adds up rapidly. I don't think I had spent $90-$130 a week, but I was probably spending about $100-150 a month.

Now, the real killer is lunch. Big temptation to go down to the food courts to get lunch - gets you out of the office for some social time and you eat hot/fresh food. $20 a meal generally though - so... $100 a week. $400 a month.

If you're a coffee/lunch guy you're spending $500 a month.

If you can afford it, I don't judge. But if you're on a budget, then this is one of the areas that you ought to consider cutting back on.

Years ago I started a new job, junior position but good bunch of people. The first day I'm invited to join the regulars for lunch, nice sit down restaurant. Second day the same. I do the calculations and I will be spending a quarter of my take home on lunches. Brown bagged it from then on.

One of the most insidious advertising campaigns ever was the "You deserve a break today". Why does a person deserve a break?

Is getting out of bed a good enough reason? Getting dressed? Going to work like billions of others?

OK you may deserve a break if you've done something extraordinary like curing cancer or rescuing a damsel in distress but if that's the case don't you deserve more than a cheeseburger?

 

[nobbie48]

Unless you're smart about it - which, unfortunately, most people aren't.
Me, I use a credit card for almost everything - collect travel rewards. Plan is to use them in about 2 years for a trip to Australia.

Buy stuff on card. Pay it off next pay cheque. Repeat. Never pay any interest due to the regular pay downs. Ends up being a win for me in the end... and very long term and slow win, but a win nonetheless.

If you're smart..

Friends of our daughter pay their mortgage, insurance, groceries on credit but always pay it off. Make a ton on rebates.

Covid got me doing everything on debit. I check my account every couple of days and see where the money goes. It used to just disappear.

 

[Baggsy]

Kid got his G2. We're soon to be a two driver family. I wonder if the other two will bother now, since they know how low a bar it is, and the insurance won't go up any more.

Had a stockbroker that sat across from me explain the coffee thing early on. Didn't necessarily stop me, but let me evaluate it better.

 

[nobbie48]

All this talk about money makes me think again about how we should be teaching personal finance in high school ... every year.

Credit Cards, APR loans, insurance... a lot of stuff you don't really find out until you might already be in too deep.

Hell, my first 'personal finance' class was getting a credit card in unversity - I held $1000s debt every year until tax time where I can use my tax return to pay off my credit card. It was perpetually uncomfortable.

Didn't Ford introduce that, teaching finance in school?

 

[nobbie48]

That is a great point, but with a lot of parents still having no idea how things work, the only thing they can pass along is ignorance. It is truly amazing how some people get through life with so little understanding. The stereotypical example was someone on the line at a big auto manufacturer. If you have $100 left at the end of the month, that means you have $100 a month to pay the note on a new toy. The long-term game is taken care of by your employer. I think things have changed some, but when I was a kid, talking with some of the GM workers was eye-opening.

Hence the MSRP being in fine print or not shown, Instead it's only $XXX.99 a month. Only $XXX.99 seems less than $XXX.99 a month.

I was talking to a co worker who was thinking of buying a boat, only $600 a month. I reminded him that it was also $600 a month in February when it was covered in ice and snow.

 

[nobbie48]

Same strategy here. When I was a kid and got my first credit card, I was told it was a convenience tool so I didn't have to carry tons of cash with me all the time, and to always pay off the balance by the due date to avoid paying interest. Then rewards cards came out. I used to use travel rewards cards like CIBC Aeroplan and Amex, but stopped back in 2000 when I realized that for all the taxes I was paying on flights along with how long it took to earn enough points while paying $100+ per year for the card, I was better off with no fee cash back cards and paying for the flights myself.

I made several grand on the GM Visa card buying new GM vans. There was also a way of selling your points to someone else buying a car.

 

[nobbie48]

Exactly GG. The better your reward card the bigger the hit the retailer takes. That's why so many prefer debit. It's a standard cost(lower) per transaction rather a percentage.

I've tried to find out what the fees are for debit but get the impression they can be negotiated based on volume. The local coffee shop charges 25 cents on purchases under $7.00. A low average sale shop would get hammered.