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[|DRC| Death]

I think this thread could VERY useful for the younger members and possibly lurkers. As most of you are getting older (no offense folks ) and have had probably a lot of life experience between you all, is there any advice you'd give younger people? Everything from financial, opposite sex, education, friends etc...

Your input will be much appreciated

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[|DRC| Wartex]

ehhh...

For financial:

1. Spend less than you earn. Seriously. This is a #1 cause for all financial problems. If you must buy something in credit, think how you can afford to pay it if you lose your job. If you have no immediate skill (profession), forget about buying cars, houses etc.

2. Always pay bills first, and always pay at least 10% more than minimum payment on loans. Overpay bills by 5% if you can afford. This will eliminate entire bill at some point and give you a sudden surplus of money.

3. Pay loans as fast as possible. When you stretch something out, you are losing money on interest, big time.

4. Again, don't buy shit you can't afford. What does this mean? If you paid all your bills and loans, and have enough money for food till next paycheck AND you have enough money left to pay 50% of a full price of what you want, you can afford it.
For example you make $2700 a month. You paid all your bills for the month and food and gas and you have $350 left. You want a $1500 plasma TV. You think, meh, I can afford that, I'll just dump it on my credit card and pay it off in 5 months. WRONG. You are going to make minimum payments for over 3 years while blowing the surplus money on stupid shit. That TV will be obsolete while you are still paying for it. If you have $750 left in you account, use that as a first payment on you credit card the same day you buy the TV.

5. NEVER rely on parents help or wealth after you are 16. They can lose everything just like you can any moment (death, bad business, injury etc etc). If your parents are paying for your car, car insurance or rent, you are a fucking loser. If you are 18 and still live in your parents house and they are healthy enough to take care of themselves, you are a loser - move the fuck out.

6. NEVER rent if you can own. It's better to own a small condo than rent a huge apartment - (condo and apt is the same shit BTW, just called differently for context) guess what, after a number of years all that money you paid in rent for living there are totally pissed into the wind. They are GONE. I have a $140k condo with a $480 MONTHLY mortgage. Some students here in Halifax pay $1200 rent for an apartment, they have 50k debt in student loans and $5k in credit cards because they wanna own an IBook, 2009 Honda Civic and a DiCKphone. When they are done with uni they will spend a decade or more just paying off their debts. I can sell my condo right now and walk away with $70k cash, I only had it for 6 years. With that I can start a business - I'm already ahead of the game.

7. Open a separate savings account and put 5-10% of your paycheck BEFORE you pay any bills or buy anything. If you miss a deposit, triple the next one - this will discipline you not to miss savings deposits.

8. Always have ONE $500-1000 limit credit card on you with zero balance on it. Avoid having more than 1 monthly pay in debt (mortgage doesn't count).

9. Always keep totals of how much you spent at the end of the month. Use online banking to check balances daily.

10. If you buy shit you don't use, sell it for 80% of it's value or return it. NEVER sell shit on ebay auctions with $0.99 starting price. eBay is a gamble. I bought two $50 toobags for $1.25 and $20 shipping because the guy listed them at the wrong time and bad title, and he just sold a dozen for $30 each. Don't sell shit of desperation for next to nothing unless there is an emergency.

11. NEVER sell anything to relatives unless they ask you for it first. Don't peddle anything in your family, be it your junk or "business opportunities". Avoid family business "partnership" unless all parties contribute the same thing. I.e. if your bro has a mechanic shop but he doesn't work himself - don't work there. At some point one party will feel the other party is making more and contributing less, it happens ALL THE TIME.

12. ALWAYS know your scope of work. If you are a network admin but your boss often asks you extra tasks like vacuuming the office after work, taking calls after hours, unloading equipment from trucks or anything else that generates revenue/savings for him [monetary or otherwise] without you benefiting from it - don't do it. This is called "responsibilities creep". After a number of years you will have 10 times the shit to take care of for 1.2x the pay, and if any of your tasks are not completed - you will be blamed. Talk to your boss and if he is a fuckhead, talk to his boss. If they are good friends - change jobs.

13. Avoid salaries unless they are significantly larger than your monthly wage. If you make $40k in wage, $50k in salary sounds like a great deal. Guess what, once you are on salary, your scope of work will magically grow to 12 hour shifts, with 2-3 hours on weekends. You will be given a task load that is impossible to accomplish in 8 hours. And if you do accomplish it in 8, it will be increased. Salaries are a way to cap your labour cost and UNcap your productivity. If you don't keep up, you will be replaced with someone who can keep up for longer and less money.

14. Don't talk shit about your boss to your coworkers, no matter how long you have known them. You are giving them ammunition in case of a future conflict.

15. SHOW UP. Show up early for work, show up at your boss' office, show up at school, show up for your bank appointment, show up for expos, free training, meetings. I can't stress this enough.

going to sleep will add more...
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[|DRC| Death]

Wow, skimmed the post and it looks very detailed. I'll read after I've submmitted this post, thanks for the effort.

Edit.

Read it. Very good advice and will certainly keep reading this thread over the next 6 months-1 year. I intend to go to Uni in the fall of 2010 so hopefully a lot of this stuff will come in useful for then and beyond. Considering that was all just finance, I'm looking forward to reading your wisdom on other stuff too . I don't wanna sponge of parents any longer. I'm not gonna learn any valuable financial lessons if I constantly get stuff given to me, and tbh if I'm going on 18 in March, it's about time I learnt to stand on my own two feet. I count myself fortunate in the fact that they said they'd pay for university, as opposed to getting loans and credit.

Another thing I've been told from everyone from parents to teachers is to SAVE. Save money from the first job you ever get, even if it's $50/month. Soon, I hope to set up an RRSP and start putting money into that as the earlier you start, the better I presume. As for renting, I've always thought I'd avoid renting like the plague unless you really had to for the reasons you mentioned. It's pissing away SO much money.

I don't buy junk anymore either. It makes me cringe when I think of the money I've wasted on shit over the last couple of years and that money I could have put to a LOT better use, or just save it.


/rant

Question: What's the benefit of credit cards? Would it be easier to just not get one and pay cash/debit card? The amount of horror stories you read about credit cards and whatever it really puts me off. I guess in time I'll find out the use for it, but it just seems like a waste of time from what I've read?

Thanks for the advice anyway

[|DRC| Wartex]

Get on skype or ICQ/MSN. I hate typing. You are never on anything, asshat. You live in Canada and never talk to me anymore.

[|DRC| Iceman]

I agree with pretty much everything that Wartex covered and to add one to it...

Don't jerk around in school. Trust me when I say that chances are very good in life that you will only have 'one real' shot at a decent education. Once the opportunity is gone and your out in the work force collecting bills, you will need a method of paying them (i.e. A Job/Career).

Honestly, if I could go back in time that is the one thing that I would really focus on changing because I did not finish my education, and now I regret it because I do not have the means to going back. I am married and now I have responsibilities/bills that cannot be ignored, hence it is next to impossible to find the time/energy to take on/finish a formal education.

When people want you to go out and drink and you know you have school work to do, tell them that you will go another time, and if they try to convince you otherwise tell them to either piss off or find a more politically correct way of putting it.

Contrary to popular believe College/University is not to sew your oats, get loaded, laid, and/or mess with drugs. All that will do is make you end educationless and/or addicted to something you wish you never tried.

Go to school. Keep your head in the books. Study your ass off while you can, and get the best grades possible. Yeah, its a bitch, and it sucks, BUT at least it is an opporunity (usually the only one people have) to better your life in the future, and once your through all the BS that comes with getting the education you will look back on the morons who went out drinking everynight/skipping classes and say "Damn, am I glad I made the choices I did."

Myself I didn't have anyone to explain it to me. My parents would give me the 10th degree about an education but never really fully explained the consequences. If your parents are on you about your grades - LISTEN TO THEM!!

As far as money goes - SAVE!!! SAVE!!! SAVE!!! - Think about the WalMart slogan "Save Money. Live Better." Its so very true! I buy what I really need, and then look at the things I 'want' and ask myself.......Do I really want it? What is the benieft of having it? Don't make quick decisions on large purchases. Think shit through. If your not 110% sure you want to buy something......DON'T BUY IT! It's not going to disapear! If you decide you really want it and the most important part..........CAN AFFORD IT, then go buy it. If not, then forget about it and move on. Your not going to die because you didn't get that new iPod. Trust me, you will still be living tomorrow!

In short, Study hard, Save as much money as possible, because you just never know when that rainy day will hit!

[|DRC| Iceman]

|DRC| Death wrote:

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Question: What's the benefit of credit cards? Would it be easier to just not get one and pay cash/debit card? The amount of horror stories you read about credit cards and whatever it really puts me off. I guess in time I'll find out the use for it, but it just seems like a waste of time from what I've read?

There are pro's and con's to credit cards, but the key is to use them responsibly. By respnsibily I don't mean running out and maxing a credit card out. I mean only purchasing things on it that you "know" you can pay off when the bill comes out. If you have to pay the "minimium" payment that means your spending more than you can afford. Good for the credit card company, and bad for you because of thier high interest rates.

If you consider yourself a responsible person that has control over your own spending habbits then I would suggest getting one with a low limit to start with. Chances are good that if its the first time you have applied for a credit card, your limit will be low anyways. The reason I suggest getting one is to build your credit rating. Believe it or not, no credit rating is just as bad as having bad credit. I recommend getting a credit that is going to give you some benieft. Example: American Express and MasterCard both are now sponsered by Air Miles. Think about it like this........If your going to spend your money anyways, why not receive a benieft from spending your money Vs. just handing it over?

My wife and I collect Air Miles on a regular basis, and it payed for part of our trip to China. We still had to pay the taxes on the flight, but still saved a lot of money.

Personally I have a line of credit (zero balance), 3 credits cards and use 2 of them for pretty much everything I buy, but I don't overspend what I can afford as I pay them off every month. I only have the third one because of the awesome interest rate I got +0.09% above prime rate (also has a zero balance) that is now grandfathered and they don't offer anymore. The bank couldn't give me anything close to this rate which is why I keep it in case I need it. I treat my credit cards like cash. If I think I can't afford it, I will go home and figure it out first, and if I can afford it and still want it, I will go back and buy it. If I can't then I will wait until I can. Self disipline and self control are two things you MUST have with credit cards or you will end up like a lot of North Americans up to your eye balls in debt.

One other thing to keep in mind is to keep down the amount of "Available credit" you have. It helps your credit rating and will help you in getting a loan if you need one. If for example you have 10 store credit cards, all with a $5000 limit or even a $1000 limit for that matter, it doesn't look good to a bank for a couple of different reasons. First off you look like what they refer to as a "credit seeker", second of all if you have this available credit you have the ability to spend the money after you get your loan and the bank may not be able to get their money back they just lent you. Hence why you might not get the loan. Pay all your bills on time and keep your available credit low, so when it comes time to buy a car, house, or another major purchase the Bank will be more than happy to do business with you.

Speaking of banks, just because a bank wants to loan you money, doesn't mean you should take it! Don't let the thought of having 'extra' money on hand force you into signing something. Instead ask yourself the ultimate question: "If I borrow this money, can I afford to pay it back?"

Just look at what is going on in the USA right now. Part of the issue is with mortages that people took on that they couldn't afford, compiled with greed, reducing restrictions to qualify for a mortage and other factors causing a massive bubble to burst. If you want to learn more I suggest watching the movie CNBC put out called "House Of Cards". It explains in great detail what is going on which is far more complex than I willing to write up here.

As long as your smart with your money you will be fine. A good rule of thumb that financial advisors use is that you should have at least 6-8% of your yearly income in savings above and beyond what you spend monthly.

I hope this helps!

[|DRC| Marblecake]

Never do you girlfriends sister. Not a pretty sight.
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"Shrink" Are you a assasin? "Me" Assasin sounds so exotic. Im just a murderer.

[|DRC| SLIM]

tldr. death, keep lurking?!

My advice: disregard anything written by me before this post.

[|DRC| SLIM]

|DRC| Marblecake wrote:

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Never do you girlfriends sister. Not a pretty sight.

Now I be interested. Please tell me the sex difs/similiaries you noticed

[|DRC| Syntax]

Best advise evar for a youngin:
Relax.
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The truth only hurts the weak minded.

[|DRC| Marblecake]

LOL Slim. You would be shocked.