valpocrewsader

MJ, your post quickly entered strawman territory. Never would I advocate living like a pauper for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. Au contraire, the idea is to merely live as spartan as possible until non-house debt is out of your life since non-house debt cripples your ability to build wealth and destines you to an endless cycle where you build no traction. While everyone else looks rich but is really poor by financing this and that, you can spend just a year or two looking poor and then sail into the sunset. A very small bit of sacrifice, say 24 months, and you put youself into position where you can live comfortably with a big emergency fund, a modest house payment as your only payment, and plenty of money leftover to put towards retirement, invest/save for other purposes, give to charities, spend on FUN, and pay off the house. The risk associated with taking on a home mortgage is balanced by the fact that a home goes up in value. The depreciation of a vehicle makes buying a new car a bad idea even if you're paying cash (unless you're worth a million dollars) -- to finance an asset that will knowingly plummet in value just seems reckless. True dat. This forum thread is asking for advice, so I'll gladly lay out everything I believe in. To each their own. Heck, I've ignored some of my own preachings . (But I wish I hadn't!)

Sigh, the return of my least favorite thread on BF.net. I think the thing that bothers me most about winter is the massive, maddening amount of over-reaction it garners by the media, posters on this forum, etc. In Wisconsin, in winter, it snows. Figure it out! I'd kill for just one season where everyone asks like we've done it before. I'm only 29, I can't imagine how badly I'll want to Chuck Norris this discussion when I've had to put up with it for another 20+ years.

You can have that opinion, obviously there are others who disagree. Debt assumes risk, having a paid-for $5,000 car in your driveway gives you indisputable security you don't have when $20,000 spread over 60 months' of payments (!!!) is sitting in your driveway. Five years is a long time to roll the dice that no matter what happens in your life -- job loss, medical issue, other unplanned financial emergencies -- you'll be able to feed this beast on top of paying for necessities like shelter, food, lights, and heat. Then you factor in the stupidity of paying all that interest to the bank (perhaps partially offset by higher maintenance budget for the used car, granted) and the massive depreciation hit the car takes (nothing offsets this massive net worth killer), and I can find a lot of things "wrong" with taking on car debt. Then again, you did not define what you meant by "short term". Obviously, choosing to rack up a little debt that can be repaid in less than a year so you're diving a $5,000 car instead of a $1,000 would be on a different (infinitely smarter) level than the $20,000 for 48-72 months example.

Awesome Josh, definitely interested! We'll be in touch. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Starting to look ahead to Christmas, my girlfriend's family lives in Nashville and are huge Predators fans so I thought they might enjoy some Preds stuff with a Milwaukee flair. Ebay has very little other than sports cards, thought I'd go fishing here. I know Weber is her sister's favorite and I also know there's love for Rinne. I think Suter might be a name I've heard. Perhaps Santorelli if he's expected to make an impact this year? (Have only started getting reacquainted with Ads, newly reacquainted with Preds.) Thanks!

The Shea Weber bobble would make an excellent Xmas gift for my girlfriend's sister in Nashville who's a huge Predators fan. Would you be interested in selling instead of trading?

Just when you thought Milwaukee and Nashville couldn't share any more common ties.

Am I the only one strongly rooting against the Olympics coming to Chicago? (1) I hate the Olympics and get sick enough hearing about it when it's in Beijing or Barcelona, I can't imagine how much I'll want to slit my wrists when it's taking place next door. (2) I hate Chicago and Chicagoans, I want no part of anything that gives that city positive publicity and gives the natives excuses to puff out their chests and sing the praises of their trashy city. (3) I fully expect all events and related activity to take place south of the state line, perhaps a smidge of spill over into Kenosha county. They'll have several years to prepare, tons of people looking for work, and a free spending Illinois political machine that knows no restraint -- I envision the massive Chicagoland area handling it all. And there's no guarantee Milwaukee would be the de facto alternate site anyways, I mean there are places like Bloomington, South Bend, Rockford that could be in the mix too. (4) I imagine I'll need to drive in the Chicago area at least once during the several weeks it takes to set up, put on, and tear down this enormous event -- I can't imagine how many thousands and thousands of people this brings to a city that already has more people than its infrastucture supports -- they don't need any help making that place any more inconvenient. Anywhere but Chicago, please.

$1,000 is a starter emergency fund, a real emergency fund equalling 3-6 months of expenses in liquid savings comes after you've kicked Sallie Mae out of the house and told Visa and the other baddies to go pound sand 'cos you're done with them. Obviously, if you have reason to believe a storm is coming, an impending layoff or a medical issue you're not certain about, you'll want to pile up cash and build up your emergency reserve -- dropping your debt payment down to minimum payments during that time. If the storm blows over, you can kick the intensity back up on the debt payments and clobber it with the stash you built up. The $1,000 is meant to catch the small things that must be dealt with. A new altenator, a leaking roof, a band-aid furnace fix to get you through another year, etc. No, it won't allow you to continue living your current lifestyle if you lose your job without warning. But even in an unlikely scenario like that, you could be out delivering pizzas, mowing lawns, stocking shelves, and whatever else it takes to make ends meet until your employment is back on track. The way I look at it, there's about a 0.001% chance that I will encounter an emegency that $1,000 can't handle in a span of 12-18 months. I'll take my chances, throw the thousands of extra dollars at my debt to expedite that step greatly, exit the woods smiling, and sit pretty 18-24 months later with no debt (no payments to anyone except mortgage) and a fully funded emergency fund. (At which time real wealth-building can begin!)

Menotti, my first piece of advice to you (worth what you paid for it, ha) is to get on a written budget. Take out a legal pad, put your take-home pay at the top, and work your way down deducting your expenses. Necessities at the top- shelter, food, lights, water. Then move on with the rest. By giving every dollar a name, a purpose, before the month starts you stay in total control of your money. (Provided you stick to it.) Seeing it on paper, certain expenses might look ridiclous and you'll decide to cut them back or get creative. Also, getting it on paper, you'll often discover extra money at the end of the rainbow, like getting an unexpected $100-$200/mo raise. If you can resist the temptation to fritter that money away, you've just found more money to throw at your debt. If you want to get really serious, use an envelope system. If your budget is $250 /mo for groceries, you take that money out in cash, put it in an envelope labeled "Groceries" and you spend not a dollar over what's in the envelope. Next advice, SELL THE FREAKING CAR. $550 /mo for a vehicle is disgusting. Now you've got it down to $250 /mo with the credit card debt stacked on top of it, stretched out over 5 years. That's insanity. You can't win financially with that philosophy. Go with a ~$3,000 ride -- you'll find one that's good and reliable if you're careful and don't let pride get in the way -- and pay cash for it. (Or pay it off very quickly.) Suddenly you've just greatly reduced your debt to Landmark AND opened up more cash each month to throw at your debt! Next advice, if your emergency fund is anything higher than $1,000 cut it down to $1,000 and throw the difference at your debt. It's too bad you consolidated your smaller credit card debt into that auto loan, it would have been a great starting point to gain momentum and get intense about paying off your debt. Now you've got a larger loan, which -- pyschologically -- is just easier to ignore or feel defeated about, easier to treat like a pet that you just feed periodically and it's bound to be around for a long time. To succeed in abolishing debt, you need to be fierce and intense about it -- and you need to follow through. Quantity and quality. You have to hate the debt and be aggressive about eradicating it and constnatly keep up the intensity. There's no quick-fix, microwave solution -- this is a crock pot. There's nothing mathematically different about having $2000 + $2000 + $10000 in debt compared to having one $14000 debt (truthfully, the math could even work in your favor consolidating) but as humans we need our little victories and need to see progress. The prognosis would be better if you could see one of those $2000 debts dissappear and then later the other $2000, picking off the evil bad guys one by one like some super-heroic financial gladiator warrior. Earlier in this thread there was a debate about which debts to pay off first, the smaller amount debts or the higher interest debts. If all we were guided by was math, the answer would obviously be the higher interest debt, but personal finance isn't done outside the context of being human and having emotions. I'm a firm believer that you're better off snowballing your way through your debt crusade. Make minimum payments on everything but your smallest debt and knock off the little guy with big payments, then take that payment and apply it to what you were already paying to debt #2 and knock it off, then snowball that into #3 and so on. It's tremendously rewarding watching debtors one-by-one be removed from your life. It inspires you to stay the course with the same intensity. That momentum is invaluable. Mathematically, you might come out a few dollars ahead chasing the high interest rate angle, but the key is actually getting it DONE, and the snowball approach makes that success most likely. Just my 2 cents....

The biggets problem with using credit cards is that even the most disciplined and conservative spender will fritter away extra money here and there due to the painlessness of plastic. Walk into a Target needing only anti-persperant, somehow walk out with $30 in impulse buys. Paying with a debit card, on the other hand, is a little more discouraging to these practices since you know you're losing liquidity instantly. Better still, nothing keeps you right in line as a spender like using regular old cash like grandma. It's painful taking $10s and $20s out of your wallet, keeps you right in check on buying only the necessities. Same thing applies, perhaps moreso, when you're out at a restaurant, a bar, on vacation -- basically anywhere you might spend money. Standard & Poor's published a study on this subject, with the results saying you spend something like 10%-20% more with plastic.* Dumping the credit card habit and switching to cash is one of the biggest reasons I've been able to pay off $13,000 in debt over the last 10 months on a pretty modest salary. My discipline has never been this good. Regarding securing financing without credit, it's not entirely true that you'll absolutely need good, built-up credit when the time comes. Yes, if you walk into a mega-bank where everyone's lost their ability to think and use common sense and all they look at is the ALMIGHTY FICO score and computer models, you're probably not getting a loan. That said, there are still operations with their brain intact like Churchill Mortgage that do manual underwriting, actually looking at the applicant's capacity to pay -- income and assets compared to debt. In many cases, such applicants can still get A+ rates. I've been too chicken so far to cut up and cancel my plastic, so I can't really tell other people to do the same. I do strongly believe that the American culture needs to change in this area. The culture that says credit is absolutely needed, that buying a car requires going into debt, that buying furniture or appliances means taking on payments, that going to school for an unmarketable degree is worth thousands in loans. The young couples who need to instantly reclaim the lifestyle it took their parents 25-30 years to build, doing it all on credit and loans and house payments they can't afford. This recession has been a blessing in this regard, people are starting to realize how careless and risky their behavior has been. Dave Ramsey is a god. *EDIT: Brain fart, "Standard & Poor's" should have been "Dunn & Bradstreet". Actual numbers are 12%-18% higher. Here's a link: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/142336/do_we_really_spend_more_with_credit.html?cat=3

Case, booklet, and game all in very good condition. Not played very much. Recently sold the PS3 so the game needs to go!

I'm surprised to see back to back posters even mention 80 wins. That would require a team that's been playing .418 ball since the break to finish 11-7 against the Cubs, Rockies, Phillies, and Cardinals (and Astros). I just don't think it's close to realistic to imply that with veterans we'll crawl up around 80 wins but with the rookies it'll be more like 75. The truth is probably more like 77-75 with the veterans, 73-75 with the rookies. I agree with the premise that it doesn't matter, though. In fact, moreso with my numbers. If there really were a shot at 80-81 wins, my heart might want to try to hit that.

Brian, a friend of a friend is looking for a web developer to redo the front end of his bank, requesting someone comfortable in content management systems (like Joomla or Drupal?). Not a full-time gig, just an on-the-side contract. Just figured I'd pass it along. I can PM you more info if you're interested.

I don't know what was worse, the team's "ashes ashes, we all fall down" histrionics or Prince's vainglorious "I am all that is man" pose. I'm surprised to see so many defend the celebration as something great, cool, and funny. To me, while it's not the greatest crime ever committed in sports, it was just awkward, weird, and immature. It wasn't clever or meaningful ... I just didn't get it. I'm looking at a mess of Brewers players falling all over themselves like circus clowns and thinking, "Yep, that's my team". Sigh. It was one win, barely eeked out amidst a boatload of disappointing and unacceptable losing. I don't think it was appropriate and it doesn't give the impression that they take their work seriously. Keep it collected, modest, and dignified -- especially at a time when you're not getting it done.

I think you're wasting your time, lcbj68c. Not to be snarky, but I've gathered by now that Brewers fans -- while rooting for success -- are just supposed to be happy in the end that we even have a team and should feel super blessed on top of it because we have a roof. Real winning, and tradition, and dynasties, and division titles, and championships, and demanding excellence, and high expectations need to be reserved for other cities -- we're only Milwaukee. Honestly, that's the message I get. I'm with you though. DM hasn't done anything special with this franchise and this year's performance and record are an absolute embarassment. The man's had several years to build, has had the benefit of top draft choices and some very cheap all-star talent, has had the benefit of top notch facilities and fan support, and more recently has had a reasonable or even generous payroll to work with. He's even benefited from being in a pretty mediocre division. In all that time, the team has had only one good season, largely aided by a rented mule that pitched like a freakish super-human demi-god for half a year. He's due some credit for that success, but he's also due blame for all the failures that surround that outlier of a season. Where we stand now in 2009 is a joke. I've supported DM in the past, even on some deals that didn't work out like Linebrink and Riske. I've disagreed with him plenty, too. All that matters, though, is that he's been captaining this ship since 2002 and here in 2009 we're about to finish sub-.500. There's no way that's acceptable. If you're someone on the outside looking in at this situation, I think Melvin's job here looks very, very, very unimpressive.

Selling due to lack of use. 40 GB system w/ one SIXAXIS wireless controller - $225 Sony DUALSHOCK/SIXAXIS wireless controller - $25 Sony Blu-Ray wireless remote - $15 MLB 08 The Show - $10 BluRay titles available for $10 each: - The Departed - March of the Penguins - Stargate - T2 Judgement Day

Banquet pot pies. 85 cents for a 380 calorie dish of turkey (or beef, or chicken), vegetables, gravy, and flakey crust. Right now they're on sale at Pick n Save for 60 cents.

I always have to laugh at the name of the chinese place on Bluemound near the stadium. I think it's called Double Happiness.

I'm also in the single-guy-spends-under-$100-per-month club. Popular cheap meal choices for me include noodles w/ spaghetti sauce, mac n cheese, hot dogs, pot pies, PB & J, On-Cor frozen dinners, grilled cheese, ramen, hot pockets, Jack's pizza, oatmeal, eggs. I don't buy ANYTHING unless it's on sale with the store card. I basically just walk around the store hitting certain hot spots and let the sale tags dictate what I'll be eating that week. I can fill up a basket with goodies and usually check out for about $22-$25. (Usually with about $8-$10 in savings from the store card.) Also, I never buy soda or juice -- just tap water and milk for me, sometimes kool-aid which is super cheap.

Hall goes 2-3 -- incuding double single, and sac fly -- with 2 RBI in his debut with the Mariners tonight. Good for them, bad for us.

Looking forward to the season being over, personally. Playoffs shmayoffs, I just want my team to have a decent, respectable winning record when they're supposed to. We're back to being laughingstocks again ... impossible for me to enjoy any part of that. At this point, I'm just in a hurry to put the entire MLB season in the rearview as quickly as possible. Every day the season drags on is just another day for people in other cities -- friends, broadcasters, analysts, fans across the nation -- to point and laugh at how bad we are again and mock what a flash in the pan last year was. (Thanks, CC!) Ready for the embarassment to be over.

This thread was the first thing I thought of this morning after hearing the news story about the two would-be robbers who were shot (last night?) on ~10th and Chambers. Paraphrased comments from family members were direct denials that the perpetrators would ever do anything bad, not criminals, never had any trouble, they wouldn't be robbing anyone, cops are wrong, etc. Yet, both persons had extensive criminal records, even including armed robbery. Perfectly backed up Invader's comment. Right on cue.

The "At the Movies" guys were really high on Sugar, been looking forward to it. I take major issue with the title of this thread, though, as I think Field is a pretty terrible movie.

I gotta agree with you. I won't pretend to be an expert on the injuries of the 2009 season, but it seems like I'm constantly surprised to learn of injury situations around the league that lessen the excuse the Brewers have. I probably can't cite enough specific examples to back it up completely, but the Cubs seem to be an obvious example. Their best hitter misses significant time, Soto gets injured, Reed Johnson goes down, and Zambrano/Harden/Lilly all suffer trips to the DL. The Cardinals went through a stretch where all of their hitters (sans Pujols) were on the shelf -- they were sending out a lineup of nobodies. They acquire DeRosa and he almost immediately goes to the DL. The Angels went without Vlad for a long while and didn't have Santana for a good part of the season (and he's been ineffective since returning). The Dodgers have played half their games without Manny and also adjusted to not having Schmidt -- a major sunk investment -- as part of their plans. These might not be good examples, someone else can probably do better, but these are the things I think about whenever the topic of injuries comes up for the Brewers.