Category: ask reddit

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People Discuss the Worst Financial Decisions They’ve Ever Seen

Have you ever made a terrible financial decision that affected your life in an extremely negative way?

Unfortunately, this happens to a lot of good folks out there who made a bad money decision for one reason or another…and the aftermath can be pretty ugly.

Here are some stories about really bad financial decisions from people on AskReddit.

1. You gotta pay your taxes.

“Had a client who was extremely wealthy about eight years ago tell us he was no longer going to use our services. Last year we get an extremely angry phone call from his wife asking us why we haven’t been filing their taxes.

We showed her the paperwork where her husband said he was no longer going to use our services. And then sh*t hit the fan. This dude apparently just decided he wasn’t going to pay taxes anymore and didn’t file a return for eight years and had been lying to his wife.

They were rich and owed almost 1.4 million dollars in taxes not including interest and penalties. And oh yeah they got absolutely fried by the IRS. If you are in a relationship with someone you need to be involved in financial decisions.

Never let one party handle all of the money and make all of the decisions. That is how bad things happen in both business and in relationships.”

2. Start-up.

“Saw a guy invest about 600k in a start-up. He confirmed in the 1.5 pages agreement that he was fully informed about everything going on.

Please if you invest in that size, ask a lawyer to at least review the agreement.”

3. Didn’t take your advice.

“I had one client that had the money to pay for his kids college without taking out any loans. Instead, he decided to take out a loan on his house to pay for college in order to claim a deduction on his tax return.

When I explained to him that the benefits he’ll get from claiming the interest deduction on his return would not outweigh the amount he spends on interest he was certain I was wrong, even after I showed him the total amount of interest he’d pay and compared that to the expected tax benefit he’d receive for it.”

4. Big winner.

“I had 1 client that won the lottery. It was a $10,000/month annuity FOR LIFE, give or take. Pretty sweet deal, right?

Well, he never went and claimed the prize because he didn’t want to pay the taxes. I told him f*ck the taxes, he can retire and never work another day in his life while still earning $120k/year. Nope, he’d have to pay the taxes so he didn’t go claim the prize. I think he even threw the ticket out.

Dude makes like $60k/year and he turned down the lotto winnings. Like, if you’re not going to claim the winnings because you’re THAT against paying any sort of taxes why bother playing the lottery at all?”

5. A bad move.

“I had a client in her 70s put her whole savings in Tilray stock.

At the time it was trading above 150 per share. I told her it was a terrible idea to put all of her savings in one investment but she told me I was wrong. She argued with me for a good 15 minutes until I relented and said okay, it’s your money. So she put 300k in.

Couple weeks later it starts dropping, I call her and get no answer. It’s sitting at 6 dollars a share now, her account is down to about 12k. Last time I spoke with her I took no pleasure in telling her she’s no longer my client.”

6. He was warned…

“A client who tried to time the market with the coronavirus drop back in March.

He was 55 and had a 7 figure amount in his 401(k) and was 90:10 equity:bonds. His plan was to time the market by shifting his entire allocation to a money market/ bonds, wait for the market to drop more, and then shift back into equity.

This was at the end of March. I tried to warn him. He didn’t answer my subsequent calls.”

7. Credit card hell.

“I’ve had SO MANY people with credit card debt who talk about investing/ saving for a big purchase, but they have 5 figures of 20%+ credit card debt. “I’d rather focus on investments for this call” well you’re gonna get 10% in the market if its a decent year and you’re paying 26% in interest so you’re losing money.

You have a 50% debt to income ratio, you can’t get a mortgage. Yes, I know the kids really wanted a pool this year, but you have $50,000 of CC debt to pay down before it makes sense for you to start saving for their college. 90% of the time they seem irritated and ghost me because I don’t have some magic solution to make their credit card debt disappear.”

8. No understanding.

“I had a client who wanted to know how to give away her 401k because her and her husband’s pensions were already enough for their lifestyle and she didn’t want to be in a higher tax bracket.

She was in her 60s, worth millions, and did not understand how marginal tax brackets work. Or even basic math. She wasn’t looking to get a deduction through gifting stock.

She (clearly) was nowhere near that level of understanding taxes. She just spent her entire life working hard and being extremely frugal, which led to her being a millionaire who lacked a basic understanding of money. Not really a bad decision but I found it really interesting.”

9. A scam.

“Former manager at a credit union.

One seemingly smart lady in her 70s got one of those lottery scam letters saying she won, but needed to send them money to process her winnings. They kept getting her to send more and more money. We were telling her it was a scam from day 1, but we couldn’t stop her.

She burned through her IRA which had about 200k. Took out a loan against her paid off house for another 200k. Sold her jewelry. Probably paid out 500k total before finally realizing.

We truly did everything we could. Got her family involved. Several of us would confront her every time she came in and would plead with her to stop.

It was sad but at some point you have to cut your losses and realize it’s a scam.”

10. Listen to your accountants, people.

“Best friend is a CPA, and when he had his own practice, he had some pretty big-name clients (Senators, musicians, pro athletes, etc.)

One of the biggest mistakes people made were thinking they were smarter than an accountant. His biggest challenge were the people who heard about the “sovereign citizen” nonsense. To no one’s surprise, a random guy on YouTube doesn’t know more than an actual CPA with 40+ years experience.

At least a few of these new-found “sovereign citizens” ended up doing time for tax evasion.”

11. Lost everything.

“Watched a client walk out of my office after I explained the risk in liquidating his 401K to start his own business.

He started it with no management experience or business model, real “fly by the seat of his pants” kinda guy. Wanted to start a career flipping houses in a college town, turn them into upscale rentals. Did it in a bad neighborhood and lost EVERYTHING.”

12. Gold coins.

“I had a client Buy numismatic gold coins with an entire retirement account. She bought 266k worth of coins at almost double the price of bullion.

I got the gold salesman on the phone and asked him to justify the reasoning and I he said it was because the dollar was paper money and worth nothing and that gold was going to go to 10000 a coin. I asked him what he exchanged this gold for and he said “well she paid me dollars”.

Then I said “why would you accept a worthless currency for your rapidly appreciating gold currency?” He cursed at me and hung up and said I didn’t know what I was talking about.

I still haven’t met a gold salesman that can answer this. Their whole pitch is that the dollar isn’t worth anything but they happily take them in exchange for gold coins. The whole thing is sh*t. Poor lady. She can’t sell them now even with gold bullion as high as it is for anything close to what she bought them for.”

13. A shame.

“Former bank teller here.

Had an older gentleman who would typically only come in once a month and pull out a few hundred dollars for living expenses, nice old guy btw. One month he comes in twice in two weeks and pulls out $5k which was bizarre for him. When he came in the third week in a row I planned on asking him if he was remodeling his home or something but I didn’t have to.

He came in to get another $5k out and told me he had won the lottery but had to pay the taxes on his winnings, some of you already know what’s going on. He had received a letter that he won around $3mil from the Kentucky state lotto, we were in Florida, but before he could claim it he had to pay the taxes on it. His account was setup that you could only withdraw $5k a week hence him coming every week.

I tried to explain to him that he was being scammed and to stop sending them money. He was no longer a nice old man when I said that. He accused me of being jealous of his winnings and that “he’d show me” when he deposited his millions in a different bank, then he left. I talked to my manager who then talked to the cops and they said there wasn’t much they could do since it was out of state.

His family even contacted us and begged us not to give him anymore of his money when they found out what was going on, which we cannot legally do. The only thing we could do was close his account because we didn’t want to have any responsibility in his downfall. He came in the following week, manager explained what was going to happen, and he left with a cashier’s check after quite a few more expletives.

Found out a few months after that the scammers got another $50k out of him before his family was able to get power of attorney and control over his finances. Not sure what happened to him after that but it’s a d*mn shame.”

Now we’d like to hear your stories.

What’s the worst financial decision that you’ve seen someone make?

Talk to us in the comments!

The post People Discuss the Worst Financial Decisions They’ve Ever Seen appeared first on UberFacts.

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What Should You Do in Your 20s to Avoid Regrets Later in Life? Here’s What People Said.

Life should be about constantly evolving, constantly learning, and constantly trying to improve yourself.

You go through a lot of peaks and valleys during this interesting ride, and sometimes you just have to experience things firsthand for them to really sink in and force you to make changes.

BUT…I have to admit that if I could do it over again, I would’ve done some things differently in my twenties so my thirties would have been a little bit easier.

But we all live and we learn…

Check out these words of wisdom for twenty-somethings from AskReddit users.

1. Important.

“Learn how to budget. Even if it’s just a simple excel or google sheets file with one column of income, and one of expenses.

When you see everything you buy in a month next to each other, you realize where you can save money pretty well.”

2. Do it yourself.

“Learn how to be independently happy.

I wish someone could have screamed this in my face with a megaphone whenever I was about to do something codependently stupid in my 20s and early 30s.”

3. Good advice.

“Don’t smoke.

Don’t drink every day

Exercise

Eat healthy.

Save your $ and invest.

Don’t marry crazy regardless of how good the s*x is.”

4. Go for it.

“Take chances.

Someone you fancy? Ask them out.

Want to try a new education path or hobby? Do it.

Have trouble with anxiety/self worth/past crappy experiences? Get a good therapist and work on it.

Your 20s are the time you get to figure out who you are.”

5. Very true.

“Protect your hearing!

Wear ear plugs at concerts and don’t always crank up the music in your car.”

6. Goals are good.

“Make sure that if you have a relationship with someone you actually nail down the long term goals and agree on them.

Like kids. How exactly will that work? Marriage? Find your deal breakers and take them seriously.

From 20-30 the time really flies and you don’t want to miss it.”

7. Be active.

“Exercise.

Even lightly once a week. Just do something. Stretch too, yoga is great.

Some won’t try it because of the stigma, but just do it at home with YouTube videos if you want to.”

8. Do it!

“Learn how to cook and eat healthy.

You’ll save money and your body will appreciate it.”

9. YOU DO YOU.

“Live your life the way you want to, not the way your parents tell you is “best”, and not the way society “expects” you to. Unless that actually lines up with what you want.

I spent way too much time doing what I thought were the “right” things or the “best” things and I was actually miserable.”

10. Something to think about. 

“Don’t get married until you are able to be fully self sufficient. If you get married thinking the other half will “complete you,” you are dead wrong. Make sure you know who you are.

When in school get jobs in different fields that interest you. This will help you figure out what you really want to do.

Realize you aren’t stuck anywhere. You can change, you have time.

Have fun! You’ll have plenty of time to be miserable.”

11. Discipline.

“Create discipline.

Find what your goals in life are and set steps to achieve them. Create a minimal workout regimen that you must do (walk, push ups, swim, pullup bar by bathroom, whatever).

Create a diet you want to adhere to. 21 meals a week? You can only do fast food/unhealthy restaurant 4 times or so many desserts a week or so many unhealthy snacks a day.

Read! Read whatever interests you, and always try to find unbiased (yeah right) articles or at least read the side you disagree with too. Open your mind to feel empathy and know others live in this world.

Learn a little more than basic math. Learn an instrument or a couple songs on bass/guitar/drums. Get into at least 1 sport. Last, but not least, learn another language, more if you can.”

12. It’s harder to make friends as you get older.

“Seek out and/or retain social friendships.

College is over, and you probably won’t see a lot of those people very much anymore.

Don’t be afraid to look around for meetup groups or events in your area to meet new people.”

13. Let them know.

“If you don’t want to get married to the person you’re with, tell them.

It’s far better to have some hurt feelings now than to have severe regrets and a lot of legal fees later. Just listen to your gut.”

14. A black hole.

“Don’t get into credit card debt!

if you must get into credit card debt (life can be cruel sometimes), then know the best ways to pay it off over time and set a schedule for yourself. Then stick to it.

The minimum payments will kill you in the long run, but sometimes it’s the best you can do, and that’s okay. Credit card “debt” can save people from being homeless, take care of a medical emergency, help get more time with their kids, etc.

Sometimes it’s okay to but one thing that will help your mental health, too. Just know your limits and stop at one. Then make a plan to pay it off the way that works best for you and do it.”

15. It’s okay to change your mind.

“Always know that change is an option. Many people, myself included, start down a path and think that since I committed to that path, it’s the only path for me.

Don’t get caught in that thought process.

If a choice (career, location, relationship, etc) doesn’t feel right down the road, know you can make a new one. It may be uncomfortable at first, but you can make it through (and likely for the better).”

Now we want to hear from you.

In the comments, tell us what advice you think all folks in their twenties should hear.

Please and thank you!

The post What Should You Do in Your 20s to Avoid Regrets Later in Life? Here’s What People Said. appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Share the Scariest Things They’ve Ever Seen in Their Lives

The world can be a scary place.

One minute you can be walking down the street minding your own business and the next minute you witness a horrible accident or you find yourself in the middle of a sketchy situation.

I’m not trying to get you to barricade your doors and hide inside your houses, but it is important to be aware of your surroundings because it’s wild out there.

Let’s get scary with AskReddit users.

1. This is terrible.

“Junior high school. Was supposed to meet my buddy Nick at the swimming pool.

He didn’t show, so I walked the three blocks to his house to yell at him. His mom let me in and I walked up to his room and opened the door.

Found him hanging from a belt tied to his ceiling fan.”

2. A bad accident.

“Making the long drive home from the lake house, and following behind a tractor trailer* on the highway, in the middle of nowhere way up in the Canadian Rockies .

We round a bend, and out of nowhere a small car coming the other way far too fast for the bend loses control and hits the tractor trailer head on at highway speeds.

Big cloud of car parts explodes into the air, the small car spins violently into the ditch. Instinctively I jump out and run to the small car, shouting at another motorist to call 911. Get to the small car, and there’s basically nothing left of the front – the engine was sitting on the other side of the highway.

I look in what’s left of the car and can’t find the driver. Confused, I look around, and see him in the ditch. I run over, check his carotid pulse, but nothing.

I step back and it’s only then that I realize that his arm is missing. His leg is missing. His other leg is pointing completely the wrong way at the hip and is bent in a number of horrific angles.

They shut the highway down for 8 hours investigating the scene. The image of his mangled body hasn’t faded though.”

3. SuperDad.

“My friend and I got lost in downtown KC while on our way to a concert. We had pulled over and were looking at the directions. Across the street was a very high steep hill with a sidewalk.

I suddenly see a a little girl in a toy car start rolling down the hill toward oncoming traffic. A man is right behind, presumably the father, doesn’t notice immediately. In a matter of seconds this little girl is flying down the hill and her father is sprinting after her.

My friend I are holding our breath horrified at what we are seeing. The road at the base of the hill is bustling with cars. Suddenly, the father launches himself in the air (think superman flying) and catches the handle of the car. It was absolutely insane and terrifying.

But also an incredibly powerful moment. The father gave no thought to his injuries just dove to save his daughter.”

4. Gruesome.

“I was downtown getting eating pizza with my roommate and outside the restaurant, a man attacked a woman and bit her in the face.

He ran off and she ran inside of the restaurant to get help. I could see that he had taken a chunk out of her face and it was just gruesome.”

5. This is bad.

“Worked at a boat and jet ski rental business during the summer. Season was winding down so we only had 2-3 rentals a day at this point, so days were pretty quiet and uneventful.

Some Korean kids, early twenties, take 3 jet skis out for an hour. Normal sh*t, had to constantly tell them to keep the skis away from each other and slow the f*ck down near shore and docks.

I was on my phone during the last ten minutes of their rental, could hear the jet skis buzzing in the background. All of sudden I hear a this and no buzzing. I look out and immediately yell at my coworker to call our boss. I hopped on a spare jet ski and rushed out there.

They had hit each other going around top speed and completely ripped one ski in half. I see one guy with almost no teeth and a swelling face, blood f*cking everywhere. Two others in the water next to him. I pull the guy with the face on to my ski and start screaming at my coworker to call 911.

Guy had broken every bone in his face and lost all but two teeth. I had blood all over me. The other guy broke his leg in three places and had a hole the size of a golf ball through his foot.

We got them back to the dock, EMTs arrived and I had to spend the next three hours pulling the ruined skis out of the water and cleaning a lot of blood.”

6. Terrifying.

“Was at an NFL game sitting up in the nose bleeds.

It was pouring down rain so most of our section had cleared out, but my buddies and I decided to stick it out because we were broke college kids and knew this was probably the only chance we had to see our team.

There were a group of drunk kids behind us (probably high schoolers or freshmen in college) who decided to climb over the seats to get down rather than taking the stairs. One of them slipped and went tumbling down at least 10-15 rows, just bouncing off of seats.

He landed in the first row right where the railing was. We all thought he was going to go flying over the edge to the bottle bowl. It was the most terrifying 7 seconds of my life.”

7. Saw it as a kid.

“Watched an old warbird fighter jet slam into a restaurant and burst into flames while attending an airshow. I was quite young, so I have only a couple mental images from that day, but the emotions attached to each of those images are enduring.

One image, the strongest, is a sea of legs, all running in confusion. Being little, that was my perspective. The emotion was pure terror. I thought my folks had lost me (years later, they said they never lost sight of me), and the pandemonium coupled with being lost scared the heck out of me.

The other image is a column of pitch black smoke. From my vantage point, it appeared to be coming from the top of the control tower. The emotion there was puzzlement, wondering why this big tall building was on fire.”

8. Didn’t see that coming.

“I was eating dinner at a Ruby Tuesday’s with my girlfriend one night, when this guy walked in all casual from the back, didn’t think much of it when a cop rushed in behind him and told him to “Drop to the f*cking ground!”

With his gun drawn as he started to run right by our table another group of officers rushed in and tackled him to the ground and we witnessed them confiscating a gun from him as we were eating our appetizers.

Definitely the scariest dinner I’ve ever had.”

9. A bloody scene.

“I grew up in a pretty small, rural community. Like, no lie, the entire county only has one stop light and 3/4’s of the streets in the county seat are one way.

It’s very much an “everyone knows you and your business” kind of place. So on the day in question, the high school and middle school kids were already on the bus (i was in middle school) and we were circling around the one way streets headed to the funnel of our county’s only stop light so we could eventually get to the elementary school.

As we were waiting to inch closer to the light, we pulled up to the end of a small cross street that had the only 3 bars in town just in time for me to look to my left out the window to see one of my classmate’s dad shoot a man in the face with a double barrel shotgun from maybe 4ft away.

Guy was standing on the sidewalk against the white wall of a small restaurant across from the bars and my friend’s dad was standing on the curb of the same bit of sidewalk. Blew his head about completely off and i will never in my life forget that man’s skull and brains dripping down that white wall on an otherwise beautiful fall afternoon.

After he shot the guy, friend’s dad just turned and sat down on the curb with gun next to him, lit a cigarette, and waited for the cops to show up. I was the only person to actually watch him pull the trigger, everyone else didn’t turn until they heard the blast.

My bus driver got on the radio and called it in but couldn’t move the bus out of the way because of the stoplight bottleneck and one way streets. So a bus of about 20 middle and high school students got a front row seat to a mostly headless corpse for almost 15 minutes while we waited for emergency crews to bust through traffic to the scene and get it moving enough that our bus could finally pull away.”

10. Be careful when riding bikes.

“I was visiting NYC and my friend and I were trying to rent bikes, but they were all gone.

This couple was going back to Europe the next day and they really wanted to go on a bike ride, but they only had one bike. I gave them the one I was going to rent and they were so happy. The excitement on their faces made my day.

My friend and I go to another bike rack like 1/4 of the mile away and get two bikes. As we were riding down the path we hear sirens and a sh*t ton of people are huddled in an area with a garbage truck like 10 feet away.

Apparently the brakes on the rented bikes didn’t work and this person got hit by a garbage truck. There was a trail of blood like 10 feet long and the person on the ground was seizing very badly.

As we got closer, the guy from earlier was hysterical and the person on the ground was his wife. The same couple we made so happy by giving our bikes to them had their lives change forver in an instant.

Honestly, the scene of the accident made it very clear she wasn’t going to survive. It was really bad.

That has f*cked with me for awhile because that was supposed to be MY bike. I was supposed to get the bike with the non-functioning brakes. In what was an act of kindness on my part was the demise of that beautiful couple.

What would have happened if I never gave my bike away? Would I have gotten hit by that garbage truck?”

11. Can’t unsee that.

“Came upon a car accident and went to help. Upside down car with wheels still spinning.

Dude crawls out of back seat with blood everywhere. He looks up at me and his eye is hanging out by the nerve and rolling around his cheek.

Got him clear. Professionals came. I left.”

12. Scary stuff.

“Was walking back to my family’s car after my great grandmother’s funeral. Not exactly casual but it was a quiet sunny afternoon and she had basically died of old age.

We were about 40 yards from our car when we heard the loud snap of wood breaking to our left.

To our horror, a large dump truck had just barreled over a small tree and was heading down a hill directly towards our cars with no one behind the wheel. Two of my younger brothers were already running to our minivan to get the “good seats” and were close to it’s path. I still remember the screams of my parents and uncles/aunts as everyone realized what was happening within a few seconds.

Amazingly no one was hurt. My brothers stopped in their tracks and the truck missed our car but absolutely crushed my grandpas car right behind it and multiple gravestones across the road before finally coming to a stop.

We would later find out the driver had forgotten to engage the e-brake when parking. One of the scariest, most surreal moments of my life for sure.”

13. Saved just in time.

“A wired patient running down a hallway naked, screaming that he was going to kill me before being stopped by a hospital guard.”

14. That’s crazy.

“I left work for lunch walking to a restaurant just 2 blocks away. As I rounded the corner a car accident happens right in front of me.

A lady walking just 10 feet in front of me is hit and pinned between the car and a building.

She was conscious and mad as hell.

Despite her legs being obviously broken she let loose a stream of verbal abuse on the driver about her shoes, her dress, her phone, everything except her injuries.

It was surreal.”

How about you?

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever seen?

Talk to us in the comments!

The post People Share the Scariest Things They’ve Ever Seen in Their Lives appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Who Work in Remote Locations Share the Scariest Things They’ve Seen

It takes a special kind of person to work a job that requires them to be out in remote locations, far away from other people…and far away from any kind of help, should they need it.

But there are a ton of these kinds of jobs out there, and the people who work them sometimes encounter some pretty weird stuff.

Are you ready to get spooked?

Let’s check out some creepy stories from AskReddit users.

1. A ritual?

“I do a lot of work out in the woods. Creepiest thing was finding some headless doves.

I also found sticks arranged in circles and paint on the trees in the same spot. Not sure if it was part of a ritual or not, but that’s what I saw.”

2. Hell no.

“I worked night shift at a prison for years.

The one thing that really creeps you out is when a hit is put on someone in the middle of the night.

Inmate’s code says it is kept as quiet as possible. No one says a d*mn word. The only thing you’ll hear are grunts and moans from the victims. Then, it goes and stays silent. If you hear it happening, it’s already too late to stop it. It’ll be over before you pull your keys out.

Occasionally, if someone needs medical attention the first sign we got was an inmate approaching the bars saying they need to go to medical (and are usually bleeding all nonchalant.)

The creepy ones are where no one shows up. All you get is grunts of pain and that’s it.”

3. SNAKES.

“I used to work out in the woods in Florida a lot. Creepiest thing would be this day we were working near Big Cypress, tromping thru the brush all day. At the end of the day my coworker and I do a quick drive thru of some of the property and realize the place was absolutely infested with water moccasins.

We had been unknowingly essentially walking around a giant water moccasin pit all day. That one kinda f*cked me up.”

4. Ugh.

“I was a field geologist in the Outback about 12 hours north of Adelaide. One day I was driving the truck and saw what looked like a flagpole sticking up in the middle of nowhere.

I wasn’t anywhere near a farm or anywhere else that people would be, so I decided to drive over and check it out. It was a dead dog fully impaled on a spike. Like, from *ss to mouth.

Took some pictures and had my boss call the cops, but for the rest of the assignment I was freaked out that some maniac was out there with me.”

5. Out at sea.

“I’m in the Navy and work on aircraft carriers. A girl sadly hung herself in one of the spaces right near where me and my shop slept.

One person swore he saw her sitting in the chair as he was getting undressed one day and ran screaming out of the berthing.

I waited about a week to go into the space where she hung herself and when I did I heard the loudest screeching noise I had ever heard in my life. I quickly turned around and got the f*ck out of there.

The system connected to where she slept didn’t work at all for the next two weeks or so to. The systems break a lot so it was pretty coincidental that it happened just as she did this.”

6. Voices.

“When I was in college I interned with the Forest Service.

A lot of the time I just spent patrolling hiking trails. Right near Grandfather Mountain I thought I heard someone yelling for help but my supervisor told me to ignore it.

Apparently someone went missing in the area in the 1960s and was never found and people would hear that voice all the time. I heard it twice more after that and it always creeped me out.”

7. Shook.

“I work for a power company restoring power after a storm.

Was working when a lady came up complaining that her power went out. We explained to her thats why we were there and she should have power back soon. She said, “oh good, my son went down in the basement and now I can’t find him”.

I went with her with a flashlight down the road to a run down house that was partially caved in. She walked inside and I went to follow. As soon as I walked into the door she disappeared from my sight and I called for her multiple times. No one responded so I ran back to our work truck to call for help.

A man that was living on her street called to me asking whats wrong and I told him the situation. He looked at me with a cold stare and said a mom and her son died in that house 4 years ago. I’m still shook to this day.”

8. Remote areas…

“Biologist, lots of time in remote areas:

Meth labs. Often tucked away in absentee landowner property. Usually some POS RV.

Meth houses. Homes that were clearly abandoned >40 years ago but clearly occupied within the last 5, if not currently. I got curious a few times and poked around inside, but didn’t push too much because they would have heard me in the brush long before I got inside the house. I’d see drug stuff, junk food, mattresses drug in on the floor. Think of the row houses in Hamsterdam in the Wire.

Two of my colleagues have found dead bodies. They were all illegal immigrants crossing north into the US. Most accidents, one was a gunshot. I’ve been in areas with unsolved murders, I just tread lightly with the locals (think of the Ozark tv show).

More sad than creepy, but abandoned graveyards. Dozens of them. Locals try to keep up but there is a natural progression of decline and neglect until they’re outright forgotten. It’s sad to see a bunch of graves of kids from ~1900 that all died within a few weeks of each other. More anti-vaxxers ought to see those.

I got shot at once.

I stumbled into a herd of feral hogs, at night, in really tall cattails. That was more frightening than the snakes, alligators, etc. I couldn’t see them but they were freaking out that I was there.

I’ve seen a few “shrines” of pagans or whatever, but they’re pretty harmless and don’t leave any permanent damage to anything. No harm no foul.

A guy in the front yard of his trailer house, deep in the woods in a swamp, sh*tting in a 5 gallon bucket. Very awkward eye contact.”

9. Middle of nowhere.

“I used to be a delivery driver, but for a supermarket in the U.K.

A lot of our customers were in the middle of nowhere, and my last delivery of the night was a new customer I’d never been to before. I was already running late from all my previous deliveries and I was still trying to find this house at 10:30pm, even though my shift was supposed to finish at 10pm.

I’m driving around the narrowest of country roads with nothing surrounding me but dark fields and hedgerows, looking for anything that might be a driveway. I hadn’t seen another car or person for miles. Then all of a sudden I hear a loud thud on the side of my van, like something was thrown at it.

No trees or anything else around for something to fall from, and I remember it specifically hitting the side. I looked in my mirrors and out the window but there was nothing around me. Then it happened again… another thud on the side of my van.

I drove back to the supermarket so fast and told my manager that I couldn’t find the place (I had spent 30 mins looking to be fair), there was no house where the listed address/postcode took me.”

10. Whoa.

“This story still haunts me.

I worked as the county historic preservationist in southern Appalachia, working on the buildings and properties the county owned. One of the “benefits” included with my job was living on-site at one of the historic properties. The historic house was an imposing brick mansion built in the 1810s and I lived in a small caretakers house about 20 feet away.

This was in the backwoods, so to deter trespassing and vandalism the county had built an 8 foot tall fence around the entire 5 acre parcel and put barbed wire on top of the fence. I mention this all just to show it was basically impossible for anyone, or anything, to jump or climb over the fencing and onto the property.

One night, after working late at another property, I pulled up to my entrance gate, let myself in, locked it behind me and then drove the 100 yards down the gravel road to my house. There were no lights on the property so I could only see by my headlights.

As I turned my car around the corner of one of the outbuildings and parked it, my lights shown on a thing that I still have a hard time describing effectively. It was the size of a deer, but with long spindly legs and long shaggy hair. Almost like a taller Maned Wolf, if you’ve ever seen pictures of one of those. That alone shook me as there was no way something of that size should’ve been able to get through, or over my fencing.

What follows is absolutely true: I got out of my car to get a better look at what the hell the thing was and as I opened the door and got out, the thing took off running away: not on four legs, but on two! I literally watched this thing raise it’s back up, stand at full height on its back legs and sprint away.

I absolutely freaked out at that point, grabbed my maglight and my shotgun from inside and tried to find the thing again. There was no trace. No tracks or anything; I have no idea how it got in OR out of my property.

I didn’t sleep at all that night, just sat on my couch with my shotgun watching my front door, hoping that whatever I saw didn’t come back and burst in. I cannot explain what the hell I saw that night but it still raises the hair on my neck every time I think about it.”

11. Alarm bells.

“I used to do salmon spawning surveys, which involved walking up streams looking for fish. Some of the streams are quite remote and/or inaccessible on timber land, and you don’t really expect to see any other person when you’re out there.

As a naturally smile-y, friendly, small feminine woman, I’ve learned to be wary of people 100% of the time in the field. I actively try to avoid running into people when I’m alone in remote places.

One of the survey locations is close to a highway. To get to it, I had to park at a pullout, follow a river downstream to a flagged trail, hike over a ridge to meet up with an old logging road on private timber land. I walked along the logging road for about 100 m before peeling off into the woods (very thick second growth Douglas fir reprod), where game trails eventually lead to the stream at the base of the hill slope.

I came here during spring to survey steelhead, but this stream was also a survey location for other types of salmon during the fall. The game trails off of the logging road were flagged by previous surveyors, and multiple routes were marked.

This made it kind of confusing, and not all routes actually led to the stream. Some just petered out once the vegetation got too thick. Another led to a cliff face overlooking the riverbed. Lots of faint trails.

One day I turned off into the woods one of the survey flags tied around a branch at the side of the road. I followed some pink flagging heading south along the hillside. I noticed the trail seemed freshly turned up, and figured maybe a bear clambered through recently since the time I was there last (2 weeks previously).

The trail led to a small claustrophobic clearing, and the ground was freshly torn up in the shape of a circle. Seemed strange. I was looking for elk tracks but didn’t see any. Then I noticed an assortment of bones scattered around the edges of the clearing. These weren’t there before. Everything was dead silent, and something about it was setting me on edge.

I poked around the bones a bit, trying to piece together this scene. I noticed another slight path, which strayed from my main route, veering to the right from the clearing. I walked a bit down that way, and gazed ahead trying to see if this path was flagged. It was densely packed with trees. A subtle movement caught the corner of my eye ahead and to the right as I walked — I turned my head to look past the trees and saw the silhouette of a large shelter maybe about 50-75 feet from the clearing.

It was surrounded by what looked to be jugs and bones. Tons of plastic jugs. Light shapes of bones on the ground. The lighting made seeing anything else impossible. Everything was so, so quiet.

I left in a hurry, off the trail, without trying to get a better look, without getting to the stream. The alarm bells in my brain were screaming.”

12. Eerie.

“I worked in a store once in a really small town that was always absolutely dead, a customer every hour or so, shifts all alone too which I’m sure wasn’t even legal but hey.

Anyway it’s a dark evening and I’m sat on reddit as usual when I hear the door open. I look up and see the back of a man as he begins walking down the first aisle towards the tin foods and he appears to be talking to someone on the phone, I think nothing of it and go back to reddit.

All of a sudden I get this intense smell of soil and earth, I look up and the mans approaching the counter and he’s wearing some kind of overalls and his face and long grey hair and body is just covered in dirt. That’s when I notice he isn’t on the phone at all and is just talking to himself in this absolutely bizarre tone, he sounded like a cartoon elf or something, he’s just sort of murmuring and doing this really weird hehee sort of laugh.

I’m just frozen solid, as he’s stood at the counter in front of me thinking I’m about to be killed when a policeman storms through the door, he asks if I’m ok to which I don’t respond because i’m just in a complete state of what the f*ck is happening.

He tells the man to come outside to which he starts murmuring gibberish and saying the words legal over and over again. They come grab the man and put him in the back of the police car and that’s the last I ever heard of it.

I have no idea who he was, what was going on but I have never been so afraid of another person before, you know when you just sense a bad bad situation. So grateful the police showed up when they did.”

Now we want to hear from you.

And we want creepy stories!

Whether you worked out in the middle of nowhere or not, share your scariest experiences with us in the comments.

Please and thank you!

The post People Who Work in Remote Locations Share the Scariest Things They’ve Seen appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Discuss Good Habits That You Should Get Into in Your Twenties

Words of wisdom sure are great…

The only hard part is getting younger folks to actually listen to you when you try to give them advice about how their life might be a little easier once they get a little bit older.

But, you have to admit, you probably weren’t listening to many folks who were older than you when you were in your twenties because you already knew everything, right? Sure…we all did…and I’d like to go back and confront my 25-year-old self and smack him about a few things, if we’re being honest.

What should people do in their twenties do to avoid regrets later on?

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say about that.

1. A good tip.

“No unprotected *x.

One side of my family learned this the hard way. The kids are just terrible as well. Just for your own sake, absolutely no unprotected s*x.

Unless you just so happen to have roughly 40,000 dollars just floating around and genuinely think you’re ready.”

2. Go see the world.

“Travel, live abroad.

I was traveling around taking odd jobs between 23-28 and had a blast and had great memories with ppl from all over.

If I die tomorrow I can rest assure I had a hell of a ride back in the days.”

3. Get outside.

“Find and maintain hobbies that makes you active outdoors!

Nothing soothes the soul like being in nature!”

4. Do it while you’re young.

“If you yearn for adventure, go now.

You are young, your body is strong, and your obligations are few. Go now.

It’s so much easier to drop everything in your life for a 6-month hiking trip and then slide back into regular life when you’re 25 than when you’re 35.”

5. Interesting.

“If a job pays good money but it doesn’t fulfill you, STAY THERE!!!

I’m 50 and I’ve left good paying jobs because I wanted something better or more “fulfilling”, only to find it was never there. So I’ve jumped from job to job pursuing that “kick *ss” job. Instead I should have invested more time and effort into the decent jobs I had and built up a better portfolio.

All jobs will suck or parts of those jobs will suck. If you can pay your bills and take care of your family then it’s worth putting up with some BS.”

6. Keep working on it.

“Find a skill-based activity that you can work on and improve at over time.

Piano, calligraphy, jiu-jitsu, golf, whatever.

It’s good for humans to have something they are constantly working on improving.”

7. A good idea.

“Take care of your mental health, see a psychiatrist and a therapist if you need to.

Don’t be afraid of the stigma.”

8. You’re gonna need ’em!

“Take good care of your teeth.

Two adages to remember:

“Brush your teeth in the morning to keep your friends. Brush your teeth at night to keep your teeth.”

And

“If you ignore your teeth, they’ll go away.””

9. Avoid the big ones.

“You will make mistakes. Don’t let that hold you back.

Just try to avoid the big ones (I.e. things that will land you in jail, marrying for the wrong reasons, having kids with a dumb*ss).”

10. Put yourself out there.

“Date, date, DATE!

I have some friends who are in their late 20’s and its a struggle to have them try to meet people. Not saying its pivotal to date, but its good to know how work with other people who’ve been in relationships.

And recovering from a breakup seems like a good life experience prior to 30.”

11. Words of wisdom.

“Learn what kinds of problems you like to solve and build a career around that. Don’t build a career around tasks. There’s always going to be things you don’t like to do. If you’re solving a big problem the crappy tasks are easier to endure.

Learn good work ethic and develop good habits: be clean, show up on time, be rested, etc.”

12. Own it.

“Don’t blame things that are out of your control before you’ve taken care of things that are under your control.

As an example, if you are obese but also don’t eat right, don’t exercise, don’t get good sleep, smoke, and drink too much alcohol, then don’t blame genetics for your obesity.

After you’ve taken care of those other things, if you are still obese, then you can talk about your genetics.”

13. Do it your way.

“Don’t live your life by the subtle pressures and expectations of family and society.

I lived my life way too long doing what other people told me was right. Women don’t get an education unless it’s to meet a husband, have your babies before your 30, build your life around your family, always do what your elders tell you to.

Now I’m a closeted 36 year old divorced single mother who’s husband left her for someone younger and more pliable, with no education, no friends and a family who looks down on me because I am CLEARLY built wrong.

Live your life on YOUR terms. Take into account the advice of those who have more experience, but ultimately it’s your life and your choice.”

14. I like all of this!

“Life is short.

When you’re 20, it feels like 40 is really far off (after all, that’s twice as long as you’ve lived). It’s not. It’s right around the corner and even then, you’re only half way thru your life.

Take care of your body. You’re tough now, but all that abuse will catch up with you.

Drama is a success killer. If anyone (ANYONE!!) has a habit of starting drama, drop them from your life now. No one is so important that they are worth being dragged down into that pit.

Live off of less than 80% of your take-home pay if possible. Take 10% of that, drop it into savings and another 10% and put it in investments.

Have a plan. Doesn’t matter what the plan is and it doesn’t matter if it changes, but make a plan. Don’t just go through life day-to-day aimlessly doing what feels good in the moment. Decide what you want and go get it.

You will stumble (some people will call it failure) but as long as you keep moving forward, you’re in better shape than most.

Eat twice as many vegetables as you are now. I know you think you’re eating enough, but you’re not. And drink some water, for hydro’s sake!”

How about you?

What advice would give to people going through those difficult years?

Tell us what you think in the comments. Thanks!

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Hospital Workers Discuss Regrets They’ve Heard From Dying Patients

I’d like to think that when my time is up, I’ll have no regrets.

But I guess you never really know what that will be like until you reach the end of the road, right? I think that we can all agree that listening to people talk about regrets when they’re close to passing away has to be very hard…

Let’s take a look at these stories from folks on AskReddit.

1. Needed more time.

“I worked as an oncology nurse right out of nursing school. I was barely 21 years old.

Had a patient about my age who was dying of lung cancer. A few hours before he died I sat with him and he was telling me how much he wished that he would have had more time-to maybe fall in love, marry, have kids. He was so young.

He asked me to call his parents and he died shortly after they arrived. It was awful. His regrets were more about the life not lived. Many older patients had some interesting life stories and most wanted to tell them before they died.

Most were at peace with the life they lived. Many regretted working so much and not spending enough time with family.”

2. Cover up your skin!

“I was a hospice nurse. One of my elderly patients had skin cancer, a huge malignant melanoma on the side of his neck that was growing rapidly.

He had been a farmer all his life and never married. One night we were talking and I asked him if there was anything he wished he had done differently in his life, and he thought about it a minute and said he wished he had worn a hat when he was farming.

I wish he did too.”

3. I’m sorry I can’t help you.

“There was an old man. I’d play cards with him.

We’d talk about working on the farm we had. He was a nice guy. He figured out I was being physically abused. His health started declining and he couldn’t play cards or get out of bed. The last time I saw him.

He said he was sorry he wasn’t younger and that he couldn’t help me. Almost 25 yrs ago and I still remember him.”

4. Not yet.

“”Not yet! I can’t die yet. I still have so much growing to do. I want to see my children and grandchildren grow up…”

I am a physician trainee who has done a decent amount of palliative care. I have been privileged to hear many stories and be part of many deaths, but I still can’t explain why it is that certain lines remain with me and hit me so much harder.

The gentleman who told me the line above was in his late 60s-early 70s. It made me reflect on how I view patients in this age group – yes, much older than myself, but still with growing and living to do.”

5. A love story.

“I think of a woman in her 50s I met early on in my training.

She and her female partner had never married – partly due to laws, partly because it had never seemed important. When she was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer, they regretted never making that step.

I attended their small wedding in the hospital. She died a few days later.”

6. Heartbreaking.

“I had a patient who I was in the room with when her doctor explained she only had a few weeks to live. I knew her well, spent quite a bit of time talking to her up to the news.

The days that followed, she seemed to have accepted she was dying. She lived this beautiful, independent, and successful life, maybe not money successful, but just plain happy.

Anyways when I was helping her to the tub on day 10 since receiving the news, she just broke down crying and couldn’t stop crying about how much she wished she didn’t put her dog down b/c they could have died together.

Come to find out her dog was on his death bed too. I guess she put her dog down a few days before going into the hospital, she knew her life was over so she put him down first. She hated herself for it and for the fact she blew the opportunity for them to spend their last moments together. Really heartbreaking to watch, to hear that unfold.

She passed early in the morning two days later. I took a couple of mental health days off after she passed and spent some time looking up dogs to adopt and new jobs to apply for.”

7. Over a boy.

“I had a 17 year old girl that came in on a Tylenol overdose.

I normally don’t listen or really even get invested with patients because it’s usually the same faces on a loop but she kept trying to strike up a conversation and eventually I relented and she told me how stupid she was and it was over a boy and where she was going to go to college and what she wanted to do and basically her life story.

I left and she was stable in the ER. Next day I came in and asked if she went home or if she was in an inpatient unit. They told me she died a few hours after my shift.

It’s been like 5 years and thinking about it I start crying like a baby. I don’t cry. I think the last time I cried other than this was my grand pa passing but even that I can discuss without crying now.

Her death is the only thing that completely breaks me down.”

8. Different regrets.

“Top regret was not spending time with family and/or lost time due to a family feud.

Probably number two was wasting their life with their spouse (for various reasons) when they could have possibly been with someone they loved/met a soul mate.

Number three was usually not accomplishing a bucket list item such as living in a foreign country.”

9. This is horrible.

“27 year old male who tried to end his life, died from the injuries. I still remember it clearly, he told me his entire life story. I didn’t sleep for a few days after hearing it and sometimes it still haunts me to this day.

He was bullied in middle school straight until the end of high school. He had mild Aspergers and was quite intelligent but because of his looks and weird mannerisms he was picked on.

Then it got worse.

The girls would make him drink out of the toilet, the guys would chokehold him until he passed out or tied him up inside the gym and woke up alone after school ended, only to go home and get beaten by his parents for being late.

The girls would often make up fake accusations and he’d be suspended, only to be beaten up by parents once more. The guys would steal his clothes and toss them in the dumpster only for him to go crawling in it while naked.

The girls would replace his lunch with rotten food or feces, the guys would pelt him with rocks. It was just unf*cking believable.

He finished high school but just barely, dropped out of college and left home to go into the service industry but it only got worse for him there as he couldn’t do well with stress.

He had his own issues, said he was one of those incels and his only reason for living was so that others could abuse him to make themselves feel better. Told me he tried to end it because he was tired of it and also financially broken by then (this was around 2008 mind you).

He said he wish he stood up for himself from the start, perhaps things would have turned out differently for him.

He passed away a few days later while I was off shift. We all knew inside that he wasn’t going to make it from the start given his injuries, but I still listened to the story and it haunts me to this day.

I hope he’s at peace now.”

10. Didn’t get the surgery.

“I remember of this 40 year old patient that I had was dying from breast cancer that spread throughout her body. She was diagnosed with breast cancer 10 years earlier and had a mastectomy.

The doctor recommended for her to have a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction due to high risk of recurrence of cancer. She said that she wanted to keep her breast (a real breast rather than an implant) incase she remarries and will be somewhat whole.

She regretted not getting the bilateral mastectomy. If she did, she would not gotten cancer in her remaining breast and dying at such a young age. The patient never ended up marrying after all.

A week later, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I instantly told the doctor that I want a bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction. I also had an aggressive form of cancer.

My doctor kept pushing a lumpectomy which I probably would’ve gotten before I have heard how much she regretted her decision. I feel that she actually saved my life sharing and opening up with her regret of all time.”

11. A better father…

“He wished he had been a better father to his daughter.

He wished they had reconnected. His dementia prevented him from remembering they had reconnected years before and that she visited often.

I wish I could have made him aware that he had accomplished his last wish. But he died not really understanding that.”

12. What they didn’t get to do.

“I’m a hospice social worker, so I have the honor of getting to listen to peoples’ life stories, including favorite memories and regrets. Most regrets center around what they didn’t get to do, like never traveling to Italy when their family was originally from Naples.

Some regret not getting specific education – wanting to go to college but never doing it. Some regret their choice in partner, especially when alcohol/drug abuse was involved, or cheating. Many express a sadness that looks a lot like regret if they are estranged from family. And some have anticipatory grief from knowing they will miss a milestone, like the birth of a grandchild.

Some regret not taking better care of their health (people with COPD who regret ever having a cigarette). In general life is long and time smooths some of the rough edges, so people tend to focus on the good.”

13. More time.

“I work in a hospital. Whenever someone is at the end of their life, they always just want to be with their loved ones.

Any regrets I’ve heard is always family related. They wanted more time with the people they love. Most people are at peace with things though.

People also tend to wish they took their health seriously.”

14. Frank.

“He was one of my first patients as a nursing student, named Frank. He was 92.

After knowing him a few days, he disclosed to me his regret was outliving everyone he loved.. that he and his wife hadn’t had kids, and he was “all that was left” and that he wanted to see his wife again.

I wasn’t sure how to respond , so I just listened… and it made me realize how living so long isn’t great if everyone you love is gone.

He passed away later that week, and while I distinctly recall some of my classmates being upset, I felt relief for him. I knew he was where he wanted to be. I’ve had many patients since, but you tend to remember your first ones.”

Have you ever heard any last words from someone?

Patients? Friends? Loved ones?

Please share your stories with us in the comments.

The post Hospital Workers Discuss Regrets They’ve Heard From Dying Patients appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Share Examples of Wealthy People Being Out of Touch

The world puts wealthy people up on a pedestal because people assume that if you have a lot of money, your life is perfect and you have no problems.

Of course, most of us know that isn’t really true. I personally think one of the weirdest parts about dealing with really wealthy folks is that they seem to be out of touch about a whole lot of things that us normal people deal with every day.

Like how much stuff costs…

What’s the most out of touch thing you’ve witnessed from a wealthy person?

Here’s what folks on AskReddit had to say about this.

1. Well, that was nice.

“I work at a veterinary hospital in a fairly wealthy area.

Once had a client hand me a $50 for a $9 nail trim on her dog.

I told her the price and she just shrugged, told me to keep the change and said that would be my lunch money for the week.”

2. Easy money.

“I once got asked to watch my buddy’s mom’s dog. Cute Pomeranian, super well behaved.

I was stoked to watch the little dude. She messaged me and told me where the garage key was and that she left a couple hundred dollars on the table for me. A couple hundred!? I showed up at noon and took the money and the dog and went into town.

Took him to the dog park, then the beach, and then we kicked it and napped for a couple hours. Dropped him off around 6pm. It was the easiest $200 I’ve ever made.”

3. That cedar smell.

“I grew up in a very well-to-do suburb and there was a family that would buy cedar clothes hangers for their closets.

But then once the cedar smell “wore off” after a month or so, they’d buy new ones and take the old ones to Goodwill. Apparently just lightly sanding them to refresh the scent was too much trouble.”

4. How much is that?

“I was flying a private jet and the caterers forgot the owner’s sandwich.

He graciously said “no big deal” and I replied that I’d call when we landed because they charged us $100 for it.

He said “Is that a lot? How much does a sandwich normally cost?”

5. What’s this thing?

“Had a client who dealt with one of America’s richest men back in the late 1990s.

He took him out for a night on the town and had to stop at an ATM.

The rich guy had never seen one, his staff just got him cash when he needed it. It’s a different life.”

6. Ummmm. No.

“I got a new job slightly above minimum wage and my girlfriend’s dad got excited for me and told me I could afford a new Tesla now.

Spoiler: I cannot.”

7. Time to up sell.

“There was an obscenely rich kid that I went to high school with.

At lunch one day, he thought his friend’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich looked good so he offered him $20 for it.

For the rest of the school year, the friend brought two sandwiches to lunch every day and gave the rich kid one for $20.”

8. Never even been to one.

“I worked for 1 family as the general family personal assistant for a long time. These people are wealthy. Like drop $1M in cash on an oceanfront condo wealthy.

The husband gave me $150 cash to go to the grocery store to buy a 12 pack of water and 6 $1 yogurts.

I don’t think he’s even stepped foot in a grocery store before.”

9. An expensive burrito.

“When I was a cashier at Chipotle, I had a woman misunderstand the price of a burrito.

She heard me say “that’ll be seven-twenty-eight” and without any hesitation, counted out eight $100 bills from a wad of cash that must have been several thousand dollars. We had a good laugh when she realized her mistake.

She was carrying a suitcase and had a thick accent so I think it may have been her first cash transaction in the US and she was just so rich that it didn’t occur to her that $800 was a sh*tload of money to spend on a burrito.”

10. A cheap one.

“I repair bathtubs and showers. I’ve been in poor homes, middle class homes, wealthy homes and super mansions.

So we were at this mansion, the kind where there’s a tennis court and pool in the back yard. The kind where the foyer and first room of the house had 16×16 black granite tile with subfloor heating. Just this magnificent house with it’s 3 car garage, but in the garage there were three lifts to literally stack their vehicles. These f*ckers were loaded.

They are “updating” the house to sell so they can move back to North Jersey. They replaced the soaking unit in the master. The granite in that bathroom was absolutely breathtaking. It was blue, and under a certain light sparkled like there were lights built into it.

The deck was cracked at the caulk line. So we’re in there fixing it, being as anal and meticulous as possible bc we know we’re in probably the most expensive house ever. The wife comes in to chat with us and basically states that they just got the same kind of soaker as before bc it’s the only thing that fit in the spot. Eventually she says something like

“It’s okay though, it was only $8,000.”

If I was drinking something, I’d have choked on it. She said it like the tub was a piece of sh*t that she settled for bc it was cheap. $8,000 was a drop in the bucket.”

11. Exchange student.

“My sister and I, both Latin American, befriended a Chinese girl in college. We always helped her in studying and with her English.

Turns out her dad was some billionaire in China who owned a Chemical producing company. She drove an expensive Audi and for the longest, up until 2 years ago, I was freeloading off the Chegg account she opened up for me. That account was paid for about 3 years.

Whenever she’d invite us to go eat, the bills were super expensive, like $300+ for just 3 people, but she played it off like they were nothing. I had never once eaten a single meal over $40 per plate until we ate with her.

She’d always take us Starbucks, food and on a couple occasions bought us books for school. At one point we went shopping with her. She wanted a laptop, she was gonna buy me one too but I felt too guilty to accept it. Laptop was $3,000 (some Apple laptop), I felt like it was too much.

She was really cool and treated my sister like her sister. She was living alone and didn’t know many people. We were always friendly with classmates and that’s how she got to know us. My sister and I are from low income families. The money that was spent around her was ridiculous!

Like $300-$400+ per lunch almost every day, that was around my weekly pay back then. Really miss her though, she was funny to be around with and always wanted to learn more about the US, always insisted we go out with her to movies, shopping or dining and teach her about our culture.

Have not heard from her in 3 years. She went back to China and we never saw her on campus again.”

12. Thank you!

“I sold hash to a business partner of my dad’s when I was in college. I had a variety and it was the only drug he enjoyed. He obliquely asked me to bring it over to him – no discussion of what or how much.

I biked over to his (very nice) place and he had a coffee and a chat, and I simply handed it to him and was getting ready to leave, thinking maybe he’d have my dad pay me?? Nope, as I left there was an envelope on next to the rear entrance.

It contained $500. For like $80 of hash. He would repeat this several times. He just needed a source he could trust and not raise eyebrows.

When my dad passed he helped manage the estate and we had an implicit mutual trust that made things go much easier.”

13. Hmmmm.

“My partner has a cousin whose family is very well off and has always provided everything for him.

When he was 18 and first dealing with managing his own bank account, he once didn’t understand that he had overdrawn his account because he though the negative sign in front of the balance was “a decorative dash.””

14. Kinda clueless.

“Had a roommate in college who was pretty well off. I was pretty much putting myself through school, and was almost always broke.

One day we went by the ATM that dispensed in $5 increments (yeah, I made d*mn sure I knew where those were!) Anyway, turns out I had less than $5 in the bank, so looked at my buddy and said, “well, looks like no beer for me tonight.”

He literally looked at me and said “well, just take it out of your other account.” I just stared at him and asked what he meant. Turns out he legit thought that everybody had a second account their parents kept filled with “emergency” money!

He did buy beer that night though, so he was a good guy. Just kinda clueless.”

How about you?

Who are the most out of touch rich person you’ve ever encountered in your life?

Tell us your stories in the comments!

The post People Share Examples of Wealthy People Being Out of Touch appeared first on UberFacts.

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People Open up About What Ruined Religion for Them

I’ve met people over the years who’ve told me long stories about how they were raised in very strict religious families and they eventually became so turned off by the rules and what they saw as hypocrisies that they eventually abandoned the whole thing.

Swore it off forever.

And I guess that makes a lot of sense if a certain kind of religion is forced on you from a young age and you eventually get tired of it.

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say about what ruined religion for them.

1. There’s a lot of that.

“That people would try to force their religion onto me and make me feel like I was a bad person if I didn’t have the same beliefs as them…”

2. That’ll do it!

“Was told that dinosaur bones were planted in the ground by Satan to trick us into believing in evolution.”

3. That’s rude.

“Learning that my Mom got alienated and bullied after she tried creating a single mom’s club at our church.”

4. Blind faith.

“My parents told me at a young age that I would go to hell for asking the question “how do we know god is real.”

They could have simply said to read the Bible or something like that.

But instead they told me that I would go to hell, I guess it was the idea behind “blind faith”.”

5. Terrible.

“My infant brother’s death.

I was very little when he died at 3 days old, but it always bothered me being taught that Jesus was the only man that ever lived without sin. I thought “what could this helpless little baby have done that was a sin? He never even cried?”

When I asked my very catholic grandmother about it she told me to watch what I say because I was being blasphemous.”

6. Shattered faith.

“When I came to the realization that trusted authorities did hurt and damage children and gaslight the communities that literally supported the church through personal sacrifice and sincere generosity.

It was the absolute definition of disgrace and I am in agony that it was ever even tolerated.”

7. That’s extreme.

“Being kicked out of Christian school prior to the third grade because my Mom bought the wrong edition of the Bible.”

8. Not good enough.

“The non-answers to all my questions as a kid.

“You just have to have faith” is a dumb way to respond to an inquisitive mind.”

9. This is ridiculous.

“In the third grade my teacher (who was a good person) didn’t believe that cavemen existed because they weren’t mentioned in the bible.

My teacher gave my class a lecture about how cavemen didn’t exist despite there being a lot of evidence. In the fourth grade my teacher was required to teach the theory of evolution to the class by showing a documentary she also gave a lecture on why evolution was fake.

During my time in middle school i realized that it was all crap.”

10. Hypocritical.

“How hypocritical the people in church were.

They would judge you and condemn you for drinking as a teenager yet I would see the pastor and all the deacons out drunk and driving home at friends houses whose parents went to the church.”

11. Wow.

“My family went to a large church when I was young.

One day the pastor was on the news because it turns out he lived a second life at strip clubs and got arrested for kidnapping and pistol whipping a guy who owed him money.

That was the first time I questioned my faith. How could a person act so stone-cold confidently on stage about everything he was preaching and be a total fraud?”

12. Your eyes were opened.

“The first world religions class I took in college.

Realizing other people in other faiths also believed their religion was true gave me the courage to consider maybe Joseph Smith didn’t really see God and Jesus in a forest in 1820 a few years before sticking his head in a hat to look at magic rocks that helped him translate golden plates inscribed with the history of Jesus visiting North America and a Jewish family sailing around in a wooden submarine lit by rocks god touched to make them glow.

Then I thought, “yeah none of that happened”.

And it was all over for me.”

13. The last straw.

“I grew up very religious. My father killed himself when I was young. We were back in church before my sister and I went back to school.

The first day back at church, it seemed that the sermon was tailor made for us, as the preacher went on about suicide being against God’s will and there was no chance to repent, so those who commit suicide had no chance at redemption.

Essentially: “Don’t kill yourself. You end up in Hell. Your family will never see you in the Kingdom.”

That was the last thing a teenage, rebellious, Shagnasty needed to hear. I quickly disassociated myself from the organizational part of the church. I occasionally went to Church camp and other events with big groups of kids my age, but I never went back to church again.

As one final middle-finger to that pastor, I later banged his daughter when we were on a trip to Ichthus Festival.”

14. All about the money.

“I was a freshman in college in 1995 at Clemson.

This was the inaugural season of the Carolina Panthers, and because the stadium in Charlotte hadn’t been completed yet, they played their home games at Death Valley.

It was cool, the town is well equipped for tailgating and stuff. But not on Sunday. Sunday is church day.

I was a Methodist. I well recall the pastor of the Clemson United Methodist Church allowed himself to be quoted in a a newspaper, complaining that the Panthers organization owed all the churches in town for the donations they didn’t get on Sunday because everyone was at the big games.

The donations. Not the souls that weren’t saved. It was the money.”

How about you?

What role does religion play in your life?

Talk to us in the comments and tell us what you think.

Thanks!

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What Totally Ruined Religion for You? Here’s How People Responded.

I grew up in a Catholic family. I had to go to church every weekend and did the whole First Communion and Confirmation things.

As I got into my teenage years, the whole thing just faded away for me…I don’t think anything necessarily “ruined” it for me, but I just realized that it wasn’t going to play a part in my life whatsoever.

But that’s just my story.

AskReddit users went on the record about what ruined religion for them.

1. Awful.

“Someone telling me that it was God’s plan for my unborn daughter to lose her life after her mother was pushed down stairs by an openly racist man.

If that’s what faith in a religion gets me, then I’m out.”

2. Yeah, okay…

“The arrogance in believing “god” works like Santa Claus just started sounding ridiculous to me around the age of 16. “I got a new job – THANK GOD”

“I almost got into a car accident – must have been god looking out for me.”

But this deity ignores genocide, starvation, and cancer in children but waves a wand to give you a .25 hourly raise. And this is allllll part of the plan too.

Yeah okay….”

3. Ruined itself.

“Religion ruined religion.

So many rules.

Like why can’t I just be a nice person and not do harm? Why do I have to go to a building every Sunday and listen someone drone on while surrounded by a bunch of fakes?

Why do we shun those that make mistakes? Or reject those that don’t believe exactly what we do? Why can’t we embrace the differences and just say “it’s ok we don’t believe the same, we both do good and don’t hurt others – team religion!”

But nooooo. We kill in the name of God, because of differences, enforce rules that are almost impossible to keep in modern society and then act like we are following those rules even when we aren’t.

It’s all just gross.”

4. Don’t believe anymore.

“I was fully committed Southern Baptist and filled in at times teaching my adult Sunday class.

I then read The End of Faith and The God Delusion. Then I had a realization that all of medicine and biology is based on evolution. I prayed for God to make himself real to me and really wanted to believe. Now I realize every evidence of God I saw in 40 years of church was just confirmation bias and placebo effect.

Can’t tell my family I’m atheist it would kill them. Still go to church to see and make friends.

Edit to follow up: I wouldn’t be ostracized. But I would cause them unnecessary pain since they would think I’m going to hell don’t feel like putting them through that. I’m not wanting to be on everyone’s prayer list.
Funny thing is I like the typical USA Christian way of life.

In my experience it works. In my extended family everyone is fairly happy and out of 10 marriages we have no divorces and my kids 20+ cousins are all doing great. I don’t think casual s*x, drugs, or excessive drinking is a good way to live.

I’m not sad, just not able to believe anymore.”

5. Hypocrisy.

“The hypocrisy, the hate, the shame that’s directed towards humanity.

My last experience was with a fairly middle-road church- I went to the high a school aged youth group service with some classmates. The services started with singing worship (cringe just saying that), and everyone around me was sobbing with their hands held in the air, swaying, singing to a song about how we are so unworthy of love.

And I was like… holy sh*t, what is WRONG with all of you?! I barely survived the rest of the evening.

Never went back.”

6. Time to question this.

“Learning about original sin in church school when I was 9.

I couldn’t get over the unfairness of it, and that started me questioning the whole religion thing.”

7. God’s plan?

“That God’s plan involved the trauma my family endured over the years.

It’s all part of God’s plan?

Well, that plan sucks, so I’m out!”

8. The depths of HELL.

“The idea of Hell.

I was brought up mainly in Asia. Most my friends and their parents were irreligious, some would go temple but no one took it seriously, it was more about respect for your elders. Learning that all the good people in my life who had heard the “gospel” but didn’t follow it were destined for an ENTIRETY of suffering was abhorrent to me.

It is inherently evil to think that most the world just because they do not believe what you believe is destined to an INFINITE amount of harm.

The logic of it never felt right to me. I had a mother who was sent to convent school in Ireland so Catholicism was rammed down my neck with an iron rod.

At school when we had to write our own accounts what happened to Jesus in Religious Education about when Jesus was resurrected, at the age of 12 I already knew that wasn’t possible so I wrote a story about a big con Jesus had with the women who opened his tomb. My school teacher called my mother and told her.

When I got home she screamed like a banshee at me for hours saying I was ungrateful for what Jesus had sacrificed for us but I was thinking well he was God, he knew everything and is all powerful so actually his sacrifice is meaningless.

One life as a human doesn’t make you great, we have billions of humans life. All human life has more meaning than an infinitely powerful eternal being pretending to be a human for one life. It’s like an instagram influencer showing up for good pics at a BLM march.”

9. Hmmmm…

“That my church kicked out someone gay.

That my church was so racist that they campaigned to get a black African priest removed, and when Jesus get removed, half the church left in protest.”

10. That’s bad.

“When I was 5 years years old, after we walked out of a prayer, a beggar approached my mom asking for $5 for food.

As my mom reached into her purse and about to hand him the money, she asked the man if he was muslim, he said yes.

She asked him if he was Sunni or Shia, he answered wrong and she put away the money.”

11. Non-believer.

“Raised Catholic.

The idea that one religion is right and all others are wrong, the idea that so many people suffer on a daily basis but “God loves us”, the idea that we must love each other but religion teaches you to hate those who aren’t like you.

And above all else, the idea that some invisible, all powerful being exist somewhere in the sky. I stopped believing when I was 13.”

12. A lot to deal with.

“Overbearing people while I was exploring.

I have a Jehovah’s Witness grandma, Wiccan mom, atheist dad, and a solid set of gay Christian friends. Everyone stuck their noses in and I just said “f*ck it, there’s something out there and as long as it doesn’t kill me, I’m chill.”

Just… kinda respect the world and go with the flow.”

13. Saw it in a new light.

“I think it was probably reading the Epic of Gilgamesh in a high school literature class.

It showed me the Bible was qualitatively no different from other ancient writings.

The alleged sacredness was not in the text itself.”

14. See you in Hell.

“Being told that every good non-christian person will go to hell.

I decided then and there that I’ll happily burn next to Gandhi and buddhist monks.”

15. Scientology.

“Scientology ruined my religion for me.

I’m an actor, and they hired me to do some instructional/education video for them and paid decent. I know they’re kinda kooky, but I thought “Hey, I’ve worked for crazier people in this industry” so I met with them on their super secret ‘Gold Base’ in Southern California.

I shot there for several days, and got to know the staff/volunteers who have dedicated their entire life to serving Scientology. I learned a lot about their religion, as I’ve been genuinely curious about all faiths.

I remember driving home after my final day on set, and thinking to myself “How can such normal, nice people believe in something so obviously false? I mean, their founder, who has been historically documented as a scoundrel and a crook, literally wrote a book, got a huge influence of people, and then convinced them that it was the one true way to live!”

Being a fully practicing Mormon at the time, you can imagine my shock when I immediately realized that’s the exact same thing people say about my religion.

EDIT: Some people are asking, so I’ll give an update. This happened about a year ago, and I haven’t been practicing since then.

I still firmly believe the heart of the Mormon church is to make someone better through weekly introspection and selfless service to others. 90% of the people are honestly working to become their best self on a weekly basis by focusing on its teachings. However, as for the one true faith?

There’s too much dissonance, particularly when it comes to LGBT+ policies, for me to believe that’s true.”

How do you feel about this?

Does religion play a role in your life?

Or maybe it used to but not anymore?

Talk to us in the comments and tell us what you think.

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People Discuss What They Did to Turn Their Lives Around

I’m always incredibly impressed when people do a complete 180 and turn their lives around for the better.

It’s inspiring and it makes me realize that when things are tough and don’t look too promising, that things can and will get better.

Are you ready to read some inspiring stories about folks who turned their lives around?

Here’s what AskReddit users had to say about this.

1. Very smart.

“Stopped caring about things I can’t control and put all my energy into the things I can.

It sounds hard, but there’s actually a lot you can control and that doesn’t leave much room for the other sh*t.”

2. Formerly homeless.

“When I was a teenager I was homeless. A lot of places wouldn’t hire me because I had no experience or interview clothes. I went to the board of education and begged the HR lady to give me a chance at any job. I told her I’d scrub the school with a toothbrush if they paid me.

They made me a general sub for clerical. I took a call for one of the “bad neighborhood” schools that some others turned down. Walked across town to get there every day do I had to start walking at 4:30 am to be on time. I wore dress clothes from a church mission that were way too big but I did my best.

After four months they gave me a long-term position. Then a permanent one with benefits. I saved up enough for an apartment (finding a landlord okay with renting to an 18 year old homeless girl was hard) and started college.

I haven’t been homeless a day since in the last 15 years. I even have a house now.”

3. Nice work!

“I quit drinking when I was 24.

Went back to college when I was 26 and graduated at 29.”

4. Take care of #1.

“Decided it’s ok to put yourself first no matter what. I don’t mean that go ahead and cheat and lie for your benefits.

For example, I was seeing this toxic person for some time and I was the one always compromising and making efforts. When things finally ended, I chose to cut off all contact from that person while they wanted to remain in touch (for support or validation).

I felt bad and selfish while doing it but starting to feel better about myself now that that person is out of my life.

You need to be selfish if the other person is being selfish too.”

5. Time to give it up.

“I’m a month free of smoking weed daily for 8 years, I’m struggling still thinking i need it to be happy.

Its been a rough month with sleep but i know after i get past these few months i will proceed to better my life.”

6. On the right track.

“Moving out of my parents house.

I was living with my parents (which is very common thing in India) until end of my med school. I’ve been in my comfort zone all my life and had everything I need.

That led to depression and I wanted to live by myself and to get out of my bubble. Now I can’t say I figured it all but I definitely feel better.”

7. Get in shape!

“I heavily reduced sugar when I was 21 and started resistance training .

2 years later and I am feeling the best I have ever felt, have so much energy and self confidence because I actually like the way I look now.

Clothes fit so much better as well.”

8. Be yourself.

“Realizing I don’t have to act like someone I’m not just to be liked by everyone.

Changed my life choices and it made me a much happier man. I wish I’d done it sooner and not in my late 20s. So much wasted time…”

9. It’s good for you!

“Went to the gym

It helped me break out of OCD induced psychosis and brought me back to reality and have been going everyday since.

Had to replace it with exercising in the park during the peak of COVID though.”

10. Therapy.

“Started going to therapy.

Slowly realized that I have to think about myself too. Started going to gym, setting boundaries, eating foods I like and every day I tried to do one thing that made me happy.

And I finally got the courage to go to school and study something I actually like.”

11. A complete turnaround.

“Realized my quest to find love wouldn’t fix anything wrong with me.

Stopped manipulating and using men to try to fill the void in my soul. Treated men like people instead of tools.

Actually fell in love and am married to the most wonderful person I’ve ever met.”

12. A big improvement.

“Went from just partying hard on the weekends to partying hard every day to losing my job from partying hard (drug test failed for coke). From there it turned to meth. Really low point.

One day, I had an epiphany and realized that it wasn’t want I wanted, and that I’ve seen people go down similar paths. Actively sought help, changed friend groups, stayed in, got clean and am now doing okay.

Can’t say I’m doing great, but my future is looking better every day, even if it’s only slightly. The addiction is still affecting me, even after all this time, it’s caused insomnia and depression, along with anxiety. Things I didn’t have before doing coke/meth.”

13. Was on the street.

“After being laid off from my last factory job, I suddenly found myself on the streets of Toronto in the early 1990’s with a grade 9 education, no money, no friends, no job references, and not really any family.

So what did I do? Found an unbelievably dirty crappy crawl-space basement apartment. Applied for Welfare. Stopped, drinking and smoking, and anything else unhealthy. Got a gym membership and went 4 hours a day. Jogged 5 miles every morning (weather permitting). Enrolled in an adult high school.

Ignored everyone and everything that would be a distraction. Got my High School diploma with honors in 2 years. Applied for university. Got in. Moved to a different city and spent 4 years getting my BA Hon in Philosophy (because I like to think and solve problems).

Applied to a graduate program, and spent the next 10 years getting my MA and my PhD. Then spent the next several years as a professor making good money and having lots of fun. Won’t say how things are going now because I got cursed with poor health etc., and so am no longer working.

I’ll just say that I am happy now and know that I would have ended up either dead or in jail if I hadn’t done what I did all those years ago. Sooner or later everyone has got to take their life seriously.”

14. Quite a story.

“I tot injured in a car accident (rear ended). Lost my business and my wife of 19 years eventually left for another man, leaving behind a 17 year old daughter and 2 year old son.

No job, No car, No money. 2 kids and $2k a month in rent coming due.

Two days after she left I took my real estate license test. I PASSED! I had planned to surprise her but had hid that I was studying in case I failed. Either way it wasn’t enough and I ended up taking a job at Amazon.

I worked a graveyard shift while my daughter stayed home with my son. I also did open houses on the weekend in hopes someone would walk in unrepresented…

It still wasn’t enough so I signed up to drive Uber and lift. I had been able to pick up a decent vehicle from a family member for cheap and I was in business. I switched my graveyard shift to a day shift and started driving through the nights.

The money was alright but I realized I could make a little more if I switched from Amazon to another large company in the area, so I did. I did that for about a year

Things we’re ok, I was making good money and then Coldwell Banker fired me. I didn’t think Coldwell fired anyone as long as they were paying their dues. I had never sold a house so all it meant was I needed to switch to another broker. Turns out that was a blessing in disguise.

A friend called on my way to sign with Keller Williams and convinced me to sign with a temp agency. I was skeptical but what did I have to lose? The first and second day I was placed with Toll Brothers. It was alright and I could see myself doing that. On the third day I was sent to a local developer and my world was changed.

The broker of record and the local developer took me under their wing. After a few months they hired me away from my temp broker, gave me a salary and commissions and provided me with an opportunity to change my kids lives forever. I was able to go from working 4 jobs to just one and I have learned more about myself than I could have ever imagined possible.

It’s been three and a half long years but I wouldn’t change a thing if I could.”

How about you?

Have you ever made big decisions and turned your life around?

If so, please talk to us in the comments. We look forward to it!

The post People Discuss What They Did to Turn Their Lives Around appeared first on UberFacts.