The city of Trier, Germany, sold 0 euro banknotes with Karl Marx’s portrait printed on them in 2018, commemorating Marx’s 200th birthday, having been born in the city.
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fact
The city of Trier, Germany, sold 0 euro banknotes with Karl Marx’s portrait printed on them in 2018, commemorating Marx’s 200th birthday, having been born in the city.
The post The city of Trier, Germany… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
It’s really hard to see people go through very difficult times because of bad financial decisions that they’ve made in their lives.
And, as you probably know, it happens to quite a few people.
So what’s the worst financial decision you’ve seen someone make?
Let’s check out some interesting stories from folks on AskReddit.
“People who make over $250k (sometimes WELL over), no withholding, not paying estimated taxes throughout the year, can’t afford the tax bill with the return EVERY YEAR, then b*tching because they can’t afford the installment payments on the taxes they owe from two years ago.
Motherfu*ker, sell your gaudy McMansion, take your teenage daughter’s credit card away, let your drunk driving son stay in jail and get a public defender, and tell your wife to stop spending all day at the tennis courts sipping mimosas.
Get your sh*t together and pay taxes throughout the year like the rest of us. You aren’t being persecuted by the IRS, you’re just an idiot.”
“I work for a bank.
One of our branches had a customer who was basically homeless. Then, he wins the lottery! Over the next few months, the staff watched him come in to withdraw thousands of dollars every day to spend on extravagances.
Everyone tried to convince him to sit with a financial advisor to help him make the most of his money. Less than a year later, he’s in slightly better shape than when he started; he’s at least able to live in the car he bought.”
“I’ve had a client where I noticed this guy’s credit debt always remained hovering $13k to $15k.
I asked him why he only makes minimum payments on his credit card instead of paying it off, because I see he has roughly $11k sitting in a bank account. Interest per month on that credit card bill is roughly $250, and according to his repayment patterns it will take him roughly 19 years to pay it all off.
His answer to me is the bank charges him $7.99 per month for his bank account if his balance dips below $10k… So to save the $7.99 per month this guy is paying $250 in interest on his credit card.”
“What I’ve seen, countless times, is someone who started a business with ZERO research, no understanding of what running a business involves. (Here’s a hint: practically every business involves paperwork and deadlines.).
The business models come in waves… for awhile it was Barbecue shacks, then it was cupcakes, then house flippers, then food trucks. I think they see it being done on TV shows that make it look fun. It isn’t fun when they come to me with debt, tax levies and lawsuits.
IRS and state labor department and health department on their backs, and suppliers taking them to court for unpaid bills. Some of them cashed out their retirement account to buy a business; others put their house up as collateral for an SBA loan. it’s a nightmare.
If they had come to an accountant first, we might be able to help them (or even better, dissuade then). I usually see them after 18-24 months of screwups and by then it’s usually too late to rescue them.”
“An older gentleman came in worrying about a ton of overdraft fees on his 18 year old sons account. The fees added up to a hefty amount and he was worried that the charges were fraudulent.
Upon looking at the account history, every recent purchase was to OnlyFans. The fees were happily waived and no detail was given as to what OnlyFans is, as the kids old man clearly didn’t know.
I think about that kid often. I wonder how he’s doing.”
“Claims Adjuster here, and I see it happen all too often – trading in vehicles with negative equity.
Why? Why can’t you be financially responsible and pay off your vehicle instead of rolling the leftover loan onto that new shiny machine you just can’t resist, and rinse/repeat a couple of years later. Your loan is just getting bigger and bigger.
I had one client (recent, otherwise I had more than that) – who totaled his vehicle. He blew pass a stop sign and collided with another vehicle. Guess what friend, out of that $70,000 you still owe to the bank because you’ve traded in 4,5 vehicles over the years – we are only covering you for what your current vehicle is worth today, around $25,000 or whatever it was – depreciation applies unless you have the proper endorsement in place. That means you will be paying the bank for the leftover loans of some vehicles, none of which you own.
Own one vehicle, one loan – if you ever totaled your vehicle, insurance will provide you enough to cover the loan. If it doesn’t quite cover it because of high interest, it sure as hell isn’t a $45k loan left.”
“I had my former boss decide it was a great idea to buy land in Texas, our company was based in PA, in the middle of nowhere because he talked to another business owner who told him it was going to take off.
Myself and my co-worker advised against it but things were slow and he didn’t listen. At first it was going to be a place of operations but then he decided we would just rent out rooms to the people who worked down there in the oil industry. Dumped loads of money, time, and blood, sweat, and tears into it for it to just go bust not even a year later.”
“Worked in a family law firm.
Way too common of an occurrence is a client ignoring the lawyers advice for a balanced separation agreement and instead ambushing their spouse with an agreement that says they are getting everything.
Now instead of a relatively amicable breakup and maybe some mediation to sort out some sticking points it’s tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation costs.
If you are going through a divorce play nice. The only ones that win in a bad divorce are the lawyers.”
“I audit larger companies so I don’t work with individuals. However, my friend’s dad mentioned that he pays 3.5% annually in advisor fees to his financial advisor, and that’s not even including the fees that the mutual funds he’s invested in are charging him.
So annually, he’s paying out in the ballpark of 4.5% of his portfolio. That’s right, every freaking year. I tried to explain to him that these fees are potentially costing him millions more than a reasonably priced advisor who recommends low-cost mutual funds would charge him throughout a life time. He just kind of shrugged and told me that he felt comfortable with the guy.”
“A 94 year old woman withdrew a $540,000 annuity that she THOUGHT was a TAX FREE life insurance policy. She owed the IRS over $90,000 and the State of Michigan $14,000.
When I explained it was an annuity and not a life insurance policy she panicked. What was done was done and we just had to mitigate the damage.”
“The parents of a young woman bought her a condo. They paid cash so she wouldn’t have a mortgage. She sold it so she’d have party money.
Not only did she no longer have a place to live, she owed taxes on the gain. But she’d already spent the proceeds so didn’t have money to pay the taxes.
Oh, and she didn’t have a job because it would interfere with her partying schedule.”
“Grandma pulls 50k to help grandson pay off college debt. He blows all the money, steals another 10k from her.
She won’t file police report because “they are family”, daughter steps in, grandma is furious with daughter for telling police what happened. Grandma takes daughter off as beneficiary, replaces her with grandson.”
“I’ve seen plenty that made me cringe, but the worst one wasn’t because there was a lot of money involved.
So I’m working at this bank branch years ago, I was tired of being stuck in the drive thru so I made a lateral move to be a floating teller among other things. But occasionally I’d have to fill in at the old branch, which sucked because the manager there hated me.
Anyway, during my time there I became acquainted with an older gentleman, he was a world War II vet and was always wearing his navy vet cap. I talked to him every time I saw him and he was always really nice, had a great sense of humor, and even in old age he was still mentally sharp.
So this one day I’m filling in at the branch covering for the new accounts person. This guy walks in and I immediately knew something was off. I greeted him and asked how I could help him, and what he said broke my heart. He told me that he wanted his daughter off of his account, that she had been taking advantage of him and his money was being wasted.
I did my due diligence and brought up some history and asked him about specific charges, I remember there were a bunch for a couple of salons, so clearly those weren’t his transactions. The last few times I had seen him, there was a younger woman with him that I hadn’t seen before, and he was pulling out cash and giving it to her.
It dawned on me that each time I had seen him, he was there with someone else that did all his stuff for him, and that this time he had come in alone, which never happened.
So while looking at his account I noticed that his daughter is an owner on the account, meaning he can’t just remove her, she has to consent to it. When I asked him if he thought she would agree to that, he said no and started crying.
Normally we weren’t supposed to keep pushing a situation like this, but I really wanted to help him. I told him I couldn’t get her off the account, but I could open him a new one where he would be the only one on it, and then we could transfer the money over.
I could tell he was relieved when I said that to him, so after a few minutes I took care of everything for him. I specifically remember that after I finished, I gave him my business card, and told him that if he had any issues he could call me. A few minutes later he left happy, and I briefed the manager on what had happened.
A day or two later I’m working at another location when I get a call on my cell from my boss, she asked me if I had helped an older gentleman with his account when I was at my old branch. It turns out that after I had helped him, his “daughter” had tried to use the account to pay for more of the sh*t she was wasting his money on, and the card was declined.
She had gone into the branch and raised hell, screaming at the employees there and demanding they bring her the person responsible. The business card that I had given the man didn’t have my direct number on it, the number went to my boss. She had screamed at my boss and demanded that I be fired for what I had done.
My boss as well as the branch manager that hated my guts had both defended me and neither of them would give in to her demands. But I found out later on the next time I saw my boss, she had forced the old man to either move all the money back to the old account or to make her an owner on the new one. When anyone asked her about the situation, she just claimed that he had dementia and didn’t know what he was doing.
I honestly hope she was telling the truth, but I never saw that man again, and had moved into another role and then to a different company not long after. I went to anyone that would listen about what happened, but no one could do anything because elder abuse is so difficult to prove.
The whole thing still haunts me, I saw an old man asking me for help and did the best I could for him. In the end he either made the decision to keep her around or was forced to, and I worry I just made things worse for him.”
“My brother had a long standing client of around 10 years get married after only knowing a woman for 12 months. He was almost 55, she was in her early 30s.
55 y.o. man wanted to add her as a signatory on his retirement account. Basically giving her 100% power over the account. A quick soft credit check showed she was not good with money. My brother offered up many different options as to how to give her access to the money but with limitations. He even straight up refused to do it, saying that he needed to think about it for a few days.
The guy came back in the next morning saying he would file a complaint against him if he didn’t set it up. My brother said that he would need to get the documents notarized, and sign a waiver that this is against the institutions advice.
The guy comes back in later that day and finalizes the deal.
You can guess what happened within about 6 months.
The account had around 600k in it to begin with, and she had managed to run off with about 65k before the account was frozen by my brother for review of withdrawls.
The man was p*ssed and tried to lawyer up twice. Neither time did it even go to court.
His advice is that if you are married and have investment accounts, just keep them separate unless you REALLY have a reason to give them access. You can totally notify the agency about your marriage, and sometimes in certain situations the spouse can get limited info confirmed for medical bills and such.”
How about you?
What’s the worst financial decision you’ve ever seen someone make?
Tell us your stories in the comments! Please and thank you!
The post People Discuss the Really Bad Financial Decisions They Seen Folks Make appeared first on UberFacts.
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.
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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?”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.
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.
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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?”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.””
“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.
When you’re growing up, you don’t really pay a whole lot of attention to how much things cost.
And you really don’t figure out the cost of things or the value of a dollar until you get your first real job and you learn about how much hard work that life can really be.
Let’s check out these amusing stories from folks on AskReddit who admitted they didn’t know what things REALLY cost until they became adults.
“Lots of things but recently I bought a rug and I had no idea rugs would be that expensive.
I have wood floors for the first time so I’ve never needed to buy one before.”
“Pets.
I always had dogs and cats growing up. Well, a few years ago I decided to get my own dog. Large breed dogs are expensive. My dog now has health issues. He is allergic to chicken and has sensitive skin.
I spend $100 monthly on special dog food for him. Plus he needs vitamins, monthly groomer visits, yearly physical, toys, etc.
Animals are expensive.
I was watching Homeward Bound a few days ago. All I could think about is “How can these people afford to fly 3 pets from San Fransico to Canada?””
“Bed sheets, blankets, pillows, at least the good sets.
I just want a nice comfy bedroom, but my blankets don’t match the decoration.”
“Legos. Buying them for the nieces and nephews.
Thought I was going to be the cool uncle by buying them huge sets.
That strategy got changed quite quick.”
“Utilities.
There’s a reason my parents used to walk around flipping switches saying, “What, do you have stock in Edison?!” or that my Mom would throw a sweater at us when we’d complain about being cold but were wearing t-shirts and shorts, bare foot.
Now I am my Mom.
Here’s a blanket, put on some socks, quit complaining.”
“Rent.
My parents have owned their home since I was 3, and paid off their mortgage while I was still a kid, so I never realised how expensive it could be just to have somewhere to live.”
“Fresh fruit.
I used to eat entire containers of raspberries immediately upon finding them in the fridge and I could never figure out why my mom would be upset I went through them so quickly.
They’re like $5-7 for like 20 raspberries at most! I just bought kiwi berries because I was curious and hadn’t seen them in stores before. $4 for a dozen of them. They’re approximately grape sized, if you aren’t familiar.
Aldi is the only reason I can afford fresh fruit on any sort of regular basis.”
“Decent cheese.
The first time I ever went shopping I realized why my mum used to go mental when myself and my dad would sit and eat cubes of mature cheddar.”
“Omg tampons!
When my local grocery stores was remodeling last year, they marked down tampons by like 70%.
I was able to get U by Kotex compact tampons for $3 a box (y’all ladies know those are expensive and usually run $8-$10 a box).
You best believe I bought them out. I still have tampons left.”
“Agree with all answers here but the thing i discovered first was car tires.
Usually a car is a young adults first major purchase.”
“Groceries.
Meat. Cheese. Fresh vegetables.
TV always be like, “Eat healthy!” but the grocery store always be like, “The only thing on sale is refined sugar!””
“Avocados.
Had them in patents backyard and ate them all the time. Moved out of parents house and oh my God.
I had no idea how expensive avocados are. I had to reduce my intake of guac from daily to once a month.”
“This is going to sound so dumb, but furniture. Growing up, I knew furniture wasn’t cheap. But, I thought “a really nice coffee table can’t cost more than like $200.”
Then I started buying my own furniture and was still blissfully in the dark, because I never cared about having brand new stuff, I’d just get furniture secondhand or at thrift shops.
Then I moved in with my girlfriend, who likes to get new things and realized my conceptions were WAY off. That’s like bottom line for a coffee table that won’t fall apart within a year.
Certain things like couches I understand, but every little thing you could put something else on is stupid expensive and it still doesn’t make sense to me even after I’ve come to accept it.”
“Mattresses.
And you don’t realize how important a good one is until you really have to think about it.
Your sleep is so important and affects everything so it’s important to get a good mattress but holy hell they are expensive.”
How about you?
What things did you not realize were expensive until you became older?
Talk to us in the comments!
The post People Share What Items They Didn’t Realize Were Expensive Until They Became Adults appeared first on UberFacts.
This should be interesting…
A lot of us daydream about what we’d do and what we’d buy if we had unlimited funds. But on the flip side, it’s also fun to think about what we would definitely NOT buy if we had a boatload of cash.
For me, I’d have to say it would be fancy cars. I just don’t think it’s something I could ever get into…but that’s just me.
What would you still refuse to buy if you were rich?
Let’s see what AskReddit users had to say about this.
“Expensive cat toys.
My cat will continue to play with my phone charger.”
“A big house.
Though I’d probably build a really luxurious small one.”
“Stadium foods like $10 bags of popcorn.
It’s just the principle.”
“Heroin
Easiest way to stop being filthy rich and become lifeless in the process..”
“Diamond-encrusted anything.
I don’t like glittery things and it just looks uncomfortable and heavy.”
“Water in bottles.
In my country the tap water is 100% safe to drink. So buying water in bottles would be a waste of money, time and resources.
Change my mind…”
“Anything from Walmart.
I’d love to be so rich that I wouldn’t have to step into a Walmart again.”
“Bags for bathroom trash cans.
That’s what plastic grocery bags are for.
Even in CA, where we’re not supposed to have plastic grocery bags, they have made a comeback during COVID.”
“You will never see me booking a cruise no matter how much money I have.
There are endless other places I’d rather spend my vacations.”
“A new car.
I would just let other rich people buy theirs new and drive it for a year before they get bored of it and buy a new one.
There are plenty of great vehicles on the market simply because some people can afford to view their transportation as a status symbol.”
“Overpriced paintings.
Like yeah, spending a few grand to get an incredible landscape by an artist makes sense.
Spending 2 million on some modern art bullsh*t or splatter painting does not. Sh*t’s just stupid. I will never understand this.
Now I’m sure some of this is money laundering but it can’t all be money laundering, right?”
“Personalized license plates.
Might as well wear a t-shirt saying “I’m a pr*ck”.”
“An oil change, basic service on my car including brakes.
I’ve always done it myself and that wouldn’t change.”
“One of those brides that you order.
I know that they do it out of free will, but I just don’t want that.
I want to actually, like, meet my wife, and get to know her.”
“Meals outside.
At any fast food joint, any restaurant, any bar, etc.
Just no.”
“Apple products (there are superior products for cheaper).
Extremely overpriced food items like “gold hamburger” where theres gold flakes on it, adds nothing to the taste and is a waste of money and gold.
I would never buy diamonds, they’re only expensive due to limits on export and importing.”
“Overpriced cars and clothes.
I wanna be rich but not in a in your face way. I wanna be rich but you don’t think I’m rich. A nice-ish house? Yes. A decent car? Yes. Designer and Tesla? Nah.
I just wanna take care of me, my girlfriend, and any potential children I have or adopt.”
How about you?
If you were flush with cash, what would you STILL refuse to buy?
Tell us what you think in the comments!
The post What Would You Still Refuse to Buy if You Were Filthy Rich? Here’s What People Said. appeared first on UberFacts.
This would be a tough proposition for me…
If I had to pick one hobby to spend $1 million on, what would it be?
Old hockey memorabilia? Old movie posters? Books? Records?
The possibilities are endless!
But it sure is fun to think about, isn’t it?
If you had to spend a million bucks on your favorite hobby, what would you buy?
Let’s check out what AskReddit users said about this!
“I’d buy some land and start planting cotton, bamboo, make linen, order silk, start making my own!
I’m allergic to most animal hair and it’s difficult to find any yarn without it! I’d also learn how to wind my own yarn and dye it as well!
I’m too excited about this idea…”
“Brand new top end rig, new networking gear, A.V. set up, nice desk, decent office chair.
Maybe a new sofa should all fall under gaming, maybe a house to so you plenty of space for it too.”
“With a million dollars I’m making my own car from scratch.
I’m thinking fully custom NA flat 12, around 6.0L, in a semi-monocoque chassis with CFRP panels and manual, 6 speed double clutch gearbox…
Designing the parts would be as much fun as building it and that would be as much fun as driving it.”
“I have an affinity for fountain pens. Given that a Montblanc Geometry Solitaire Meisterstück is £1250 I could get a lot of nice pens for that amount.
The Fulgor Nocturnus pen was sold at auction for 8 million, so I could perhaps find something in between the Fulgor Nocturnus and a Meisterstück.”
“I’d buy a house to store all my books.
Or build my own multilevel library with sliding ladders.”
“I like hiking and conservation.
So I would buy a bunch of land, a house and live there while I transform it into a more valuable ecosystem.”
“ALL THE FILM EQUIPMENT I’VE EVER DREAMT OF.
All the software I could never afford, the cameras, the studio, the actors and crew, the props and lights and…..jeez I would be in heaven.”
“Cannabis farm in a recreational state with an on site home for my family of 3 humans and 4 animals.”
“I’m a woodworker.
I’d buy some cheap land way up North, get a bunch of durable hand tools, hire skilled craftsmen, and have them crank out free toys for children.
For only a million, I can’t give things to all children, so I’ll make a list of only the most needy and worthy.
Sometime when it’s the dead of winter, I’ll deliver those toys. I’m skipping 2020 though, seems to dangerous out there.”
“I’m a musician.
I’d probably hire someone for marketing, make t-shirts, press some CDs, and book some high-quality recording sessions.
Oh, and definitely a new acoustic guitar, which I badly need.”
“I like renovating 1970s houses.
So I guess 3/4 of a house in Toronto, or 50 houses in Detroit.
I think I’d have more fun in Detroit.”
“First I’d buy the best bicycle money can buy.
Titanium frame, custom cut to my exact measurements, and built with all the best components. That will “only’ set me back about $10,000. Then I’ll upgrade all my camping equipment with the best of the best. Again we’ll say $10,000 but that’s probably a large overestimation.
What would I do with the other $980,000? I’d load all that super fancy camping gear onto the bicycle and spend the next several years cycling all around the world. I’d fly to New Zealand first, and bike the whole length of both islands. Then Australia.
I’d ride from southeast Asia to England, somehow working in a detour down to Africa. Then from Alaska all the way to the southern tip of South America (I’ve already booked across most of the Continental US, so I’m ok with flying over that this time).
All along the way, that million dollars would be buying my food, paying visa fees and airline tickets between continents. Traveling by bicycle is a relatively cheap way of traveling, at least when you’re camping instead of just cycling from one hotel to the next.
A million bucks would be enough to ride around the world several times over, even while treating myself to the occasional hotel along the way.”
“My hobby is writing.
The writing part is cheap. I can do it on a Chromebook using Google Docs. I even published a novel spending about $300. (Mostly book cover design and copies to give/sell to people.)
However, after this part is where things get expensive. Once you’ve published a book, you need to convince people to read it. There are so many books on Amazon and I’m an unknown writer so even if someone happens to stumble upon my book they won’t know why they should read it.
Trust me, virtually nobody will stumble upon your book, buy it, read it, and tell a hundred friends to do the same.
In addition, my first book was looked over by some friends/family as beta readers for free. (Well, I gave them a copy of my book, but it was still cheap.)
The problem I ran into for the sequel was that I needed people who had read Book 1 so they could critique Book 2. Given so few people read the first book, it proved a difficult task and that book remains unpublished.
Going back to the question, I’d give part of the money to a professional editor to critique my book as many times as needed until it was perfect. Then, I’d pay a great artist to design an eye catching cover (instead of the inexpensive bare bones cover my first book had).
Next, I’d hire someone to promote my book(s) far and wide. Finally, I’d pay someone to professionally record an audiobook version of my novel(s).
Of course, all of this would probably cost about $10,000. (This is off the top of my head estimate.) A lot of money for me right now, but a drop in the million dollar bucket. The million dollars would be enough to help me with 100 books.”
“Forget about leather bound special editions of all sourcebooks, expensive dice (rare materials, custom made, electronic, weird shapes, etc), and hand-painted miniatures for days. That’s just getting started.
We’re going to build an immersive experience.
First, the play area: build a beach house with 6 rooms for the players, 4 bathrooms (2 up, 2 down), a full kitchen, den, back deck over the water, and our gaming Dungeon.
The Dungeon: Glass display cases for figurines w/fantasy motif woodwork. Bookshelves for source and splat books and character creation materials. Leather sectional with a flat screen for character creation and breaks. A wet bar, because we’re civilized adults. The Gaming Table. And The Wardrobe. Custom AV system.
The wardrobe: a walk-in closet with props like fake shoulder parrots, rapiers, and staves for players and outfit accessories like wide leather belts, scarves, and hats.
Custom AV: preset surround sound and light settings all controlled from the DM’s laptop for at-the-fingers control of background sounds, music, and mood lighting.
The Gaming Table: Seats 8. Each rolling leather office chair will have its own included upper shelf for dice, pencils, etc and a lower shelf for tablet, character sheets, etc, their own built-in dice tower, a fold out drink holder for our pewter dragon goblets.
2 charging ports for devices both usb and regular outlets. And, the selling point: built-in touchscreen laptops connected to the DM’s LAN network for private messaging the DM and for distribution of visual aids.
The tabletop: 3d printed modal mix-and-match, magnetic dungeon pieces integrated with the table’s magnets.”
Now it’s your turn!
In the comments, tell us how you’d spend a million bucks on your favorite hobby.
Please and thank you!
The post People Admit How They’d Spend $1 Million on Their Favorite Hobbies appeared first on UberFacts.
Rich folks are an odd group. Some of them like to flaunt it, and some of them like to keep it a secret from the world for one reason or another.
It’s like when you read an article about a woman who lived in a run-down shack with 75 cats and no running water and you later find out she was worth $10 million. Weird, right?
But, that’s life!
What screams “I’m way richer than I look?”
Here’s what AskReddit users had to say.
“Unique or somewhat odd collections of things most people don’t collect.
I worked in a high-end whisky store for many years, and the number of shabbily-dressed men from overseas who strode in to spend $5,000 – $10,000 on whisky for their collection was staggering. They were always chatty, knowledgeable, and above all casual.
One man in particular had been collecting for decades, his wife was fully supportive (she had her own collection of rare items, he implied), and he enjoyed traveling the world to pick them up as an excuse to go someplace. Conversations often went like this:
Customer: “I see from your website you have the [rare bottling from 1967]? Do you have any in stock now?”
Me: “We do, yes. It’s downstairs. In fact we have a few of that vintage, as well as the [1953, 1966, and 1972]. Would you like to know the prices?”
Customer: “Oh, great. I think that fills a couple of gaps in my collection. And if not the guys and my wife will enjoy cracking one open. Can you package them up for me please?”
Me: “Would…would you like to know how much they are, sir?”
Customer: “Can you ship them all to my place? In fact, if you have discounts for bulk items, I’d like to know what other vintages you have.”
And so on.”
“I went to dinner with a GF and her parents. After we ate, the owner came out and asked how the meal was and then we left without a bill ever coming to the table.
On the way home I asked GF about it and she said her dad had “tabs” at all the restaurants he liked to eat at.
As we were leaving the valet brought the cars around and I mentioned I liked his Tahoe. I asked what year it was and he kind laughed and said whatever is the newest one.
I didn’t know he owned a car dealership in another city.”
“I work at a luxury resort.
People call to book rooms with me all day and they aren’t cheap. I can tell when it’s obvious a young couple who had to scrape together the dough for the cheapest room.
But every once in a while I’ll get a call from someone who casually calls and asks to book the biggest room without asking for the price. They know exactly what they want and the price means nothing to them.
2.5k a night? No biggie. Here is my card number.”
“I had reason to frequent a small but popular marina at a certain Gulf Coast city.
I encountered one old man often, enough we greeted each other with random chit chat. Lovely gentleman. He wore a crumpled old hat, a grease spotted tee shirt, cut off jeans, and worn deck shoes. He always puttered around the largest yacht in the marina, about 60′ long.
He would polish the chrome, wash the deck, clean the life preservers. I didn’t assume he was the maintenance guy because he had such self confidence. I never saw him actually take it out.
I got up the nerve to ask security who he was; he owned most the commercial real estate in the city.”
“They avoid any discussion of money.
When paying for anything they like to do it privately/quietly/before anyone else is aware, so you end up walking in and out of places feeling like you haven’tpaid, almost as if money doesn’t exist.
They don’t flaunt it.
Source: I was dating a girl and didn’t realize she and her whole family were rich until her dad picked us up for dinner in a brand new Mercedes, proceeded to pay for everything during our trip, and our Christmas presents were first class flights to the US (from Australia) for a ski holiday…
That’s around AUD$10-15k (US$7-11k) per person. He also financially supports his other daughter at Cornell University/living in the US.
I grew up poor (and still am, lol)… But I never realized how poor until I met that family.”
“Oh God. I dated a rich girl in high school but didn’t realize it until it was time to meet her dad.
She had me meet them at a restaurant that there was absolutely no way I could have afforded the tip, let alone my meal. It was awkward (for me, at least) assuming I wasn’t going to pay anything when the check came.”
“One of my good friends made a bunch of money in oil and then invested it in tech companies that ended up doing extremely well.
2 years out of college he was a multimillionaire. He’d still go out to drink with us like normal and would pick up the tab for dinner and drinks for a group of 8 to 12 of us without a second thought.
He didn’t flaunt it or anything, just wanted his friends to have a good time without worrying about money while he was around.”
“The type that nonchalantly offers you a spot in their luxury box at a game or concert, or covers your course fees at a golf outing even though you barely know them.”
“Wearing a T-shirt and jeans in a room of people wearing suits.
My company CEO does this all the time.”
“Back in high school I used to do rowing, and at the rowing club there was this guy who wasn’t great at socialising, was a little awkward, but he was friendly so I didn’t mind him.
We often went out on the same boats and would talk to each other (as much as was possible while rowing), and at the end his dad would always pick him up afterwards wearing sweatpants, slippers and a hoodie.
You might understand why, then, I didn’t believe my friend when he told me that they were one of the richest families in the world. I looked them up, and sure enough, there they were, worth an estimated 15.5 BILLION DOLLARS.
Now whenever I see someone out in public looking like they’re wearing what they slept in I always assume they’re mega rich and don’t car about a thing anymore.”
“Not knowing prices for common household items/foodstuffs.
Either they’re getting the super deluxe version and don’t know the standard price or they haven’t done their own food shopping for years.
To clarify, it’s not about knowing the exact price of a product (most don’t), but having no real conception of even a ball park figure.
Being used to buying vastly more expensive things, they guess what they believe to be “cheap”, yes, like Bill Gates’ appearance on Ellen.”
“Really rich people don’t wear clothes with a big brand on display because they don’t make free publicity for anyone.
For clothes they have specific shops who could tailor them high quality clothes, purses or shoes anytime.”
“My boss drives a $2,000 Mercedes from the 1980’s, usually wears jeans and sh*tty clothes at all times.
No jewlery or watch, owns a $150,000 used house.
He’s worth $2 billion.”
Now we want to hear from you.
What makes you think someone is way richer than they look when you see them?
Tell us all about it in the comments.
Thanks!
The post People Share What They Think Screams “I’m Much Wealthier Than I Look” appeared first on UberFacts.
At age 71 legendary songwriter Leonard Cohen discovered he was nearly broke after his long time manager and former lover stole $5M. The theft started after Cohen entered a Zen Buddhist retreat when he retired, believing he had enough money to live there the rest of his life.
The post At age 71 legendary songwriter… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
I’m not telling you anything new, but being broke really sucks.
Mo money, mo problems?
I said it’s more like NO money, mo problems.
But if you can’t laugh and make jokes at your hardships, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble getting through the hard times. So just poke a little fun at yourself, it won’t break you!
Here are some hilarious (and painful) memes about being broke as a joke.
Enjoy!
Does this look familiar…?
Open your eyes! I’m eating a candy bar for dinner!
Whew! That was close!
It works for everything!
And you can steal one from a parking lot near you!
It was kinda cute…for a second…
You are now royalty.
We got a high roller on our hands!
I need that pizza to be delivered, okay?
i think 90% of my financial problems would be solved if i just ate the food i have at home
— Shafeeq (@Y2SHAF) April 21, 2019
Oh well, what are you gonna do?
I'm 1st world poor. Which means I own a smart phone and an expensive laptop so I can go online and check that I have no money in the bank.
— शुऐब (@thatshaikh) January 26, 2015
Do what you gotta do.
Y’all ever put a $7.02 pack of chicken back and got a pack that was $6.98?!
— BLACK JESUS (@MuuFaSa) August 13, 2019
With yourself…
What part of “I don’t want to spend anymore money” don’t I understand
— chaci (@OhlhauserAdam) August 21, 2018
One day, hopefully…
i can’t wait until i’m financially able to afford who I really am
— mamas (@TyvpL) November 22, 2018
Now we want to hear from you!
In the comments, tell us about the brokest thing you’ve ever done in your life.
We can’t wait to read your stories!
The post Funny Posts About Being Broke as a Joke appeared first on UberFacts.