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Post by packerbacker on Feb 28, 2017 19:49:56 GMT -6
I assume you aren't far off - my sister-in-law got married last year in the Chicago area - my father-in-law said the bill was just over $60k and that didn't include the rehearsal dinner or bar bill. He has 3 daughters and we were first to get married. His wife was dead set on paying for all the wedding and her tastes are a little over the top. I told him that if he wanted - he could just give me a check for $10k and I would handle. Said his wife was to excited to do the planning with my to be wife - our wedding end-up costing him $35k in northern Wisconsin. Still can't figure out how she managed to run it up that far up here.
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ace
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Post by ace on Feb 28, 2017 19:53:52 GMT -6
I assume you aren't far off - my sister-in-law got married last year in the Chicago area - my father-in-law said the bill was just over $60k and that didn't include the rehearsal dinner or bar bill. He has 3 daughters and we were first to get married. His wife was dead set on paying for all the wedding and her tastes are a little over the top. I told him that if he wanted - he could just give me a check for $10k and I would handle. Said his wife was to excited to do the planning with my to be wife - our wedding end-up costing him $35k in northern Wisconsin. Still can't figure out how she managed to run it up that far up here. 60k....Holy shit, that's ridiculous. I literally can't phatham paying that much for a wedding. That is just crazy....can't get over that.
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Post by smsmith on Feb 28, 2017 20:02:25 GMT -6
I didn't blink an eye on helping pay for college, but when it comes to weddings I see zero value in spending a shitton of money on a party for a bunch of people the married couple barely knows and may see infrequently in the future if at all. One of my current pet peeves is young people with huge college debt who then plan over the top weddings.
We wrote a 5 figure check to the kids for their January wedding but they were smart enough to not piss it all away on a party. Should be at least part of a down payment on some land and a house in the future (I hope they're smart enough to do that anyway).
Stepson graduates from St. Cloud State in early May, he has been accumulating loans to pay for his school but we'll cover most if not all of that amount. He's been paying his rent, food, and other personal expenses since Sophomore year, so he's been investing in his future too.
Then...we can take a deep breath and start doing some thinking of our own.
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Post by smsmith on Feb 28, 2017 20:04:00 GMT -6
I assume you aren't far off - my sister-in-law got married last year in the Chicago area - my father-in-law said the bill was just over $60k and that didn't include the rehearsal dinner or bar bill. He has 3 daughters and we were first to get married. His wife was dead set on paying for all the wedding and her tastes are a little over the top. I told him that if he wanted - he could just give me a check for $10k and I would handle. Said his wife was to excited to do the planning with my to be wife - our wedding end-up costing him $35k in northern Wisconsin. Still can't figure out how she managed to run it up that far up here. 60k....Holy shit, that's ridiculous. I literally can't phatham paying that much for a wedding. That is just crazy....can't get over that. Do a few web searches on current average wedding costs. I believe it's right around $40k
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ace
Full Member
Posts: 153
Likes: 67
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Post by ace on Feb 28, 2017 20:09:25 GMT -6
60k....Holy shit, that's ridiculous. I literally can't phatham paying that much for a wedding. That is just crazy....can't get over that. Do a few web searches on current average wedding costs. I believe it's right around $40k That's As-i-fucking-nine.
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Post by smsmith on Feb 28, 2017 20:14:29 GMT -6
I agree ace, I just can't wrap my brain around spending that kind of money on a party for a bunch of people I don't even know or like.
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Post by packerbacker on Feb 28, 2017 20:19:10 GMT -6
I agree ace, I just can't wrap my brain around spending that kind of money on a party for a bunch of people I don't even know or like. Or on something that has about a 50% chance of not working out.
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Post by smsmith on Feb 28, 2017 20:25:23 GMT -6
I agree ace, I just can't wrap my brain around spending that kind of money on a party for a bunch of people I don't even know or like. Or on something that has about a 50% chance of not working out. Ya, but that's kinda my point. The costs involved aren't about the actual wedding...it's about a party and "keeping up appearances" for friends and family Just getting married is pretty cheap. My second time around we did at the courthouse with the JP. Believe the license and ceremony cost us just under $300. We're just as "married" as the folks who spend many times that amount....
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Post by sd51555 on Feb 28, 2017 20:35:31 GMT -6
For the guys doing a lot of buying and selling individual stocks, what is your annualized portfolio return for the last 5 years? By how much did you beat the 14% return on the Vanguard 500 index fund www.google.com/finance?q=MUTF:VFIAX ? How does a guy get outta that question alive? I don't have to look, I can tell you I didn't beat the market, but I didn't miss by much. I've taken away lessons from the past four years that have made me a better investor. So why do I do it on my own? It could get windy. Prepare to be yoderized. *Index funds don't allow for savy conversions from traditional to roth. I have snuck some stocks "under the fence" during periods of weakness in an otherwise up market. Good example is Union Pacific. I had been on a plan to accumulate a $$ sized position. I do it over time to ensure I don't fall victim to picking the wrong time to buy. Just so happened I was about 3/4 the way towards my goal when UP tanked to the high $60's. I was staring at an ugly loss of about 25% on what I held. I jumped on the opportunity to convert those shares at the depressed price. 14 months later, those shares roared back 43% in the other direction and I picked up all that gain in my roth, tax free. *The type of index I'm benchmarking against (for my div stocks) would be something like the Spider Dividend Aristocrat ETF (NOBL). That ETF has eeked out a gain of 36% over five years. Not bad by any means, but I've done that with a number of stocks in far shorter time. They've also yielded around 2% while skimming .35% off in fees. But the 2% has been inconsistent. I don't like inconsistent, and that by definition is not aristocrat performance. *Each of my accounts serves a different purpose. IRA's need to grow, that's pretty simple. The HSA needs to grow and kick out income and be a little more sound than the crazy shit I've got going in my IRAs. My taxable stock needs to kick out even more income, but also have an expectation of rising share value. It's where I park my medium term savings and extreme catastrophe funds. No single index or even batch of index funds could do those things, that I've found anyway. *Mutual funds and index funds don't allow for you to pick the fly shit outta the pepper. Any novice could go into NOBL and see it's full of stocks that drag down the index and will continue to strangle the performance. Walmart, Target, Pepsi, AT&T, McDonalds, and more. Those aren't necessarily bad investments, but their upsides are severely in question, or outright non-existent. I don't want to own what I know will be a market laggard/loser into the future. *Had I not made some obvious mistakes like chasing yield, trying to catch falling pianos, and getting into extremely sketchy niche stocks (BBEP, SSW, RSX, TGH, CLF, uranium ETFs, coal MLPs, private prisons, etc) I'd have crushed the market. I've gotten far more disciplined and done far better the past 18 months. I've purged the crap, added to the good, and gotten for more principle based. I don't actively trade. I build positions and hold them. I will skim profits when they get exceptionally high quickly, but otherwise, I'm not a market player in the traditional sense. Thankfully I'm very diversified, so even the total wipeouts didn't take more than 2% of the portfolio. I also enjoy the shit outta doing this. I'm trying to build a better mouse trap, at a lower cost, higher yield, and focused on only proven companies.
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Post by sd51555 on Feb 28, 2017 20:46:51 GMT -6
The irony in all this is, most of those extremely shitty companies that were my biggest losers, were recommended by an income investor newsletter that I paid a decent sum to receive each month!
FYI, don't spend $200/year on the Motley Fool Income Investor newsletter. Their recommendations are shit. I went onto their boards and ripped the manager a new ass. I told him his picks the last twelve months have all been shit, and half the others over the past three years have been complete shit as well. I told him there were tons of steals to be had in century old solid American companies and he had the balls to ask me what they were. I spit out about 15 of them and he didn't have much to say after that. Thankfully I began rejecting most of their recommendations a while back and didn't bite onto many more of those losers. I started going my own way about 18 months back just buying sound companies and it's paid extremely well.
I can stomach underperformance, but total wipeout without any sell rec when the loss reached 50% in many of those turds? Get fucking real dawg.
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Retirement
Feb 28, 2017 21:40:22 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by leexrayshady on Feb 28, 2017 21:40:22 GMT -6
We save each month for our 2 kids, been doing that since they were born. Currently 4 and 5 yrs old What ever is accumulated is what they get, as long as they graduate. It might sound harsh but I won't leverage my retirement, by that time they will have many years to pay off any debt they accumulate where I won't be able to
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Post by sd51555 on Feb 28, 2017 21:43:04 GMT -6
I mentioned I would share earlier. If anyone wants a peak inside... Sorted by yield. The purchase date is when I made my first purchase. There were subsequent buys after those and the rate of return is the total return of the position. Some buys were better, some were not. You can also see my losers.
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Post by MoBuckChaser on Mar 1, 2017 5:25:23 GMT -6
I agree ace, I just can't wrap my brain around spending that kind of money on a party for a bunch of people I don't even know or like. Have your baby girl stand there looking beautiful on the happiest day of her life and tell her we should not have been spending that much money! You do like I did, just let them both know, if you get divorced, you will pay me back! So have a great life!
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Post by MoBuckChaser on Mar 1, 2017 5:28:08 GMT -6
I mentioned I would share earlier. If anyone wants a peak inside... Sorted by yield. The purchase date is when I made my first purchase. There were subsequent buys after those and the rate of return is the total return of the position. Some buys were better, some were not. You can also see my losers. SD like the shotgun approach! Remember, the more you buy, the better the chance of losing!
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Post by chummer16 on Mar 1, 2017 7:11:07 GMT -6
I think it is time we end this bullshit where father of the bride pays for weddings. I have a deal with both my girls that scholarship equals new car for them. I need one of them to come through for their old man. This is morbid but does any one factor in the demise of their in laws? Not that I completely wish for that day to come but that will be a substantial chunk. They are the type that refuses to talk about real life shit so it will probably all go to a nursing home but there is a chance for a chunk of money. Of coarse our 1/3 will probably have to go to buy out the two other sisters who will want to liquidate the land and camp ASAP.
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