Marriage and the Power of Divorce

Phazael_sl said:

This. The friends who I float regularly are younger ones who are just getting started in life and I don't mind fronting some to have their company when we are being social. They never ask for it, we just offer. When I was younger and poorer, I had friends who did the same for me, so I am just paying it forward. What you are doing is more akin to enabling people. I think your life would improve a lot of you moved on and got a new circle of friends, but then again a lot of the details about you suggest you are happy doing what you are doing, so there is that.

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I completely agree with you, I'm just very limited in options. I'm in a weird spot. The town I live in is basically all retiree's and losers. Thats my honest evaluation of it. There is an elite circle of people here who are the doctors and lawyers or own all of the business, but we are talking a few dozen people who basically run the place. Everyone else is either living off the government or minimum wage. I'm sure anyone who knows Kingman Arizona can back me up on this. It really is a shithole sink trap. That being said, I've managed to finagle a job outside my qualifications on an indian reservation an hour away, largely because no one more qualified lives closer in combination with my ridiculous people skills.

So I'm faced with this dilemma. Move somewhere else and make 50-60% of my current salary doing a much shittier job, in addition to either A) trying to talk my Xwife into also moving to this new place, or B) losing my kids and also increasing my child support 500% (from $250 a month to $1497). It's a lose-lose, especially if the reason is just because I want to meet people who are successful in life. And the other aspect is, I don't dislike my friends, I know they will never do anything but drag me down, but they are nice people, just have no hopes/dreams/ambitions past "today".

So yes, I would love to move somewhere else, and I imagine if I did the quality of people in my inner circle would be much higher in terms of them being functional adults, but I just don't see how that is going to happen without significantly lowering my quality of life. I do have every intention of moving away at some point, however, I'm guessing that is 10 years down the pipe or so, when my kids are grown and my job history is more secure. Right now "2 years as an IT Director with no degree's or certs" doesn't look too hot, but 10 or 15 years would probably carry a lot more weight. That's my hope anyway.

Ramsey has to preach to the masses. Don't be a retard and credit cards are superior in every way to cash/debit.

Rewards cards are great for the individual, but the create inflation as business get charged that 2-4% fee per transaction. My margin is 18%, get paid with the top rewards card and now it's 14% and I just lost 23% of my profit.

We just implemented a policy that I will only take a cc payment up to $5000 anything above requires a 2.5% surcharge.

In reality you not really earning that cash back as many business are starting to increase prices to ward off the high cost of accepting premium cards.

I sell business to business so most of our clients get it, but we still get some folks that flip out and actually move their business. It still works out for us as last year we payed almost half a mill for the privilege of accepting premium cards.

Nester_sl said:

Rewards cards are great for the individual, but the create inflation as business get charged that 2-4% fee per transaction. My margin is 18%, get paid with the top rewards card and now it's 14% and I just lost 23% of my profit.

We just implemented a policy that I will only take a cc payment up to $5000 anything above requires a 2.5% surcharge.

In reality you not really earning that cash back as many business are starting to increase prices to ward off the high cost of accepting premium cards.

I sell business to business so most of our clients get it, but we still get some folks that flip out and actually move their business. It still works out for us as last year we payed almost half a mill for the privilege of accepting premium cards.

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That's not a reason to not use a credit card, that just reinforces credit card use, as now if you pay cash you just eat the whole 4% upcharge.

It's one in the same. Each cc has it's own % charge based on the reward.


Don't get me wrong, I run everything through my rewards cards as well, but. Don't think your getting ahead, your just not falling behind.

I wanted to post an article with more info and found this recent gem, looks like the Canadian government is trying to help

Finance Minister presses for lower credit-card fees for retailers - The Globe and Mail

Xequecal_sl said:

That's not a reason to not use a credit card, that just reinforces credit card use, as now if you pay cash you just eat the whole 4% upcharge.

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Correct, re-read my first sentence.

Interesting bit in that article about visa/mc being sued by retailers in the US

Tuco_sl said:

I'm kind of hoping bitcoin catches on more to pressure credit card companies to lower prices. It's got a long way to go before it's convenient enough to use though.

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I think it'll take a while for something like bitcoin to catch on. Even as someone of the younger generation it still feels like a scam using made up money.

Is the bitcoin value still volatile?

Aren't there some pretty insurmountable barriers to widespread use of bitcoin? Something about having to verify the entire block chain for each transaction and that gets harder there more transactions there are.

It has been a while since I read up on it, but I don't think so. I think only the current transaction is verified and then added to the chain. Reading the blockchain just involves seeing which fork of the chain you need to add the new block to. But it doesn't actually reverify each transaction.

Xequecal_sl said:

Aren't there some pretty insurmountable barriers to widespread use of bitcoin? Something about having to verify the entire block chain for each transaction and that gets harder there more transactions there are.

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You mean like beyond it being fundamentally retarded?

I'd say taking the nationality out of currency would be a step up towards international accountability. Bitcoin likely won't manage that, but they could resolve many technical challenges that lay the groundwork for a later success. Currently several central banks control the most important world currencies, and they tend to favor the currently wealthy when they need to act.

Not sure who that relates to M&PD....