I feel like you’re completely missing the point here. It’s like you’ve never even stepped foot inside a Bank to withdraw cash in USD. You sign a contract for a Swiss Franc loan, you receive those Swiss Francs, and then you pay them back in Swiss Francs. But since you can't exactly walk into a grocery store and pay for milk with Swiss Francs, you have to convert them into USD first. You borrow Swiss Francs, you repay Swiss Francs... and that’s exactly why the interest rates were so much better back then—because the Swiss Franc was basically the gold standard of stability.
Just take a look at your contract. It clearly states you're taking out a loan for a specific amount of Swiss Francs... nowhere does it say you're borrowing an amount in USD...
I took out a loan about two years ago. At the time, I had to clear my overdraft, dump some cash into the account, and actually trim down the principal because I wanted everything settled in USD. You’ve got to borrow based on what you can actually afford. Back then, a Swiss Franc loan was way cheaper than anything in Euros.
You should never have even factored in paying it back in dollars. If you borrow Swiss Francs, you pay back Swiss Francs...
I remember this professor once told me—always take out a loan in whatever currency you get your paycheck in.
It’s just like buying a car—don't go picking up a ride that costs more than what a guy making minimum wage pulls in.
Everyone had a choice in this. It feels like the government is just buying time in court, dangling a little hope that maybe someone won't end up footing the bill.
You bought something back when it cost three bucks, and now it costs $2.00... I don't know how hard this is to wrap your head around. You took out a Swiss Franc loan, not a USD loan. That means if you borrowed 10,000 Swiss Francs, you owe exactly 10,000 Swiss Francs, regardless of what that actually costs you in the end. It could have just as easily happened that the Swiss Franc dropped to a single dollar..
Look, I bought a house for 50,000 USD, and now that house is worth 100,000 USD. Does that mean I suddenly owe the Bank 100,000 USD just because the market value went up? Of course not. I still owe exactly 50,000 USD. I took out my loan in USD, so I dodged the whole currency headache entirely, but I think you get the point.
I borrowed dollars and I paid back dollars. My dad borrowed Euros, used his dollars to buy those Euros, and paid them back. You guys chose the Swiss Franc, and nobody stopped you from just tucking those 10,000 Swiss Francs away in a drawer. You paid them $10, and then a few years later, they were worth 60,000 USD..
I know a guy who had an aunt sending him 300 Swiss Francs every month into his account (he lost his parents early on). He never touched a cent of it. In the end, he ended up sitting on a mountain of cash because the Swiss Franc shot up. He had savings held in Swiss Francs..
Look, anyone who took out a Swiss Franc loan was essentially just paying back Swiss Francs. You weren't actually handing over USD every month; you were just using your monthly paycheck to buy whatever chunk of Swiss Francs was needed to cover the payment. If the whole thing had flipped the other way, I doubt people would have complained nearly as much...
Exactly. I took out my loan about two years ago. Back then, the exchange rate was hovering somewhere around 7.34, if I recall correctly. Fast forward two years, and it had climbed to 7.53450. I insisted on sticking strictly to Dollars, regardless of whether the interest rate was 0.1 higher. Now that everything has shifted over to the Euro, looking back makes me wonder. If I had just gone with the Euro from the start, my principal which sat at $135 would have been just $138. Basically, instead of thirty years of payments, I would have spent those first two years just covering that tiny gap in the exchange rate and the interest. Man, where was my head at?
My parents were in the same boat back then. They played it safe and took out their loan in Euros. Meanwhile, my godfather decided to go all-in on a Swiss Franc loan because the interest rates looked so much more attractive at the time. My parents finished paying theirs off without a hitch, but he’s still struggling to keep his head above water because the value of the Swiss Franc shot up almost twofold. I can still hear him bragging about how the Swiss Franc was the smarter move just because the interest was lower...
They actually asked me to cough up my marriage certificate since I listed my wedding as the reason for the transfer 🙂 btw they mentioned I’ll probably get a knock on the door from the IRS because I went over $100 in a single year..
The merchant is getting hit with a 2-3% fee just for using their Square terminal. And get this—the American Express transaction was pushing close to 10%...
Even with cash, everything has to go through a private security firm now. They’re charging $100 plus fees for overnight vault storage, then there's the cost for making change, depositing it at Chase, and all these other little extra bites...
But here's what really gets me: how is it possible that despite all this, they keep bumping up my overdraft limit without me even asking? Like, they phase out one thing, then quietly slide in this unrequested credit line... just so they can eventually shove a loan down my throat at a 5-7% interest rate.
Sure, I'll be the one to blame if I actually end up using that overdraft, but at the end of the day, the bank wins either way. And honestly, it'll be a real treat when they decide to make me sit through a whole formal notarization process for the loan agreement...
I don't get it. It makes zero sense. Just four months ago, because of some loan stuff, I had to sign paperwork to drop my overdraft limit from $9,700 down to $667. No big deal, right? Now they’re saying they’re scrapping everything. As of the 1st, it looks like my interest-based overdraft automatically jumped to 8.12%, and on top of that, there's this other amount for installment payments. All I really have is my Chase Visa, which isn't much. It's literally just the one single account where all my money goes in and out...
So, looks like my little brother totally botched it... there was absolutely zero fan speed being reported anywhere... I mean, he had that 4-pin connector plugged into the chassis fan header, so the thing was physically spinning, but the system wasn't reading any RPM at all. It’s like a car speedometer stuck at zero while you're doing sixty. I just swapped it over to the dedicated CPU header and now everything is running smooth as silk...
ASUS TUF B450-Plus CPU: Intel Core i5 CPU Cooler: Corsair Carbide Series Since yesterday, the BIOS isn't picking up the CPU cooler at all. No RPM readings, nothing... even though I can physically see the fan spinning. Everything was running smooth until yesterday when a Windows update ran, and then—poof—it just stopped working. Is there any chance a macOS-style OS update could mess with this, or is my cooler just kicking the bucket?
It had a 24-month warranty, but I'm sitting here at 25 months since I bought it. Great.
Scrapped the idea of using that online link. They might have the 2600 in stock on their website, but honestly, I don't want the headache. When I swung by the local shop in Chicago, I couldn't grab everything on my list—it seems like buying through a webstore can be a real pain if you need specific stuff. Plus, if you go with shipping, who knows if they actually have all the parts ready? I’ve seen plenty of horror stories online about orders getting split up or delayed when you try to buy a whole build at once. In the end, I just went to a local computer shop here in town and they had everything sitting right there on the shelf. MSI MAG B450 motherboard Intel Core i5-7600K Some massive heatsink A wide case so everything looks clean (you can't see any cables at all) 600W power supply GTX 1060 3GB graphics card 8GB DDR4 3000MHz RAM 240GB ADATA SSD 1TB hard drive (just reused one I already had lying around) DVD drive Monitor All together it came to $1667(not including the graphics card)
So, instead of just grabbing a standard SSD, I’m thinking about going with an M.2 drive $100 it’s definitely pricier... Is there actually any real-world benefit here?
For now, nothing's changing. This rig basically runs 24/7 because nobody’s lazy enough to actually hit the power button.. I'm eyeing the 2600 here.
And this GPU is just a GTX 1060 3GB. Maybe a better deal will pop up and give me an actual clue what I should be looking for. Ten years ago, I knew exactly how this whole market worked. Nowadays? Not a clue. 🙂 Last time I really kept tabs on things, DX9 was still the standard. 🙂
True, but since the 1600x doesn't come with a cooler, that makes things $33 even worse. Honestly, if you're looking at a $200 price gap, I'd say the 2600 is the smarter play here I'm on the same page regarding the motherboard—already added that to my list 🙂
Why bother aiming for 1600 when you can just grab the 2600 setup? At the end of the day, the price difference is basically nothing. Obviously, the motherboard is going to be better and cost more—that’s a given. I’ll probably pick up the monitor at Best Buy since the deals are better there anyway. Plus, I’m looking for that 1ms response time, whereas this one is sitting at a sluggish 5ms. As for that SSD I mentioned, it's a 540/500 model, so it technically qualifies as "fast." And I still need to figure out the RAM... should I go with 2x4GB or just a single 1x8GB stick? I know the old rule of thumb was that dual channels with 2x4GB always performed better.
I'm going with a 22" monitor because anything bigger just won't fit on my desk =)
EDIT I'll probably grab a used GPU about 99% of the time. I actually found a GTX 1060 3G OC Edition 3072MB DDR5 for $333—honestly looks like a better move than the other option for that kind of cash. This is 3.7 miles a local guy's offer, comes with a warranty valid until 2020. What do you guys think? I'm pretty much stuck with the used market since I'm working with a tight budget here. Though, if I can find a $167 better deal on a CPU, I could swing a new one, but looking at prices, used CPUs and brand-new ones seem to be priced almost identically right now. :/
Here’s the rest of the build I put together: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 BOX, Socket AM4, 3.4GHz, 19MB cache, Hexa-core, Wraith Stealth $493 ASROCK A320M-HDV motherboard, AMD A320, DDR4, mATX, Socket AM4 $130 OR an ASUS Prime A320M-K $6.75 which is pricier; I'm having a hard time deciding between them. DDR4 RAM, 8 GB, GEIL EVO Spear GSB48GB3000C16ADC, DDR4 3000MHz, 2x4GB kit $210 240.0 GB CRUCIAL BX500 SSD, CT240BX500SSD1, SATA3, 2.5", max up to 540/500 MB/s $114 MS Industrial Fighter case, MIDI, ATX, black, no PSU included $57 500W Power Supply, CHIEFTEC Smart Series GPS-500A8, ATX v2.3, 120mm fan, PFC $113 LG GH24NSD1 DVD±RW, 24x, SATA, Dual layer, black, bulk $33 Add that GPU from earlier to this: $1.50 Plus $233 a 22" ASUS VP228TE LED monitor, FHD 1ms, DVI And a 1TB hard drive (I've already got that lying around from my old rig).
I also got a quote from another shop for some DDR4 DDR4 8GB APACER PANTHER SILVER 3000MHZ for $208 (THIS looks like a better deal to me than the one I mentioned before).