Posts by Megan Grant4

driftingbadger17 said:Oh, please. What kind of OS are you even going to install? Like, what else is there besides Windows?

Sent from iPhone

I’m really, truly hoping we see some kind of Android or Chrome-based thing—maybe even Firefox?—hit the mainstream soon. We need a platform that actually sets a different standard for once. Let’s be honest here: a PC running Windows has never actually worked the way it's supposed to, has it? We're all just exhausted by the endless updates, the constant freezing, the antivirus pop-ups, and whatever other nonsense they throw at us just so the product we actually paid good money for can stutter or hang right out of the gate because it decided it needed to update before it would even let you start working.
Enough is enough. It is high time for a massive shift in direction.

Windows is dead and buried. Honestly, this OS is so glitchy and hopelessly outdated that it’s basically on life support; I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing collapses within the next year or two. The traditional PC experience we all grew up with is headed straight for the scrap heap of history. I, for one, am officially done with the constant headaches and frayed nerves...

Donna Davis8 said:In any case, Megan Grant4 is very modern 👍

An annuity payment is a fixed amount. If interest rates drop (which happened in my case),
you end up paying off more of the principal with each installment, so the balance drops "faster."

Look, theoretically, this is crystal clear to me. The monthly payment stays the same. It’s just some little guy working behind the scenes every month, calculating how much of that payment goes toward the principal versus the interest (and to figure out that interest, they need the LIBOR, which fluctuates). So, if you're lucky enough to have consistently low interest rates, you pay down the debt faster.
Most American banks have conditioned me to expect the worst, so I didn't even think about this. Honestly, here in the States, when you try to pay extra toward your loan, they often just apply it to next month's bill instead. God forbid they actually reduce your principal just because you paid more than a few installments—some banks do that, but it's rare.

I don't get why home equity loans are cheaper than personal loans (I assume your personal loan will be nearly double what that one for the Austrians is), assuming the collateral is solid (like a Lombard loan). I don't see how a higher interest rate could be justified by increased risk.

I really don't understand why home equity loans are so much pricier than standard mortgages. Aside from the fact that with a home equity loan you get cash in hand, while with a mortgage everything goes directly into the property you're using as collateral? Actually, the biggest difference is that for a mortgage, you have to pass strict credit scoring to prove you're eligible, whereas with home equity, until recently, the property itself was almost enough and your income mattered much less. I don't get why the rate on home equity is so much higher compared to mortgages. In both cases, the borrower doesn't want to lose the property they pledged as collateral. That's why they're sending out those papers now asking people to declare if they actually live in the property they took the mortgage for, but that's a whole different story. Man, we've written a lot of useful stuff here 🙂

Wait, why "living in the future"?

I’m pretty sure they adjust the monthly payment every quarter if the LIBOR shifts...
The whole thing is completely automated on their end.
Honestly, the biggest win is that they don't charge any prepayment penalties, and you don't even have to wait until you've saved up three full payments; you can just drop extra cash whenever you feel like it without having to give them a heads-up or file some annoying paperwork...
And obviously, the interest is always calculated based on whatever principal is left outstanding.

Thomas Ortiz3 said:True, and I assumed yours was a personal loan. What kind of insurance is backing it?

A mortgage on the house...

Thomas Ortiz3 said:So we’re looking at constant, automatic reprogramming that they clearly aren't charging for. I wouldn't call that unusual—the computer is just running the interest calculations anyway—what's actually strange is that banks here don't even offer that service...

Then there's my colleague, an Austrian, who bought a house in Austria about two years ago. He secured a mortgage at 1.5% plus LIBOR. He did mention having a solid broker; a bad one will struggle to pull anything better than 2-2.5% plus LIBOR. It makes no sense why mortgages would be cheaper than personal loans—assuming yours is nearly double what he got—if the collateral is sound, like a Lombard loan. I fail to see how higher rates could be justified by any increased risk...

Well, that Austrian guy is using a residential mortgage, whereas the only thing I could actually qualify for was
a personal loan, which carries the highest interest rates imaginable.

You're absolutely right that it's strange how banks handle repayments here compared to elsewhere...
Even the banks themselves choose to lend to the government at around 4.5% plus LIBOR.
America is basically a playground for banks. The profit margins they pull here are just insane.
I actually got a late payment notice from my bank in Austria because of a typo in my transfer details, and
they charged me 8 €.
That’s like getting a notice here and being slapped with a 15-$$6.75 fee.
Give it a little more time and our notices jump straight up to 50 or $67 bucks.

Donna Davis8 said:😲 Are you actually serious right now? I’ve never heard of anything like that in my life.

Basically, when you sign for a loan, you negotiate the monthly payment amount and... how much cash you want upfront. Everything else is just whatever the LIBOR happens to be 😁

I am definitely not joking.
When you set up a loan, you decide on the principal repayment period.
The monthly payment stays fixed. But if interest rates drop (which is happening in my case),
a bigger chunk of that payment goes toward the principal, so the balance starts shrinking "faster."
In just 26 months, I’ve already knocked $7,000 off a $50,000 loan.
If the LIBOR doesn't spike above 6%, I'll be totally done with this debt in 11 years instead of 15.
A lot of this stuff is standard practice in Austria.
Plus, the life insurance my wife and I pay $40 a month for (we’re both covered for $50,000 each) isn't just a basic policy; it acts like an accumulating account that could potentially cover, say, the final year of payments (about $6,000).
There aren't even any prepayment penalties.
Starting next year, they’re opening an account here in the States, so I won't have to deal with those annoying foreign transaction fees anymore.
And so on...
In the old system, after three years, you’d still end up owing the bank extra just to settle the amount you originally took out.
And that's just talking about dollars. As for the people holding loans in Switzerland, I don't even want to get into those calculations—it's a nightmare.

Thomas Ortiz3 said:I'm not intimately familiar with the situation in Canada, so I don't quite grasp the specific MO used by that "gang," but one group choosing to prey on naive people through crime doesn't inherently make foreign loans "dangerous." In my experience, accessing foreign credit is relatively straightforward if you have a foreign guarantor willing to back your assets. The real question is what the interest rates look like on those types of non-purpose loans, but I don't see an automatic risk of fraud if you simply cut out the various "middlemen"...

There’s absolutely zero fraud risk involved.
The Austrians are just trying to collect on their loans without having to dump real estate into foreclosure auctions for pennies on the dollar.
The rate is 4% plus a 6-month LIBOR.
When I took out my loan back in November 2008, the total was sitting at 9%, but by mid-2009 and through all of 2010, it dropped below 5%.
The interesting part is that even when the interest rate shifts, your monthly payment stays exactly the same.
If the rate climbs, you just end up paying a few extra installments; if it drops, more of your payment goes toward the principal, so you pay off the debt sooner.
It's a far cry from how our banks operate, where they just hike your monthly payment the second interest rates go up.

swiftcyclist58 said:...If we were just regular folks, we’d find a way to scrape by during a crisis; I'd much rather be broke than lose absolutely everything...

Oh, absolutely...
When it comes to loans and debt, you really have to exercise some actual caution instead of acting like
our politicians...

mellowrider10 said:swiftcyclist58, thanks for the links. You're spot on—better to be broke than dead in a ditch. It’s a total disaster out there; feels like theft is everywhere you look. Thanks again.

Let's not paint everyone with the same brush here...
I actually carry a loan over at RBA, and
I have to say, aside from that hefty 5% agency fee that pushed me toward the bank in the first place,
my experience with them has been nothing but solid.
In fact, my standing with them is way better than most people dealing with banks in America.

Lisa Vaughn2 said:

just testing things out

Just checking to see if this actually works for me... 😉

Lisa Vaughn2 said:Robin Ross6 says:
If you're trying to grab a bunch of different posts at once, just hit that "Multi-Quote" button (it's right next to the regular Quote button) on every post you want to include, except for the very last one. Then, just click the standard Quote button on that final post you're aiming for.

Quote:
just testing things out

just seeing if I can get the hang of this...

Still practicing! This should be it!

Lisa Vaughn2 said:nah, that’s not really what I meant...

Lisa Vaughn2 said:

Quote:
just testing things out

me again, just playing around haha

Quote:
just testing

just seeing if I can get this to work...

Still practicing! This should finally be it!

I haven't known this for two whole years....

Regarding your request about helping out some seniors... if you haven't found anyone yet, I’m more than happy to put my name in the ring. I actually have a degree in economics, but I decided to pivot careers and I've been working as a medical massage therapist for four years now. I'm thirty-two, married, and living over in the depot area of Chicago. Since my mornings are wide open, I think we could definitely work out a schedule that makes sense (depending on where exactly they're located in the city).
Tanya F. G.
Please reach out to me via email at:
tanja.fg@gmail.com

Sophia White said:This might be a bit of a tangent for this sub, but I figured this is where the real experts hang out who could actually give me some solid advice.

So, here’s the deal: a buddy of mine asked for a hand finding someone to help look after two elderly folks who have some mobility issues. They’ve already got the medical side of things and meal prep totally covered—what they really need is someone to tackle the daily grind, stuff like:

- house cleaning (bathrooms, toilets, dusting, windows, floors, all that good stuff...)
- tidying up (making beds, laundry management...)
- doing the dishes
- washing and ironing clothes
- grocery runs
- pharmacy trips if needed
- hitting up the post office (to handle bills and such)

We figured they don't need a full-time presence, just maybe three days a week—say Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—for about four hours each session to spread the workload out. That works out to roughly 13 or 14 days a month. And honestly, he’s not looking for any of those shady "caregiver for inheritance" schemes you see in The New York Times headlines like "we will care for your elderly loved one in exchange for property"—he just wants a reliable person with a clear checklist who gets a steady monthly paycheck.

I'm trying to wrap my head around the math—how much should a service like this run per month? Is an hourly rate of $8.25 way off base, or does that sound about right for this kind of work? At that rate, we're looking at roughly $467 a month.

If anyone here has experience either hiring help like this or working as a caregiver themselves, I’m all ears—any insights would be awesome! 🙂

velvetsailor12 said:Walnut prices aren't actually that high right now. Most people plant them more for the long-term value of the trees themselves.
I remember hearing about some legend who planted half of a huge stretch in the Midwest and expects to be sitting on millions in about ten years.
To me, agriculture is a great move, you just really need to get trained and specialize. 👍

I mean, look, even the price for raw, uncleaned walnuts is pretty significant right now.......
As for farming in general, there’s definitely money to be made there, provided you actually want to make a living from the land.
You can live quite comfortably (financially speaking).
But the land requires a smart master who is also willing to be its most humble servant.
It’s just constant work, work, and more work. On the bright side, there's zero stress, and life tends to be much more relaxed and straightforward.