Yeah I took it twice within a month after college. One for the draft and one for Reserves to see who got me first. I distinctly remember the mechanical part where I did not know that a “dog” was used for a lathe. How would I know? Wasn’t exactly taught in Money and Banking. I did pretty well anyway trying to get a decent MOS if I got drafted. Pretty cold though sitting around in your underpants in Minnesota.
As far as free stuff from credit cards, I just don’t like playing their game is all and I don’t care what they will give me free. Back in the 60’s no one had the general use cards and after that many people were lulled into severe financial problems because of them and the 20, 25, 30% interest. Regardless of the person’s weakness or circumstance that got them into trouble. It was like a “buy here pay here” and never could pay them off.
Citi Bank moved into South Dakota for the simple reason that they could charge more interest because of no usery laws. They considered it good business. I considered it a pox on the public. So I just plain don’t prefer to help them in their quest for money at the ruin of the public. $600 a year cash back? Is that worth the price to play into their marketing gimmicks? It’s just a matter of not wanting to be played. Yes they are useful and you can’t buy a hot dog at Costco without either a debit or credit card but still they can take their rebates and . . . .where the sun don’t shine.
Sorry, bad choice of words maybe. Just seen too many young people struggling because of plastic. Just prefer not to play their game. I remember one guy called me to re-finance and all the money I would save and finally he said, aren’t you interested in saving money? I said no, I’ll stick with people I trust. Can’t be bought.
I was pretty sure that I was remembering it correctly.
When our school district eliminated vocational aptitude testing in order to save… probably… a few hundred bucks… I arranged for the local Army recruiter to administer the ASVAB. I had a difficult time convincing some of my counselees that taking the test didn’t commit them to the military, but luckily enough did sign-up for the military folks to agree to administer that test annually for me.
The Army recruiter who we had at that time was an incredibly nice guy (he was a Medical Lab person by training), and he gave each of the students an individual interpretation of their test results, including how those results dealt with both civilian careers and military job titles.
Sadly, when I retired, the testing ceased because nobody else was interested in doing the legwork to set it up, and to this day, there continues to be no vocational aptitude testing in that school district, to the detriment of the students.
I agree on the different skill sets but on the other hand, when “life expectancy becomes more finite” you tend to become more selective on how you spend that time.
When the actuarial tables tell you that you’ve got 10 or 20 years to go do you really want to waste your remaining time on the current emogies or learning the current “hot” operating system?
Rationally like most my age, facing personal “extinction” within a foreseeable future and minimal economic demands, I decide to study Shakespeare, Keats and Yeats at the local University and the art of auto painting at the Community College while serviviing as an unpaid finanancial consultant and/or a Board Member on various Not For Profits.
Love those “kids” and everything they bring to the table but all tghose “new ideas” ain’t so new,. .
Wife was consulting with a doc on line concerning reducing med dose and the doc said, well just go without. Life is short. Don’t ever say that to a 70 year old.
Yeah I don’t make any long range plans anymore. I just wish I could get the wife to learn how to start and use the snow blower and lawn mower, and listen to me when I explain oil change, transmission, etc. intervals. I’ll just write it all down I guess.
One word of advice though if you are delving into painting. Be very very careful with the new paints. They are killers. At least a quality respirator and preferably a SCBA when spraying them. I haven’t done any for 10 years after listing to an old guy complaining about the paint supplier killing off all their paint customers. Very bad stuff.
After your agony, a couple good recent books to read that would absolutely enrage you. I will say no more.
Sorry. Again didn’t pay much attention to the authors but some of this directed at @bloody_knuckles
Auto paint. The urethanes and stuff that has been out for the last 10 years or so. Not necessarily the old enamels, lacquers and acrylics, but they were pretty strong too, just not killers.
Glad to hear that house paint is not included, though I regularly use an n95 mask and gloves and log sleeves when scraping our 100 year old house paint or using spray paints for wicker, iron railings etc.
There is a pretty nice dust mask from Rockler Hardware too (about $30) for the dust and paint chips. They both can be fit checked for air leaks and are reasonably comfortable with replaceable filters.
… and those pennies can add-up to hundreds of dollars each year.
I won’t bother rifling through my records to come up with the precise total, but I do know that I collected more than $600 in rebates last year from AmEx, Chase, and Citi. I always give generously to charities, but those rebated dollars allowed me to donate even more than I would have been able to donate otherwise.
My Costco credit card gives 4% cash back on gasoline. The gas stations charge an extra $.10 per gallon for using a credit card, but at $5 a gallon 4% is $.20 a gallon, so credit is cheaper than cash. It amounts to nothing in my life, but it gives me this tiny little sense of victory that I’m outfoxing the system. Pathetic, but …
… and if you bought your gas at Costco, in addition to getting that 4% rebate, the price per gallon would be the same as if you paid them with a debit card (they don’t accept cash), and would be substantially cheaper than competing stations that do charge an extra fee if you use a credit card. (When I gassed-up at 9:37 this morning, I pulled directly up to the pump at Costco, so there was also no “time penalty”. )
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