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[pisskop]

I walked into my dealership with a pre approved loan and a car in mind.

They were pretty unhappy, but I guess a sale is a sale

[McTraveller]

I only accept loans that have no prepayment penalty and where extra payments go to principal.  Then what you can do is if they don't like a huge down payment, take their loan with the smaller down payment, then on the first month pay what you would have paid as a down payment. This will dramatically reduce the remaining term and save a significant amount of interest.  This only works if you can afford a higher monthly payment:

Spoiler: math (click to show/hide)

Consider a $30k purchase and you have enough money to put $20k down.  Let's say they are offering 2% for 36 months compounded monthly.  You can put down $20k and borrow $10k, which will have monthly payments of $286.43 for a total loan cost of just over $10311 - so $311 in interest.

You could alternatively take out a $20k loan, which at the same 2%/36 month has monthly payments of $572.85.  If you took the full term to pay it off, it would cost $20622.66.  BUT if you make a first months payment of $10572.85, you'd bring the principle at the end of that month down to $9460.48, which would only take 17 months to pay off at $572.85 a month, for a total interest cost of only $173.96.  This is less interest (by a significant amount!) than you'd pay by taking out a smaller loan.

Summary:
$20k down, $10k loan: Monthly payments $286.43, interest cost $311.33

$10k down, $20k loan with $10k extra first payment:  Monthly payment $572.85, interest cost $173.96.

So the decision has to be if the higher monthly payments for a shorter time is a fair tradeoff for the $140 or so of interest savings.

[LordBaal]

Feeling we migth open an Adulting Thread, tips and advices for the padawans. Like that youtube channel of the guy that grew up without a dad and now teach everyone things like making your own home repairs or tying your tie.

[Mathel]

Why even take a loan if you can pay in full?

Payment in full: You pay X now. (X>0)

Taking a loan: For A+B=Y, and 0<C<1; A>=0; B>0; Y>0
You pay A now.
You pay B+C*B over several years.

The only way taking a loan seems better would be, if Y is significantly smaller than X.

[LordBaal]

Because let say those 20k on McTraveller example is all you have in money (savings), you dont want to find yourself without a cushion, fall back money or whatever you want to call it in case of anything, an emergency, investement chance or whatever. Also is a way to build up a credit score by showing the banking clan you can commit to payments and blah blah blah...

[nenjin]

Yeah, the point of taking a loan is financial flexibility so if something else happens, you're not depleted.

Currently that's not an issue for me, so really the argument is: could I keep the money I would otherwise pay out immediately in reserve by taking a loan. With a low enough interest rate it's like: "do I spend X so Y-X remains intact."

Truth is though I hate bills. I hate remembering to pay them, hate what missing payments does to your financial rep and I really don't like having to check my accounts every couple weeks to make sure I'm staying above board. Constantly looking at my margins gives me anxiety. I generally arrange my financials so my costs are fixed and I don't have to ever look at my accounts.

[Kagus]

It's also for those who feel that they can make a better return on the sum than they'll pay in interest. Having liquid assets greatly increases your leverage in investments, which can potentially result in your own percentages looking better than the bank's.

To have a very simplified example, if you take out a 20k loan which will eventually result in a total of 30k being paid back to the bank, but in that same amount of time you can turn the 20k into 40k (or more), you obviously come out quite a bit ahead. If you'd paid the 20k out of pocket, you wouldn't have had that much money to invest and increase.

[Rolan7]

I was looking forward to a nice full moon but there's a big chunk missing out of it WTF?

(Lunar eclipse maximizing around 4AM EDT.  I would have brought it up early but I was reminded last minute by some cool west-coast people.  There's just like... a chunk missing.)
(I hope I get to see the next solar eclipse, that was fucking WILD.)

Edit:  To be clear, that means the eclipse maximizes in roughly an hour from this edit.
Also jeez nenjin you really went above and beyond.  Good job.

[King Zultan]

That moment you discover that it isn't a lunar eclipse but is in fact a giant space worm eating the moon.

[Mathel]

I knew there was a lunar eclipse today. I thought it was at 2:47 or something, but looking at the data now, it maxed out 10:03 local time. So I could not watch it because I was at work, and because it was obstructed by the Earth.

Edit: And of course because I did not actually know the time, so if I had tried, I would have been tired for work and seen nothing but a regular full moon anyway.

[Akura]

Similar boat here. It would have peaked at around 3-4AM for me. My mother expressed disappointment that I didn't get up to watch. As the one person in the house with an actual full-time job, I don't have the luxury of getting up at 3AM. Then again, because of them I don't exactly have the goddamn luxury of sleeping at that time most nights either.


Seeing the big, full moon on the way to work was pretty, though.

[Frumple]

I did not realize Louis Prima (the guy who made what Benny Goodman would base his version of Sing Sing Sing on) was the voice of King Louie in the original disney jungle book movie until just now. Several different things make a sudden amount of extra sense, from why his voice sounded familiar when I started digging more into swing music a few years back, to why the movie's music for that character is what it is, to why there's a number of swing/jazz covers for said music.

[Rolan7]

Trying to make myself more comfortable with the prospect of joining a 3-day harvest feast, I considered bringing my rice-cooker and a handle of gin, and a bunch of rice and lentils and citrus.

Obviously I rejected that thought as edgy.  I'll be a guest in their liberal space.  I don't need to be making waves.

So why am I going...?

Their reactions two years ago when I joined in the feminine shaving discourse were exquisite.  That could be fun, particularly when I could leave at any time.  Or maybe... maybe I don't give them enough credit, and they acknowledge non-binary!  I had a cousin surprise me like that.  And this group, largely, has been pretty progressive for old people.

Fuck, there's the reason I'm going, isn't it?  To make it something inclusive, if it wants to be.

(oh but fuck the American turkey-holiday though.  No, this is just an extension of Halloween, a harvest-related festival in the dark months)

[None]

Wisconsin had another thing happen.

A Christmas parade was interrupted when an SUV busted through the parade route barricades, milled around a bit, and then barreled through twenty, maybe thirty children and adults. Some are dead. Motives are presently unknown. I've gone shopping on that road. I've done marching band parades just like the one that got barreled through.

This one hits a little close to home.

This fucking state, man.

[delphonso]

Yeah, just saw the same. Heart breaking - none of the 15 kids at the children's hospital have died, at least.

Don't know what's going on with Wisco, either. I used to be pretty happy to tell people I was from Wisconsin...