Keep in mind that the cops don’t have to provide you with their reasonable suspicion in order to demand ID. It’s not until court that they have to provide their reasonable suspicion. So they have plenty of time to come up with justification after the fact.

Also, on the Fifth Amendment I thought I had read somewhere about a case where a man simply remained silent and never once invoked his right and it didn’t end well for him. I cannot remember the details, but for some reason I thought that you still had to invoke the fifth even if you have not yet answered any questions. I’ll have to look back into this later and post back if I find the story.

Congrats on making it that far! I’m sure you’ll have a fully funded emergency fund before you know it. I hope no emergencies come up while you build it, but if they do, don’t let that discourage you!

I think you give a fair explanation of Dave in this comment. I definitely think much of his “baby steps” needs to be updated. Just for example, $1000 in savings is just going to cause someone to get further into debt when an emergency comes up.

I like the 20/30/50 rule for budgeting (20% saving, 30% fun and 50% needs). If you have bad debt (consumer debt, bad auto loan, etc), then minimize your fun spending the most you can in order to wipe out that bad debt as quickly as possible. But of course also save up at least on month of needs or your largest deductible (whichever is greater). Then once the bad debt is gone save up a 3-6 month emergency fund (according to your personal risk/comfort level).

I also think it’s important to not be too hard on yourself. Some months you’ll be over budget and some months you will be under. That’s why I think it’s important, like you said, to leave some room in the budget and not get caught up in zero dollar budgeting.

I agree with all of those. Some of my favorite clothing I’ve gotten thrifting. I’ve been able to find never worn brand name clothing for way cheaper. Heck. I recently got a pair of Eddie Bauer shorts, never used (still had the baggie with spare buttons attached to the waistband), for $5.

Video games. Unless it’s a game I play with friends I typically wait for it to drop in price significantly.

Ditto. They also smelled worse too. We found that the Target brand diapers when Target has their gift card deals was the time to stock up on their whipes and diapers.

I stopped at the same point and for the same reason. Season 2 Yennifer didn’t even seem congruent with Season 1 Yennifer.

HTPC wasn’t a Windows thing though Microsoft did have Windows Media Center, which was a pretty slick interface for HTPCs

I used to use XBMC, which is now Kodi, for an interface. Before that I just used a PC running Mandrake Linux with a wireless mouse and keyboard. Haha.

Had a TV tuner, acted as a DVR, and also could play my library of SNES and NES games through it.

Oh jeez. I completely forgot about Frontpage. That just brought some memories back.

They give you a discount per month. So for example, a $1000 phone is on sale for $600, but they don’t give you $400 off up front. Its a $11.11 per month discount for the next 36 months. You pay $16.67 per month until its paid off. If you pay it up front you pay $1000. If you leave early or pay it off early you lose the $11/month discount on the payment for the phone

Its intended to lure people in for an advertised cheap or free phone, but then you’re stuck with them paying for the device.

Because people finance their phones with AT&T, usually without realizing it. “Free” phones and discounted phones are not usually free or discounted. You’re forced to stay with them to get the discount off each month. I hate it because I’d rather just pay for my phone outright and be done, but then you actually pay more.

I prefer to keep my notes as handwritten (I draw a lot of diagrams and graphs in my notes). But it does indeed convert my handwriting to type if I want it to. And it does a great job of it especially with how messy my handwriting can be.

The feel of it is very comfortable too (feels like writing on paper). I used to use a Surface Book in tablet mode for notes, but wanted to get away from Microsoft. The screen of the Note 3C isn’t smooth, it’s textured like paper

Their note app takes some getting used to, but it works pretty well (templates are a little tricky, but they just made an update to improve it).

The only thing I really miss from OneNote on the Surface was printing PDFs into OneNote. That said, you can annotate directly onto PDFs, it just makes things a little less organized unless you use the PDF as a template.

Yeah. The color definitely isn’t a replacement for an actual comic or graphic novel. It’s good enough to give you an idea of what it should look like. And I agree. If you have no need for the color, then black and white is going to be much better.

I have the Boox Onyx Note 3c. Its a color e-ink and its okay for comics. But I mainly use it for note taking. The colors are helpful for more detailed notes. The eink display makes it easier in my eyes especially for long days of note taking.

I figured as much with death being one of the options. Haha.

…this is exhausting. I said my suggestion is for everyone. Not that everyone spends $300/mo.

I’m done with this conversation. Several times now you’ve either put words in my mouth or taken what I’ve said out of context. I figured at first that you just thought I was targeting or speaking ill of poor people. Or that I thought “this one simple trick will guarantee that you’re not poor” or some other such nonsense. I figured that maybe a little back and forth would help clarify my position.

Clearly you think people spend a lot less than they do and that there’s no point in even trying to improve one’s situation.

I never said everyone. I never made that assumption. I only suggested that everyone should prioritize saving for an emergency over luxury.

I would suggest you do other things for your family to make them happy that doesn’t involve spending money. Go to the library, parks, etc.

It’s not in the name of money that you temporarily withhold these things. It’s in the name of survival and making sure your kids aren’t obligated to take care of you in the future.

Your mentality is one of denial and defeatism. You don’t want to improve your life because you’d rather have a few nice temporary things in the now.

What should someone do when an emergency comes along and they don’t have the money to afford it? You’re not thinking ahead.

It’s not about the money. Without an emergency fund, you are stuck going into debt. If something happens to you or your family and you have to go into debt, what then? Do you still keep eating out and go further into debt? So you never retire? You force your daughter to have to help support you when you’re older and no longer able to work? All because you didn’t want to change your situation? Because it’s just a few bucks and won’t make a difference?

I’m not going to call you a liar, but do you actually track your spending? Is it really $20/mo on eating out? Every single person who has told me they only spend a few bucks on eating out was proven wrong when we went through their spending.

You are minimizing how much people spend on streaming services and fast food.

Average spending on eating out in the US is over $300/mo. https://www.statista.com/statistics/237215/average-away-from-home-food-expenditures-of-united-states-households/

What do you suggest people do? What would you tell someone who is scraping by and doesn’t have an emergency fund to do? Would you say they should carry on and not worry about emergencies? How should they deal with it when one does come along? I’m genuinely curious what your suggestions would be

I wish everyone could live the perfect most comfortable lives all the time. Seriously I do. But you can’t ignore that the reality is that’s not the world you and I live in and sometimes it comes down to survival…

We’re talking in circles. You think I only mentioned Netflix. I didn’t. I also said fast food. You also think I said poor people. I didn’t. My suggestion is for everyone.

If you can’t afford luxury items (and I include fast food and streaming services in that category) then you shouldn’t spend your money on them.

I would no sooner suggest someone to purchase Netflix over feeding themselves and their family. And that’s what you could end up having to spend your emergency fund on if you lose your job. But you place these luxuries on the same tier as necessities and that’s just simply irresponsible.

Go ahead and tell all your friends and family, “Don’t worry, I know money is tight, but you shouldn’t save for future emergencies by cutting corners today. I think you should give that money to McDonald’s and Netflix. They clearly need it more than you do. I mean, you can always just put it on your credit card and pay 30% interest!”

It was the mid 2000’s. And people spend a lot more than $15-30/month on fast food and streaming services. For the people whose finances I’ve seen, it’s usually closer to 30% of their monthly income that goes to pure wants.

Also, someone can absolutely survive in today’s world without a smart phone. It definitely makes things easier to have one though. Not really comparable to today anyway. You can get a basic smartphone for free nowadays. Couldn’t do that back in the 2000’s. The equivalent today is getting a flagship versus a cheapy phone.

I agree that water is a need. I’m talking strictly fast food, eating out, and things like Netflix, Spotify, etc.

This the second time you’ve put words in my mouth. I may have misunderstood what you said initially. But first you’re saying I’m like that avocado toast guy (when I’m not saying people can solve their poverty), and now you’re saying I’m a college was cheap for me guy.

Costs are higher than they have ever been and that’s why it’s even more important these days to control your spending. Costs are high. Wages haven’t kept up. It’s the sucky reality of the world we live in and telling people to keep spending their money irresponsibly in the name of comfort is just going to damn them to worse conditions as they go into debt when real problems arise and that debt puts them in even worse conditions where now they absolutely cannot afford their true bottom of the barrel needs without more debt.