That’s what we do - put (almost) all of our expenses on credit cards, and get rewards. By doing that (combined with large credit card signup bonuses and various points promotions) I’ve barely paid anything for air travel the last 2 years.

I always follow this rule as well. It has never made sense to me that people are willing to pay exorbitant amounts of interest on their Starbucks or their new pair of jeans. I'm fortunate to have never needed to carry a balance on my credit card, and I intend to keep it that way. If I don't have it, I don't spend it.

Same with my mother. She fell asleep watching TV (no cable). So it was network TV or PBS. She didn’t have a cell phone until I was 20 years old (14 years ago). She prioritized making sure her children were fed decent food and wore clean (if a bit worn) clothing. Every single Saturday morning she was up at 0600…

I just want to say that you make valid points. Everyone harping on you is pulling out the worst possible scenario for people with low income. I grew up very, very poor at times. Having to get food from the local Church in order to survive. My mom worked four jobs (two only one day a week) and busted her ass. Our house…

“...we aspired to intelligence, we didn’t belittle it, it didn’t make us feel inferior.” - The Newsroom

“if the public does in fact ignore the $1 price increase, what’s stopping them from doing the exact same thing a year from now and again a year after that?”

And how long do you think they should freeze the price for? A year? Five years? Ten years? Forever? Do you really expect us to be paying $8.99/month for Netflix in 2030?

I’ve been trying to explain this mentality to my mother, a baby boomer, who always just took what she was offered. I did just what was explained with my cable bill, I negotiated my mortgage, my insurance, basically anything I can.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAA, taxes $20 a month. That’s so naive it’s almost sweet.

I’m just going to say this depends on the person. If it was up to my wife we would never purchase anything but food and necessary items. She was convinced we didn’t need smartphones, large TVs, iPad, or a Blu-Ray Player. She loved all these things once she had them and to the point of not wanting to give them up. Me…

That’s a completely bullshit response. You can eat what you like, but if you sit at the table and act like a toddler (such as threatening to vomit up foods you don’t like) when your SO puts something on the menu you don’t like, you can only expect the toddlers to act exactly the same way.

If they melt down and cry, send them to bed. When they wake up, they’ll be grateful to eat what they refused before.

Poor font choice — on my monitor, the lower case “e” looks very much like the lower case “c”, and the capital “A” doesn’t have a cross-bar. Readability is much worse than it was before.

Came here to say just this. I’m staring down the barrel of closing in DC this month, and the state tax/stamps line accounts for $10K of the $16K closing costs. So, this information is very misleading IMHO.

I disagree about the need for a title search. How would “they” “already prove the previous owner’s title is legitimate” without a review of the land records to determine that there is in fact a deed to the previous owner? How do you know who really owns the house if you don’t do a search?

This is slightly misleading. Yes, they admit that taxes will vary, but in reality in some states taxes dwarf the rest of the closing costs. In NY property taxes on a $200k home are often $6000 or higher. And you have to prepay them a year in advance (so that is a minimum additional $6000 at closing). Additionally, you…

This is so true.

Ughh. I kind of left out the best part of my story from the intro: this happened the day before I started my first-ever teaching job. I stopped puking by the time class started, but still had to fight the weakness to finish up my prep work and hobble into class. At least I knew every other day would be better after…

Try armed rebellion in 2015 and see how long that shit lasts. The U.S. government would turn even a well-armed militia into Swiss cheese before Joe Blow’s first shell casing hit the ground. This argument is pathetically weak.

Ban all guns. Make them illegal to posses. Getting caught with one is an automatic jail sentence. This nonsense has gone on for too long. This amendment was authored by people who were okay with slavery. It does not, and should not, translate to 2015 America