Price increases


 
Brett-EDH said:
not necessarily true. at your rate you're possibly spending 1.6x for the total cost of your home. Example, if you borrowed $300,000, over 30 years, the cost of paying pack the total $300,000 would be $480,000 over the 30 years.

making 1 extra principal payment per year can take a 30 year mortgage down to a 26 year mortgage and you'll save tens of thousands on interest paid.
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That's why I set my mortgage up as biweekly, to pay it off in about 22 years. I may also be one of the less than 10 people under the age of 40 to have never signed up for a credit card in their life.
 
Ross W said:
Sure... when the real interest rate gets below zero money is free.
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You still end up paying for it. For the interest rate to get to negative values, the hyper inflation that goes with it makes the value of that "free money" worth less than toilet paper for about the same usefulness.
 
Ross W said:
But what about when your mortgage rate is lower than the average rate of inflation so even doing absolutely nothing at all has a higher rate of return? A low interest loan is the very best inflation hedge. Literally just borrow money from the bank and pay them back later with dollars that are worth less then the ones they gave me? I am all with you guys on not paying interest, but when the bank gives me free money I take it. Looking at the historical interest rates I think it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
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Theoretically, in high inflation times, it is better to buy things than save or invest your money. Stock up on food and clothes.
 
Brock Gingery said:
I may also be one of the less than 10 people under the age of 40 to have never signed up for a credit card in their life.
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I put everything on credit cards that give me cash back. I pay them off every month and get hundreds of dollars back. In addition, you get benefits like extended warranty, sales protection, identity theft, SS# protraction etc. I only use cards that give cash back-never store cards-and have no yearly fees. Free money.
 
JSaus said:
Theoretically, in high inflation times, it is better to buy things than save or invest your money. Stock up on food and clothes.
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You joke but I think we are there. Weber Original Kettle Premium went from $194 to $239. If I would of refinanced my house house at 3.375% interest taking out $40k, I could of bought 206 kettles last year and they would be worth $49k now. I'm gonna start hording everything, times are wild.

I mean vehicles are appreciating..
 
JSaus said:
I put everything on credit cards that give me cash back. I pay them off every month and get hundreds of dollars back. In addition, you get benefits like extended warranty, sales protection, identity theft, SS# protraction etc. I only use cards that give cash back-never store cards-and have no yearly fees. Free money.
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I live by this. I’m big on 2% cash back on everything and 5% on groceries. $500 a month limit on that. Both citi cards.
Anybody have any great credit cards they use?
 
JSaus said:
I put everything on credit cards that give me cash back. I pay them off every month and get hundreds of dollars back. In addition, you get benefits like extended warranty, sales protection, identity theft, SS# protraction etc. I only use cards that give cash back-never store cards-and have no yearly fees. Free money.
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yeah, my costco visa card paid for 25% of our family vacation this year; 10 day cruise to Alaska. cost me nothing to get a nice chunk of change back from that card.
 
Bruno said:
I live by this. I’m big on 2% cash back on everything and 5% on groceries. $500 a month limit on that. Both citi cards.
Anybody have any great credit cards they use?
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we use two, and only two; Costco and Amazon. Costco gets the overwhelming majority of use. they Amazon gets a bunch of the Amazon purchases. Both are cash back cards.
 
Ross W said:
Sure... when the real interest rate gets below zero money is free.
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IF...and notice that it is a very big if...you don't get hurt, die, or are otherwise unable to work, lose your job, etc., etc., etc. The kind of low interest rate loans we are talking about, unless you have a ton of assets, are known as secured loans, which means if you default, you lose the item you have been paying for, typically the house for most of us mere mortals. Hey, no pressure, right? All you gotta do is navigate through the rough seas ahead, which you cannot see.
 
Brett-EDH said:
yeah, my costco visa card paid for 25% of our family vacation this year; 10 day cruise to Alaska. cost me nothing to get a nice chunk of change back from that card.
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Hey, you found the money tree! There is such a thing as a free lunch!

Stop and think for a minute...those credit card fees that you get a percentage back from, where do those come from? From you! Those fees are baked into the price increases that everybody is complaining about! You think Weber, or Costco or Amazon fund your vacations? Really?

Check and see how much profit those companies made last year after paying for your vacation. That money came from somewhere...from you.
 
Ed P said:
Hey, you found the money tree! There is such a thing as a free lunch!

Stop and think for a minute...those credit card fees that you get a percentage back from, where do those come from? From you! Those fees are baked into the price increases that everybody is complaining about! You think Weber, or Costco or Amazon fund your vacations? Really?

Check and see how much profit those companies made last year after paying for your vacation. That money came from somewhere...from you.
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In the past, a lot of companies carried their own credit accounts. It is actually cheaper for them to let the credit card companies handle all the risk and billing. They no longer worry about deadbeat customers. It has really just become a cost of doing business-just like shoplifting. Of course that has gotten out of hand in some areas.
 
Now if you want to tell me that you pay your credit card balance off every month, so that you don't pay any interest (which is what I do), then yes, those points you get back from using your card are like free money. I pay all my bills via autopay so it will never get out of hand...I highly recommend it. But I am smart enough to realize I'm paying more for my goods and services because of it, and in the end it becomes something like an enforced savings plan.

Paying interest is like paying rent on money that belongs to someone else. There are some instances where it makes financial sense to borrow money but consumer debt is not one of them.
 
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Ed P said:
Now if you want to tell me that you pay your credit card balance off every month, so that you don't pay any interest (which is what I do), then yes, those points you get back from using your card are like free money. I pay all my bills via autopay so it will never get out of hand.
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QFT. The dumbest thing you can do is carry a credit card balance. Those are loan shark rates. There is where the credit card companies make the money for cash back.
 
Ed P said:
Hey, you found the money tree! There is such a thing as a free lunch!

Stop and think for a minute...those credit card fees that you get a percentage back from, where do those come from? From you! Those fees are baked into the price increases that everybody is complaining about! You think Weber, or Costco or Amazon fund your vacations? Really?

Check and see how much profit those companies made last year after paying for your vacation. That money came from somewhere...from you.
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you are correct but my buy prices at costco are prices/quality that i cannot buy elsewhere. we don't shop at grocery stores, except for Winco, which is an all cash-purchase store only. and i price shop amazon as they don't always have the best prices so i'll buy stuff elsewhere. overall i'm a pretty conservative shopper. haven't bought a new car from a dealership in 21 years. only used cars. we do a lot of our own service/maintenance work too. considering i see what people buy as part of my job, i know i spend a lot less than many people do. i'm okay with my costco and amazon cash back cards. i haven't found a better deal anywhere else on the buy side and the cash back side.
 
I'm a Costco fan as well. I also used their cc (well Citi). I try to pay balance off every month as well which is usually $400-$500. The rewards program is one or the better ones that I've used.
 
JSaus said:
I put everything on credit cards that give me cash back. I pay them off every month and get hundreds of dollars back. In addition, you get benefits like extended warranty, sales protection, identity theft, SS# protraction etc. I only use cards that give cash back-never store cards-and have no yearly fees. Free money.
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I do the same. I pay off my CC almost every day and treat it almost like a debit card. The points and cashback I get probably adds up to a few thousand extra dollars per year. Going on two vacations this year and didn't pay for either flight or hotel rooms as I had enough points saved up.
 
Darren Lebner said:
What goes on in Europe doesn't necessarily stay in Europe. Heads up!
https://twitter.com/x/status/1510685711162384393
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No it won't stay in Europe. Russia and Ukraine together have been the largest wheat producers in the world. With nothing coming out of Ukraine and embargoes against Russia the prices on the world market are rising. And not just for wheat. Same with barley and other grains.
Oh and did I mention fertilizer prices? They have skyrocketed world wide. So eventually we will see increases as well. The question is not if but when.
 
Stefan H said:
No it won't stay in Europe. Russia and Ukraine together have been the largest wheat producers in the world.
Oh and did I mention fertilizer prices?
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Actually, China produces more than both of them combined and India is not far behind, The USA is 4th after Russia. Of course everything is global and will affect prices. Fertilizer, pesticides, insecticides and fuel costs will all cause our agricultural prices to soar.
 
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