Can you come up with $ 400 in an emergency?

[cordex]

I still save, and have over six figures in my bank accounts right now, even at the crappy 0.03% interest paid by Bank of America and BECU.  But I no longer bother with my former approach of the laddered maturity CDs, since the minimal return of 0.07% or so is not worth my time to set them up.

Why not put some of those savings in one of the FDIC insured online savings account options?  You could easily earn between 0.75% and 1.05% on that deposit.

[Ben]

I still save, and have over six figures in my bank accounts right now, even at the crappy 0.03% interest paid by Bank of America and BECU.  But I no longer bother with my former approach of the laddered maturity CDs, since the minimal return of 0.07% or so is not worth my time to set them up.

Same regarding laddering CDs at this time. I just keep money I may want/need quickly in money markets and recognize that I'm going slightly negative when you work inflation in. Other money that would be in the longer term CDs, I just stick in the Vanguard taxable VTSAX and VWIAX, take the quarterly dividends as income, and let the rest ride the market.

My insurance guy has been trying to get me into Voya funds that are kinda sorta similar to CDs, but they track the S&P 500 (but at a couple percent lower) with a "no negative" guarantee. Not sure I could do better in them than in something like VWIAX, but might look at something like a seven year Voya in the future just for conservative diversification. It's just not right for me at this time, because I'm trying to keep some funds free for quick access as I continue my retirement property search.

[Ben]

Why not put some of those savings in one of the FDIC insured online savings account options?  You could easily earn between 0.75% and 1.05% on that deposit.

I just heard this morning that Goldman Sachs, usually reserved for millionaires / billionaires, has started online savings accounts at 1.05%. It costs $1 to open an account.

[TommyGunn]

Sorry mate, rent for those spots is more than $400 a month here.

Seriously though, there are no tent cities in Australia anywhere like there are in the moderately sized American cities.  I guess that's proof to some of how awesome the economy is, but I find it a bit retarded to talk about all the benefits of pauperism.

There  are no tent cities in Australia because the Dingos and crocs  there will eat the occupants.

Put 300 million people there and there  will be tent cities  --- and the occupants will eat the dingos and crocs.

[41magsnub]

I just heard this morning that Goldman Sachs, usually reserved for millionaires / billionaires, has started online savings accounts at 1.05%. It costs $1 to open an account.

Interesting, will check that out.  My online savings account is .75% (CapitalOne, formerly ING Direct).  For the longest time they were the top of the pile for interest rates.

[dogmush]

http://m.smh.com.au/federal-politics/we-could-wait-no-longer-on-shanty-towns-20090524-bjgc.html

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/sydney-shanty-town-paradise-where-residents-have-no-electricity-or-running-water-could-soon-be-wiped-out/story-fni0cx12-1226842290788

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3160130/They-kick-punch-spit-asleep-homeless-tent-city-Australia-s-downtrodden-live-amid-squalor-centre-Sydney.html

Might want to patch up some of those glittering safety nets. Folks are slipping through.

[Boomhauer]

like there are in the moderately sized American cities.

That kind of  *expletive deleted*it happens because socialist fuckweasels who run cities think that they know how to "solve problems" with their ass backwards bullshit.

[TommyGunn]

That kind of  *expletive deleted*it happens because socialist fuckweasels think that they know how to "solve problems" with their ass backwards bullshit.

I am stealing that word.   



After I find out what a "F--kweasel" is, of course. 

[Boomhauer]

http://m.smh.com.au/federal-politics/we-could-wait-no-longer-on-shanty-towns-20090524-bjgc.html

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/sydney-shanty-town-paradise-where-residents-have-no-electricity-or-running-water-could-soon-be-wiped-out/story-fni0cx12-1226842290788

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3160130/They-kick-punch-spit-asleep-homeless-tent-city-Australia-s-downtrodden-live-amid-squalor-centre-Sydney.html

Might want to patch up some of those glittering safety nets. Folks are slipping through.

Oh snap!

[Perd Hapley]

Name a first world country with lower taxes and fewer safety nets.

If Chile counts as "first-world," which it arguably does, then you have your answer. I guess. There seem to be a number of nations with less social spending (per GDP) than the U.S. Australia is among them. I don't know if that's the same as "fewer safety nets," but it seems a better measurement.

According to the information I was able to find while also working for a living ("Tax Freedom Day" was yesterday, so I'm earning money for myself now) the U.S. does indeed have lower over-all taxes than other developed nations. Interestingly, "taxes on personal income and business profits" are much, much higer than average in the U.S.

Anyhow, here are my sources.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-do-us-taxes-compare-internationally

http://www.oecd.org/social/expenditure.htm

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/chiles-ascent-from-3rd-to-1st-world/article12298793/


Oh, about "tent cities and shanty-towns." Being one of those Americans who works two jobs, and still makes almost nothing, and pays to support strangers that refuse to work, I don't get to do a lot of traveling anymore. I haven't seen whether there are such hobo jungles here, or elsewhere. I can tell you that I've seen no such places in North St. Louis County, or in the various places in and around the city of St. Louis I've seen. I guess that's because St. Louis has no urban blight, or depressed areas. It's like Beverly Hills, here.

[roo_ster]

We could weather a $400 hit.  I would not like it, but we could manage.

Seriously though, there are no tent cities in Australia anywhere like there are in the moderately sized American cities.  I guess that's proof to some of how awesome the economy is, but I find it a bit retarded to talk about all the benefits of pauperism.

The USA has a much larger non-anglo, non-northeast asian population.  If the USA was just 5% non-asian minority like Australia, we'd likely have similar poverty/shanty-townage.

The greater "diversity" of the USA also erodes social trust and social capital, making folk less willing to cough up their cash to support that stranger with his strange ways on the other side of town.

Social welfare also is less & less effective/efficient, the more diverse a society.  SO, more gets spent, but less gets done.

Socialism only has a barest chance of success in a high-trust monoculture where the population has better than average impulse control and longer than average time horizons.

[tokugawa]

De Selbys utopia.

 https://joelhirst.wordpress.com/2016/04/23/the-suicide-of-venezuela/

[Fly320s]

Where are the US shanty towns?

[roo_ster]

Where are the US shanty towns?

On DS's monitor.

Actually, some cities allow bums to congregate & camp out.  SO, when hte city does not enforce the law, the lawless take advantage and let the squalor flag fly.

[MechAg94]

I was wondering about that.  Houston has a large number of illegals, but I don't ever recall seeing lots of tents.  Of course, I generally stay out of there as the traffic gets my blood pressure up.

[agricola]

So, De Selby, can you state whether or not the U.S. has any government "safety nets" or not? I can't really see continuing this if you can't give the correct answer.

It isn't that you have no safety nets, it is that they aren't very good at catching the poor.  To take the most telling example, per capita costs for medicaid/medicare (around $6,000 in 2014) are far higher than those for our NHS (around $2890 in 2013/14) despite the NHS providing far more coverage (treatment, most medication costs, rehabilitation, mental healthcare GP surgeries, ambulances, death panels etc) and that is with the NHS having been run by incompetents and criminals for the past twenty years.

https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nhe-fact-sheet.html
http://www.nhsconfed.org/resources/key-statistics-on-the-nhs

[Perd Hapley]

De Selbys utopia.

 https://joelhirst.wordpress.com/2016/04/23/the-suicide-of-venezuela/

Is that about Venezuela, or the U.S?

[Perd Hapley]

It isn't that you have no safety nets, it is that they aren't very good at catching the poor.  To take the most telling example, per capita costs for medicaid/medicare (around $6,000 in 2014) are far higher than those for our NHS (around $2890 in 2013/14) despite the NHS providing far more coverage (treatment, most medication costs, rehabilitation, mental healthcare GP surgeries, ambulances, death panels etc) and that is with the NHS having been run by incompetents and criminals for the past twenty years.

https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nhe-fact-sheet.html
http://www.nhsconfed.org/resources/key-statistics-on-the-nhs

Be that as it may, the guy said we have no safety net. That's NO, as in no government funds or programs in place to help poor people, orphans, and the like.

And besides, he's De Selby. It's not as if he wants to be taken seriously.

[roo_ster]

It isn't that you have no safety nets, it is that they aren't very good at catching the poor.  To take the most telling example, per capita costs for medicaid/medicare (around $6,000 in 2014) are far higher than those for our NHS (around $2890 in 2013/14) despite the NHS providing far more coverage (treatment, most medication costs, rehabilitation, mental healthcare GP surgeries, ambulances, death panels etc) and that is with the NHS having been run by incompetents and criminals for the past twenty years.

https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nhe-fact-sheet.html
http://www.nhsconfed.org/resources/key-statistics-on-the-nhs

Well that is partly a function of americans and their health care dollars subsidizing the uk nih.  For instance the uk govt threatens us drug companies and med device makers that the uk will not honor their patents if the us drug and device makers do not sell their wares at the price the uk nih dictates.  So us health care consumers bear the cost of developing all these drugs and devices while uk folk can berate us for our high health care costs.

Same deal for most other industrialized countries.

[RoadKingLarry]

The US has far, far fewer safety nets than any English speaking country in the world including South Africa.  The fact that you failed to answer my question speaks volumes - to claim that US safety nets are the cause of the visible mass poverty which any visitor sees is patently ridiculous.  The shanty towns and beggars around most US destination cities are making more Latin Americans feel at home than they are making Europeans feel over taxed.

Huge problem with our "safety nets" is that they don't get used as safety nets but as lifestyle hand outs to the welfare class in an effort to secure votes.
Could I illegally enter Australia or South Africa and get on welfare, get food stamps and "free" medical care and housing for myself and my extended family?

[KD5NRH]

that is with the NHS having been run by incompetents and criminals for the past twenty years.

We tried that with the VA.  Didn't help.  Still doing it anyway.

[agricola]

Well that is partly a function of americans and their health care dollars subsidizing the uk nih.  For instance the uk govt threatens us drug companies and med device makers that the uk will not honor their patents if the us drug and device makers do not sell their wares at the price the uk nih dictates.  So us health care consumers bear the cost of developing all these drugs and devices while uk folk can berate us for our high health care costs.

Same deal for most other industrialized countries.

Not sure how true that is.  They threaten not to buy medicine above a certain price, not to breach patent law (which would be illegal, pointless and self-defeating). 

[MechAg94]

Huge problem with our "safety nets" is that they don't get used as safety nets but as lifestyle hand outs to the welfare class in an effort to secure votes.
Could I illegally enter Australia or South Africa and get on welfare, get food stamps and "free" medical care and housing for myself and my extended family?

And a "safety net" is a temporary thing.  It is a net to catch you then you get out, not a hammock.  I could live with the safety nets if they were temporary with a hard ending (no extensions). 

[Northwoods]

$150 per paycheck (bi-weekly) goes into a sub-savings account.  Nominally for health care expenses since we have a $1400 deductible per person ($4200 family) before the insurance goes to paying at 80/20.  I'd rather not rob that for something else, but even if it was exhausted it would only take 3 paychecks that sub-account to be back over $400.  And there's other sub-accounts I could pull from too.  Then there's things like 401k loans (or hardship withdrawls), or withdrawing original investments (not gains) from a Roth IRA that one can do without borrowing the money from some outside source. 

[Scout26]

Re: the OP


Cash, check, debit card, or charge card.  I can do all four.