The youngest is turning 30 next week. He will hopefully manage his finances now (hahahaha) that he’s finally graduated and has a proper degree and a proper job.
In the interim there was the “uh, dad, my car’s been repo-ed so I can’t come down to see you this weekend like I planned” several thousand in fines and back payments to retrieve said car
And do you have insurance? “uh… no” paying the insurance for the past five years
“Any chance you have a few bucks to spare? I don’t have enough gas to drive home.”
“We’re having to move. Dog ate the apartment. No security deposit etc” send off $1000 again
…and so on and so forth.
Not holding my breath.
But he’s a lovely boy. Kind and giving and honorable and loved by all. I guess that’s more important.
I bought and installed a Sony XAV-AX1000 audio/video system unit for my car, primarily because I wanted to be able to use a USB stick to play my music collection. The unit reads the USB just fine and displays the content…but not in any discernible order. The folders (artist and album) are not in alphabetical order, in order of size, or in order of date of creation. It appears random. The folder “Eagles, The” can appear at any location at all when I try to scroll down the list of artists. This is extremely difficult to do when I’m driving.
I’ve tried different solutions, like experimenting with date of creation, and even posted to the Sony car audio forum. Nothing. The best I can do is have another level of folders (A-B, C-D, E-F, etc.) to get the list of subfolders as short as possible. Even then, the artists are not in alphabetical order in the subfolders. Strangely, the tracks themselves are in the proper track order once I find an album.
Of course, I discovered this after spending several hours getting everything installed and working. Drives me nuts whenever I use the unit.
I don’t know about 40 YO, but my wife does it for her daughter (my stepdaughter) and the daughter is 32 YO…with an MA in education.
Need a deposit for a new apartment? Bank of Mom.
Upgrading her cell phone (we pay for her service on our family plan)? Bank of Mom.
Going to a music festival with friends? Bank of Mom.
New tires for her Saturn? Bank of Mom.
My wife doesn’t exactly HIDE the fact that she does this, but she never mentions it voluntarily. The problem is that the daughter felt that the in-class practical training for being a teacher was too “oppressive,” so she dropped that during her studies. Now she can’t get a teaching license in her state. She does occasional work as a hostess or waitperson at local restaurants and brew-pubs.
The lil’wrekkers on a full ride at her University. She makes excellent marks. Deans list, yada, yada, yada. But the girl can’t be trusted with $10. I blame myself. I neglected her practical training. She’s spoiled rotten.
And Lesson One of that “neglected practical training” is "Okay, no more handouts*. You plan ahead if you want to do things. And if you don’t, you don’t drive or eat out… and sure, maybe you have to sit home while your friends go to a music festival. Hell, I did that rather than ask my parents to pay for me.
Maybe she even sets up an automatic withdrawal from her paycheck right into an “Emergency Fund” bank account.
If not for her, do this for her future roommates/husband/partner. I’m so grateful that my wife is a financial adult.
*For everyone here, at the very least, make sure your child knows that your financial bailouts are LOANS. They get much better at handling their own finances if they know they’ll have to pay them back.
Our daughter didn’t have enough money for grad school and car repairs, so we lent her a couple thousand. She took it upon herself to write up a cute little contract, and she uses Venmo to automatically send us over a hundred each month.
My youngest sister to a “T”. A delight to spend time with, and always was, as we get along super well, but an absolute airhead when it comes to money management. She’s married w/kids and technically upper-middle class “on paper”, but still sucking wind finance-wise: Dodged financial bullets through other’s generosity, but thinks things always work out because “things always work out”. :mad:
We’ve finally cut financial ties to my son, but I’m still able to log into the account at the realty company and see that he is not paying his rent. This is the tenth day of the month and I’ve been logging in every day, watching the late fees accumulate.
Thanks to the generosity of grandparents (and a little help from their parents), all of my kids graduated from college with no student loans or debt. All of them asked us for money to aid in the purchase a car after graduation. We lent them the money, settling on an interest rate halfway between the going rate on our bank’s saving account and the best rate that we found for an auto loan. We drew up a contract on each loan, and all of the loans have been paid back in full.
I’ve had several models of an underwater mp3 player by Finis. After the first one, the songs never seemed to play in the same order as the previous model, no matter what I fiddled with on the mp3 file data. Turns out that Finis decided they need to be in order of the date they were uploaded, and neglected to mention this in any of their documentation. So now, every new model I have to carefully plan my upload order to avoid random low-intensity songs at the peak of my workout.
Might want to see if you can remember what order you uploaded those albums.
And you’ve GOT to give me some kind of clue as to what this is about. Unless your signature is on my paychecks, I’ll call you back after I’ve dealt with the ten people who called*,* or better yet emailed long before you did, with a clear request and even instructions.
Oh, don’t think that if you sound harried, that’s going to move you to the front of the line. You always sound that way.
I got a phone call this morning from someone wanting me to confirm a bunch of personal information before telling me what they were calling about just that it was a business matter. I refused and she hung up on me. I suspect it was a law firm that recently sent me forms for them to represent me against a grocery store for an accident that has to either be from the grocery store or possibly my insurance. The letter didn’t specify where they got my information from and I already have a law firm that I have contracted with to represent me.
She made me late for work arguing with her that I was not going to confirm anything until I knew what the call was about. she said it was about a letter they sent me which is why I think it is this law firm I never contacted. I am going to scan it to my lawyer and let him know.
In the related matter:
I think the grocery store should be liable for the fact that they should have known they had a hazard in their store, for not changing it after someone got hurt and trying to make it my fault (were you wearing flip-flops? were you wearing sunglasses? were you wearing prescription lenses? had you been drinking? etc) I have a permanent disability in my shoulder from the fall but I am also old and have arthritis in the joint so I am sure the grocery store will do everything to pay as little as possible which also ticks me off.
No class trashbag motherfucker talking about dealing weed at full volume in the quiet carriage on the train. People like that should be drowned in a bucket.
It’s probably the store’s insurance company. They have no boundaries, no shame.
And apparently, no common sense. I recently had Physical Therapy for a torn tendon. My insurance company sent me a letter asking why… I replied that I twisted my ankle walking down the street. Then they sent me a form full of questions like “Was this the result of negligence on the part of a private party?” I answered the first one normally, but when they sent me a second questionnaire, ALL of my 25 answers were the same: “Twisted my ankle walking down the street.”
That didn’t sink in. They have now sent me four letters and four forms. Each one more desperately hoping they can sue someone for my $150 medical bill. Oh, and they’ve started referring to it as My Accident.
On the last one I scrawled diagonally across the form: NO ACCIDENT!
Just twisted ankle.
Was walking down the street.
By myself.
When I see it, I cannot help but think that someone bought the suit before their last growth spurt. I used think that baggy pants that show the underwear was the worst. I was wrong.
