I've had a little over a million dollars in a money market account earning only .03% for the last year.  

I really need to get off my ass and do some real investing with it.

"Check out this sweet laptop I bought from the kiosk at the mall. Only 36 months of $50 payments."

WTF, never heard of anything so ignorant. Thread winner so far.

In some cases it does make sense to keep paying more mortgage interest than you have to. However, most people over-simplify the math. Figuring out whether you can truly save money by spending more to get an extra tax deduction is complex.

First, U.S. income tax is marginal. For example, you pay 10% on the first $13,250 of taxable income you make, 15% on everything between $13,251 and $50,400, 25% between $50,401 and $130,150, and so on. When most people calculate the value of the their tax deductions, they value them at their highest tax rate. This can lead to over valuing tax deductions.

Second, if you don't itemize your deductions, you still get the standard deduction of $6,300 ($12,600 for married couples). You would have to do even more complex math to figure out if the itemized deductions you took beyond the standard deduction account for more savings beyond what you unnecessarily paid in interest.

Third, the tax benefits of retirement savings exist regardless of whether you take the standard deduction or itemize your deductions.

Fourth, whether you wind up ahead in the end by putting $11,000 in an IRA while paying $18,000 in mortgage interest is hard to say. You might, but you might not. What you're doing is a legitimate, reasoned choice, but it's not a foregone conclusion that you'll net a benefit in the end.

Fifth, you've got an assumption going on that I can't quite figure out that seems to be about leaving money in a retirement fund versus paying off a mortgage. If you put money in retirement fund, you pretty much have to leave it there due to the penalties you pay. However, you're not accounting for the fact that if you paid off your house faster or financed less of its value, that would free up even more money to put into your retirement fund.

Sixth, in most states, there are significant asset-protection benefits to transferring money out of cash and other liquid assets into a homestead. These benefits have to be weighed against the benefits of the mortgage interest tax deduction.

Accountants grossly oversell the value of spending money to acquire tax deductions. Part of that is because they have a vested interest in making your taxes more complex. Part of that is because that's just how they think.

I have been self-employed for 15 years. I have complex taxes and have made many decisions with tax benefits in mind. For me, allowing tax benefits to be the primary driver of financial decisions is a losing game. If you will need something next year, but there's a tax benefit to getting it this year instead, get it this year. Beyond this, tax benefits are best a tertiary driver of my financial decisions.

The situations in life in which you save money by spending money are about as rare as hen's teeth.

Mrs Rabinowitz's late husband liked to run up big credit card balances on cards she didn't know about. Did this twice. I am talking about thousands of dollars. She would end up working extra shifts to pay them off. The last time she found out about this was when he dropped dead in front of her and she had to get affairs in order.

She loved him but he did not treat her well. He really ran up debt, smoked, and was morbidly obese.

Up side was that he was insured for a goodly sum. She was able to pay off this debt and put her kids through college. Well one of them at least. The younger son is fat, lazy, undisciplined and at 22 unemployed and plays D&D while taking one class at a community college.

She needs to cut him off and make him stand on his own hind legs, but he is so immature.  

Dead daddy was his playmate and not his responsible father figure.  Being a crappy father is a horrible financial decision. So is being fat.

Do something before the ravages of inflation gives you a haircut.

Even very conservative funds made up of 75-80% bonds and 20-25% equities could pretty safely make you 4-6%.
Here's a few...Vasix,Fikfx,Aonix.Berix.

I bought a truck on an 18% note when I was in my early 20's. Paid it off in less than a year to avoid most of the interest. Lesson learned there was not to ever fuck up my credit again.

I know a couple who have bought timeshares. Fucking morons.

A friend of mine had a successful commercial fishing company, but after his mother's death he cashed out and invested the entire sum in some kind of fruit company.

A couple that's related to us thinks of their cars only in terms of monthly payments. They don't calculate total cost. They will trade a car with a $600 monthly payment, roll the negative equity of the car into the new car, extend the term of the debt, reduce the monthly payment to $550, and brag about saving money.

I had just moved to Reno i had never gambled.  Maybe my 3rd paycheak.  I went to the casino and put the whole 800 bucks of paycheak on black.  Sure thing to double my money in one spin right?

Wrong.  Poof.... Landed on red


It hurt but was a good lesson as i never gambled again.

Me; lost about $5,000 in four months buying an overpriced Acura Integra back in 99, not being able to afford it, then trading it in on a CRX I could afford. Continued dumping money in 87 different cars instead of just buying the 70 Chevelle for $3,000 and fixing that instead. Ending up buying the 70 Chevelle years later for $6,000, unchanged.
   Currently have the car I always wanted (Chevelle), first vehicle (55 Chevy stepside PU) and slightly oddball car I always wanted to build (78 Fairmont with 4.6 DOHC swap).
   Paying on two storage units right now because I don't have room for them at home, and don't want to sell any if them. On the flipside, I have no desire for any other vehicles right now, and we don't have any car payments.

  Wife lost her parents suddenly, and too young recently. Small inheritance was making .0087% interest in a couple different accounts, beautiful completely renovated 5br home came up for sale by owner, every item we were looking for plus some. We decided to leave a 6-8 month cushion in the accounts and put the rest as a down payment on the new house. Our mortgage will go from $750 to $1,250 now, and I'm stressing about it, even though we're both doing ok, and our only outstanding debt is about $6,000 in credit cards.
     I'm just really going to miss our mortgage that's less than an apartment, but really looking forward to my new heated garage and zero things on my house to do list!

I guess we don't have to worry about money no more.  That's good. One less thing.

Maternal Grandfather did the same. Grandma lived 28 yrs past him....

Maybe she gets it to the point where she plans to get a write off and then start all over again? :(

You should pay off your credit cards like right now.

I... don't even know where to begin. That is gonna be hard to beat.

Mother-in-law.  Any financial decision she's made has been a horrible one.  From her husband's life insurance to her inheritance it has been nothing but zeros to negatives.  Now she's in her mid-70s, broke, and other family members have been taking care of her for at least a decade and a half.  One of those relatives isn't a blood relative (i.e. me).

I know people that have  paid $400,000 for insurance, and have no idea what it covers.

Silver coins at $30/oz. $1,000 worth.

I thought great, when the world implodes and the dollar crashes I'll have these super valuable coins.

Silver is ~$17/oz today.



I have been thinking of giving them away as gifts instead of cash for weddings and such, or just holding onto them and giving them to kids or grandkids.

I also sold all my bitcoin at $200/coin



Looks like I'll be investing in only index mutual funds from now on.

I've bought a high end expensive 1911 before.

My parents paying for one of my brothers to go to a small liberal arts college that cost well into the six figures in order to get a degree in french.  He is now a bail bondsman.  He does pretty well at that actually, but what a waste of my parents' money.

You need to follow that line of thinking one step further.  You are ending your thinking early.

If you don't pay off your mortgage early, what do you have?  More cash than if you did.
What can you do with that cash?  Invest it in something else.
What is your tax rate on LT capital gains and dividends?  Less than your marginal rate on regular income.

Do you follow now?  It's not right for everyone but if you are disciplined and take the long view then the math is pretty straight forward and market returns become increasingly reliable once you start talking about a 30 year term.

Yup, that's the game plan. It's also why I don't open any promotional emails anymore. I'm looking at you SG Ammo and PSA!

I've spent more money on firearms than would be considered responsible. 

My dad was blowing money on M16s back in the 80's when they were 1500 a pop.  M60 was 5k, I think, new in the box.  That turned out to be a good waste of money though.

<Removed -40xb>

What was he a part time janitor

<Removed -40xb>

Student loans enough said

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The lobbyist for a couple gun companies cut a deal so they would not be affected by a shitty new state gun law.  Gun law passed one branch of the state legislature it was expected to fail because of the deal.  Story breaks about the deal when the shitty law passes.  The two companies are the only companies represented by the lobbyist and owners sit on the board.  The only thing they do for four days is kill facebook feedback.  Then they simultaneous issue press releases saying we oppose the bill, we don't know what's going on we love the second amendment, without firing their shitty lobbyist.

My BIL. Over the last 26 years fucking alcoholism has completely destroyed him. Cake 150,000 a years job.  Went to Middle East on private contract 2013-2015 made almost 600,000. Pissed every dime he made on travel and booze.

He's lost everything at least 3 times, never once has he banked a single penny.

He did 4 years in the AF as an MP. While I'm not downplaying his service he never went overseas or saw combat. He blames PTSD on everything. The simple fact is he's an alcoholic.

Earlier this year with nothing left and nowhere to go I had no choice but to pick him up, he escaped from the VA program up in Oregon and let him stay with us.

We're supporting him while he waits for his SS, he borrows money from Mom to get his alcohol. And we watch as he shrinks into nothing and alcohol dictates everything in his life.

Sad, sad, sad.

WTF, dude?! That doesn't count.

Well when you start your "well-reasoned" argument with things like breeders and stupid for people that have and actually care about their children...

I just realized $20 a month for a gym membership has been auto drafting from my checking account and I haven't been in the last 12 months. Talk about pissing away $240.

Sorry to hear about your impotency and low T.

These are from a relative, pushing 70, all within the last two years:

1. Bought $5,000 worth of various foreign paper currencies.
2. Took a nearly paid for used Lexus SUV in for minor repairs. Left with a new, leased Lexus.
3. Lives in a four bedroom house with just a spouse.
4. Put an in-ground pool in a yard that gets little sunlight.
5. Kept paying premiums on two life insurance policies for other relatives under incorrect assumptions about who the beneficiaries of the policies were.
6. Paid $2,000 or so for duct cleaning services from a newspaper ad.

Writing this stuff down actually makes me worry a bit.

A family member inherited a great house on about an acre. Free and clear, nothing to do but pay property taxes twice a year.

Not too long after, 2 of the sons got into a little legal trouble. A HELOC was opened in order to get a few thousand dollars for an attorney retainer. Next thing you know almost $200,000 was spent on scratch off tickets and prescription pain pills.

A couple years ago it was a boo hoo pity party about how they were going to be homeless because the bank was going to foreclose. They ended up filing for bankruptcy at the very last minute. They literately had one day left to file before it was too late.

Alright, I will give it a go.  My brother:

On his third disastrous marriage, but the third one, well....

So, he gets divorce from his second wife, a complete nutter and utterly irresponsible, and within a few months, he is online talking to a woman in Japan.  She is Brazilian who married a Japanese guy and has a daughter with her, but are now divorced.  My brother goes over to Japan to visit her.  Two weeks later he is back and I notice a wedding ring on and asked him if he got married, and condescendingly tells me I don't miss anything.  The wedding was not planned he says, we know nothing of it, but then he has pictures of a wedding cake, her in a dress, reception hall, etc.  They got married two days after he got there, but it wasn't planned.  

Well, my brother barely speaks English (sarcasm) and she barely does, they communicate via Google translator.  My brother decides to quit his job, sell his house and move there.  My brother has no education, no skills and worked at the VA doing a job that in the private sector is maybe $15/hr, he was making around $55k plus .gov benies.  House is paid for from an inheritance from our grandfather.

He goes to Japan claiming she is a bank executive and doing well.  She lied, wanting to get to America, he wanted a sugar-momma, she is five years older than he, and he is 47.  She is also completely stark raving mad and nuts to boot.  They fight all the time and my brother flies home from Japan every time they fight.

He lost his $55k a year job, wiped out his retirement, and wiped out $60,000 from a paid off house.  He now has nothing.  She is now living in Brazil and my brother was in the US, but instead of really working to get a job here, he goes back to Japan to live and works in a bakery and lives in an apartment for which the lease is up in May.  

He is also the same guy that when younger our dad gave him $500 for a community college class and he promptly took the money out and spent $500 on ostrich skin cowboy boots.  It just never ends.

does getting married to a lesbian count who put me in 2k of debt and 6k in medical debt

Emus

I look at CL motorcycles and sometimes I see choppers on there.

Usually reads like this.

Paid $55K
Only 2,500 miles
Selling for $21K

Had a customer snort away a 2 million dollar a year job and now living with his mother to avoid being homeless. Had a big house, Turbo Porsche, Ferrari 550 Barchetta, Panoz Roadster, BMW Z8 and his wife was wrapped in leather in her Hummer. They were going to pay him a 3 million severance plus pay him half a mill per year to stay away since he owned a share of the company. He refused all that in an effort to sue but within a year offered to let them buy him out for a total of $250,000.00.

Wins the thread.

Horses

Shires to be exact.  Wife and kids love to show them.  Like to watch my wife in short shorts ride them.  They cost money out the ass.  Show tack is expensive.  I can't grow enough hay to keep them all winter and have to buy extra.  Show clothes are expensive.  Fancy trailer to haul them cost almost as much as the truck I pull them with.  Zero fucking return on investment other than the kids enjoying them.  They work hard at it and thats more than most kids these days.  And I like to see my wife in short shorts.  Don't buy horses.

Guy I know took out a 250k dollar loan to invest in a physician owned surgery center. Chipped in another about $50k for cash calls after that.
Surgery center went under in less than a year. So now he's lost all his cash and his investment and is on the hook for a quarter million dollar loan.

A friend of mine bought a Porsche 914.  

Used Porsche 914.  

at 18% APR.  

He put the down payment on a credit card.