Madison MoneySports - Personal Finance Thread

[WRXtranceformed]

And it turns out there's no cost to freeze / unfreeze your reports in SC. Score!

[Sully]

It's a good idea to read this article and apply a credit freeze with all 3 agencies since this breach. Equifax is free for the next 30 days, Experian didn't charge me, and TranUnion cost a $5 processing fee. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/one-move-make-after-equifax-breach-n800776">https://www.nbcnews.com/business/consum ... ch-n800776</a><!-- m -->

Did anyone see by the way that some of the agencies have free services that let you lock / unlock your credit at will?  I did some research but can't really tell if this is the same thing as a traditional freeze that you have to pay for:

TransUnion's version:

https://www.transunion.com/product/truei...protection

Did you end up trying this?

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[WRXtranceformed]

I did, and it worked well for me... for some reason the dashboard never populated when i signed up my wife for it so i just applied a freeze for her with Transunion. I like having a lock that i can toggle on and off if needed.

[Sully]

Did you find out if it is as good as a traditional freeze?

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[WRXtranceformed]

I believe it's the same as a freeze with Transunion, it's just free and you can unfreeze / freeze whenever you want.
They try to upsell other services inside the dashboard but that wasn't really surprising to me

[CaptainHenreh]

anybody buy any bitcoin last week and make some money?>

[Apoc]

I haven't bothered with a freeze because I don't believe it really matters.

Here's some confirmation bias to help me solidify that - https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/09/expe...reeze-pin/

[WRXtranceformed]

I haven't bothered with a freeze because I don't believe it really matters.

Here's some confirmation bias to help me solidify that - https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/09/expe...reeze-pin/

Read the last paragraph of that article though

It took me all of 15 minutes to do all three bureau freezes for me and my wife

[JPolen01]

Just because someone may be able to unfreeze it seems like an insanely stupid reason not to do it. If your accounts are frozen I would think they would move onto the next person in frustration. Your life though. I'm cocky but not cocky enough to gamble on this one.

[Apoc]

I'm not being cocky... I just believe anyone that wants my identity is going to get it - freeze or not. These companies have demonstrated a lack of robust business processes and I have zero faith a freeze will actually be a barrier to any serious attempt. That's probably flawed logic, but convenient logic nonetheless.

[Sully]

I'm undecided about a freeze. I should probably do it but I just think about that time when I need it unfrozen on a random day and can't get it done for like 48 hours or something. I'll probably do it soon though...

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[Apoc]

IMO in case of true economic collapse (via either something war related or disaster), our country is screwed and precious metals aren't going to be worth shit.  You can't eat gold encased in plastic.  Same is true for paper money / coins

The only things that will have any value will be essentials, food, water and guns/ammo.  Secondarily, survival supplies.

I just bought 8 5gal food grade water storage containers that are stackable.  It's enough I think for us for about 3-4 months worth of water.  I have a field-grade filter device and extra filters that would give me a couple hundred more gallons.  Will be shopping in the next few weeks for long term food storage (25yr+)

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-p...SKCN1C22GJ
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...uerto-rico

Not sure previous metal would help them, but there's a reason why we always have cash on hand.

[Ryan T]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-p...SKCN1C22GJ
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...uerto-rico

Not sure previous metal would help them, but there's a reason why we always have cash on hand.

 I've always gone back and forth on how much cash to keep on hand. Finally settled on a figure but I keep it stored in a few different places. One thing I did learn from traveling in those areas, what cash you do keep needs to be a good assortment of big bills as well as $5s, $10s and $20s. In a bad economic event a lot of people cant make change for big bills and you'll end up either overpaying, buying too much, or going without.

[WRXtranceformed]

Yeah I also try to keep some cash on hand as well. It's pretty dire but it's not end-times down there. They're getting support now from a lot of entities. My comment was more directed at if it was TEOTWAWKI

[Apoc]

My impression is they're not actually getting support yet. There's a lot on the way, but the cash economy is still in full effect.

I don't actually think there will be a worldwide global economic collapse in my lifetime... but I do think an earthquake may very well knock out our infrastructure for weeks on end.

[WRXtranceformed]

I thought I saw there was a big FEMA or military presence that had deployed there...yeah there have been a few ships delivering supplies and helping with rescues with a lot more on the way:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/26/politics/u...index.html
https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2017/0...in-islands

Just seems crazy that there's even anywhere to buy supplies after the widespread damage they had. I assumed that most of the goods and services right now were handouts

[Ryan T]

I don't actually think there will be a worldwide global economic collapse in my lifetime... but I do think an earthquake may very well knock out our infrastructure for weeks on end.

That's my concern, I'm not trying to stockpile huge sums of cash, just enough to last a few weeks to a month.

[Tyler.M]

thou should have at least 3 months of emergency cash in a liquid account and 3x annual salary saved by 30y/o if you go by old school account practices.

[Apoc]

We're talking actual cash, in our house.

[HAULN-SS]

3x salary in your retirement plan by 30? seems real ambitious unless you're talking about 3x the salary you entered workforce at? maybe. At 33 I had, theoretically about 1.5x my 33y.o. salary in cash+retirement, which worked out to about 4x my salary when I entered the workforce. Cash reserves took a hit buying a house this year (mostly because still have WV house which I rented instead of sold). Together with the future wife we still have 3months+emergency funds, but also buying a fucking wedding, soo...I look forward to next year getting on track.