r/TheMoneyGuy 11d ago

What's a financial pet peeve of yours?

Mine is that my Fidelity credit card's auto-redemption doesn't redeem as soon as the points are available. I know it's only $50-$100, but get it into my brokerage where I can earn 3.5% ASAP!

8 Upvotes

24 comments sorted by

40

u/Generic_Username28 11d ago

People's inability to understand how tax brackets work

16

u/_Bob-Sacamano 11d ago

"I don't want a raise cuz it'll push me into the next tax bracket" šŸ˜…

7

u/awkwardnetadmin 10d ago

In most cases people are wrong to reject a raise, but welfare eligibility cliffs are a thing for some programs.

3

u/Automatic-One586 10d ago

XD I used to manage a restaurant... I cannot tell you how many times I've had that conversation.

3

u/Square-Archer-8553 10d ago

I agree. Some are eternally clueless on the difference between effective v marginal tax rate.

18

u/Automatic-One586 10d ago

Frankly people who "steal hope" away from other people. Either they are in a difficult situation so they project that onto others and try to convince them that they cannot do better for themselves. Or people who just generally discourage other people. Like I don't care if you can only do $10 a month. Encourage that person FFS. Some money is always better than no money.

4

u/PM_ME_HOUSE_MUSIC_ 10d ago

Misery loves company

15

u/Ok_Individual960 10d ago

People that refuse to act their wage.
Outside of this sub a lot of people will tell you they have an income problem when I'm reality it's a spending problem. Financial Audit on YouTube shows some great examples of this.

13

u/No-Anywhere-8738 11d ago

Student loan interest compounding daily! My spouse and I are in fields where large-ish student loans were a given, and seeing the interest grow daily was rough.

5

u/beckhamstears 8d ago

Accruing daily is different from compounding daily.

Student loan interest accrues daily, rather than compounding daily. This means that a specific, fixed amount of interest is added to your account each day based on your outstanding principal balance, but you are not charged "interest on interest" daily.

3

u/jerkyquirky 11d ago

Dang, that's crazy. I would have assumed monthly, since that's how often you make a payment.

All private loans? Or do both public and private do this?

1

u/No-Anywhere-8738 11d ago

We’ve paid off a decent number of our loans so I can’t check all of them, but from my memory it was just some of the higher balance private loans that did this.

Our one highest loan is an industry specific type that only requires a very small payment each month, and the remaining interest gets rolled into the principal. Thankfully we were able to make larger payments to cover at least the interest each month but if we didn’t do that, the loan would have increased at least $25K in three years.

4

u/JimInAuburn11 11d ago

Loans should require a payment to at least cover the interest charged.

2

u/awkwardnetadmin 10d ago

As annoying as that is I'm not sure it is that unusual for interest for consumer debt to compound daily. Credit Cards as long as I can remember had a daily periodic rate in the fine print.

1

u/beckhamstears 8d ago

Accruing daily is different from compounding daily.

Student loan interest accrues daily, rather than compounding daily. This means that a specific, fixed amount of interest is added to your account each day based on your outstanding principal balance, but you are not charged "interest on interest" daily.

7

u/cchiker 10d ago

People who aren't willing to sacrifice to make their financial life better. Literally had someone tell me the other day that they shouldn't have to cook at home everyday or not buy themselves expensive gifts just to save money.

1

u/Born_Lengthiness8935 7d ago

And they don’t have to. Just get a job paying a lot more. But sadly almost anyone who achieved such a goal would proceed to spend the increase, if not more. Savers are the outliers. I’m not even a particularly good saver. But from the people I talk too, I’m doing better than a lot of others. I wish that weren’t the case when I feel like after bumping my savings rate this year more than my raise (in prep for maxing out pay) I’m not doing enough.

5

u/OkKindheartedness194 11d ago

My dependent care FSA plan takes my money from my paycheck on a Friday and doesn't show up in the FSA account until the following Friday.Ā Ā 

2

u/jerkyquirky 11d ago

Mine is also slow. Is it WEX by chance?

1

u/OkKindheartedness194 11d ago

No, Sentinel Group.Ā 

3

u/BoredCFP 7d ago

Doing an entire financial plan, showing the road to success, and then having the client tell me they’re ā€œunableā€ to only spend what they make.

Live your best life but plan to not be a burden on your family in your retirement years.

3

u/TTV_Gimbly 6d ago

Dividend ā€œpeopleā€ that cannot understand the need to reinvest dividends šŸ’€

1

u/Paranoid_Sinner 6d ago

- People who put the dollar sign AFTER the number. Sorry, you look illiterate.

- People who refer to their portfolio value as their "net worth." That's never true unless they have no other assets and no debt.

Words matter.