Holy Wheaton Scales!

[Dragline]

When I read this, first I scratched my head, then I laughed out loud, and then I said "who in their right mind would ever hire this person as a financial planner?"

http://www.learnvest.com/2014/04/how-we ... t-his-job/

I suppose I should be more charitable, but jeez -- this is essentially the marketing pitch for this website.

[lilacorchid]

"Nick and I began to realize that living off my $70,000 salary was indeed possible"

No. Way.

[saving-10-years]

@Lilaorchid - I think we could all find favourite quotes in this one. This is mine: 'We still prioritized retirement savings. As a financial planner, I knew how important it was to continue saving for retirement. After all, we still wanted to retire someday! I adjusted our $200 biweekly retirement contributions to $50 monthly in order to keep saving without straining our budget. I felt good knowing I was still building our future nest egg'.

Hm. So as a financial planner she was saving $500/month (from $135000 joint wages) for retirement (for two people) while at the same time spending $400/month on dining out and $350/month on cable. Definitely the priorities to be expected from a financial planner? Thanks Dragline, for raising a chuckle over here in the UK.

[henrik]

It's truly inspiring how they managed to keep saving 0.8% for retirement even while being "forced to subsist" on $70k!

[Felix]

Holy Wheaton scales indeed.

[theanimal]

In all seriousness, are most "financial planners" even qualified for their job? Seems like the majority of them have no idea what they are doing/talking about when it comes to personal finance.

[jennypenny]

I felt a little bad about laughing at their situation until I came across this quote: "Suddenly being forced to subsist on one income was another adjustment I never expected to make. We’re well-educated people and hard workers. And yet, there we were." Turn that around ... does she assume that people who struggle with unemployment are uneducated and/or lazy? Ugh, she's just a snob.


I also looked up my cable package to see how high I could get it if I included all premium packages including sports "tickets" and I couldn't get close to $350. So (you know me ) I called Verizon, gave a BS story about someone I know paying $350, and asked how it could be that high. She said people who order a lot of PPV events can have bills that high, but to get it that high every month they probably have a premium porn package or order a lot of it a la carte.

I guess that explains why she didn't give her BF too much grief about the bill.

[arebelspy]

I also looked up my cable package to see how high I could get it if I included all premium packages including sports "tickets" and I couldn't get close to $350. So (you know me ) I called Verizon, gave a BS story about someone I know paying $350, and asked how it could be that high. She said people who order a lot of PPV events can have bills that high, but to get it that high every month they probably have a premium porn package or order a lot of it a la carte.

I guess that explains why she didn't give her BF too much grief about the bill.

Hah. I love that you actually called to find that out.

The more plausible scenario, in my mind: she stretched the numbers. She decided that sounded reasonable, if a bit high, and fudged it upwards.

[workathome]

Even though she would obviously be a terrible financial planner, I can see her being popular:

Q: "How much do I save for ret..."
A: "Don't worry, spend all your money!"
Q: "So I can buy a new car ever year?"
A: "Of course. Don't worry, I'm a professional!" as she points to the nameplate.

[ether]

An interesting page from the site: http://www.learnvest.com/2014/04/im-get ... in-my-30s/

[Ian]

Appropriate title, because that's what's striking me most strongly here. I wonder if anything has been written on bridging levels of the Wheaton scales, because it seems to me that this fundamental break in understanding makes communication very difficult.

[KevinW]

"We decided we are old enough that we should be paying movers instead of renting a U-Haul."

That one drives me nuts.

[ebast]

"We decided we are old enough that we should be paying movers instead of renting a U-Haul."

We decided we have too much sh*t and no close friends, and no time off work anyway.

[jacob]

To be fair, keeping the retirement contribution was an above-average move even though at the reduced $50/month rate of contribution, it would take roughly 3000 years to reach the retirement goal without compounding. Most people would easily have dug into their 401k and taken the 10%+marginal rate rather than cut down on the PPV sports events. It's the thought that counts... until you need that money of course.

[JamesR]

"prioritized retirement savings" -> "$50/mo" ? *Facepalm*

The only financial planner i trust is an ERE-certified one!

[jacob]

It's like a fitness club. Same plan and fee. Here's a sheet with your workout and here's someone to say "good job!"

Many services follow this pattern on the higher Wheaton levels.

It's all about "turning people into recurring cash flows".

[lilacorchid]

"We decided we are old enough that we should be paying movers instead of renting a U-Haul."

That one drives me nuts.

At 23, I decided that I didn't want to pay in pizza and beer. Movers were cheaper and faster. Also, I like my friends.

[jennypenny]

I feel a little guilty about how we treat people we read about sometimes. Maybe instead of coming down on people like the woman in the article, we should figure out a [nice] way of reaching out to them. Like an ERE version of a Hallmark card inviting them over to the dark side.

[Felix]

Come to the dark side, we have lentils.

[Spartan_Warrior]

I kept looking for The Onion's logo.