I'm thinking of things like:
Often we don't realise how much we base purchasing decisions on "everyone is doing it", without researching properly or even just stopping and thinking about it for a second. What other examples can you think of?
For me it's my bike, it cost…. too embarrassed to say but I do love it!
impossible to spend too much on a bike, bikes aren't rational sensible purchases by any measure, they are wayward emotion on wheels!. You should put that thought out of your head immediately and start dreaming of N+1!!!
you forgot the s-1
always dreaming of N+1!
same here :P
Financial advice from financial planners with less financial experience and savings than yourself.
Dead right, hate that term FA. Free financial advice available right here on this forum (or other similar places like Whirlpool etc.)
Nothing more annoying than when you read (or get told) "Talk to your FA", it's such a cop out by financial institutions.
Have never employed or paid one myself, as in my experience they seem to know sweet FA.
If FAs were genuinely great investors then why do they even need clients?
Reality is that they are just like fund managers who take a percentage of everyone's money even when their investment decisions are making a loss.
spend 100k+ for a car and rent a condo.
How much of that is the car? Do you live in New York?
condom? I would just buy one instead of rent it, they are pretty cheap.
Rent it?? you are going to hand it back after using it?
yeh, quick rinse under the tap, and it's good as new.
I wonder how many people rented it before you.
time share is pretty good value. you can rent it out when not using it.
"RENT" your appliances & loan big money to buy "sport" car for the youngsters these days ..
yes, renting appliances is terrible. What is more terrible? Pay Day Loans.
What do these things have in common? Exploiting low income / low financial knowledge people. These are both services we could do without.
Convenience! Anything where the seller says: "Don't trouble yourself with all the nasty complicated stuff…leave all that to us and we'll just send you a bill at the end" Financial Products, Lease cars and investment properties spring to mind.
Kids who have to have the latest game on pre-order so they cna brag about it to their mates. Wait 6 months and get it in a bundle deal for a couple of bucks? No chance, for spending an extra $100 on the pre-order your in-game character gets an extra couple of pixels worth of sa skin or something!!
Overpriced car servicing. One of the biggest stitch-ups ever invented.
Any advice on picking a mechanic? Best us non-petrolheads can do is find a guy who seems trustworthy-ish…
Ask around… The same names will generally keep popping up for the right, or "wrong" reason. The best blokes I've found usually work out of small and very tidy workshops, are happy to talk to you about what you think is wrong with your car, including asking questions about what's going on, explain in advance about the work they intend to do and call you if something unexpected pops up during inspection, and give you an itemised bill that they are also happy to discuss. Most good ones also give you care and maintenance tips for free.
Oh and a big one. They'll show you the part(s) that came out of your car, and show you why they think it was worth replacing.
My last dealer service included changing brake pads and rotors on all four wheels that still had plenty of life left in them (I insisted on sighting the parts). I was also advised to replace the radiator hoses that the dealer couldn't source on the day (requiring a return visit and all that $100/hr labour just to lift the bonnet), and when I changed the hoses myself at a fraction of the price I found two bolts sitting on top of the splash tray on the bottom of the motor that could not be explained, and when I did a subsequent oil change there was less than a litre of oil in the motor that has never shown any signs of leaking in six years of ownership. The bill for that "service", over $2.5k.
Needless to say. The brake parts were reinstalled at no cost, and I managed to complain loud and hard enough to the dealer principal, AND the manufacturer in CCd emails that they handed over a cheque for $500. That was the last time I will ever have anything to do with a dealer workshop, and have told plenty of people about my experience.
Who do you recommend?
I used to take my car to Ultra Tune to get serviced because it was close to my work, no other reason than convenience. I had a service done (few hundred bucks) and was told when I picked up my car that I needed my brakes replaced and it would cost me about $1,000. I booked it in for that to be done the following week, but the following day decided that seemed a bit steep and to get another opinion.
I asked around at work and found there was a mum and pop shop the same distance from our work in the opposite direction. I called them for a quote and they said they'd think it would be about $500 or so, but they'd want to double-check it was actually required before doing it. I took it to them and got a call shortly after that they did need to be replaced and did I want to proceed. I advised to go ahead and they ended up charging me about $550, plus they completely detailed the tires and rims.
Moral of the story? I know nothing about cars but a hunch that I was being taken for a ride was completely founded after getting a second opinion. Who knows if mom and pop overcharged, but I felt better about paying $550 than $1,000. Ask others for recommendations and investigate local businesses, rather than going for the obvious choices.
Who is this mum pop? Where is it
@inose: This is in Melbourne's South East. Would that be relevant to you? I'd have to look up the name, but I can find it if you're interested.
My friends have had similar experiences by going to local businesses and avoiding big-name chains, but of course that's only anecdotal.
Yeah… na not relevant as I'm in Sydney, but thanks though.
Any recommendations for Sydney anyone?
@inose: generic term for (American ;) ) small business. The idea is to ask around among people you know and trust. The dealers and big ad budget firms rely on people being either ignorant, or not caring too much about how much they pay.
Good luck!
Maybe it has already been said: upgrading your mobile every ~12 months. Apple loyalists are bad for this. Most people don't utilise the power of their phones so upgrading because the next one if 'faster' is stupid.
Pre-ordering or buying games on release. Waiting a short amount of time sees the game's price drop significantly.
Amen to the game comment….that is why we exist!
I actually find most of the popular games will be cheaper on release day than they will in say 3-6 months time
I can say that I have never experienced that. Are you talking digital or physical?
Physical…I don't buy a lot of games now, but in the past I did. For example any of the previous COD games on release would usually be something like $59. Then a few weeks later back to normal price of $99ish. I think stores did this because they know that people who will buy the game on release will buy it from which ever store is the cheapest. Then once that rush dies down, they go back to regular price.
Yeah, very major AAA console titles are sometimes sold as loss-leaders at the big chains lick Big W etc.
They discount a popular item, selling it at a loss, to get you in the door, hoping you'll end up buying something else when you come in (or in future, because habit).
But hopefully consoles will end up like Steam has been for 5 years or so now (all the games hit $10 or less on sale within 6-18 months of release, and release day prices are just for people who are rich or really can't wait).
upgrading my iphone (2012) to 6s now - 3 years, and i still feel bad!
3 years is a good turnaround time for me on phones
Seriously, most things are 1st world toys and not necessary.
It would be much shorter to list only the essential items.
lol
Yeah, but even with toys, some have wwwaaaaayyyyy better bang for buck than others.
Audiophiles and people that pay mega $$ for premium sound systems or earphones. Seriously…I cant believe any set of headphones is $500 better than any other one. I can see how a set of speakers could be better with a clearer sound than another but could any sound be thousands of dollars better than the same sound through a lower quality speaker? When i was doing my Master's degree i remember having a laugh with one of the Elec Engineering professors, he was showing me an advert for a high end set of speakers, it had all sorts of fancy technical mumbo jumbo in the ad but he was pointing out to me that a large part of the frequency range they were advertising was outside of the audible spectrum….that's right, beyond the hearing ability of a human ear. Somebody will obviously say better sound is priceless but frankly…i cant appreciate it and reckon it is all a take-on.
True, generally accepted human audiable range (20 Hz to 20 kHz, even that decreases as you age) is rather small compared to what is advertised by some earphone and headphone companies. Though, you are referring to the marketing terms and ads, which may or may not be relevant to the performance of the equipment anyways.
That said, that kind of approach is slightly unfair in my opinion, because there are differences within the audiable range between cheap ones and expensive ones. At least in the personal experience for the person who bought it, there would be a difference, be it placebo or real. I'd say it's probably both as I personally don't think you can have no placebo effect if you bought more expensive one to what you owned. Also usually more expensive ones have more premium material used on it as well, sometimes built in countries that are more expensive or handmade (for reasons of quality control or to stop technology being leaked). Some of the expensive earphones use BA (some use multiple), which is more expensive.
I do admit that headphones and earphones (never was a speaker person, but I'd assume similar pattern?) usually have a diminishing marginal return on price, that said it's not like there are no improvement within the audiable range. It's a hobby for some people, and people spend stupid amount of money on their hobby. Personal satisfaction that they get from small improvement might be larger than what you think it should be.
I've mentioned this on other comment before, but personal satifaction related and hobby related stuff are usually hard to understand for the people usually cannot see the value in them.
Maybe she received something else during the "session"
A photobook perhaps?
Professional photos (by average photographers)
seems anyone can buy a DSLR and call themselves professional photographers
Yep, and dress like a hipster. Friend got a uni graduation photo done.
The dude had glasses on his head he didn't even use. The "I'm a professional portrait photog" uniform seems to also consist of:
- Black fitted trousers
- Black sweater
- DSLR with cables going into their computer, not like they do post-processing on the spot anyway
- zoom lens WHAT??
- some strobe lights
- crappy generic swirly background
- memorise 3 suggested poses
- Form to pay $100 per photo
Gyms. And driving to them.
A couple of things.
Smart phone fanbois on both sides. Upgrading phone the moment a new one comes out even if it's a tiny upgrade. Watch the hate roll in.
Going for runs for free beer when you could be earning money.
Buy phone which is 1 or 2 generation late & not apple. Do quick review on Youtube, Techradar or Engadget to look for phone that suit your need.
That would help alot. Also don't understimate Chinese android phone brand like OnePlusOne, Xiaomi or Lenovo.
yeah, you can underestimate OnePlusOne
Im trying to resist buying that $799 Samsung phone from JB Hifi
(saving $400 in the process)… then I think, what a waste of money.
Those LG G4s for ~$600 have been at the top of my to buy list. My Galaxy S3 was having shutdown/restart issues which had come at the most inconvenient of times as I thought it was time to change phones. I buy a new battery for $29 and save myself $571 in buying a phone that i wouldn't do anything differently with than I do now. I now have more money to buy stuff in Japan.
Drugs, coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, gold, diamonds, movies, iphones
Gold? What about this?
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/213041
Gold ingot at the day's spot price, surely a bargain?
Well me & 100+ other Ozbargainers thought so:)
I should have put jewelery instead of gold :)
No drugs, coffee or alcohol. . what a boring life
you are talking about the good stuff, right? This thread is about things that waste money ☺
edit: i see you put iPhones, so valid point
I certainly do think that the people who waste money buying all those things are high income earners/married/in a relationship with high income earners because if you're earning something like minimum wage then you'd be forced into tracking every dollar you make that goes out and to look into ways of getting the most value per dollar spent. When you earn $400,000 a year then you really couldn't give a shit about buying things on special at super markets.
Absolutely not, my richest friend is also my tightest friend. I had dinner with him a couple of months ago, he had flown in from London to buy a $3.5m house on Beach Rd and check on his warehouse in Moorabbin where he ships his sports car collection to when he buys them around the world. He was wearing a set of RM Williams boots that he bought 30 years ago and have holes in the sole! I gave him a lift back to his hotel so he could save on a cab fare. We had dinner and beers and we all took our shout and split the bill.
I would qualify by saying that my other friends and I have known him since long before he was rich. We know him from when he was just another kid like us with no money either, he has become rich by being very smart with his money and those smart habits are not something he can easily switch off. He does have some expensive hobbies now like the sports cars but he would be a tough guy to sell a car to, he drives a tough bargain.
He would buy things on special but I don't think he spends much time in the Supermarket, too busy!
is it hard not to have a tiny, tiny bit of resentment for this friend? :)
Sounds about right. Rich people usually don't get rich(and stay rich) by frittering money away.
Religion
1 word so much meaning
1 word so much killing.
Yeah, because so many of them Christians are going around Australia, killing people, right?
@inose: woz means pretty much every religion. the whole "my religion tells me love my neighbour and I'll kill you if you don't believe that" deal. you can't deny that historically religion has caused wars and deaths and even today fuels hatred based on archaic notions flaunted by the religions leaders to help them remain in power and $$$$.
buddhism is not a religion*
*except for tax purposes.
"my religion tells me love my neighbour and I'll kill you if you don't believe that" deal…
I don't think you know much about religion, expect what you've heard or read online… basically, you haven't done any research on it, on your own. Thus getting the wrong impression on some religions. Basically you don't know what you're talking about.
All religions are different, and so shouldn't be brushed with the same.. brush.
E.g. In Islam, the penalty for apostasy is death… which is probably why many Middle Eastern countries are strictly religious. See Richard Dawkins.
I'm familiar with Christianity though, and there is no penalty for apostasy as far as I'm concerned (Non believers go to hell, though). You're free to leave the church (or should be), and no one will kill you… "Love thy neighbour", you've heard that before, is indeed true to my understanding. You're meant to love everyone, regardless of their way of life or religion. Through this 'love', they will convert, or whatever. An important aspect is that everyone, including Christians, are 'sinners', and so have no basis for arrogance. In the 'New Testament', 'Jesus' died for everyone's sins, and so they didn't have to do the "eye for an eye" type of stuff (as they used to do in the OLD testament. I think this applies in Islam, and so many Islamic countries have harsh 'barbaric' penalties / policies, see Saudi Arabia), and if you don't believe this, you're going to hell.
Now, how did that 'love thy neighbour' stuff lead to wars and stuff? I'd say the underlying issue was what causes war these days - greed, power (and probably other stuff). Blaming wars on religion (on the Christianity side, at least in my opinion), is easy, but naive and not the full picture. (Australia would be a warzone otherwise.)
(BTW, I'm atheist if you're wondering. Parents are strictly religious, but I am openly atheist. Still alive… for now)
I don't think you know much about religion, expect what you've heard or read online… basically, you haven't done any research on it, on your own. Thus getting the wrong impression on some religions. Basically you don't know what you're talking about.
I have a B.A. majoring in sociology and anthropology with a minor in religious studies. I traveled through Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1998 to observe the results of the ethic cleansing. I lived in Japan for 4 years studying Shintoism. I spent time in the middle east studying Islam.
you claim to be atheist but practice the same shortsightedness and self righteousness as your strictly religious parents by assuming what you want to fulfill your own self delusional beliefs. - oh yeah, I'm currently completing honours in psych so I know how to read people.
Don't assume anything inose.
An… The internet I see…
Well then… I've travelled all around the world too, lived in Saudi Arabia and Egypt growing up. Also lived in England, Japan, South Korea and the Bahamas.
Don't assume anything mate.
By the way, I've a PhD in English History from Oxford, and have a Masters in clinical psychology (Harvard).
Not sure what your point is…
Yep… But they knew. I just had to say it.
I'm not the best child. I should help them out as the church is very snall, but na, the church is not my scene, and they get that.
Edit: to be honest, I wish that they had chosen a non religious path. Christianity isn't that popular these days, and so its hard for them. Sigh…
altomic, couldn't have put it better myself.
Yes, I just love how all religions say that every other religion is a lie or distortion - except ours.
Take away coffee, bottled water and video games.
HDMI cables that cost $100. Salesmen are sure to offer you one when buying a tv or a blue ray/DVD player.
I dunno, the CIA might want to install a virus on my system via remote electromagnetic induction of my HDMI cable.
Wouldn't I want to shield against that?
XD
Anyone that buys a second hand item for close to/or exceeding the value of a brand new, that is the same item.
ebay auction in nutshell
what about a $2000 leather couch that is second hand?
I'll happily pay full retail of less than $10,000 for any 1950's or 60's Ferrari you have laying around
I don't know of any BRAND NEW 1950's and 1960's ferrari's that you can buy in 2015.
they probably forgot to email you, my quick friend
mSD cards
anything with an apple logo on it
Better stick to buying pears then
Or lemons…
And someone's already bitten into the apple too.
Private school, pre, primary and secondary.
Especially given you can buy your way into any university course these days no matter how crappy your marks are.
As the parent of a son with special needs who started his school life at a State School (and switched across in yr 7) I think the cost of Private School (which has been a struggle for us) has been well worth it. The level of attention and interest teachers have taken in him has been a thousand fold compared to what he received at the state school. He is doing his VCE exams next month and I am certain he would not have stayed in school this far if he had stayed in the Public School system.
You don't even need marks these days! Most uni's offer a 1 month uni prep course which guarantees you entry.
Unless you're super smart there really is no incentive to get a high ATAR, as you won't get a scholarship. Even with high ATAR scholarship is not guaranteed.
Boost Juice- seriously it's so exxy for a couple of apples and carrots
I go there once a year for my free birthday drink haha
Freemium mobile games. I've recently started playing one, and the top player claims he has spent approximately 7.5 - 8 million yen (~$100k) on the game in order to reach Level 1000…
Download?