Florida B.S. Thread

The Northeast FL guys are planning to head to Hardrock, spread the word and hopefully we see some of you guys there.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...d-meets-ongoing.325690/page-102#post-10503572

Next meet
Date: Saturday Aug 8, 2015
Place: Hardrock Cycle Park
6849 NW Gainesville Rd, Ocala, FL 34475
(352) 732-6697
hours are 10am-5pm
cost $25 per vehicle to ride all day.

Convoy Plan (if you wish to join):

1.) We will meet others who want to join from west/central/south FL at the Love gas station (about 1.5hrs drive from St Aug, I-75 Exit 358) around 9:30AM (they have a subway there) and head over to Hardrock @ 10AM

Love gas station
7791 NW 47th Avenue
Ocala, FL 34482

2.) Then to Hardrock (4 min drive):

Hardrock Cycle Park
6849 NW Gainesville Rd
Ocala, FL 34475

 

Looks like the 2016 just shit the bed!! 270 hp and 261 ft/lb for torque. Looks like it has to rev high to get there.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2016-trd-offroad-spec-sheet.382308/

 

A card with a high limit and maxed out will hurt you too and alot of open credit. I had asked for a up in my credit card but got denied but bought a 17k dollar boat. Go figure

 

I train my own dogs. However, if you have never trained a dog before a class may not be a bad idea. I can actually give you some good pointers and at the very least, someplace to start. imho anyway, a class may give you some things you may wanna do and some things you may not wanna do. Either way a good pinch collar and heavy hand at first can go a long way. The only thing I pay for is my house. 2 cars, and a boat are paid for. I carry no balance on my credit cards. If I can't pay it off that month I wait or pay cash.

 

nice lol, ya i purposely put a limit on my first credit card of $1k but I need to pay it off since its up there...and then I got my military star card which has like $800 on it from my xbox one and TV i bought a couple months ago but that has a higher limit. But at the same time...I cant go bat shit crazy with that card....as if ANYTHING wrong happens to it...ill get my ass reemed by my first sergeant and get in trouble.

thats the plan, Dakota is the first pet ive had on my own and Ill see what the beginner has to offer, ill most likely not do any of the other classes since hes doing well now. Thats what I usually do when it comes to truck parts...but even with auto payments things just seem to never get paid off lol

 

Alot of friends call me big money for some reason I just say credit buddy. Lol. I've got money in the savings too.

I tell everyone who gets Lippy with me sometimes about what I spend my money on and How I do things is non of their bizz. I tell them my house pulls 5k+ a month so don't worry about my bills I got it under control

 

I have prob about 20+ open revolving credit cards, mortgage, 2 vehicles, student loans etc. Yes the key is keeping your balance and allowed limit balance ratio low and just don't miss payments. I am one of those people that "churn and burn" cards and it is actually a hobby I enjoy. Many cards offer huge bonus points for spending $2,000 or so in the first 3-4 months. I open like 3 of those cards every 6 months or so, use them to pay my bills and get those bonus points and pay for our vacations, toys, etc. For example, I knew I was going on a wedding end of August in Ohio. I didn't want to pay for the flight so I opened a Southwest card with 50,000 bonus points if I spend $2,000 in the fist 2-3 months. I paid my bills with it, got the bonus points, bought my wife and I 2 roundtrip flights with the points and still have like 10,000 points left, paid off the card and it sits in my safe with at least 20 other cards I do this with. I have been doing this stuff for a long time and there are many websites with lots of knowledge about doing it and getting a lot out of it. I only have one card I actually use every day and used the points to buy my M&P Shield 9mm the other day. I also did this with 2 cards when were were getting married, paid for some of the expenses on the card, got 100,000 bonus points, paid the card off and I had enough points to pay for 2 roundtrip flights to miami and a 7 day cruise with a balcony suite on Carnival for our honeymoon. Yes you take a small hit to your FICO score everytime the run a credit report and that is why I do 3-4 at a time, take the hit and it goes back up and higher within a couple of months from just making payments. A lot of people are so old school mentality that they pay everything with cash and that credit cards are the devil and I just disagree. You have to be responsible and not rack up more bills than you can afford to pay off in the first 12-18 months of 0% interest and you can honestly get a lot of free stuff. Plus if you pay cash for everything you never are building credit and that is just going to bite you in the butt when you need credit for large purchases such as a car or home where they will give you a much higher interest rate because of the lack of credit history.

Almost all these cards give you free FICO score and looking at mine I have a 810 right now. Not bad for someone who has 20+ open revolving cards on his account
Be responsible, never miss a payment and it is all good.

My advice for @Alfuh Chris is to apply for more cards, go out there and GET more credit, yeah you don't have much credit now so you will most likely get approved for very high interest credit cards with very low limits but you must start now or else you will be in the same boat 5 years down the road because you didn't build a lot of credit and you might not get approved for the amount you want for a truck, boat whatever down the road. When you finally decide to get those tires/wheels etc. Save up most if not all of it, apply for a good sign on bonus credit card (if you get approved) and buy them on credit and pay them off or better yet hold the money and make some payments on them to get some credit history. I do this with every "major purchase" just to keep my credit history going (mind you pretty much every credit card I get offered now is like 0% interest for 18 months, but at one time they were not).

I am struggling with this now with my wife because she did not want to get a lot of credit cards and because of that she doesn't have much of a long/good credit history. I still have to co sign for her a car and they will not let her get one by herself because of this. I occasionally just go out now and apply for credit cards in her name just to build her credit up so she will have a good enought credit history when we want to get a home loan one day and her lack of credit drags me down and gets us a higher rate.

I ran into a lady in Best Buy one day and she explained how she couldn't even get approved for a best buy credit card to purchase a TV. She was in her early 60s, worked hard and retired, had her vehicles paid off, plenty in retirement, home paid off and was a firm believer in paying everything in cash (if possible) during her life. But she said because she had no credit history in the past 7 years she couldn't even get approved for a $2,000 TV on credit. This is one of the reasons I am not PRO Cash for everything. Gotta keep that credit up and running good in case you ever need it.

Growing up in Panama City we used to always sign up for credit cards on the beach during spring break when we were in high school (lying about our age) just to get free T-shirts and other crap. I used to think this was a horrible idea but because I did that so many times it established a credit history for me at a much earlier age than when most people start and actually became a good thing. I have at least 3 credit cards with $20,000+ limits and they just keep going up every time I get a new card now.

Anyway SORRY FOR THE LONG comment, this is obviously something I am very passionate about and after years of research and trial and error I think I have the whole credit score thing down to a science.

 

credit is one of those things there are lots of conflicting views, don't get me wrong, it's a great thing when well managed and stimulates the economy, but it's also the thing that a lot of people get over the head in, and will continue to have a domino effect and screw the economy

 

simon, i think that's a great comment, and I agree with it completely, the difference between you and many people is that you have the means (income) to pay it off, and benefit from it, many get into credit with the intention of having nice stuff, NOW, and not being able to pay it off

 

Truth nam some can't be responsible with one and just keep using. We learned our lesson on a walmart card. Ended up making 150 payments and only like 25 going to the actual bill. Had 2 like that. When we refinanced out bank offered us a credit card with a very low balance transfer rate. Paid both off with that and have half the payment and will be paid off in 2 yrs compared to 4 to 5 since we were going backwards on them

 

well I can't pay it all off right away. Actually the 2 cards I did for my wedding I still owe roughly $3,000 on. HOWEVER, they are 0% interest cards so I have not been in a hurry to pay them off and have actually just balance transferred them to another 0% interest CC for another 18 months. Most people don't realize how easy it is to do a balance transfer to other 0% interest cards and they end up racking up the monthly interest of a crazy rate (Ie. 24% interest) and paying more in interest in one month than the small fee costs to balance transfer. I flip these cards like that because honestly it is "cheap money" and a $75 fee to borrow $3,000 is CHEAP! vs what that $3,000 can make me in one day/month/year when I invest it vs just paying it off and not having it to invest. I agree a lot of people rack up WAY too much debt for thier own good and my mother was a prime example. She is a high school teacher and when I was in high school she some how managed (over time) to rack up around $15,000 in credit card debt (some peps rack up waaaay more).
She had to work a second job at night after she got home and on weekends just to pay it off and it took her pretty much my whole HS period plus a couple years while I was in college. I learned from her mistakes but now she has told me multiple times I should write a book on how to get free stuff and take advantage of credit card companies because I am always getting trips and flights paid for lol.

 

dude that was a good read man, Ive always been a, if I dont have cash, dont get it type person. ive been getting credit card offers like crazy the past month, but ive just tossed them aside and ignored them thinking "I dont need another card..." But after reading your comment there, im thinking it would be good to do what you suggested to help get my credit score up and learn more about how the whole credit thing actually works. I do also NOT want to get in over my head either, I kinda feel like that now, but thats just because I have money to pay off my star card or my banks credit card I just dont want to put it there right now.

 

btw, tim, you and your wife are doing great balancing your debt and credit and income, my comment, not even advice, just something to think about, because I probably wouldn't do anything different, but keep in mind all the stuff you are putting your credit into, except your house, they are all depreciating assets or as some would even say liabilities, so you are putting money, plus interest into something that continues to lose money, yea i know those are the only fun things. I like to enjoy all these things too, so i'm not discouraging it at all, I was just thinking about all the cars you've had over the last few years, lol

 

Tell me about it but last time I traded in they messed up and took off 5k of negative due to the financial manager at lakeland toyota. Had signed papers already and he was screwed. I got lucky.

Your good it won't do me any good when I 6 feet under or in a pot on the shelf

 

key is just being responsible, it is ok to make payments (I just personally hate paying a lot in interest) but the payments are also what is getting looked at when future creditor are looking at your credit history. I personally end up doing a balance transfer when my 0% interest card "grace period" is coming to an end to another 10-18 month 0% interest card on the cards that I have balances outstanding before I make an interest payment and the small fee is much smaller than even one month's interest payment. Plus it looks like I was making all the payments on time for the 10-18 months prior (before the transfer) even though I didn't pay one cent in interest, thus building my credit score even more and not paying interest in the process.

One example is when I graduated college I had $36,000 in student loan debt. I made the payments every month for the first year as I should but at the end of the year I got my 1098 (interest statement) and realized I had paid roughly $6,000 in interest alone that year! My principle balance barely moved down and I knew something had to change because I didn't want to pay these srudent loans for 15 years and end up paying a little more in interest than I even borrowed (if I would have continued with thier payment plan I would have spent roughly $76,000 paying off a $36,000 debt over 15 years) and even though student loan interest is tax deductible that still is a lot of interest I don't want to pay.

I refigured how much I needed to pay to have it all paid off in 5 years and it was A lot ($800/month) and I wasn't making that much money right out of college anyway. So I decided to make an investment and lower my bills. I saved up and put $3,000 down and bought a 3br/2ba condo (best decision I have ever made in my life) lowering my rent from roughly $800/month to my mortgage payment of $650/month PLUS I rented out one of the rooms for $600/month for 5 years to help pay my student loans off faster, therefore my actual rent was only $50/month! plus I was building equity and I invested in something that would be worth more down the road. I started transfering small chuncks of my student loans to 0% interest credit cards and making the huge $800/month payments and once one card was paid off I would transfer another chunk. I didn't do anything crazy or eat out all the time or buy crazy stuff during this period because I was on a strict budget and wanted these student loans out of my hair. I managed to pay them off completly in 5 years (about 6 months ago) and didn't even come close to paying the $76,000 total I would have paid if I stuck paying all the interest through Sallie Mae and now 5 years later my condo is worth $60,000 more than what I paid in 2010 (best decision ever).

 

Simon I completely agree. I do what you do but not on as big a scale as you. I have my student loan payments that will be forgiven in 8 more years but till then I'll be getting money back on my tax return due to them. I also have 9 different credit cards but I only use 2 of them. My whole truck was built using different cards that are now paid off. Shoot I locked and re geared it using money I got back from student loans haha

 

Too much to read but I see yall are talking about credit and debt lol so I shall chime in with my two cents

I have 3 credit cards. 2 which I keep at a $0 balance and one that I use and pay off in full each month. My truck is the only other thing that I owe money on. No student loans, gotta thank Uncle Sam for that one. Credit card score of 790

 

LMAO me too! I got my whole icon suspension from using a sign on bonus CC (getting me 50,000 points giving me yet another 2 roundtrip domestic flights) in which I paid off with student loans and then transferred the balance to 0% interest credit cards to make payments for 18 months and paid off. I am guilty of swapping cars way too much in college and using student loans for down payments. I mean what other source of down payment is tax deductible lol?? (not some of my best decisions but oh well)

 

I just fully read through all that credit and debt management mumbo jumbo and it was a good read, good to keep in mind for while Im moving and after Im in washington. @Alfuh Chris get rid of that damn star card! I had one 2 years ago that I bought a PC on and payed off in a couple months. Well they put a $30 charge on the card for literally nothing and NEVER NOTIFIED ME FOR A YEAR AND A HALF. Im talking 0 emails, 0 phone calls, and 0 letters. When I had checked it nothing popped up. Suddenly I had $300 dollars of debt on it from late charges and my credit score dropped from 720 to 514 as they submitted all the late charges basically at once, wrote to my command to take me to collections and I got in trouble. My credit is back up to a 640 now and Im fighting their BS with Navy legal but still it was a mess. Moral of the story, never trust the star card...

 

Damn dude, thats nuts lol, I saved $200 buying all that stuff the first day I got it, that's the only reason I got it. Xbox one, 40" TV and 2 games and saved about $200 from the 10% saved and the TV was on sale as well. BUT once this card gets paid off, I'm only using it for gas since I save 5 cents a gallon, which I really do like.