IWS #153 - Results

[KWhit]

I had a ton of responses to this and am glad to kick IWS back off. Here's hoping this can once again become a regular feature here.


Questions:

1) What is your annual income?

The runaway winner here was $50,000 with 21 people giving that response. Basically, if that wasn't your answer, you lost, since the second highest response was $75,000 with 7 answers.


2) How much credit card debt do you have right now?

Zero was a good answer here, both in matching Stupid as well as making good financial sense. Here's my PSA to everyone: GET OUT OF CREDIT CARD DEBT!!! Okay enough preaching. The top answers were:

$0 - 11 responses
$5,000 - 11 responses
$10,000 - 8 responses


3) How much is your monthly car payment?

$300 was Stupid's answer here with 13 responses. Next was $500 with 9.


4) How much money will you need to save in a retirement account before you can retire?

I was very surprised to see answers between $50,000 and $80,000 here. Maybe they know something I don't, but Stupid was actually pretty smart here with the most popular answer of $1,000,000. You love the nice round number, don't you Stupid?


5) When you think of money, who first comes to mind?

I guess this was to be expected, but Bill Gates was a clear winner here with 26 responses. I chuckled at the person who answered 'wife' though. If she's anything like mine, she's kind of the opposite of Bill Gates.


6) If you could invest $10,000 in a company's stock today, which company would you choose.

I'm sure mainly because of its proximity to question 5, many people answered Microsoft (13 responses). But the winner was Google with 15. Apple also did well with 10.

[KWhit]

Not counting their pennies:
--------------------------
46 Dodgerchick
45 LoneStarGirl
44 MIJB#19
43 SnDvls
42 CU Tiger
41 Warhammer
40 finkenst


Thinking about starting to count their pennies:
--------------------------------------------
39 MikeVic
38 MizzouRah
37 Cringer
36 dangarion
35 panerd
34 MrBug708
33 k0ruptr
32 B & B
31 ColtCrazy
30 Sublime 2


Piggy bank starting to fill up:
---------------------------
29 Vince
28 Greyroofoo
27 stevew
26 digamma
25 Eaglesfan27
24 Logan
23 oliegirl
22 ThunderingHERD
21 Masked
20 NoSkillz


Has a checking account AND a savings account:
----------------------------------------------
19 jeheinz72
18 Castlerock
17 Karlifornia
16 Lathum
15 Toddzilla
14 Butter_of_69
13 lighthousekeeper
12 Pyser
11 General Mike
10 Mustang


Making smart investments:
-------------------------
9 st.cronin
8 Coffee Warlord
7 Radii
6 BrianD


Living high on the hog:
----------------------
5 Raiders Army
4 QuikSand
3 Passacaglia
2 Joe


And the Oracle of Omaha himself:
--------------------------------
TazFTW





Congrats to Taz!!! He's the winner of IWS #153.

[Lathum]

I had forgoten about this

[BrianD]

The car payment question is going to kill me.

[KWhit]

Posted. See above.

[SnDvls]

grats Taz

[st.cronin]

500$ car payment? How is that even possible?

[BrianD]

500$ car payment? How is that even possible?

Possible to be that high, or that low?

[st.cronin]

Um, that high. I think the highest car payment I've ever had was in the low 200's.

[Toddzilla]

tip for st.cronin - don't ever buy a car from Sir-Mix-A-Lot

[BrianD]

Price out a new mid-range anything and you'll get pretty close to $500. I checked out a 60-month financing at 7% for a mid-range Honda Accord and it came out closer to $600/month. Even a mid-level Civic is over $400.

[Butter]

Stupid #5. I think I got nearly all the most popular except that one. I totally blanked.

[MikeVic]

Sent.

[Logan]

Taz FTW.

[NoSkillz]

I choked on the salary question...damn!

[Pyser]

i came up with george washington for money. not even close, im guessing. still happy with 12th

[Warhammer]

I gave people here way too much credit on income methinks...

[Cringer]

5) When you think of money, who first comes to mind?

I guess this was to be expected, but Bill Gates was a clear winner here with 26 responses. I chuckled at the person who answered 'wife' though. If she's anything like mine, she's kind of the opposite of Bill Gates.



I am pretty sure that was me. My own opinion came out on this one I guess. Being on the road for most of our marriage the wife has taken care of the bills, taxes, and all around anything to do with our money.

It helped earn me a bottom 10 finish though. Woohoo!

[TazFTW]

w00t! :cool:

[Butter]

i came up with george washington for money. not even close, im guessing. still happy with 12th

Me too. At least we're both stupid.

[Eaglesfan27]

Me too. At least we're both stupid.

Me three. I came very close to going with 50k for question 1, but for some reason went with 40k.

[B & B]

I had George Washington also.


Always thought that the results should be posted in FULL, especially after taking over 2 weeks to compile. Hell, Ive forgotten half my answers by then.

[Coffee Warlord]

The Credit Card debt killed me.

And I went so close to 1,000,000 on the savings, but switched to 500,000 at the last minute.

[Greyroofoo]

Bah, I think I had all the top answers except the car payment, which I put "none"

[DanGarion]

See this is one where I went with what I thought the answers would be more then what I would answer them myself.

[Raiders Army]

How is $300 the average car payment? WTF can you get for that?

[Lathum]

How is $300 the average car payment? WTF can you get for that?

ours is around there but we put a big downpayment on it

[DanGarion]

How is $300 the average car payment? WTF can you get for that?

Used?

[Radii]

How is $300 the average car payment? WTF can you get for that?

buy used and put money down, I'll never have a car payment over $200/mo again. I *intend* to never have a car payment again, but that might not be entirely possible.

[KWhit]

Always thought that the results should be posted in FULL, especially after taking over 2 weeks to compile. Hell, Ive forgotten half my answers by then.

Feel free to do it that way when you host one. And it wasn't over 2 weeks, since I posted the questions on 2-27.

By the way, you may be able to find your answers in your Sent Items folder since you PMed them to me. But if that's too difficult, here they are for you:

40,000
5000
400
500,000
Washington
Apple

[B & B]

You're right KWHIT

13 days < 2 weeks


I took your advice and found my 'sent folder', didnt know you could do that, or even how to really. It seems that I have sent a PM here before, sometime back in 2005, over 3 years ago.

Keep on truckin' man.

[stevew]

I did okay, hitting the most popular on a couple.
Missed badly on the car payment(350) income(75k), and went with Buffet instead of gates.

[KWhit]

You're right KWHIT

13 days < 2 weeks


I took your advice and found my 'sent folder', didnt know you could do that, or even how to really. It seems that I have sent a PM here before, sometime back in 2005, over 3 years ago.

Keep on truckin' man.

Glad to be of service.

:)


(Sorry if I was snarky before; it was a REALLY shitty day at work today).

[Raiders Army]

ours is around there but we put a big downpayment on it

Used?

buy used and put money down, I'll never have a car payment over $200/mo again. I *intend* to never have a car payment again, but that might not be entirely possible.

Ah. Okay. The last car we got (last year) we put $20K down, got $4K on our trade-in and our monthly payment is ~$400 per month for 3 years. That's why I thought $300 was low.

Anyhow, I thought there were over 50 entrants?

[KWhit]

Ah. Okay. The last car we got (last year) we put $20K down, got $4K on our trade-in and our monthly payment is ~$400 per month for 3 years. That's why I thought $300 was low.

Anyhow, I thought there were over 50 entrants?

I lied.

Well.... I was excel challenged at the time. I had a few mai-tais, saw that the excel row was over 50 and made a premature post. In all actuality, the list of contestants starts at row 11 of the spreadsheet so I was off a bit.

[MikeVic]

You people make a lot of money.

[Cringer]

You people make a lot of money.

I am basically unemployed if that makes you feel any better. :D

[MIJB#19]

3rd worst!? I googled the first four questions for answers. Take a guess whether I'll do that again. Yeah, indeed: unlikely.

[BrianD]

3rd worst!? I googled the first four questions for answers. Take a guess whether I'll do that again. Yeah, indeed: unlikely.

Stupid isn't that ambitious.

[stevew]

Bump

C'mon, we can make IWS work. There were 46 entries last time, there's obviously some demand to keep the game going. Where's the next one?

[KWhit]

Yep.

Taz, if it wasn't clear to you, you're supposed to run the next game. If you can't or don't want to, just let us know and someone else will run it.

[Lorena]

I'm terrible at it, but I'll participate again.

[Vince]

Ah. Okay. The last car we got (last year) we put $20K down, got $4K on our trade-in and our monthly payment is ~$400 per month for 3 years. That's why I thought $300 was low.


Most people also extend the length of their loan. Speaking as a former car salesman (yeech), almost everyone jumps right to 5 or 6 years, and we even had one person request a 7-year loan (at a ridiculous interest rate, too). Many, many people are very, very uninformed when it comes to the financial implications of spending that much money that they do not have. It was the fact that it was my job to prey upon those people and get them to buy the car even if it was a terrible life decision that turned me off to the car business almost immediately (worked there for 3 months).

[Raiders Army]

Most people also extend the length of their loan. Speaking as a former car salesman (yeech), almost everyone jumps right to 5 or 6 years, and we even had one person request a 7-year loan (at a ridiculous interest rate, too). Many, many people are very, very uninformed when it comes to the financial implications of spending that much money that they do not have. It was the fact that it was my job to prey upon those people and get them to buy the car even if it was a terrible life decision that turned me off to the car business almost immediately (worked there for 3 months).

Y'know, before we bought our car I read Confessions of a Car Salesman at edmonds.com. Great read. I can understand your pain.

[jeheinz72]

19th, not terrible for a 1st time out.

[Passacaglia]

Missed this the first time around. My 3rd place is the best I've ever done.

[TazFTW]

I'll try to get something up in the next few days.