iPod Mania & Other Money Pits
Well, like eric over at badtofu, I’m a gadget head… and probably always will be. If you haven’t seen the new slew of offerings Apple is giving us for the iPod, then you probably don’t care much about this whole technology/internets thingie. I myself used to have quite a problem buying the next latest and greatest gadget item. Guys in my fraternity always oggled when I had the newest phone or PDA. I didn’t exactly have the money to buy those types of things either. I was in college, working basically just so I could afford the car insurance on my 1985 Dodge Omni. Seriously, I spent all the money I made working 22 hours per week at Office Depot on car insurance (only a smidgen better than 1-800-SAFE-AUTO), rent, gas, and tech crap. What does that leave out? Basically food, alcohol, and date money. Now, I seemed to have done just fine in all three departments during that time and I don’t seem to remember how. Oh wait, yes I do!
Credit Cards! Remember going to Spring Break, and filling out a few of those credit card applications to get a crappy free t-shirt, a 2-liter of Coke, or a beer bong? Yeah well, I don’t remember doing it either, but apparently I did because I received a number of credit cards in the mail about a month after Spring Break was over. Now, I’m a semi-intelligent guy, with a modicum of commen sense. I knew what was up with the credit cards. There was no way I could pay off the balance every month if I started using them. But food, alcohol, and chasing girls around were priorities damn it! My thought process was always, “It’s OK, I’m going to graduate soon, and the economy is going so well, I’ll be able to pay these puppies off with a tiny fraction of my signing bonus!”
I don’t know what world I was living on when my brain was coming up with that ‘hummer chin dribble’, but it sure wasn’t this one. Not only did I take almost 7 years to graduate, finding a job at all afterwards was like trying to find someone to buy your grandma’s false teeth. If I had it to do all over again, I would have stayed on campus the whole time, not had a car, and kept the same computer for the whole time I was there. But they don’t go over those types of things in Freshman Orientation.
So let this be lesson to all you young gadget freaks! If you plan on having any fun at all in college, I recommend the MasterCard CapitalOne Card. They don’t charge you any interest for your first AND second junior years, and they keep upping the credit limit even though you might be late for a few payments. Suckers!
[tags]money, gadgets, technology, humor, funny, ipod[/tags]
LOL, man this sounds just like me. When i started college, drove an 89 vw golf that i bought off my uncle for 500$. My damn car insurance cost more than the car. It wasn’t until I got my first paying internship that i could actually afford cool gadgets. Then about Year 5ish I said the hell with it. By then i had an AA degree and 2 certifications. And yea i survived of of credit cards, but by all means, stay away from visa, they will rape you with charges and let you go over limit without warning or attempting to stop you.
aaaaahhhhhhh. how nice it is to be female. one break we do get is lower car insurance rates. I had an 81 Buick Skylark that I bought cash. the insurance wasn’t too bad though.
lmao at selling grandma’s false teeth!!
Tuba, you get the better rates for being female until we all turn 25. Then it’s an even playing field.
Anyway, the true gadget heads are all these middle aged well-to-do’ers. I’ve worked with them, and I’ve sat next to them at airports while traveling. They buy the expensive fun gadgets that many of us dream of having.
These are the guys that have the moola to waste on the latest technology…and their wives’ breast augmentations.
I cant touch credit cards. Im an abuser…sigh…
eric: Visa, Mastercard, AMEX… it doesn’t matter. I’ve been intimately violated by them all.
tubawench: I still don’t see where insurance companies get the evididence to support those rate differences.
webmiztris: Yeah, when the job hunt was heading south, I tried that too… and it was even worse.
pheonix: The latest technology AND wives’ breast augmentation?!? Where do sign up to be one of those dudes?
trish: I recommend no touching, fondling, heavy petting, or cuddling of any kind with any credit card whatsoever!
mojo too bad you are not a girl, then you could have traded sexual favors for what you needed. In college without a car, I always found a way to exchange one ride for another ;-)
aaaahhhhh. the indescribable world that is insurance. 1st to Phoenix, as we were discussing our college cars, I was refering to college insurance rates where females do get a break. As I am 30, I know that most people’s rates drop at age 25 and the gender disparity recedes. 2nd to Mojotek, the insurance companies base their rates on probabilities. The probability that a 16 year old boy will race down the highway and crash is high, certainly higher than your average 35 year old. Now as to the gender disparity, for many years, less girls and women drove and of those that drove, most drove at a safer rate than their male counterparts. Over the last decade that has changed and the gap between rates for boys and girls has been closing. As a matter of fact, there has been a steady climb in risky behaviors across the board for women, reckless driving, drinking, smoking, and it shows in numerous ways. I could go on, but I think I have lectured long enough. ;-) Have a great day.
Dear Jane: I wish I had that type of power! I probably wouldnt’ have a vehicle to this day!