I just walk to the 7/11 and buy a scratcher. I never win anything but I could make at least $100,000 in just one day!
I know you're joking, but I used to work at a convenience store and the scratcher addicts were the most depressing part. I guess I should be grateful that the store I worked at wasn't in an area where more depressing kinds of addicts would be around.
I know of a few small stores that owe their livelihoods to the local gambling addicts and the lottery machine. The entire business if dedicated to a few whales since selling snacks and coffee to randos didn't work out and they would otherwise close. They even set up private rooms where they could sped the day scratching tickets as they would come in and blow and entire pay/welfare/retirement check.
The logic is always the same, "I'm up $500 today" not even calculating the losses and "I just need one big win". People will farm gamblers like cattle.
That's really sad. It's the equivalent of putting lab rats in a cage with a cocaine/amphetamine button.
A similar establishment by me also diversified into bongs. A wall of bongs, a wall of lottery, a wall of smokes, a locked case full of smaller smoke accessories, half a wall of cooler, and three tiny islands of "food." It's very bright and clean but also sad as fuck.
Dude it was depressing stopping off at the beer store on the way home from work for a 6pack so I could kick it and relax on the couch...
...and there'd be a group of blue collars going there to cash their weekly paychecks, buy a couple 40s and $50 worth of scratchers. They'd win $10, and buy $10 more worth of scratchers. They'd win a TICKET, get another and win nothing, then complain that they were "so close" to winning 10-grand.
Work at a rutters. had multiple guys who were serious come in with like 20 $1 and 5 $20 every other day. We had one guy who'd buy $100-$200 every visit (up to 3 times a day). Must've been in his 50s but he said his wife didn't know. Scratch offs scare me now I've only ever seen one $1500 win but I'd only work part time so.
I never understood the appeal of scratch offs, 100k? If you gotta dream, dream big, play the lottery
Instant gratification is a hellava drug
The keno addicts at the bar i work at are wild. They just keep silently putting in money and watching the drawings. I prefer that to the ones who try to explain their strategies to me or complain that some number appears in every drawing. Or the guy who came in Wednesday night and kept betting $10 that the first pitch of every at bat of the Mets/Brewers game was gonna be a strike. It's bleak.
I remember hearing a story like twenty years ago about a person that figured out that serial number were disclosing payouts. They would buy a bunch, find the winners, scratch them, then return the losers for their money back. I think I heard about it on a planet money or this American life ages and ages ago.
Who in their right mind is accepting returns of lottery tickets, scratched or not????
Store clerks who just want to get through their shift without committing battery upon their customers and are definitely not paid enough to deal with that shit.
I just quit after calling the police. Dude said they were too hard to scratch off and wanted his money back. Was dressed to the nines (as was his date), in a seedy movie rental store, trying to return lottery tickets by amicably dropping threats of coming behind the register.
I sure hope his date was impressed. Nobody else was.
Edit: also, this was about 20 years ago, so may very well have been a scam attempt.
Not paid enough to say "no refunds" but given the ability to authorize giving out money for unofficial reasons? If it's unauthorized, then they're essentially stealing cash and assuming an extremely high risk of getting fired to avoid confrontation.
I've never worked a gas station, but I've worked fast food and I would have been fired soooo fast if I were giving out unauthorized refunds. Maybe even prosecuted if the amount was large enough. I've seen people fired for less.
Since when have treasury bonds gone above 6%?
Apparently this was a failed attempt at a joke.
https://www.crossingwallstreet.com/archives/2024/04/cws-market-review-april-2-2024.html
Oh, I get it now! 8%! How droll!
(What the fuck is he talking about?)
Three million is the joke, 8% is the hint that it’s a joke. It’s the same sort of satire that Lemmy frequently reposts. “I became wealthy with hard work, determination, and a small loan of a million dollars.”
How I became a Tech VP at age of 30
Wake up at 5am
Only take cold showers
Have a dad that owns a tech firm
If you only have $300,000, just buy an 80% treasury bond and you should be good.
It's like those educational explanations of compound interest I remember from childhood that tried to encourage you to save money. They would always start with 1 dollar and a savings account with 20% interest, and end up retiring as a millionaire.
A treasury bond delivering 8% is probably one from a dangerous country to invest in.
US I bonds were at like 9 back in 2022.
I too would like to make 2024 investments at 2022 prices
Well, it fits.
Sweet, I just need a small, interest-free loan of 3 million dollars and I'll pay you back $10,000 a month for 300 months. Don't believe me? Here, check out my credit report.
Credit report: trust me bro
The remaining $10000 will only be worth 2500 in 30 years time, assuming 5% inflation per year...
What a silly post...
First, where are you going to find a 8% treasury bond? Even a few months ago, when they were giving record yields, it didn't even get close to that.
Second, if you borrow $3m with high interest rates (needed to get high yield treasurys) you'll also pay a high rate on your loan. Duh.
Pretty sure the post assumes you have $3m just sitting in your bank account.
Even then there's no investment with guaranteed 8% interest.
I didn't buy Twitter and saved over $40B now I don't have to work my entire life
The real LPT is in the comments once again
This is a person who doesn't understand how the fixed income market works.
He's assuming he's buying $3m notional of a bond yielding 8% and paying for the face value $3m (i.e., he's buying it at par). This is not how it works, even if you're somehow subscribing at issuance as a retail investor.
You're going to be buying the bond at bid, which is going to be higher than par when prevailing future yield expectations are lower than the coupon rate of the bond.
TL,DR: You can't buy $3m of a high-yielding sovereign bond for $3m today. You'll get less of the bond for the money if it's yielding more than the market is expecting base rates to be in the future.
The opposite end of “The most expensive thing is to be poor”.
It’s a common image for so many millionaires to have a Scrooge McDuck vault, but that’s the thing; so often their millions are out earning them further millions.
This is such bullshit advice. Instead of doing this, we could invest that money in a 16% bond and make 40k a year. Simple hack they don’t you to know.
Yes and good luck finding a 8% treasury (and please let me know if you do) 😆
The DOW grew 25% over the last year.
The S&P grew 30%
The NASDAQ grew 35%
What are you doing buying 8% Treasury Bonds?
Exactly. But keep in mind that those are different things. Treasury bonds carry very little risk of losing money whereas investing in index funds/ETFs can lose you money.
So I know this is satire but I wouldn't buy a us bond. I would much rather buy one from a stable country.
The US economy is like the most stable economy in the world. And they don't double tax you, depending on where you live and the tax treaty.
We have had 2 assassination attempts on someone running for the highest public office in the country in 3 months. One of the people currently running for office who has a chance at winning tried lost the last election they were in and then tried to take over the government by force.
Our country is not stable.
I would much rather invest in a more stable country like Sweeden or Switzerland.
Just 10 or 12 years ago or so, the US and EU had comparably sized economies. Today the EU economy is between 25% to 30% smaller than the US one. And yes, I include the UK in the EU calculations just to prove the point. The reason? Higher stability and growth on average. What might seem like small differences on a year-on-year basis add up and prove to be quite substantial in terms of decades.
So you can invest in Swedish and Swiss bonds and/or companies if you want, but chances are you're gonna lose out compared to person investing in US-based entities.
Sincerely,
An EU citizens who is sick of hearing Americans bashing their own country based on ignorance. There's plenty of reasons to be upset with and critical of the US. But an unstable economy is not one of them, relatively speaking. Get your facts straight.
Politically, maybe, but economically, the US remains a major powerhouse, and if nothing else, that might be the sole factor that makes them try to keep things stable.
It's one of the few things much of the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy tend to both want, particularly for those who have a decent amount of wealth tied up in the American market, and a fair amount of money might be spent to that end.
Oh and 3 seconds on Google proves you wrong. Switzerland is the best and most stable economy and country in the world... again. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2023-09-06/steady-switzerland-is-once-again-the-worlds-best-country
Hey if you don't have 3million stuck between your couch then that's your problem.
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