I was from Malaysia. It's been a while since I last visited the old country so the pricing gap has narrowed significantly but back then, I could eat out for lunch or dinner for less than US$1. I also rode a rickshaw one time. Imagine a scrawny man pulling my heavy self up the road. Gave him the equivalent of a few US$ for the ride and he was happy. I had clothes and shoes tailor-made there too. The cost of labor for that would be very high in the US but over there, it was inexpensive.
I love Shanghai! The food there is great and the shopping is amazing. There are also great spas on the cheap. These days the quality of Chinese apparel is very good. I always get my winter wool coats there at a fraction of the price here, and I always get compliments on them from coworkers and random people. Once a girl in the mall asked me where I got my coat and I said Shanghai, and she said, "I'm so jealous!" Shanghai also has amazing architecture from all over the world.
Here's a picture of my great grandparents in Shanghai in the 40s. That building is still there:
In most areas of the country owning ISN'T more expensive than renting, or not much more. For instance I live in Dallas where rents for a 1 bedroom Uptown are $900-$1500. I bought a 1 bedroom condo similar to one I would otherwise rent for $150,000. All costs - mortgage, tax, ins, and HOA total $1300. Right now I could probably only rent my unit for $1100, but my mortgage payment will stay fixed and rents will only go up, so eventually I plan to rent this place and at LEAST break even.
Better example - I just bought a duplex for $130,000. Mortgage (incl tax and ins) is $947/mo. One side pays rent of $700 and the other pays $750, so my total monthly income (assuming it's occupied) is $1450. Sure I have to pay for the lawn to be mowed and for the plumber to come by when there are clogs, et al, but a $500/mo cash flow cushion is a great thing to work with! In ADDITION I benefit from the market appreciation - which averages and is expected to be 4-5% in TX. Tax benefits like interest, depreciation, and maintenance deductions, etc. are a very important bonus. In fact my annual tax burden goes DOWN this year even though my income will increase from $55,000 (salary) to around $72000 (salary + rent income).
I have this sentiment that if it wasn't my money to begin with, its not mine to keep. So, I've been collecting all the money I have found over the last year, and after the years is over, I will donate it... havent figured out to what charity... but this has been my goal the entire time. I havent found any large sum of money, but the total for the past six months is ~$16-$17.
I've lost(or had stolen) my purse/wallet multiple times, so if I were to find someone elses, I would certainly be returning it completely intact. Its stressful to go through the entire process of canceling everything and monitoring credit in fear of something popping up!
"As to the question of positive cash flow, it really depends on what your business strategy is. If you are a part-time landlord with some other source of income, and you have one or two properties with negative monthly cash flow, you can still come out ahead at the end of the day, by, as Guest mentions, taking tax deductions from real estate "losses" against your regular income. If real estate investment is all you do, then of course you're going to have to find something with positive cash flow, or you won't have any income to take tax deductions *from*."
Well, this is certainly true. My parents rent a couple rooms out of their house and they don't really seem to be incurring any loss because they live there anyway. Yes, I do know professional landlords. My aunt is one of them, and taking negative cashflow is just not good business.
Funny about Money is also correct about mutual funds producing good returns without the hassle of dealing with renters and maintenance. I am more inclined to be lazy and buy mutual funds to make money.
Now, I did not mean to say at Paid Twice that ALL landlords are sleazes. Some are honest people who treat their tenants and their neighbors fairly. In my experience, however, the ones near me would find that description an uncomfortable fit.
The gentleman whom I described as cheating an elderly widow purchased the house two lots west of mine. It was immaculately and lovingly kept by its original owner and was in excellent condition. She apparently did not know a thing about finance -- he told her he would pay for the house "in cash," as though she would not be paid in full if she sold the house to someone else -- and she bought this idea with delight. He told her he would put one of his daughters in the house -- she was pleased to think a young person who would value the home as much as she had would be living there. He got the house for tens of thousands of dollars below its market value, pre-bubble but at a time when houses were selling at a healthy, normal pace.
The instant the papers were signed, the For Rent sign went up.
Around the corner from me, the same gentleman purchased another house, this one somewhat run-down. He signed his name to a document that is registered with the County Recorder's office in which he told the mortgager that he was purchasing the house so that he could move himself, his wife, and his elderly mother out of the house he actually occupied, because the house they were living in had a step in it (true--many of these houses have sunken living rooms), and they were afraid his mother would trip on it and fall.
Again, the instant the papers were signed, the For Rent sign went up.
All of the houses he purchased in this neighborhood were represented to lenders as residences that he or his immediate family members would occupy. These claims are available for anyone to see at the County Recorder's office.
At the old lady's house, he let the lawn die and cut down most of the trees. The house around the corner was allowed to devolve into a slum property. Typically, the first thing he'd do when he got his hands on a rental was to cut down all the trees, because he did not want to have to pay to water them and have them groomed. This is an older neighborhood whose established, mature landscaping is its main appeal. When you hack out the trees around one of these properties, you destroy much of its value.
He rented another house on a lease-to-own basis to a youngish woman who had never owned property. To one of the neighbors, he remarked that he was glad to have the opportunity to unload it on her because the pool was decrepit and likely would require some very expensive repairs. At this house, he cut two spectacular Aleppo pines out of the front yard. Not wanting to pay someone to remove the stumps, he killed the lawn and covered the front yard with gravel, mounding it over the three-foot-high stumps. Neighbors soon dubbed the place "the boob house," for reasons you can picture.
The selling price he worked into the lease-to-own contract was way, way above the house's market value. The woman's option to purchase came due at the height of the bubble -- just as the landlord was unloading his other properties at huge profits. Had the bubble not occurred, the amount the woman would have had to pay would still have been well above market value, but with the wildly inflated prices, she now was in a position to buy it for less than he could sell it for in the overheated market. He tried to negate the deal. She took him to court and won.
So here was a guy who indeed had no qualms about taking advantage of elderly women and naive young buyers. I'm sure he doesn't represent the entire "industry," if that's what it can be called. Neither, presumably, does the owner of the house across the street from me, who persists in bringing Hell's Angels and other unusual folks -- with all their noisy and sometimes threatening accouterments and pals -- into our middle-class neighborhood. But there they are.
Certainly, if you can buy a house cheaply, rent it for something close to the mortgage payments, KEEP the rent coming in (good luck!), and hang onto it without serious incident for a number of years, rental real estate can be a good investment. But the fact remains: a lot of rentals in a neighborhood do not help the area's property values. And since you can get 8 or 10 percent in a good mutual fund, unless you really enjoy hard work, guff from renters and neighbors, and visits from the police and the City's neighborhood improvement office, you might be better off to put your money in a low-expense mutual fund.
I think you just reaffirmed my point some more. Diamonds are less useful than gold in many ways, but their prices are hyped up by marketing and propaganda. Lynn had a very popular article about the story behind why diamonds are expensive:
You're right about the taxes, Guest. I am not meaning to discount the significance of the depreciation effect. It just needs a post all of its own. I think I need 1000 words just to explain what the cost basis is.
Xin: I happen to disagree with you about home prices, and believe that in many parts of the country, those who buy real estate in the near future will enjoy even better appreciation than five percent. Of course these are just my and your opinions, which is why I invited readers to plug in their own figures. Even if you have negative appreciation, you can still make money on rent if you buy and hold for the long term. I think it's important to keep an open mind about what various markets will do in the future. The only thing we really know is that we don't have a crystal ball. History has seen some spectacular increases in real estate value. Even with the extraordinarily bad economic conditions in my home state of Michigan (which I believe is leading the nation in foreclosures) and the loss of 3000 jobs from my home city of Ann Arbor due to the closure of a major employer, my home value (via recent comparables) is holding strong and nearly $50,000 more than what we paid for it seven years ago. I think that's amazing given all that has happened, and had fully expected to be upside down by now.
As to the question of positive cash flow, it really depends on what your business strategy is. If you are a part-time landlord with some other source of income, and you have one or two properties with negative monthly cash flow, you can still come out ahead at the end of the day, by, as Guest mentions, taking tax deductions from real estate "losses" against your regular income. If real estate investment is all you do, then of course you're going to have to find something with positive cash flow, or you won't have any income to take tax deductions *from*. LOL. Your friends are probably professional landlords and truly do need that cash flow. Even so, I wonder if they would benefit from adding some "losing" properties to their portfolio to mitigate their tax liability. (As we've seen, losers can be winners in the long run.)
Hi Guest, you said: "In your example, say your monthly net cash outflow is $507.37 (or $6,088 for the year). Now, assume your original basis in the property is $513,000. This means you would qualify for depreciation of about $19,000/yr (based on the basis of 513K divided by the depreciable life of the property, 27.5 yrs.) "
erm.. in the original example the cost of the property is only 200,000. if your cost of the property is suddenly 513k you'd lose a lot more cash per month if you are still renting at the rate Catherine quoted.
I still think it is only worth it when the rent you can collect is more than what you pay out.
I know you're "deliberately avoiding a full discussion of taxes", but the tax effect is actually one of the things that make renting so attractive.
If you manage your own property, you can take a loss of up to $25,000/year against your taxable income. If you're in a 25% tax bracket, that could be a savings of $6,250! And the golden part about that is that you don't have to spend the additional $25,000 to create the loss.
In your example, say your monthly net cash outflow is $507.37 (or $6,088 for the year). Now, assume your original basis in the property is $513,000. This means you would qualify for depreciation of about $19,000/yr (based on the basis of 513K divided by the depreciable life of the property, 27.5 yrs.)
So your total annual outlay is $6,088, but you actually reduce your taxes by $6,250 based on the $25,000 tax loss ($19,000 + $6,088). So the net effect is that you're paying $170 a year for your property. Sounds good to me!
hmm. assuming a 5% increase per year on your property is very very optimistic in normal non-bubbly years. Your property depreciates as time goes on. I know the depreciation can be written off on the taxes, but I don't think I would ever buy a rental property if there isn't positive cash flow. Most landlords I know say the same thing. They make sure they have positive cashflow at an 80% to 90% occupancy rate.
My child just turned 17 in December 2007. Do I still get the extra child payment?
A. Not in this case. Eligible taxpayers who qualify for a payment may receive an additional $300 for each qualifying child. But to qualify, a child must be under age 17 as of Dec. 31, 2007. In other words, if a child was 16 or younger at the end of 2007 and meets the other eligibility requirements, then the child will qualify for the $300 stimulus payment.
I recall a survey from about a year ago in which many people said they wouldn't stoop to pick up a nickel or a penny. A quarter or dime, yes. But the smaller amounts were deemed not worth it, based on the amount of work it would take to stop walking, stoop over and pick up the coin.
I found that interesting and expect that attitude to shift greatly now that the economy is falling apart. Oh, and I pick up pennies.
I left over $2500 in cash one time in a car at Enterprise. I totally forgot about it till about 20 min before I was to board the plane. I had also lost my cell phone on that trip (bad trip, long story, didn't get that back) so I had to find a pay phone and call over to Enterprise to see if they had found it.
One of the gentleman at the desk went out to the car while I was on hold and found all the money. I rushed back over and every single dollar was there. I was very thankful because he could have either said it wasn't there or only half of it was there, but the gentleman was honest. I was so relieved. I'll always rent from Enterprise...
My mom found a very large amount of money in a bank parking lot. She hung up posters and turns out it was a family with a new baby that took all of their money out of checking to get stuff for the baby. They were very happy to have it back!
I found $40 at blockbuster. I actually keep my money just loose in my back pocket and when I pulled out my license I thought I dropped something and the money was down there. I picked it up, thinking it was mine, and then went to my car. I was going to put everything in my wallet and then I realized it wasn't a one or five like I thought, it was two twenties. Because I am a skeptic, I didn't want to give it to the kid behind the counter, but I went back inside and "browsed" for about thirty minutes thinking that the rightful owner would retrace their steps back to the store and ask "has anyone found any money?" They didn't so I felt I did enough. I donated $10, and planned on keeping the rest. I have to say, I didn't feel right (I know, I tried)so I ended up donating the other $30, too.
But if it is a dime, penny--heck, even a dollar--I'm keeping that sucker!
I usually keep money thatI find. However, I have never found a large sum of money or a wallet without identification, so I can't say for sure how much the sum would be before I would try to find the rightful owner.
Obviously if it was in the thousands of dollars, someone will certianly be looking for it.
-Tyler
We never worked for the liguidator(Gordon Bros.) We were paid by Discovery, our pay never changed, I got good retention $$ to help close plus we were always first for the best deals. Unfortuately alot of us still have no jobs.
Montmorillinite clay chips were originally used for oil spil cleanups. cat litter was a secondary use. This stuff swells 300x (the official definition) it's original volume when saturated from water, not so much with oil. use it on grease fires, make clay masks out of it, use it at the bottom of a trench where you want to hold water (like a pond liner). use it to block leaks in your foundation wall (dig a trench and fill it up outside) If it gets sticky and slippery when wet that is the right stuff.
Now a good cat litter is alfala pellets, biodegradable, NO ODOR for a least a week with one cat, flushable in small amounts, and if you buy it as rabbit pellets you can get a 50 lbs bag for about 12$ in Anchorage. cat litter is $8 for 10 lbs and I find the smell of cat p on clay litter horrible.
I was from Malaysia. It's been a while since I last visited the old country so the pricing gap has narrowed significantly but back then, I could eat out for lunch or dinner for less than US$1. I also rode a rickshaw one time. Imagine a scrawny man pulling my heavy self up the road. Gave him the equivalent of a few US$ for the ride and he was happy. I had clothes and shoes tailor-made there too. The cost of labor for that would be very high in the US but over there, it was inexpensive.
I love Shanghai! The food there is great and the shopping is amazing. There are also great spas on the cheap. These days the quality of Chinese apparel is very good. I always get my winter wool coats there at a fraction of the price here, and I always get compliments on them from coworkers and random people. Once a girl in the mall asked me where I got my coat and I said Shanghai, and she said, "I'm so jealous!" Shanghai also has amazing architecture from all over the world.
Here's a picture of my great grandparents in Shanghai in the 40s. That building is still there:
In most areas of the country owning ISN'T more expensive than renting, or not much more. For instance I live in Dallas where rents for a 1 bedroom Uptown are $900-$1500. I bought a 1 bedroom condo similar to one I would otherwise rent for $150,000. All costs - mortgage, tax, ins, and HOA total $1300. Right now I could probably only rent my unit for $1100, but my mortgage payment will stay fixed and rents will only go up, so eventually I plan to rent this place and at LEAST break even.
Better example - I just bought a duplex for $130,000. Mortgage (incl tax and ins) is $947/mo. One side pays rent of $700 and the other pays $750, so my total monthly income (assuming it's occupied) is $1450. Sure I have to pay for the lawn to be mowed and for the plumber to come by when there are clogs, et al, but a $500/mo cash flow cushion is a great thing to work with! In ADDITION I benefit from the market appreciation - which averages and is expected to be 4-5% in TX. Tax benefits like interest, depreciation, and maintenance deductions, etc. are a very important bonus. In fact my annual tax burden goes DOWN this year even though my income will increase from $55,000 (salary) to around $72000 (salary + rent income).
thanks for the great idea! :)
I have this sentiment that if it wasn't my money to begin with, its not mine to keep. So, I've been collecting all the money I have found over the last year, and after the years is over, I will donate it... havent figured out to what charity... but this has been my goal the entire time. I havent found any large sum of money, but the total for the past six months is ~$16-$17.
I've lost(or had stolen) my purse/wallet multiple times, so if I were to find someone elses, I would certainly be returning it completely intact. Its stressful to go through the entire process of canceling everything and monitoring credit in fear of something popping up!
Ahhh... if only they were giving out free samples! :-)
"As to the question of positive cash flow, it really depends on what your business strategy is. If you are a part-time landlord with some other source of income, and you have one or two properties with negative monthly cash flow, you can still come out ahead at the end of the day, by, as Guest mentions, taking tax deductions from real estate "losses" against your regular income. If real estate investment is all you do, then of course you're going to have to find something with positive cash flow, or you won't have any income to take tax deductions *from*."
Well, this is certainly true. My parents rent a couple rooms out of their house and they don't really seem to be incurring any loss because they live there anyway. Yes, I do know professional landlords. My aunt is one of them, and taking negative cashflow is just not good business.
Funny about Money is also correct about mutual funds producing good returns without the hassle of dealing with renters and maintenance. I am more inclined to be lazy and buy mutual funds to make money.
Now, I did not mean to say at Paid Twice that ALL landlords are sleazes. Some are honest people who treat their tenants and their neighbors fairly. In my experience, however, the ones near me would find that description an uncomfortable fit.
The gentleman whom I described as cheating an elderly widow purchased the house two lots west of mine. It was immaculately and lovingly kept by its original owner and was in excellent condition. She apparently did not know a thing about finance -- he told her he would pay for the house "in cash," as though she would not be paid in full if she sold the house to someone else -- and she bought this idea with delight. He told her he would put one of his daughters in the house -- she was pleased to think a young person who would value the home as much as she had would be living there. He got the house for tens of thousands of dollars below its market value, pre-bubble but at a time when houses were selling at a healthy, normal pace.
The instant the papers were signed, the For Rent sign went up.
Around the corner from me, the same gentleman purchased another house, this one somewhat run-down. He signed his name to a document that is registered with the County Recorder's office in which he told the mortgager that he was purchasing the house so that he could move himself, his wife, and his elderly mother out of the house he actually occupied, because the house they were living in had a step in it (true--many of these houses have sunken living rooms), and they were afraid his mother would trip on it and fall.
Again, the instant the papers were signed, the For Rent sign went up.
All of the houses he purchased in this neighborhood were represented to lenders as residences that he or his immediate family members would occupy. These claims are available for anyone to see at the County Recorder's office.
At the old lady's house, he let the lawn die and cut down most of the trees. The house around the corner was allowed to devolve into a slum property. Typically, the first thing he'd do when he got his hands on a rental was to cut down all the trees, because he did not want to have to pay to water them and have them groomed. This is an older neighborhood whose established, mature landscaping is its main appeal. When you hack out the trees around one of these properties, you destroy much of its value.
He rented another house on a lease-to-own basis to a youngish woman who had never owned property. To one of the neighbors, he remarked that he was glad to have the opportunity to unload it on her because the pool was decrepit and likely would require some very expensive repairs. At this house, he cut two spectacular Aleppo pines out of the front yard. Not wanting to pay someone to remove the stumps, he killed the lawn and covered the front yard with gravel, mounding it over the three-foot-high stumps. Neighbors soon dubbed the place "the boob house," for reasons you can picture.
The selling price he worked into the lease-to-own contract was way, way above the house's market value. The woman's option to purchase came due at the height of the bubble -- just as the landlord was unloading his other properties at huge profits. Had the bubble not occurred, the amount the woman would have had to pay would still have been well above market value, but with the wildly inflated prices, she now was in a position to buy it for less than he could sell it for in the overheated market. He tried to negate the deal. She took him to court and won.
So here was a guy who indeed had no qualms about taking advantage of elderly women and naive young buyers. I'm sure he doesn't represent the entire "industry," if that's what it can be called. Neither, presumably, does the owner of the house across the street from me, who persists in bringing Hell's Angels and other unusual folks -- with all their noisy and sometimes threatening accouterments and pals -- into our middle-class neighborhood. But there they are.
Certainly, if you can buy a house cheaply, rent it for something close to the mortgage payments, KEEP the rent coming in (good luck!), and hang onto it without serious incident for a number of years, rental real estate can be a good investment. But the fact remains: a lot of rentals in a neighborhood do not help the area's property values. And since you can get 8 or 10 percent in a good mutual fund, unless you really enjoy hard work, guff from renters and neighbors, and visits from the police and the City's neighborhood improvement office, you might be better off to put your money in a low-expense mutual fund.
I think you just reaffirmed my point some more. Diamonds are less useful than gold in many ways, but their prices are hyped up by marketing and propaganda. Lynn had a very popular article about the story behind why diamonds are expensive:
http://www.wisebread.com/the-greatest-story-ever-sold-is-a-fantasy-covered-in-blood
You're right about the taxes, Guest. I am not meaning to discount the significance of the depreciation effect. It just needs a post all of its own. I think I need 1000 words just to explain what the cost basis is.
Xin: I happen to disagree with you about home prices, and believe that in many parts of the country, those who buy real estate in the near future will enjoy even better appreciation than five percent. Of course these are just my and your opinions, which is why I invited readers to plug in their own figures. Even if you have negative appreciation, you can still make money on rent if you buy and hold for the long term. I think it's important to keep an open mind about what various markets will do in the future. The only thing we really know is that we don't have a crystal ball. History has seen some spectacular increases in real estate value. Even with the extraordinarily bad economic conditions in my home state of Michigan (which I believe is leading the nation in foreclosures) and the loss of 3000 jobs from my home city of Ann Arbor due to the closure of a major employer, my home value (via recent comparables) is holding strong and nearly $50,000 more than what we paid for it seven years ago. I think that's amazing given all that has happened, and had fully expected to be upside down by now.
As to the question of positive cash flow, it really depends on what your business strategy is. If you are a part-time landlord with some other source of income, and you have one or two properties with negative monthly cash flow, you can still come out ahead at the end of the day, by, as Guest mentions, taking tax deductions from real estate "losses" against your regular income. If real estate investment is all you do, then of course you're going to have to find something with positive cash flow, or you won't have any income to take tax deductions *from*. LOL. Your friends are probably professional landlords and truly do need that cash flow. Even so, I wonder if they would benefit from adding some "losing" properties to their portfolio to mitigate their tax liability. (As we've seen, losers can be winners in the long run.)
Catherine Shaffer
Wise Bread Contributor
Does everyone but me actually find money this frequently? Wow...I need to start paying more attention I guess!
Hi Guest, you said: "In your example, say your monthly net cash outflow is $507.37 (or $6,088 for the year). Now, assume your original basis in the property is $513,000. This means you would qualify for depreciation of about $19,000/yr (based on the basis of 513K divided by the depreciable life of the property, 27.5 yrs.) "
erm.. in the original example the cost of the property is only 200,000. if your cost of the property is suddenly 513k you'd lose a lot more cash per month if you are still renting at the rate Catherine quoted.
I still think it is only worth it when the rent you can collect is more than what you pay out.
I try to donate it to a worthy cause (and no, that worthy is not me!).. or give it to someone who looks like they need it.
I know you're "deliberately avoiding a full discussion of taxes", but the tax effect is actually one of the things that make renting so attractive.
If you manage your own property, you can take a loss of up to $25,000/year against your taxable income. If you're in a 25% tax bracket, that could be a savings of $6,250! And the golden part about that is that you don't have to spend the additional $25,000 to create the loss.
In your example, say your monthly net cash outflow is $507.37 (or $6,088 for the year). Now, assume your original basis in the property is $513,000. This means you would qualify for depreciation of about $19,000/yr (based on the basis of 513K divided by the depreciable life of the property, 27.5 yrs.)
So your total annual outlay is $6,088, but you actually reduce your taxes by $6,250 based on the $25,000 tax loss ($19,000 + $6,088). So the net effect is that you're paying $170 a year for your property. Sounds good to me!
This one time, I found a twenty dollar bill in the parking lot. It was the best day...
hmm. assuming a 5% increase per year on your property is very very optimistic in normal non-bubbly years. Your property depreciates as time goes on. I know the depreciation can be written off on the taxes, but I don't think I would ever buy a rental property if there isn't positive cash flow. Most landlords I know say the same thing. They make sure they have positive cashflow at an 80% to 90% occupancy rate.
from the IRS site listed above
My child just turned 17 in December 2007. Do I still get the extra child payment?
A. Not in this case. Eligible taxpayers who qualify for a payment may receive an additional $300 for each qualifying child. But to qualify, a child must be under age 17 as of Dec. 31, 2007. In other words, if a child was 16 or younger at the end of 2007 and meets the other eligibility requirements, then the child will qualify for the $300 stimulus payment.
That person had no clue what they were talking about. This is based on your 2007 return assuming you file on time (by April 15, 2008)
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=179181,00.html
I recall a survey from about a year ago in which many people said they wouldn't stoop to pick up a nickel or a penny. A quarter or dime, yes. But the smaller amounts were deemed not worth it, based on the amount of work it would take to stop walking, stoop over and pick up the coin.
I found that interesting and expect that attitude to shift greatly now that the economy is falling apart. Oh, and I pick up pennies.
I left over $2500 in cash one time in a car at Enterprise. I totally forgot about it till about 20 min before I was to board the plane. I had also lost my cell phone on that trip (bad trip, long story, didn't get that back) so I had to find a pay phone and call over to Enterprise to see if they had found it.
One of the gentleman at the desk went out to the car while I was on hold and found all the money. I rushed back over and every single dollar was there. I was very thankful because he could have either said it wasn't there or only half of it was there, but the gentleman was honest. I was so relieved. I'll always rent from Enterprise...
http://www.dailyredundancy.com/archives/1087.html
My mom found a very large amount of money in a bank parking lot. She hung up posters and turns out it was a family with a new baby that took all of their money out of checking to get stuff for the baby. They were very happy to have it back!
I found $40 at blockbuster. I actually keep my money just loose in my back pocket and when I pulled out my license I thought I dropped something and the money was down there. I picked it up, thinking it was mine, and then went to my car. I was going to put everything in my wallet and then I realized it wasn't a one or five like I thought, it was two twenties. Because I am a skeptic, I didn't want to give it to the kid behind the counter, but I went back inside and "browsed" for about thirty minutes thinking that the rightful owner would retrace their steps back to the store and ask "has anyone found any money?" They didn't so I felt I did enough. I donated $10, and planned on keeping the rest. I have to say, I didn't feel right (I know, I tried)so I ended up donating the other $30, too.
But if it is a dime, penny--heck, even a dollar--I'm keeping that sucker!
I usually keep money thatI find. However, I have never found a large sum of money or a wallet without identification, so I can't say for sure how much the sum would be before I would try to find the rightful owner.
Obviously if it was in the thousands of dollars, someone will certianly be looking for it.
-Tyler
We never worked for the liguidator(Gordon Bros.) We were paid by Discovery, our pay never changed, I got good retention $$ to help close plus we were always first for the best deals. Unfortuately alot of us still have no jobs.
Montmorillinite clay chips were originally used for oil spil cleanups. cat litter was a secondary use. This stuff swells 300x (the official definition) it's original volume when saturated from water, not so much with oil. use it on grease fires, make clay masks out of it, use it at the bottom of a trench where you want to hold water (like a pond liner). use it to block leaks in your foundation wall (dig a trench and fill it up outside) If it gets sticky and slippery when wet that is the right stuff.
Now a good cat litter is alfala pellets, biodegradable, NO ODOR for a least a week with one cat, flushable in small amounts, and if you buy it as rabbit pellets you can get a 50 lbs bag for about 12$ in Anchorage. cat litter is $8 for 10 lbs and I find the smell of cat p on clay litter horrible.