# If You Had Only $20 Left ...



## SifuPhil (Feb 24, 2014)

... and you were never going to have any money again ... *what would you buy with it? *



(For our UK brethren and sisters that's roughly 12GBP.)

Would you buy your last bottle of cheap wine? A few Big Macs? A couple gallons of gas?


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## Falcon (Feb 24, 2014)

Yes, difficult to answer.  eg: WHY is it the last $$$ you'll ever have?

A quick answer might be :  A nice last good meal.


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## That Guy (Feb 24, 2014)

The smartest among us would put it to good use getting more money.  So . . . guess a Saturday Night Special is in order ....


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## Falcon (Feb 24, 2014)

There ya go, Guy !  Good thinking.


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## That Guy (Feb 24, 2014)

Falcon said:


> There ya go, Guy !  Good thinking.



Desperate times call for desperate measures...


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## Denise1952 (Feb 24, 2014)

Gas, so I could drive as far into the woods as I could get, then live off nuts and berries like Euel Gibbons:


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## SifuPhil (Feb 24, 2014)

That Guy said:
			
		

> So . . . guess a Saturday Night Special is in order ....



Geeze, you can get them for just $20? I had - I mean, my _friend_ had to pay $50 for his!


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## Gael (Feb 24, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> ... and you were never going to have any money again ... *what would you buy with it? *
> 
> View attachment 5394
> 
> ...


Which shows the rotten exchange at present. My US SS even with a rise is less then ever due to the current exchange.
Well enough of that, what would I buy? 

It's an easy answer if it was a temporary situation. But how can you fathom never having any money at all again? 
Head for the nearest government benefits office if here in the UK. They actually do help their citizens unlike a similar situation in the US.


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## SifuPhil (Feb 24, 2014)

Gael said:


> Which shows the rotten exchange at present. My US SS even with a rise is less then ever due to the current exchange.



I feel for you - that must be a rotten situation to be in.



> Well enough of that, what would I buy?
> 
> It's an easy answer if it was a temporary situation. But how can you fathom never having any money at all again?



Easy - just become a freelance writer. 



> Head for the nearest government benefits office if here in the UK. They actually do help their citizens unlike a similar situation in the US.



Ah, that's a very creative answer - good on you!


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## SifuPhil (Feb 24, 2014)

Falcon said:


> Yes, difficult to answer.  eg: WHY is it the last $$$ you'll ever have?



You didn't have a childhood, did you? :rofl:

Make-believe! Suspension of disbelief! Play along! What-if! 



> A quick answer might be :  A nice last good meal.



THERE ya' go!!! :encouragement:


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## Gael (Feb 24, 2014)

Thanks, Phl. Well, I can't complain as the UK government is very helpful. But get this, I still have to pay taxes on my US SS, low as it is. And it's low due to a sketchy work history. But Uncle Sam, who is the only country in the world who taxes it's citizens living abroad, will tax me. And of course I have to pay an accountant to do the return. Pooey.

I have a personal injury trust in the UK from an accident I had here and have to file that with the Uk government. And Uncle Sam taxes me on any interest it generates as does the Uk goverment. Double pooey!

But I am ok and can't complain really.  Too many in this world suffer far worse then I do that's for sure. Excellent medical coverage here too.


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## i_am_Lois (Feb 24, 2014)

Damn... I'm broke! 
20 bucks to my name.
I guess I'd buy seeds for a vegetable garden,
and hope what was in my pantry would last till the crop came in. :2cents:


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## Falcon (Feb 24, 2014)

I eat so much fiber, I'm beginning to defecate  wicker furniture.


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## Gael (Feb 24, 2014)

Falcon said:


> I eat so much fiber, I'm beginning to defecate  wicker furniture.



:highly_amused: A sticky wicket of a situation!!!


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## Happyflowerlady (Feb 27, 2014)

I think if that situation had arrived, and I had only $20, and knew there would be no more; then hopefully, I would have had enough foresight to realize we were coming to this situation, and done at least some things to be able to live without money already.
I wouldn't spend that last $20, until there was a real reason to use it, and try to conserve whatever else I had. Barter was an accepted form of exchange for many years, and if there was no more money, then it would probably become so again.

If it was only me that had no more money, and the rest of the world was fine; then the $20 would not make much difference, one way or the other. I guess it would go for rice and beans, to live on until I could figure out how to survive.


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## SifuPhil (Feb 27, 2014)

Just for fun, maybe we could assume that the protestors got their wish - all the world's money had been equally re-distributed and we all ended up with $20 ... 

... _after_ taxes, of course ...


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## Ina (Feb 27, 2014)

I'd become a hillbilly.


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## Happyflowerlady (Feb 27, 2014)

Well, in that case, Sifu, a person with something to trade might be able to make some wise bargains, and end up with some of the $20's that other people had.
 I am sure we would not all just sit around looking at our $20 bills forever, they don't do any good that way; and I think that Lois had a good idea, with buying seeds, and planting a garden. Then you could sell tomatoes and cucumbers, or at least trade them for something you needed and didn't have.

My mom used to tell me stories about milking the cow, and walking to town with the milk, and she and my dad traded it to people that had bread, or something else to trade, and needed milk. They actually made it through the Great Depression with very little money, so it could be done again.
I wonder if there are any $20 cows around ???


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## SifuPhil (Feb 27, 2014)

I know how I'd make MY money grow ...


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## Rainee (Feb 28, 2014)

$20 left for the week .. or ? not to worry more comes from the pensions the next week.. but if only had $20 left for the week well I`d buy a loaf of bread.. butter and jar of vegemite.. maybe milk and some apples and live on that till the next week.. probably still have coffee and tea from weeks before...


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## SifuPhil (Feb 28, 2014)

Rainee said:


> $20 left for the week .. or ? not to worry more comes from the pensions the next week.. but if only had $20 left for the week well I`d buy a loaf of bread.. butter and jar of vegemite.. maybe milk and some apples and live on that till the next week.. probably still have coffee and tea from weeks before...



Actually, $20 - period. No more income - ever.


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## Denise1952 (Feb 28, 2014)

SifuPhil said:


> I know how I'd make MY money grow ...
> 
> View attachment 5483



the usual routine, I get up, put on clean clothes, and pee my pants laughing as soon as I see you:rofl1:


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## That Guy (Feb 28, 2014)




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## SifuPhil (Feb 28, 2014)

nwlady said:


> the usual routine, I get up, put on clean clothes, and pee my pants laughing as soon as I see you:rofl1:



I'm honored to be part of your daily routine, even if it IS on the tail-end of it!


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## SifuPhil (Feb 28, 2014)

That Guy said:


>



We clowns don't mess around!


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## Rainee (Feb 28, 2014)

Ahh Phil. guess if that was all I had left for the rest of my life.. I`d go and get a cleaning job to earn enough a 
day for daily eats I guess. surely someone would still have money? or food ? specially the politicians., they can help, my good friend is the PM so surely he wouldn`t let me starve LOL..  or else  go on welfare .


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## SifuPhil (Feb 28, 2014)

Well, it's a totally theoretical scenario, one in which all the money that is left is divvied up and we each get $20 - there's no more after that. No paying jobs, no government bail-outs, no welfare, no banks, no loans, nothing - just that $20.

I guess I thought of this because recently I've been getting into Bitcoin and other "alternate" currencies, and there's always discussions about fiat currency versus alternate, the pros and cons, levels of regulation, etc. For someone who has never really paid much attention to the financial world it's been an education for me, unfortunately one that only serves to reinforce my distrust of politics.


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## SifuPhil (Feb 28, 2014)

Bitcoin is a new currency that was created in 2009 by a gentleman using the screen name Satoshi Nakamoto. No one really knows who he is. (Giving you lots of confidence already, right? )

Bitcoins are "created" by mining them - using a computer to solve complex mathematical equations, and those equations are actually an ongoing ledger of Bitcoin transactions throughout the world. Miners are "rewarded" with a small percentage of the coins they mine. 

You can buy bitcoins with cash, exchange them with other people or acquire them by accepting them in your business. It's a valid currency that offers several advantages over fiat currency, namely you remain anonymous in all of your transactions, there are no banks or regulating agencies involved and the security is very high-level. 

You can "play the market" with bitcoins - there are over 100 other alternate currencies at this point, and you can speculate by buying those currencies and holding them in hopes of their becoming popular. You can also hold your bitcoins and sell them when their value increases, but of course there are also decreases, so like the stock market it's a form of gambling.

You store your bitcoins in a "wallet", basically a tiny text file on your computer that contains your "address" - for example, my public address is:

 19vKdk8KxdLNQ3SXrsx8vWELv96pagKoJd

So if anyone wanted to send me bitcoins they would just use that address and voila, the coins would appear in my wallet. (Hint, hint!)

Of course I have a private address, multiple passwords, two-phase verification, etc. - all security methods designed to protect my virtual currency.

You can also earn bitcoins by doing small online jobs such as surveys, or you can visit one of the hundreds of "faucets" which periodically "leak" a tiny percentage of bitcoin, which is then credited to your wallet. 

Hope that helps at least a little - I'm still learning all the ins and outs of the currency myself, and it's a fascinating study.


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## SifuPhil (Feb 28, 2014)

Yeah, there's talk by the fan-boys of it becoming a huge thing, but there are still crocodiles in the water - last fall one of the main exchanges of bitcoins, a company called Mt. Gox, went belly-up and took hundreds of millions of dollars of people's money with it. No one is sure whether it was a planned crime or simply grossly ineffective business practices, but either way that money is gone.

It's still like a frontier town of the Old West - you have to watch your back and do your due diligence so you don't wind up on Boot Hill. 

It certainly isn't for everyone - yet.


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## GDAD (Mar 2, 2014)

Last $20 in my pocket, no sweat, but ice cream for my 5 grand children.:happy:


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