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Qeekly Finance Thread - 2026-10-24

A weekly thread to discuss financial matters - from personal all the way up to global.

Ground Rules

  • Remember that we're all just Internet randos. Don't bet your life savings on a hot tip from this thread.
  • Keep culture war in the culture war thread. Yes, global events may impact our personal finances, but that does not mean we have to incessantly harp on culture war aspects here. If you are going to discuss it, please stick to the practical impacts of it on an individual level.
  • Be kind. Remember that everyone here comes from different circumstances. We all have different resources available and different risk tolerances.
  • Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Better is better. Celebrate people when they take a step up and work to move their finances in the right direction. Don't flame out because they haven't followed what you consider the optimal path. Everybody has to start somewhere.
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If you can afford to pay you will pay.

Is that really true? My impression is more like "the bill will eventually be sold to collectors for pennies on the dollar and then you can bargain with them to pay a few more pennies than they paid and it all goes away." Why is that wrong?

Even that's too optimistic. Apparently, you can pay them zero and they have to stop harassing you.

They can reduce the bill but they don't have to, and even if it goes to a debt collecting agency thats going to show up on your credit etc. which if you are a person of wealth can be a problem.

It seems like it's only a problem if you aren't a person of wealth. I have good credit, but unless I'm planning on buying a house I can't see it mattering in the near future.

It's not allowed to go on your credit and as a rich person I have zero need of credit anyway.

Again, it's wrong to not pay and I would never recommend doing that, but the hospital has zero leverage.

I believe it does affect your credit once it goes to collections.

This strategy for dealing with healthcare was has been on Twitter for a while. If people here are talking about dropping health insurance then a spiral on Obamacare seems well underway. The only people that should have insurance are already sick and if the risks pool is 4 sick people for every healthy person than obviously the healthy person is paying way more than the benefit they get.

Yes, and I view it as a personal service to help accelerate the collapse of Obamacare. It's pretty much the only thing I'm an accelerationist about.