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Free Meals and Retirement "Seminars"
10-25-2017, 08:37 PM
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#1
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 1,127
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Free Meals and Retirement "Seminars"
Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere. I did a search, but didn't see a relevant thread.
We regularly get mail inviting us to attend a complimentary dinner with a 'retirement planning seminar', 'workshop', etc. held at a nice restaurant (Ruth's Chris, Morton's, etc.).
I look at these as kin to those "free vacations" where all you need to do is sit through a never-ending, hard sell, sales pitch for a timeshare condo. The wife, however, is of the opinion that its worth sitting through a sales pitch in exchange for a free meal at a nice restaurant.
I have doggedly said 'No' each time, but we got another invite today and she is twisting my arm again. So, this time I thought I would ask folks here.
Thoughts? Opinions? Ridicule?
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10-25-2017, 08:42 PM
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#2
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Beach and Mountain
Posts: 1,087
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50/50 on here. Some like the free food and manage to sneak out soon after the meal. Others can stand them and turn them all down. I am in the second camp.
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10-25-2017, 08:56 PM
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#3
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 8,968
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The dinners are all soft sell, you can get out easy.
The rest will be hard sell you can be sure.
Try one for the wife and then complain about the food and the service and that a cheeseburger at McDonalds would have been better.
Maybe she will leave you alone then.
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10-25-2017, 09:01 PM
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#4
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Toronto
Posts: 3,320
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I had a work buddy and we used to go to these together and had fun with them. Was kind of a game to see which of us could spot the half-truths the quickest. Was always a nice meal and usually solid entertainment. DW has gone to a few with me and hasn't minded them and they usually spur useful dialogue between us in the days following.
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10-25-2017, 09:20 PM
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#5
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 1,127
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RobbieB
Try one for the wife and then complain about the food and the service and that a cheeseburger at McDonalds would have been better.
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I like your style. I could wear my John Belushi suit and ask the guy at the next table "How much for the wife?"
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10-25-2017, 09:25 PM
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#6
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 1,127
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 6miths
I had a work buddy and we used to go to these together and had fun with them. Was kind of a game to see which of us could spot the half-truths the quickest. Was always a nice meal and usually solid entertainment. DW has gone to a few with me and hasn't minded them and they usually spur useful dialogue between us in the days following.
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Thanks. Despite my adolescent impulses, I'm thinking this is the way to go.
Unlike a timeshare presentation, the pitch can't last much more than an hour.
If it's a hard sell pitch, I can say "I told you so!" On the other hand, we might just learn something.
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10-25-2017, 09:28 PM
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#7
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Sugar Land
Posts: 587
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I get these all the time. Haven’t attended any.
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10-25-2017, 09:33 PM
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#8
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Rio Grande Valley
Posts: 38,008
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Don't do free meals or cheap says for sitting through sales pitches. Got better things to do with my time.
We can afford to buy our own meals - even fancy ones!
__________________
Retired since summer 1999.
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10-25-2017, 09:36 PM
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#9
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,577
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For me, Life is too short. Take your wife to the same restaurant minus the sales presentation.
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10-25-2017, 09:40 PM
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#10
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Rio Grande Valley
Posts: 38,008
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Yeah - maybe the problem is the wife wants to be taken out to eat!
__________________
Retired since summer 1999.
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10-25-2017, 10:11 PM
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#11
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: May 2008
Location: No fixed abode
Posts: 8,764
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If I need a free retirement meal I'll go to Costco with the rest of the buffet crowd.
__________________
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous (not Will Rogers or Sam Clemens)
DW and I - FIREd at 50 (7/06), living off assets
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10-25-2017, 10:12 PM
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#12
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Spending the Kids Inheritance and living in Chicago
Posts: 17,012
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Next year win an Olive Garden pasta pass and your wife won't be looking forward to a restaurant meal after a month
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10-25-2017, 10:17 PM
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#13
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 1,127
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Quote:
Originally Posted by audreyh1
Yeah - maybe the problem is the wife wants to be taken out to eat!
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That is definitely part of it.
The problem is "free" is her favorite item on the menu, while I have always subscribed to the saying that "If you're not paying for something, then you're not the customer—you're the product being sold."
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10-25-2017, 10:20 PM
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#14
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Toronto
Posts: 3,320
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Happy wife...
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10-25-2017, 10:42 PM
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#15
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 14,328
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All I ever fell for was a free portfolio review with Ameriprise in exchange for a "free" airline ticket. Of course, they just take your information, plug it into a computer and print out a book of graphs that they don't even understand then try to sell you a more comprehensive package. Turned out the airline ticket was actually a companion ticket on a full fare ticket which I'd have to buy myself. It was actually cheaper to buy two discount tickets, so the whole offer was a scam.
I've never taken any of the "free" meal offers.
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10-26-2017, 01:04 AM
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#16
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Bay Area
Posts: 2,745
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All I can say is that life is too short to sit through these things for a meal. As I get older, my time has become the most important thing in my life.
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10-26-2017, 03:29 AM
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#17
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 12,598
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These are now in Amethyst's Big Book of Nope.
We used to go to these occasionally, when the meals were better, they gave you wine, a second cup of coffee etc.
In the last few years, the local shills financial consultants have gotten canny cheap. They advertise the best restaurants, but you get the cheapest fixed-price group meal, no wine, and rushed/slap-the-plate-down service. And while some presenters will talk while you're eating, others make you sit through a 90-minute presentation before you are fed!
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If you understood everything I say, you'd be me ~ Miles Davis
'There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.’ Christopher Morley.
Even a blind clock finds an acorn twice a day.
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10-26-2017, 04:28 AM
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#18
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 881
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As others have said, take her out to a nice restaurant. The money you save on the annuity product being pitched will buy many nice meals.
__________________
"It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating". Oscar Wilde
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10-26-2017, 04:45 AM
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#19
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Atlanta Suburb
Posts: 1,499
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Its not a free meal. You and your wife would be receiving compensation. Accordingly, you would no longer be retired but a w*rking stiff and we might revoke your FIRE status.
I agree with the others. Just take your wife to dinner. Much more pleasant option.
FN
__________________
"Oh, twice as much ain't twice as good
And can't sustain like one half could
It's wanting more that's gonna send me to my knees" - John Mayer
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10-26-2017, 04:54 AM
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#20
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 11,701
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Years ago, I put myself on the "Do Not Mail" list and never got one of these, or an AARP mail. And I'm happy.
Meanwhile, DW gets these free dinner invitations at least twice a week (really) from various finance firms. She never opted out of the DMA mails.
We just shred them. No time for that nonsense. If FAs are making that much money to spend on marketing, I see that as a problem.
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