Started getting cards in the mail about free dinners at steakhouses along with a financial seminar covering, retirement planning, Social security and Medicare.

Anybody go / to any of these?

How many socks does that ninja kid have?

I have a hard time taking financial advice from someone giving away free steak dinners.

I get my finc advice from people 1) I've worked with, or 2) clients have worked with. If I'm going to try and get a free steak dinner from someone peddling finc advice, then I don't have enough money to worry about needing a finc advisor.

I imagine some people go on those strictly for the free meal.
I remember as a kid my parents dragged me out on a Saturday to some outfit selling lots in East Texas. Apparently if you sat down for a sales pitch they'd give you some free dinnerware. My parents actually did that just to get the free stuff. Of course my dad would also go by the drug store before going out to dinner just to spray on some cheap cologne from the display aisle.

Is this the "there's no such thing as a free lunch" seminar?

This is the only system I bought into at a free dinner seminar:

I'll sit through a few hour timeshare spiel for a free handful of nights at a resort..

But a $25 steak? You could just go buy the steak.

AggieArchitect04 said:

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I have a hard time taking financial advice from someone giving away free steak dinners.

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It's probably the same "steaks" as those places that come through town with a refrigerated truck that sell sketchy meat products for a few days then onto the next town.

You can get a good look at a butcher's ass by sticking your head up there. But, wouldn't you rather to take his word for it?

They never have them on 3/14.

Watching this thread. I've been getting invites through USPS for about 5 years. They all go straight into the recycle bin. But, I've sort of wondered what folks experiences are. I just don't want to spend my time listening to a pitch, esp from someone who I don't know/trust.

We going to Sizzla?!?!?!

No

Best steaks and financial advice is served in my backyard.

62strat said:

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I'll sit through a few hour timeshare spiel for a free handful of nights at a resort..

But a $25 steak? You could just go buy the steak.

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What kind of crap steaks are you eating? I have to take customers out to Prime Steakhouses at least if not twice a week. We're typically pushing the limit of my $175pp budget.

chico said:

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I imagine some people go on those strictly for the free meal.
I remember as a kid my parents dragged me out on a Saturday to some outfit selling lots in East Texas. Apparently if you sat down for a sales pitch they'd give you some free dinnerware. My parents actually did that just to get the free stuff. Of course my dad would also go by the drug store before going out to dinner just to spray on some cheap cologne from the display aisle.

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My parents went to a steak meal in Dallas when they were newlyweds in 1971. The sales guy wouldn't let them eat. they laughed about the experience for decades.

In Maui our agent told us about this at a local hotel and told us not to sign anything. We went spent a few hours watched bs movies and did not sign their timeshare. Got a lot of free tickets to stuff.

FIDO*98* said:

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62strat said:

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I'll sit through a few hour timeshare spiel for a free handful of nights at a resort..

But a $25 steak? You could just go buy the steak.

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What kind of crap steaks are you eating? I have to take customers out to Prime Steakhouses at least if not twice a week. We're typically pushing the limit of my $175pp budget.

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And people wonder why big pharma price gouges customers

jwoodmd said:

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And people wonder why big pharma price gouges customers

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I haven't been in pharmaceutical sales in years, bro. It's also noteworthy that pharmaceutical reps haven't been able to take doctors out to dinner in well over a decade

FIDO*98* said:

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62strat said:

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I'll sit through a few hour timeshare spiel for a free handful of nights at a resort..

But a $25 steak? You could just go buy the steak.

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What kind of crap steaks are you eating? I have to take customers out to Prime Steakhouses at least if not twice a week. We're typically pushing the limit of my $175pp budget.

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$25 for a steak at a steakhouse is ridiculous but you're being hyperbolic too. There's no way you're spending $175 pp on steak alone, which is what your post seems to imply.

Hey Southlake...

I was thinking of you the other day during the Kansas City game and all the excitement over Taylor Swift. As I recall, you mentioned once that you flew the University of Cincinnati team to Hawaii on a Charter...and that one of the most impressive individuals on that flight was Travis Kelce. Am I correct?

Getting back to the topic. I've done something similar...went to a two day seminar where the first part was about Social Security and Medicare. The second part was about investing your funds for retirement. They made a big deal about how they could put you into a tax free scenario. They finally told us the way to do it was to purchase a Whole Life Insurance policy. I said no, and to this day continue to get emails from time to time. About a year ago, was running errands on a Saturday morning and tuned into a Financial Planner's weekly program here in the Knoxville area. Just like the other guy, he ends the program by saying a Whole Life Policy is the way to go to protect you from paying taxes.

In my very biased opinion, they're selling snake oil.

FIDO*98* said:

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62strat said:

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I'll sit through a few hour timeshare spiel for a free handful of nights at a resort..

But a $25 steak? You could just go buy the steak.

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What kind of crap steaks are you eating? I have to take customers out to Prime Steakhouses at least if not twice a week. We're typically pushing the limit of my $175pp budget.

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my point is that my family and I stayed at the Hilton in Cabo for a week for (nearly*) free for sitting through a 2 hour timeshare presentation.

And we're gonna do it again next year sometime since I got the offer again.

Getting a free steak dinner instead seems like a huge waste of time.


*the cost for the week was $299, but they gave us a $200 resort credit for the presentation. For a week.. at a Hilton golf/spa resort.

GarlandAg2012 said:

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$25 for a steak at a steakhouse is ridiculous but you're being hyperbolic too. There's no way you're spending $175 pp on steak alone, which is what your post seems to imply.

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Ridiculous in what way? My Ribeye at J-Prime last light was $58 a La cart. Do you think at a presentation you get the steak and nothing else?

One of my former bosses told me he was going to go to some presentation, I think it was to buy lots in a new development, 5 acres or so. He didn't ever seem to have two nickels to rub together so I asked why. He handed me this flyer with all the things that could be won by those agreeing to sit through a sales pitch. I don't recall exactly but seems as if they were along the lines of $5,000 in cash, trip for four to Hawaii (hotel and airfare included), a boat and motor, and a few other things. Just listed the prizes, no pictures, no details. Every attendee would win one of the items.

I told him to think about it, there was no way they could give everyone one of those prizes. Usually, one of the prizes is sort of junk, and that is the prize everyone would win. Often it is the vacation package, because it will not include airfare. But this said it did include airfare and hotel.

The presentation was on a Saturday, and he went. He comes into the office on Monday, and I asked what he won. He said the boat and motor. I thought holy hell, not bad, I guess. I asked where he was going to keep his boat and he said it was still in the back of his van. I asked "in the back"? We walk out to his van and the boat was a very cheap and thin inflatable thing, like it might hold a small kid, with an electric motor that ran on one or two C cell or D cell batteries, lol.

ToddyHill said:

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Hey Southlake...

I was thinking of you the other day during the Kansas City game and all the excitement over Taylor Swift. As I recall, you mentioned once that you flew the University of Cincinnati team to Hawaii on a Charter...and that one of the most impressive individuals on that flight was Travis Kelce. Am I correct?

Getting back to the topic. I've done something similar...went to a two day seminar where the first part was about Social Security and Medicare. The second part was about investing your funds for retirement. They made a big deal about how they could put you into a tax free scenario. They finally told us the way to do it was to purchase a Whole Life Insurance policy. I said no, and to this day continue to get emails from time to time. About a year ago, was running errands on a Saturday morning and tuned into a Financial Planner's weekly program here in the Knoxville area. Just like the other guy, he ends the program by saying a Whole Life Policy is the way to go to protect you from paying taxes.

In my very biased opinion, they're selling snake oil.

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Hi Toddy! Yup, Kelce was on that Bearkat team we flew to Honolulu and he was really a nice guy.I think he was also the back up Quarterback. He was the only player who sat in First Class with the coaches and wives. Brian Kelly was the HC and really was a jerk.

We actually have been to a few seminars on Taxes, Social Security, Medicare and Financial Planning and have really learned alot of stuff heading into retirement. You can't tell people on this BB so I didn't mention that part! We were both business majors but over the years had forgotten what we needed to know to plan our finances for the future. Now we're pretty much experts and help our friends design their financial plans.

Yes, some will push Life Insurance Policies, but more so Straight Line Annuities. The former is not a good idea but SLA are very good. You'd think financial planning would be more complicated than Social Security but SS is a mess to understand. Medicare is also confusing.

Bottom line and it goes against the above comments is that I wholly recommend going to these seminars as much as possible- not for the food, that incidentally had always been fantastic, but to get a keener insight to how to manage pre retirement finances, make a tax plan ( taxes going way up in 2026 - padding that Roth? You better! RDs will skin you later but Roths are protected. Do people understand FRA for SS? Do they know where and when they have to sign up for Medicare? Do they know the penalties if they don't? They better!

Sorry, I'm rambling.

Had a Retirement Dinner last night at Chama Gaucha, a Brazilian Steakhouse in Grapevine. Fantastic meal. But more importantly, learned about a Straight Line Annuity that gives a 40% bonus on sign up for 10 years and then pays out as a yearly income source. The same as life insurance. Actually, that's all life insurance is - an annuity.

So, the answer is yes, go to these dinners. Learn stuff. Suck up all the information you can. They might put some pressure on you to sign up with their firm but don't do it. You don't have to make an appt. with them. Laws are changing every year ( RDs just adjusted to 73 instead of 70.5 - That's 2.5 extra years if not giving Uncle Sam your money!

Where else are people going to learn this stuff?

Go Chiefs!

Southlake said:

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Started getting cards in the mail about free dinners at steakhouses along with a financial seminar covering, retirement planning, Social security and Medicare.

Anybody go / to any of these?

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Yes. Don't do it. The menu choice is limited but not the sales pitches.