For fun: what current things will be gone/almost gone by 2030?

[Guest]

3 hours ago, happysmileylady said:

I do agree that personal checks will probably be gone.  My DD23 has never written a check in her life.  Though I will say, one situation where this sucked was when she was renting an apartment up at college.  The office ONLY took checks or a money order.  They not only had no card reading machine in the office, but they had NO way to do any sort of online payment.  SO she would go to the bank once a month, pay 72c for a money order, every month, just for rent.  Ultimately, it would have been cheaper for her to spend $5 for a book of checks, and saved her time, but by the time I realized she was doing that and showed her the math, she was nearly done.  

 

Because we are landlords, I have been noticing that young people don’t have checks at all and of course, my own two YAs don’t have checks, either. 

But I have observed basically two approaches with paying rent in the young people set. The on-the-ball tenants set up paying rent with their bank or their credit card on autopay. OR we do have two tenants who pay their rent by going to the bank and depositing it directly into our account. The less on-the-ball, or those who don’t have enough buffer in their bank account to feel safe with autopay tend to be late with their payments because they have to go get a MO. 

We had one who only ever paid in literal cash. It was weird...they were always crisp, brand new bills in high denominations. Sketchy. 

I’m planning to stop using checks over the next year or so. I don’t use them much as it is, but I’m  on point to simply use another payment option as if checks already don’t exist because I believe it’s going that way soon. 

[Annie G]

Re:checks- what do you guys do about gifts? Like, I send Dd a check for Christmas and birthday since she lives thousands of miles away. Yeah, I guess I can Venmo but it doesn’t have the same feel as opening a birthday card w. a check inside.  Same goes for graduation gifts.  What about property taxes? We don’t have the option to use a credit card for ours and I’m not too keen on hauling down a couple thousand dollars in cash to pay it. 
‘Yeah, I’m old..and I still use about 25 checks a year.  I’m sure they’re going away, and three of our four kids don’t have checks.  But I might be the last dinosaur to give them up. G

[SKL]

Re checks - I mostly pay online, but I still have some things I need checks for.  Like my kid's horse lease / lessons.  Payments to individual helpers who don't have a reason to set up online payment options.  Certain payments to nonprofits that are not that sophisticated.

[mom2scouts]

I still have a few places that require me to use checks. Our water bill just recently allowed an online payment option and before that I had to send a check. Our property tax does now allow us to pay by credit card instead of check, but there is a hefty fee for that. We can pay our trash bill online, but they recently went to a separate bill for the recycling fee and I think I'll need to pay that one by check. One of my dd's extracurricular activities has an extra account in each athlete's name and deposits to that account are required to be made by check. They will not allow payment into that account by debit, credit, or online transfer. I'm almost out of checks and I'm trying to figure out how I can buy the least amount of checks at a good price because I go through them so slowly now.

Another thing that will be completely gone soon is phone books. I actually got a phone book today! I don't know if anyone uses them or if they just go into the recycling bin in most homes. They still have us listed under a phone number we used for a business we closed over 15 years ago, so they're not even accurate. Oh, and I still have a landline. That's the number I give out to businesses and all the scam/telemarketing calls go to that phone. We laugh that it's worth the cost of a basic line to not get all those annoying calls on our cell phones.😄

[Guest]

38 minutes ago, Annie G said:

Re:checks- what do you guys do about gifts? Like, I send Dd a check for Christmas and birthday since she lives thousands of miles away. Yeah, I guess I can Venmo but it doesn’t have the same feel as opening a birthday card w. a check inside.  Same goes for graduation gifts.  What about property taxes? We don’t have the option to use a credit card for ours and I’m not too keen on hauling down a couple thousand dollars in cash to pay it. 
‘Yeah, I’m old..and I still use about 25 checks a year.  I’m sure they’re going away, and three of our four kids don’t have checks.  But I might be the last dinosaur to give them up. G

For times when I have given my kids money as a gift, I just transferred money from my account to theirs digitally. (We all have accounts at the same bank and they are/were student accounts so I can monitor them.) I asked them if they want to “thrill” of opening a card with cash or a check in it, but they said no; it’s just adding an extra step because now they have to go deposit the cash or check to use it. 

I even recently made a transfer from ds15’s account into ds20’s account because ds bought other ds’ TV (which, btw, they dont call a TV but a “monitor”). 

For graduation gifts, like to a niece or nephew, yeah, I do use a check for those, but I guess I could use a gift card instead or cash. 

You have made me curious about the property taxes, though, because I do always pay those with a check...I wonder if there is another option other than going down to the county office. 

I do still use quite a lot of checks in our business, but I’m sure at least some of them are just habit. For all I know, I could be paying supply houses or whatever online. I just haven’t looked into it. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, mom2scouts said:

Another thing that will be completely gone soon is phone books. I actually got a phone book today! I don't know if anyone uses them or if they just go into the recycling bin in most homes. They still have us listed under a phone number we used for a business we closed over 15 years ago, so they're not even accurate. Oh, and I still have a landline. That's the number I give out to businesses and all the scam/telemarketing calls go to that phone. We laugh that it's worth the cost of a basic line to not get all those annoying calls on our cell phones.😄

I think phone books stopped a few years ago here. I did notice we weren’t getting new ones and I think the local town business directory sent notice they were discontinuing. 

I did still have a landline last year for exactly the purpose you said. I closed it, though, because I don’t have to be bothered long by pest calls on my cell because I can block that number and it’s done for good. (I do know there is such a thing as scammy calls that constantly change numbers; not sure how that works but thankfully I haven’t had that problem.) I get very few unwanted calls on my cell phone. And I can always choose not to answer if it doesn't register as a contact. 

[mom2scouts]

18 minutes ago, Quill said:

I think phone books stopped a few years ago here. I did notice we weren’t getting new ones and I think the local town business directory sent notice they were discontinuing. 

I did still have a landline last year for exactly the purpose you said. I closed it, though, because I don’t have to be bothered long by pest calls on my cell because I can block that number and it’s done for good. (I do know there is such a thing as scammy calls that constantly change numbers; not sure how that works but thankfully I haven’t had that problem.) I get very few unwanted calls on my cell phone. And I can always choose not to answer if it doesn't register as a contact. 

Another reason we keep our landline is because we don't get our kids cell phones until they start driving. When I leave dd home alone, she needs to have access to a phone and the landline is still a whole lot cheaper than adding a line to our account. Kids are getting cell phones at such a young age now that I see she's starting to be left out of the social scene a bit. I'm not sure we're going to make it another few years with her, but she's the spoiled baby of the family...

[sweet2ndchance]

1 hour ago, Annie G said:

Re:checks- what do you guys do about gifts? Like, I send Dd a check for Christmas and birthday since she lives thousands of miles away. Yeah, I guess I can Venmo but it doesn’t have the same feel as opening a birthday card w. a check inside.  Same goes for graduation gifts.  What about property taxes? We don’t have the option to use a credit card for ours and I’m not too keen on hauling down a couple thousand dollars in cash to pay it. 
‘Yeah, I’m old..and I still use about 25 checks a year.  I’m sure they’re going away, and three of our four kids don’t have checks.  But I might be the last dinosaur to give them up. G

I've done money orders for many years (the last twenty years maybe?) because even though we had a checking account, ex-h was horrible about pulling money out from under checks I wrote to pay the bills. It was cheaper to pay 50 cents to a dollar for a money order to pay bills than it was to pay bounced check fees. You can get them at the bank, at the post office, even at Walmart. I was bound to be at least one of those places on or near pay day so it worked. I've never run into a problem giving a money order to anyone that requested checks only. Yes, money management, or lack thereof, was part of our irreconcilable differences. It was the weirdest feeling after the divorce to be able write a check from my own account to open my utilities and not have to worry about it bouncing.

Amazon, Walmart, Target or any big box store gift card would be almost universally appreciated as a gift I would think. Personally, we buy stuff from Amazon every month so I would apply an Amazon gift card toward that and if there was nothing gift-like that I wanted on Amazon that month by some strange coincidence, that gift card would at least free up some of my money that would normally go to the monthly household supplies Amazon order and I could buy whatever I wanted from where ever.

We have a couple of places here that buy unwanted gift cards for cash so if you really will not ever use the gift card it can be turned around for cash if necessary, less a small fee of a couple of dollars. I've not done it personally but a few stores have signs that say "We will buy any gift card".

A large one time gift like graduation or wedding, I wouldn't consider the less than $10 fee for the prepaid card too much and just factor that in to how much I can afford to send. If money was really tight though and the fee would drastically affect how much I could send, then I might do a money order (from Walmart or the post office so they could easily cash it for free if they don't have a bank account) or send a gift card for a store they were registered at or ask if there is a particular gift card the graduate would really like. 

[SamanthaCarter]

Ten years is not a terribly long time.  The changes will be things that are right on the cusp now.

Self driving cars will be commercially available, but not mainstream, something like what Tesla’s are right now. We live not too far from where a lot of the research and testing is going on, and it’s SO CLOSE. 

Checks and postage stamps will be gone. 

Shoelaces will be gone. 

Tank hot water heaters will be gone. 

Grocery stores will look completely different. 

[PrincessMommy]

2 minutes ago, SamanthaCarter said:

Ten years is not a terribly long time.  The changes will be things that are right on the cusp now.

Self driving cars will be commercially available, but not mainstream, something like what Tesla’s are right now. We live not too far from where a lot of the research and testing is going on, and it’s SO CLOSE. 

Checks and postage stamps will be gone. 

Shoelaces will be gone. 

Tank hot water heaters will be gone. 

Grocery stores will look completely different. 

What will take it's place?  I'd love to get rid of my hot water heater if there's a good alternative.

[Bluegoat]

I am not so sure about cell service becoming the only option.  Only because they are predicting more weather that destroyed infrastructure, including communication infrastructure, and cell service is not very reliable.  We had an almost hurricane here that affected cell service here a few years ago, and it was a huge problem because even many emergency services had switched over.  A lot of the information being passed around about emergency needs and telling people what was going on was through HAM radio!

I've also wondered if we might not see, rather than electric cars becoming really common, car ownership becoming far less common all round.

[sweet2ndchance]

12 minutes ago, PrincessMommy said:

What will take it's place?  I'd love to get rid of my hot water heater if there's a good alternative.

Tankless instant hot water heaters. They are very common in Europe and parts of Asia. I can't wait to replace our tank hot water heater. It's been on the "someday" list for a while now lol

Edited December 23, 2019 by sweet2ndchance

[Guest]

42 minutes ago, mom2scouts said:

Another reason we keep our landline is because we don't get our kids cell phones until they start driving. When I leave dd home alone, she needs to have access to a phone and the landline is still a whole lot cheaper than adding a line to our account. Kids are getting cell phones at such a young age now that I see she's starting to be left out of the social scene a bit. I'm not sure we're going to make it another few years with her, but she's the spoiled baby of the family...

Not to persuade you of any particular action, but this was also a reason we still had a landline, although my age for a phone was 14. However, my youngest did end up getting a really nice phone (at 14) because I needed a new phone and they were giving the second phone for free. My plan going in was to activate an old phone for him to use but since they had such a great offer, that wouldn’t have made sense. So, ultimately, he ended up with a better phone even than is older siblings had at that time and so I could no longer see any purpose for having a landline. 

[Joker]

The only thing I can really think of is grocery stores. I do think it will be all self check out / scan and go. I think most grocery store employees will become those who are only shopping for customers picking up or having orders delivered. 

I guess with all the food delivery options I could also see most fast food type places becoming mostly take out/drive thru/delivery only (like so many pizza places are now). So many around us look empty much of the time due to the amount of delivery / drive thru happening anyway. 

I don't really think most things will change that much. 

[TravelingChris]

11 minutes ago, Pickle Dust said:

Maybe gas-powered cars. And maybe cars that don't drive themselves.

I read an article about this the other day, but I don't remember where. I do remember the author advised that people not buy new cars now because they will be obsolete before we know it, and all cars will be electric and self-driving.

I bought a new car a few months ago, which uses gas and is driven by me. Hard to imagine such big changes coming about so quickly and universally that my car will be obsolete in a relatively short time. My plan is to drive this car until it hits between 200K and 300K miles.

I also read an article about self-driving 18-wheelers, and how they are coming sooner than we think, and will make truck driving jobs obsolete. One focus of the article was on how truck drivers need to start retraining for another line of work, sooner rather than later.

Hard to know if this is hype or hope, especially regarding self-driving vehicles. But I do know that when I test-drove my car, the salesman showed me how it can stop itself at red lights, and then continue driving by itself, ostensibly for short distances.  I was amazed, but this is not a feature I have delved into in the 2" thick owner's manual. I really should read the entire owner's manual. This is a Subaru, and is not a self-driving car. Except sometimes. Maybe?

I have a mental block. I think of self-driving cars as cars I drive myself, and self-winding watches (back in the day when I had a watch) as watches I wind myself. It is hard for me to associate the word "self" with inanimate objects, without thinking about it first.

This will be a very long time coming.  It will not happen unless we make batteries smaller and have a system like with propane bottles and where we can carry around an extra battery.  How are electric cars doing in extreme cold- batteries in general do not do well in cold.  How do you recharge batteries in large parts of the country?  In other large parts of the country, it  is inadvisable to have an electric only car because you cannot leave if there is a weather or geological emergency and power goes out.  We have had power outages affecting millions of people just caused by a squirrel.

As to self driving cars and trucks- they are not safe.  They do not work well in cloudy, foggy situations.

[TravelingChris]

13 hours ago, Teaching3bears said:

Cashiers replaced by self-checkouts.

Salespeople replaced by online reviews?

There will be huge pushback on getting rid of cashiers.  I tend not to use them.  They are much harder to use for people with various disabilities and as are nation gets older, that means more people will need cashiers.

[Annie G]

28 minutes ago, sweet2ndchance said:

I've done money orders for many years (the last twenty years maybe?) because even though we had a checking account, ex-h was horrible about pulling money out from under checks I wrote to pay the bills. It was cheaper to pay 50 cents to a dollar for a money order to pay bills than it was to pay bounced check fees. You can get them at the bank, at the post office, even at Walmart. 

I don’t find money orders to be easier than checks. When I need to pay something I reach into the drawer beside me and write a check.  My bank provides them for free and I can reorder them online and in a few days they’re here.  Plus I have a way to see that they have cashed a check- not so w  money order.

Yeah, I could do gift cards or something but plain old cash is what my kids and grandkids prefer. They put it in a special place in their wallet and it’s easy to see just how much gift money they have. Grandkids especially find gift cards difficult because it’s not as real to them to swipe a gift card as it is to fork over cash. 

For those who mentioned property taxes- our new county might have an option to pay via debit card but I’m not paying any fees to do so.  And no escrow account for us - our homeowner’s insurance doesn’t give us the pay in full discount if it’s paid through escrow (even though it’s paid in full!) so we opted to pay our taxes and insurance ourselves.  That’s saving us more than $60 a year on homeowner’s insurance alone!

I’d love to go to a tankless water heater but I hear they need yearly maintenance and initially cost a good bit more. Anyone here have one and can tell me their experience w them?

[TravelingChris]

13 hours ago, Pickle Dust said:

I think print newspapers and magazines, landlines, and network tv will be obsolete.

Printed books ... maybe. I'd hate to see that happen, even though I do the vast majority of my reading on the Kindle. Most of the books I own are out-of-print and beloved by me, and I prefer the printed version. I also prefer books which are heavily picture-laden to be in print. My preferences will not matter, though.

Our mall has been dead for many years. Even during Christmas shopping season, few people are there, although Texas Roadhouse is full of diners during the entire time they are open. I think most people here shop either at Walmart (parking lot always full) or online.

Movie theaters -- I think that with the advent of inexpensive super-huge tv screens and streaming services, combined with the high cost of going to a movie, the big chains will die out.

Smart homes will be more common as people rank the conveniences of the devices over their privacy concerns.

 

Again this completely depends on the area you live in and type of mall.  There are a lot of us who really, really, really do not want to go to a Walmart.  I do not go to Walmarts, Costcos, or Sams Clubs,   Fluorescent lights, Gigantic stores and in the case of Costco and Sam's Club- we do not need to be buying huge quantities of stuff.  We currently have three people here but for the previous 2 years and presumably within the next 6 months, there will just be the two of us.  Plus Walmart has no clothes I want to buy.

[TravelingChris]

12 hours ago, history-fan said:

Snail mail- maybe even the whole postal service. 

USPS is doing better than Fedex right now.  They are still delivering Amazon packages.  No, I do not think snail mail will go away..  Too many official items must be mailed.  Plus mail delivery people are one of the safety nets for the elderly.  They are often the ones who alert authorities if an elderly person suddenly stops getting the mail when they always would get the mail.

[TravelingChris]

11 hours ago, Quill said:

I just saw something like this...I think it was in a movie, actually. The police remotely caused the get-away car to stop so the suspect could be apprehended. 

That doesn’t seem at all far-fetched. 

It is on reality tv cop shows.  This is done all the time.

[sweet2ndchance]

1 minute ago, Annie G said:

Plus I have a way to see that they have cashed a check- not so w  money order.

If you keep the stub from the post office or the Walmart money orders, you can verify that they have been cashed. I've had to do it to prove that I gave the land lord the MO and it is a book keeping error on their end. I always keep the stub and put it in a safe place the same way you would keep cancelled checks or or the duplicates to keep records. It has come in handy more than once to prove that I paid and paid on time despite not using checks.

That's how I have gotten by for the last twenty years with writing probably less than 15 checks in that time.

The tankless hot water heaters I've had experience with have not needed anymore maintenance than my regular tank hot water heater that needs yearly maintenance as well. There are lots of different kinds though and my experience has mostly been overseas with them. We plan to do it more like we have seen overseas where the kitchen has its own little tankless heater and the each bathroom has its own tankless heater. The ones that I have heard about having the most problems are where they try to have a huge tankless system for the whole house and then end up needing boosters everywhere because the water doesn't stay hot enough when it has to travel so far to the outlet. The biggest draw for us is not heating tons of water in a tank to just sit there until it is used and the endless hot water part. We live far enough south that it isn't difficult or too expensive to do. I've heard the farther north you go, the more expensive it gets to do tankless hot water because the starting temperature of the water before it is heated is lower.

 

[TravelingChris]

8 hours ago, Math teacher said:

While driving home from church today, I passed a dry cleaner and wondered how long those will still be around. 

Why would they be going away??  I have lived here 8.5 years and there are a number of dry cleaners I have used and all of them are still in business and they seem just as busy as ever/

[SamanthaCarter]

48 minutes ago, Annie G said:

 

I’d love to go to a tankless water heater but I hear they need yearly maintenance and initially cost a good bit more. Anyone here have one and can tell me their experience w them?

Maintenance is simple and the purchase price is going down. Ours is a whole house unit.  If I remember right it was somewhere around 15% more than replacing with a standard tank-based heater. They are worth it, IMO, but we’ve only had ours a little under two years. Unlimited hot water for less energy use. 

Edited December 23, 2019 by SamanthaCarter

[teachermom2834]

33 minutes ago, TravelingChris said:

Why would they be going away??  I have lived here 8.5 years and there are a number of dry cleaners I have used and all of them are still in business and they seem just as busy as ever/

We regularly use the dry cleaners for suits and sports jackets for my guys. 
 

Honestly, I don’t iron. Dh has taken things just to be pressed. I’m embarrassed to admit that but it is true. I am 45 yo and surely there are folks younger than I that never learned to iron and would outsource. 

[Annie G]

20 minutes ago, SamanthaCarter said:

Maintenance is simple and the purchase price is going down. Ours is a whole house unit.  If I remember right it was somewhere around 15% more than replacing with a standard tank-based heater. They are worth it, IMO, but we’ve only had ours a little under two years. Unlimited hot water for less energy use. 

I’ll have to explore that a little more. We don;t have natural gas and our plumber told us the electric models won’t save us much money, and our install costs would be higher.  I want to check it out in advance- deciding when the hot water heater has failed is NOT my plan. I am a wimp and like my hot water. Thanks for the info!

3 hours ago, Annie G said:

Re:checks- what do you guys do about gifts? Like, I send Dd a check for Christmas and birthday since she lives thousands of miles away. Yeah, I guess I can Venmo but it doesn’t have the same feel as opening a birthday card w. a check inside.  Same goes for graduation gifts.  What about property taxes? We don’t have the option to use a credit card for ours and I’m not too keen on hauling down a couple thousand dollars in cash to pay it. 
‘Yeah, I’m old..and I still use about 25 checks a year.  I’m sure they’re going away, and three of our four kids don’t have checks.  But I might be the last dinosaur to give them up. G

I still use checks for some things...property taxes like you mention plus piano lessons (the teacher is old), church offering (our old parish took CC, current one is too small), and occasional Trail Life/AHG payments.

[PrincessMommy]

1 hour ago, sweet2ndchance said:

Tankless instant hot water heaters. They are very common in Europe and parts of Asia. I can't wait to replace our tank hot water heater. It's been on the "someday" list for a while now lol

Yes, I love those,  I think they are a great idea but they are not on our budget.  

[Storygirl]

1 hour ago, Annie G said:

I don’t find money orders to be easier than checks. When I need to pay something I reach into the drawer beside me and write a check.  My bank provides them for free and I can reorder them online and in a few days they’re here.  Plus I have a way to see that they have cashed a check- not so w  money order.

Yeah, I could do gift cards or something but plain old cash is what my kids and grandkids prefer. They put it in a special place in their wallet and it’s easy to see just how much gift money they have. Grandkids especially find gift cards difficult because it’s not as real to them to swipe a gift card as it is to fork over cash. 

For those who mentioned property taxes- our new county might have an option to pay via debit card but I’m not paying any fees to do so.  And no escrow account for us - our homeowner’s insurance doesn’t give us the pay in full discount if it’s paid through escrow (even though it’s paid in full!) so we opted to pay our taxes and insurance ourselves.  That’s saving us more than $60 a year on homeowner’s insurance alone!

I’d love to go to a tankless water heater but I hear they need yearly maintenance and initially cost a good bit more. Anyone here have one and can tell me their experience w them?

We didn't buy ours; it was already in the house when we bought it. It is not requiring extra maintenance (although there could be things that we are supposed to be doing but don't realize). However, it takes for.ev.er to heat up water for the shower or to wash dishes, and I hate hate hate having all of that water going down the drain. In the summer, I collect the water from the kitchen and use it for my potted plants outside. I trained myself a long time ago to never let the water run when I wasn't using it (I turn it off when brushing my teeth, etc.), so it drives me crazy.

[Guest]

9 hours ago, SamanthaCarter said:

Maintenance is simple and the purchase price is going down. Ours is a whole house unit.  If I remember right it was somewhere around 15% more than replacing with a standard tank-based heater. They are worth it, IMO, but we’ve only had ours a little under two years. Unlimited hot water for less energy use. 

I just asked dh about this. He says:

Maintenance is minimal; there’s usually a sediment filter to change. If you have well water and it has a lot of sediment, you should have a house sediment filter before it gets to the water heater because that could ruin it and also void the warranty. So that could be a larger initial cost if that applies to someone. 

It uses more propane/natural gas because it is a high powered appliance and  “blasts” the water to make it almost instantly hot. Most people installing one in an existing house (not a new build or addition) will need repiping of the gas line because it has to deliver more gas than for a tank water heater. If it is electric only, the same principle applies; it needs upgraded electrical wiring and a dedicated circuit, in the same way as double ovens do. 

Our house is 17 years old and we do not have a tankless, but dh says he would “absolutely” install one if we were building a new house. He finds them totally superior and the “drawbacks” (initial expense, for example) are totally worth it. Whenever he encounters a homeowner who needs a new WH, he tells them to go with tankless if they possibly can. 

So - there you have it. More than you ever needed to know about tankless WHs from a plumbing contractor. 

[PrincessMommy]

/\/\ /\ /\ /\

What Quill said has been my understanding.  That retrofitting to an existing house is costly.  

[Annie G]

Quill- thanks so much for all the info! SIL put one in her new build and acted like we were idiots for not replacing ours w one. But our plumber acted like we were nuts to consider it- and actually didn’t want to bid on it if we went that direction. Here we are a year later and still haven’t done anything w our hot water heater. so thanks for your reply- it helped!

[math teacher]

13 hours ago, StellaM said:

 

I can't think of anything I have to pay that doesn't have an option to pay by debit card (I don't have a credit card).

I don't usually send money as a gift, but you can buy Visa gift cards here and load them up with X amount of money, and they can used as a debit card. So I guess I would do that.

My son has trouble cashing the checks his grandpa sends him. He has a bank account, but not where he lives, so it's understandable.

Our trash service doesn't have debit option. At least they didn't six months ago when we moved here. I write out checks for them. 

[TravelingChris]

10 hours ago, teachermom2834 said:

We regularly use the dry cleaners for suits and sports jackets for my guys. 
 

Honestly, I don’t iron. Dh has taken things just to be pressed. I’m embarrassed to admit that but it is true. I am 45 yo and surely there are folks younger than I that never learned to iron and would outsource. 

We do not use it for suits that much but for some dresses (and dd2 and I have plenty of those), some jackets of any of us three, twice a year for comforters (we have summer and winter sets), table runners, some other dress wear.

[TravelingChris]

1 hour ago, Quill said:

I just asked dh about this. He says:

Maintenance is minimal; there’s usually a sediment filter to change. If you have well water and it has a lot of sediment, you should have a house sediment filter before it gets to the water heater because that could ruin it and also void the warranty. So that could be a larger initial cost if that applies to someone. 

It uses more propane/natural gas because it is a high powered appliance and  “blasts” the water to make it almost instantly hot. Most people installing one in an existing house (not a new build or addition) will need repiping of the gas line because it has to deliver more gas than for a tank water heater. If it is electric only, the same principle applies; it needs upgraded electrical wiring and a dedicated circuit, in the same way as double ovens do. 

Our house is 17 years old and we do not have a tankless, but dh says he would “absolutely” install one if we were building a new house. He finds them totally superior and the “drawbacks” (initial expense, for example) are totally worth it. Whenever he encounters a homeowner who needs a new WH, he tells them to go with tankless if they possibly can. 

So - there you have it. More than you ever needed to know about tankless WHs from a plumbing contractor. 

Soon after we moved into our house here, the water tank failed and we needed a new one.  My husband was interested in a tankless system but we are tanked out with electricity and have had a devil of a time gettting anyone to improve our electrical situation, so no.

[Lady Florida.]

I figured I'd better stop and reply or this post will be even more full of multi-quotes. I'll go back to read (and possibly quote some more) once I finish this post.

 

13 hours ago, happysmileylady said:

Do Visa gift cards not carry activation fees down there?  I have seen some of them as high as $8 here.  That's a lot of money to pay, IMO, for a gift card.  Especially when a book of generic checks can be had for like $5 at the bank....if they don't offer them for free.

The ones I bought, and I don't buy many, are $4.95. 

Sadly, we qualify for the free checks they offer seniors. 😂

 

13 hours ago, Quill said:

For times when I have given my kids money as a gift, I just transferred money from my account to theirs digitally. (We all have accounts at the same bank and they are/were student accounts so I can monitor them.) I asked them if they want to “thrill” of opening a card with cash or a check in it, but they said no; it’s just adding an extra step because now they have to go deposit the cash or check to use it. 

 

If we give money to anyone other than ds or dss, we give Visa gift cards. However, when we've given checks to our grown boys they just use mobile deposit to put it in their accounts.

13 hours ago, mom2scouts said:

 

Another thing that will be completely gone soon is phone books. I actually got a phone book today! I don't know if anyone uses them or if they just go into the recycling bin in most homes. They still have us listed under a phone number we used for a business we closed over 15 years ago, so they're not even accurate. Oh, and I still have a landline. That's the number I give out to businesses and all the scam/telemarketing calls go to that phone. We laugh that it's worth the cost of a basic line to not get all those annoying calls on our cell phones.😄

For the last 10 years or so our phone book went directly from the front porch to the recycle bin. But now that you mention it, I don't remember the last time we got a phone book. I don't think we got one last year, and maybe not even for the past 2 years or so.

 

13 hours ago, Quill said:

I think phone books stopped a few years ago here. I did notice we weren’t getting new ones and I think the local town business directory sent notice they were discontinuing. 

 

See above. I must have quoted both of you meaning to reply about phone books.

 

12 hours ago, SamanthaCarter said:

Ten years is not a terribly long time.  The changes will be things that are right on the cusp now.

Self driving cars will be commercially available, but not mainstream, something like what Tesla’s are right now. We live not too far from where a lot of the research and testing is going on, and it’s SO CLOSE. 

 

It's not a long time (I shared a meme on facebook recently about people in denial over the fact that 1980 was 40 years ago). That's why I said I don't think self-driving cars will be the norm by 2030. Close, and probably much more common, but the majority of cars will still be human driven ten years from now. Twenty years? Thirty? Much more likely. 

 

12 hours ago, Bluegoat said:

 

I've also wondered if we might not see, rather than electric cars becoming really common, car ownership becoming far less common all round.

There would have to be major changes in infrastructure. Changes that will take much longer than 10 years. I live where you have to drive to just about everything. Uber and Lyft are uncommon here. We don't have realistically usable mass transit and my county is 20 miles wide and over 70 miles long. And my city isn't an anomaly. Many Florida cities are more like suburbs without the closeness of stores, doctors, etc. and without good alternative transportation options.

Edited December 23, 2019 by Lady Florida.

[Lady Florida.]

12 hours ago, sweet2ndchance said:

Tankless instant hot water heaters. They are very common in Europe and parts of Asia. I can't wait to replace our tank hot water heater. It's been on the "someday" list for a while now lol

Our new house which we just signed a contract on last week will have a tankless gas water heater. This is a new development being built and is a standard feature on all the homes. 

12 hours ago, Quill said:

Not to persuade you of any particular action, but this was also a reason we still had a landline, although my age for a phone was 14. However, my youngest did end up getting a really nice phone (at 14) because I needed a new phone and they were giving the second phone for free. My plan going in was to activate an old phone for him to use but since they had such a great offer, that wouldn’t have made sense. So, ultimately, he ended up with a better phone even than is older siblings had at that time and so I could no longer see any purpose for having a landline. 

It's actually the reason ds got a cell phone at 10. We were looking for ways to cut costs and had just given up satellite tv. We looked at our plan at it was cheaper to add another line than to keep our landline. We were just starting to leave him home alone for short periods so we needed to provide him with a phone. For years he got my hand me down whenever I upgraded. He was 15 the first time he got a new phone.

12 hours ago, Joker said:

The only thing I can really think of is grocery stores. I do think it will be all self check out / scan and go. I think most grocery store employees will become those who are only shopping for customers picking up or having orders delivered. 

I

But what about Aldi and their super fast cashiers? 😂🤣

10 hours ago, Storygirl said:

We didn't buy ours; it was already in the house when we bought it. It is not requiring extra maintenance (although there could be things that we are supposed to be doing but don't realize). However, it takes for.ev.er to heat up water for the shower or to wash dishes, and I hate hate hate having all of that water going down the drain. In the summer, I collect the water from the kitchen and use it for my potted plants outside. I trained myself a long time ago to never let the water run when I wasn't using it (I turn it off when brushing my teeth, etc.), so it drives me crazy.

We have a traditional water heater and it takes forever for our water to heat up. I'm already used to that. 

52 minutes ago, Math teacher said:

My son has trouble cashing the checks his grandpa sends him. He has a bank account, but not where he lives, so it's understandable.

Our trash service doesn't have debit option. At least they didn't six months ago when we moved here. I write out checks for them. 

I think lots of banks now have apps where all you have to do is take a picture of the check to deposit it so you don’t have to go to a branch.  Has he tried this?

[SamanthaCarter]

So I don’t know how this works, because dh is the Techie one, but we have a phone in our house that shares cell phone number with my cell. So when my phone rings, the house one does too. But the best thing is, the kids can make calls from this phone whenever they want without touching my cell. They can even call my cell, so they can call me when I’m out. The limitation is that I can’t call it from my cell phone, so if I don’t pick up, they have to keep trying.

We’ve had this setup well over a year, and I just tore out the last of the baseboard land lines last week. 

[math teacher]

1 hour ago, Mom2mthj said:

I think lots of banks now have apps where all you have to do is take a picture of the check to deposit it so you don’t have to go to a branch.  Has he tried this?

Haven't heard of it, but I will ask him-thanks!!

[barnwife]

Checks are easier to confirm for a tenant, and preferred by some landlords.  If you have a receipt for a money order, go to court with that receipt, that receipt is worthless without the paperwork confirming that it went into that landlords account.  More than once a tenant has sworn they sent the rent in a money order, and has the receipt to prove it, but don't show up in court to fight the eviction, they cashed it themselves, not the first time I've heard "the check is in the mail"  There are plenty of easy ways to do checking if you have an account and want to look into it.  I thought I was the only one not doing smart phone check deposits these days.  Most banks online checking will let you send money to someone, if they don't have an account then they mail a check.  That's been probably 10 years at least. 

Tankless hot water heaters are a nightmare in some areas, they're not new, not getting better, maybe cheaper.  Electric shower heads are common worldwide, does anybody want one of them too?   You'll never get around the physics that water is heavy and has a high heat capacity, so a tank is a great way to store energy.  A hybrid electric water heater can store as much off peak energy as a battery pack costing many times more.  Tankless require way more maintenance than tank heaters, how many people actually flush their tank heater every year?  how about flush it with acid and a pump?  

[Guest]

3 hours ago, SamanthaCarter said:

So I don’t know how this works, because dh is the Techie one, but we have a phone in our house that shares cell phone number with my cell. So when my phone rings, the house one does too. But the best thing is, the kids can make calls from this phone whenever they want without touching my cell. They can even call my cell, so they can call me when I’m out. The limitation is that I can’t call it from my cell phone, so if I don’t pick up, they have to keep trying.

We’ve had this setup well over a year, and I just tore out the last of the baseboard land lines last week. 

I don’t understand your last sentence. What do you mean? Do you mean landline jacks in all the rooms? 

[teachermom2834]

As far as checks go- wasn't there just a thread on here about an HVAC repair place that didn't accept credit cards? Many people responded that it is common for service people not to accept credit cards. How do you pay if not by check? In the last week I wrote a check for over $5000 to an HVAC company and another check for over $11,000 to our siding contractor. If they had not accepted credit cards (which both do by the way) how would I have paid? I also had a handyman out who I paid $500 to by check. He did offer to take credit card payments via Paypal but he would pass on the fee to the customer.

My dc are in 4-H and the local office only accepts cash or check. They really prefer we pay by check. They can take cash but then they have a rule that it has to be deposited in the bank within 48  hours or something. I feel like paying in cash inconveniences them especially because some of the events my ds goes to, he is the only one in the county going so they would have to make a trip to the bank just for him. I wouldn't care if it was an impersonal business but we know our agents well and appreciate the work they do for us.  

We have also been writing checks to pay for youth group events at our church. This I hate in some ways because our youth leaders are so disorganized the checks can take a long time to clear. (Like I had an $80 check for a retreat post just last week. I wrote in in September). While I find this ridiculous, I really don't want to hand these flaky people cash. They aren't going to carry a receipt book with them. 

My oldest ds rents a house and pays via Venmo or Cash Ap I think. I actually think he Venmos a roommate who actually pays the bills. My second ds pays his apartment rent by check. An online credit card payment option exists but they charge $20 extra every single month. 

My dd's dance studio sends monthly tuition invoices via quickbooks and I pay on there. However, I see people taking checks into the office every day. So I would say at least half the people still prefer to pay by check.

I pay all our regular bills online and have for years. A couple years ago I would have said we were approaching going checkless. But now we have had things come up in our lives that have us back writing a significant number of checks. So I still see checks hanging around for some time although some people will be able to go without easily. I actually was trying to go without because I prefer not to have to watch for the check to clear. 

Only about five or six years ago a homeschool group I was a part of stopped taking checks. Several people left infuriated because they did not conduct business online at all. This was only a few years ago and they were not old folks. Our current homeschool group prefers online payment for activities and has a great system. However, they still have to offer a meet up with the treasurer and pay by check option. Most of these women and under 40 years old. 

Edited December 23, 2019 by teachermom2834

[Guest]

All this talk of landlines makes me think of another thing that I expect will be totally gone by 2030 (and is already rare): fax. I keep thinking (but forgetting) I need to go into our invoice forms on Quickbooks and remove the fax number from the company forms. No landline = no fax, so the number on our forms has been out of use since this past spring or summer. 

Another thing I think will be gone or extremely reduced by 2030: DVDs I also think the way people buy clothes will continue to change away from buying clothes off the rack at a store and will include much more either custom-made clothing where you pick the choices on-line (eShakti already operates like this) or more style shopping services like Stitch Fix. I also think clothing rental is going to grow in popularity. Eventually (not in ten years but probably in twenty) I think closets in homes will change to be more like the European way with cabinetry in the room and will move away from big walk-in closets. I personally do think the European cabinet wall style makes loads more sense and I wish ours was designed like that. 

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, teachermom2834 said:

As far as checks go- wasn't there just a thread on here about an HVAC repair place that didn't accept credit cards? Many people responded that it is common for service people not to accept credit cards. How do you pay if not by check? In the last week I wrote a check for over $5000 to an HVAC company and another check for over $11,000 to our siding contractor. If they had not accepted credit cards (which both do by the way) how would I have paid? I also had a handyman out who I paid $500 to by check. He did offer to take credit card payments via Paypal but he would pass on the fee to the customer.

My dc are in 4-H and the local office only accepts cash or check. They really prefer we pay by check. They can take cash but then they have a rule that it has to be deposited in the bank within 48  hours or something. I feel like paying in cash inconveniences them especially because some of the events my ds goes to, he is the only one in the county going so they would have to make a trip to the bank just for him. I wouldn't care if it was an impersonal business but we know our agents well and appreciate the work they do for us.  

We have also been writing checks to pay for youth group events at our church. This I hate in some ways because our youth leaders are so disorganized the checks can take a long time to clear. (Like I had an $80 check for a retreat post just last week. I wrote in in September). While I find this ridiculous, I really don't want to hand these flaky people cash. They aren't going to carry a receipt book with them. 

My oldest ds rents a house and pays via Venmo or Cash Ap I think. I actually think he Venmos a roommate who actually pays the bills. My second ds pays his apartment rent by check. An online credit card payment option exists but they charge $20 extra every single month. 

My dd's dance studio sends monthly tuition invoices via quickbooks and I pay on there. However, I see people taking checks into the office every day. So I would say at least half the people still prefer to pay by check.

I pay all our regular bills online and have for years. A couple years ago I would have said we were approaching going checkless. But now we have had things come up in our lives that have us back writing a significant number of checks. So I still see checks hanging around for some time although some people will be able to go without easily. I actually was trying to go without because I prefer not to have to watch for the check to clear. 

Only about five or six years ago a homeschool group I was a part of stopped taking checks. Several people left infuriated because they did not conduct business online at all. This was only a few years ago and they were not old folks. Our current homeschool group prefers online payment for activities and has a great system. However, they still have to offer a meet up with the treasurer and pay by check option. Most of these women and under 40 years old. 

Yes, we did just have a thread about that and I was one of those chiming in to say my dh does not take credit cards; we don’t have the Square thingy (yet). But this is one thing I want to change by 2021. Already we do run into customers who are completely unprepared to pay any way but digitally. We have had customer checks rejected by our bank because they are filled out incorrectly and I think that speaks to the frequency for some customers. They write checks so infrequently, they don’t really know how to fill it out properly. 

I have definitely been part of groups or organizations where “we can’t do XYZ because (three members) dont ABC “- use Facebook, use email, have a smart phone, or whatever.But IME, time marches on...those who refuse to move to new technology eventually just are hampered from something. Society doesn’t *stop* progressing because a couple people won’t move on to the next technology. It’s just that those people will be hampered and left behind.

 

[teachermom2834]

8 minutes ago, Quill said:

Yes, we did just have a thread about that and I was one of those chiming in to say my dh does not take credit cards; we don’t have the Square thingy (yet). But this is one thing I want to change by 2021. Already we do run into customers who are completely unprepared to pay any way but digitally. We have had customer checks rejected by our bank because they are filled out incorrectly and I think that speaks to the frequency for some customers. They write checks so infrequently, they don’t really know how to fill it out properly. 

I have definitely been part of groups or organizations where “we can’t do XYZ because (three members) dont ABC “- use Facebook, use email, have a smart phone, or whatever.But IME, time marches on...those who refuse to move to new technology eventually just are hampered from something. Society doesn’t *stop* progressing because a couple people won’t move on to the next technology. It’s just that those people will be hampered and left behind.

 

I agree with you. I don't cite any of those things as reasons things can't or shouldn't go digital. Just that it feels more than a decade away to me. I don't like checks and would be happy for everyone to get on board with ditching them. And LOL about writing checks incorrectly. When I started using them again I really had to focus or I'd make a mistake. Like I couldn't chit chat with the receptionist while writing a check like I used to. Silly. It isn't that difficult.

[SamanthaCarter]

58 minutes ago, Quill said:

I don’t understand your last sentence. What do you mean? Do you mean landline jacks in all the rooms? 

Yes, and some had wires stapled along the baseboards to run to the jacks. Painted over a couple of times. Really classy. 

[Lady Florida.]

1 hour ago, Quill said:

 

Another thing I think will be gone or extremely reduced by 2030: DVDs 

OMG we're trying to clear out stuff from our house before putting it on the market. I keep putting DVDs in the give away box but dh and ds keep pulling them out. They're so #$%&$# dusty and no one has watched any of them in at least five years but they won't let go. I told them both if we hang on to them long enough they'll be as useful as VCR tapes. 

[mom2scouts]

47 minutes ago, Quill said:

I have definitely been part of groups or organizations where “we can’t do XYZ because (three members) dont ABC “- use Facebook, use email, have a smart phone, or whatever.But IME, time marches on...those who refuse to move to new technology eventually just are hampered from something. Society doesn’t *stop* progressing because a couple people won’t move on to the next technology. It’s just that those people will be hampered and left behind.

 

I understand the frustration because we have a group that's hard to communicate with because people don't use X. However, sometimes it's not a function of people "won't move on" to the next technology. Some people just aren't able to move on. For example, my parents don't have a computer or smart phone. My mom has a dumb phone and she really doesn't use it because she can't figure it out. You wouldn't believe how many hours I, my sister, and her grandchildren have tried to help her. Today she called because she needs help with her checking account (again) and she still gets paper statements. She took out all her money and left a bank that wouldn't send her paper statements. She called me last week worried because she got one of those scam postcards about your car warranty being expired. She has a new car and she can't use most of the features because she can't figure out the onboard computer. My dad has a Kindle that sits in a drawer because he can't figure out how to use it.  A smart phone, computer, online banking, or streaming services would be a disaster for them and many other elderly people who just can't understand all the new and rapidly changing technology. Another example is people who just can't afford the technology. We've never had cable or streaming services of any kind because we can't afford them if we want to do other things. We can pop in a DVD or borrow one from the library without any extra monthly expense. Honestly, our TV is so old that I'm not sure we'd even be able to use streaming services. We tend to keep and use things until they fall apart and die a slow death. That's what allows me to stay home and homeschool my kids and that's much more important to me than keeping up with technology.

[MEmama]

1 hour ago, Quill said:

I have definitely been part of groups or organizations where “we can’t do XYZ because (three members) dont ABC “- use Facebook, use email, have a smart phone, or whatever.But IME, time marches on...those who refuse to move to new technology eventually just are hampered from something. Society doesn’t *stop* progressing because a couple people won’t move on to the next technology. It’s just that those people will be hampered and left behind.

 

THIS. ^^^

Unfortunately it really does slow progress down, though. I think a LOT of North Americans are in for a shock (or perhaps the refusal is their solution to the shock).

[Guest]

5 hours ago, mom2scouts said:

I understand the frustration because we have a group that's hard to communicate with because people don't use X. However, sometimes it's not a function of people "won't move on" to the next technology. Some people just aren't able to move on. For example, my parents don't have a computer or smart phone. My mom has a dumb phone and she really doesn't use it because she can't figure it out. You wouldn't believe how many hours I, my sister, and her grandchildren have tried to help her. Today she called because she needs help with her checking account (again) and she still gets paper statements. She took out all her money and left a bank that wouldn't send her paper statements. She called me last week worried because she got one of those scam postcards about your car warranty being expired. She has a new car and she can't use most of the features because she can't figure out the onboard computer. My dad has a Kindle that sits in a drawer because he can't figure out how to use it.  A smart phone, computer, online banking, or streaming services would be a disaster for them and many other elderly people who just can't understand all the new and rapidly changing technology. Another example is people who just can't afford the technology. We've never had cable or streaming services of any kind because we can't afford them if we want to do other things. We can pop in a DVD or borrow one from the library without any extra monthly expense. Honestly, our TV is so old that I'm not sure we'd even be able to use streaming services. We tend to keep and use things until they fall apart and die a slow death. That's what allows me to stay home and homeschool my kids and that's much more important to me than keeping up with technology.

This happens, though. Progress doesn’t slow down to accommodate older people or people who won’t OR can’t adapt. Progress doesn’t slow down because it’s expensive. I remember when I was a teen and there was this cool new thing called cable TV. You could pay a fee, which I think was around $35/month then, and then have commercial-free channels you couldn’t get through the antenna. You could have MTV! And CNN! Pay a bit more and you can watch movies on HBO! But we didn’t subscribe to cable TV because my folks would never pay for TV when there was such a thing as free TV. But *now* there is no free TV. 

A lot of people use technology sub-optimally. My dh is this way. He has an iphone but he never backs the darn thing up. He never updates. He hasn’t put any apps on it. If he goes on Facebook, he goes through the browser and then it acts glitchy because you’re supposed to use the app. And so on. He doesn’t use the technology optimally. But that doesn’t stop the technology from progressing. 

I’m just saying ultimately it doesn’t matter that some people can’t or won’t adapt to new technologies. It isn’t going to stop Apple or Netflix or Bank of America from progressing.