nexus_crossings | He’d trained for Total Victory. Not necessarily for what comes after.

Mikkel had seen the performance in real life and was still startled by it. He and Fredrik had been talking about what it might take to do what Minoru had. While Mikkel was strong and light footed from dancing that wasn't exactly the same as what Minoru pulled off.

Either way, he's glad to bump into Minoru. Though their conversations often turn embarrassing, for both of them, the Dane values Minoru's advice and is glad for an opportunity to maybe return it.

"I talked to a financial advisor and they gave me a lot of ideas but... a lot of things seems to be better than just one." That was what the young Dane had taken away from it. Being in LA and his profession meant he was making more than he was used to and it sometimes felt like a million dollars even if it was only a thousand.

Minoru may have been deep in thought, but his expression brightened considerably when he saw his friend walking through the plaza. “Hey, Mikkel!”

He hadn’t seen most of the band members since Las Vegas. They, of course, went back to their own world via the Nexus. Minoru, on the other hand, went back with his parents to Seattle before heading back interdimensionally.

“Okay, a financial advisor’s a pretty good place to go for financial advice.” He chuckled, having literally never thought of that. “I guess I always just assumed they were only for people who had a lot of money…”

The realization dawned on Minoru as he said that.

“…which, I do… now. Right…” He scratched his head. All the rock stars probably felt like this when their careers suddenly took off, right? How do you even…?

The exclamation of his name got Minoru a hug when the Dane was close enough. Truth was that everyone had become very busy with their own projects, work, and integrating some newer people into the group.

"Rekker sent me." Mikkel shrugged, "I didn't know anything about banks or anything."

Mikkel knew a bit about the stress of money. He had been without most things before coming to the US, then the abundance hit and he didn't know what to do with himself. "You have a lot more than I can imagine."

Sure, he had grown up in a very wealthy family but hadn't reaped the rewards of it, nor had he been around with Rik when he started making it big. Mikkel had floundered a lot when he started making a lot of money dancing.

"Rekker said to make sure when you pick one that they don't try to take your money because you don't know things."

Minoru’s family wasn’t wealthy by any means. But they were solidly middle class. Itaru was still a successful biomedical engineer. Chichi was a successful clinical engineer before leaving the workforce to raise her set of twins, and she hadn’t had the need to go back to work even after they’d grown. Their parents actively encouraged hard work and financial responsibility, and taught them both to be self-sufficient.

Granted, that didn’t exactly come easy. Isamu raked up quite a bit of student loan debt. And Minoru worked more than his fair share of minimum wage jobs before finally finding the right career. Those first few years on the east coast were a real struggle. By the time they moved to the Nexus, Minoru had stuff roughly figured out.

“Like, Isamu might do a lot of the math in his head, but I know how to keep a budget and get all the bills paid for the apartment with what we both make.” He insisted. Heck, the car was actually in his name. “But beyond that? I never really even thought about it.”

Mikkel understood. He went from nearly living on the streets to having more money than he knew what to do with.

"I didn't even know how to budget." Mikkel admitted. "I wouldn't know what to do with a million dollars. I don't think I will ever make that much."

He said that without thinking about the fact that he was dating not one, but two, rockstars.

“I never really thought I would either. Not even in my wildest dreams.”

And here both of them were, literally dating rockstars…

“I guess we could afford a bigger apartment now. Or maybe even buy a house here.” He shrugged. That’s what people who had money did, right? “Or the trip I want to surprise Ziggy with, that I’ve been saving up for, I can definitely do that now.”

Torden had helped him think of that. A vacation away from the hustle and bustle of the rockstar life, perhaps on Minoru’s world. That just got a lot easier to pull off now.

It had yet to sink into Mikkel's mind what dating a rockstar would be, even more so since the bands his partners were in had been less known when they met. Thanks to Hexed promoting them heavily they were becoming more well known.

"The guy I talked to told me to write down everything I wanted and how much it cost before spending." Mikkel was trying to remember everything he was told. At 18 he was terrible managing money, even with the advice. "Oh and pay yourself first, you know savings for later."

That felt like something else important. Mikkel was focusing on the saving part of his finances now because he wasn't in a job that would last forever, nor did it have any benefits or anything to prepare for that.

“Write down everything I want first…” he nodded as he repeated the advice back. “That makes a lot of sense.”

He knew how much his trip with Ziggy would cost, since he’d been saving up for it. But he had no idea how much the rent at a bigger apartment would cost, or how much a house would cost. He hadn’t exactly been looking at that sort of thing once they signed the lease for the place they moved into three years ago. He didn’t know exactly how much student loan debt Isamu still had either, but he knew he’d probably give some to his brother to help him pay it off.

It was obvious that the wheels were turning. He was thinking about that list, to the point that the afterthought about paying yourself first faded into the background.

Granted, that was a piece of advice he’d heard from his father - though not in this context. It was one of the many reasons why Itaru was pleased that his son went back to school and was disappointed when he dropped out. Like Mikkel, Minoru did some very active and manual jobs that he wouldn’t be physically able to do forever.

He could see the wheels turning as Minoru went silent. After a moment he scooted into the seat beside Minoru and dug in his bag to pull out a small notebook.

"Lets make a list." Mikkel encouraged. At least they could start what Minoru might want and get him on the right path. The other young man had helped him so much with his relationships that he felt he needed, and wanted, to help Minoru with his finances.

“Okay. A list.” Minoru thought best while he was moving, so back off the bench it was. Even standing and rocking, pacing, something was better than nothing.

“I’m definitely taking Ziggy on a trip in my world. But we can do that for just a few thousand. And most of that I had already saved up for.”

He looked over at Mikkel as he took notes.

“I don’t think my parents really need anything. Pretty sure their house is already paid for. They might still be paying on the car Papa bought last year?” he pondered aloud, knowing he’d have to talk to his family about that, even as they gracefully insisted he needn’t do anything for them.

“Isamu’s got all his student loans. I could really put a dent in those, or wipe them out completely.” Unlike his parents, Isamu, he thought, would probably jump on that. Graduate school wasn’t cheap.

He scratched his head, trying to think of more things he wanted to do with the money.

“Our car’s fine, but I should set aside some money to get a new one when it stops working fine. Gosh… it would be nice to get a bigger apartment too. Or maybe even buy a house here. Not anything super big, but it would be nice to jump out the window and not have to worry about landing on the downstairs neighbor’s flowers. I had to buy her new bulbs twice already this year. Oh! And a bigger enclosure for Kazumi!”

Mikkel was writing things down but Minoru would soon learn that he couldn't spell English words properly. A lot of them were phonetic, and might look strange given Mikkel's tendency to assign Danish sounds to some of the letters. Right down to spelling Ziggy as Siggy. His handwriting isn't the best either.

"Maybe try to be more specific with the costs?" Mikkel thought a few thousand dollars might mean different things to different people.

"You could get a townhouse?" Mikkel offered. "I remember hearing Ollie's parent complain about the time it took to take care of a house you owned." He didn't know much about it but to the Dane it felt like owning a house would take up a lot of time if someone else wasn't doing all the maintenance.

“Oh, I was budgeting $3,500 for the trip.” He replied more specifically. “But like I said, I’d already saved up most of that already, so it doesn’t really count.”

Unfortunately, Minoru really didn’t know what a lot of the other items he was listing would cost. Well, except for the snake enclosures. He’d seen some bigger ones for around $400 in the Nexus. Kazumi still had about a year or so before she’d probably be as big as she was going to get.

“Ziggy has a townhouse here…” he mused aloud, wondering how much something like that would cost. “I think he owns it though.”

He never had the need to ask Ziggy if he owned the townhouse or if he merely rented it.

Mikkel didn't know either but had some advice at least. "Maybe Hunter or Rekker or Devon or Mick's parents... um... someone else that owns a house might help?"

He had never owned a house and most of the Danes rented their spaces. He didn't know much at all about buying houses.

"What about savings? They told me I should have 6 months to a year of expenses because my job isn't stable." If Minoru didn't know what things cost, maybe savings would be the best place to start.

Minoru listened attentively to Mikkel’s advice.

“Oh! Yeah, that’s a great idea!” he nodded eagerly to the latest suggestion. While Mikkel probably meant it in a much broader sense, or maybe even looking ahead to retirement one day, Minoru went straight to, “I need to top off my Parkour Bail Fund!”

The Skyscraper climb last year put a massive dent in that. And there were a few smaller incidents with the rest of the Ziggy Stardust Entourage that kept eating away at it too.

Mikkel stared for a moment as Minoru spoke and then started to laugh. "I don't think that is what he meant by savings."

However, it was Minoru's money and he should do with it whatever made him happy.

“Why not? I already have a whole separate savings account set up for fines and stuff.” He admitted a bit sheepishly. “The Nexus is a lot nicer to freerunners than a lot of the cities in my world are, that’s for sure.”

Well, you have to budget for your hobbies. And it just so happened that Minoru’s hobby required a ‘yeah, I know, I was trespassing, again’ fund.

“Oh…you mean save for retirement? That kind of thing?”

Mikkel couldn't really argue with Minoru's logic even if he still thought that wasn't what the finance guy had meant.

"Or if you break an ankle and can't work." Mikkel sounded worried. And he was, both for himself and Minoru. "I almost had that happen once when I fell on stage and then I went hungry because I didn't have anything."

The Dane didn't realize how much his past weighed on him. Sure, his family was wealthy but his experience was more of a street kid. If something went wrong things could get bad quickly. Even if is life was significantly more stable and there were people to look after him those feelings lingered.

"I guess living with your brother would help though."

“Oh! For like, insurance and stuff.” Minoru nodded. “Some of that’s already paid through the hospital, where I work.”

He said some, because he honestly wasn’t sure how much he had or what it covered. He just did what the hospital folks recommended he do. Health, life, disability, there was some mix of company plans he was enrolled in. So far, everything worked out all right - even when he was on crutches for a few weeks after last year’s ANW Finals. A sprained ankle was probably one of the more benign things an Interdimensional plane of existence needed to insure for.

“It’s better than what Isamu gets at IRIS. He’s told me that a couple times.” He added, scratching his head. Granted, his brother’s work was being funded by a research grant. He got a stipend, not a salary. “Plus, he’s got a ton of student loans he’s still trying to pay off. I can definitely help wipe those clean now!”

"Oh." Mikkel hadn't realized jobs gave you those things since most od the people he knew were rockstars and the clubs certainly didn't give him insurance.

"The clubs don't give dancers that and.. I'm not even sure I can get any because I'm not an American." Mikkel had a lot of questions for someone more adult than he was.

"I think Rik and Ollie did things like that. They helped pay off the house Ollie grew up in." Mikkel wondered if there was anything like that he could do but everyone around had more money than he did.

He wasn’t sure whether being an American or not made a difference in Mikkel’s universe. He honestly wasn’t sure if it made a difference in his own. Minoru technically worked in the Nexus now, which was different from both of those places.

“All the hospitals I’ve worked at have had something like that.” He added. “But a lot of the jobs I had before that didn’t. Not like I was working in any of them long enough to need benefits…”

It really did depend. But the Nexus, hands down, was a great place to work.

Mikkel hadn't ever thought about working in the Nexus though he had been to Balthazar's bar more than once and knew there were dancing poles.

"I've only had two jobs." Mikkel wasn't even sure tattooing counted as a job since he didn't work at a shop. "I've been dancing for almost 5 years but I think people change clubs too much, maybe?" That made sense in Mikkel's mind. Why would a business pay for something you'd never be around to use?

“Is is the third hospital I’ve worked at. Whenever Isamu moved for school, I went with him. I guess there’s more turnover on the night shift, so it wasn’t too hard to get hired on.”

A couple years here, a couple years there. He thrived in the fast-paced environment of a busy hospital.

“I guess that’s one question I’m gonna get asked a lot once everyone sees the show, and knows I won.” He scratched his head. “With a million dollars, I don’t have to still work as an orderly. I don’t want to leave, though. I like what I do.”

Mikkel shrugged because he didn't really understand all of it. He did think he would try to get something in case he was injured.

"All the rock stars still work." Mikkel pointed out. Some of them were incredibly wealthy or getting there, at least from Mikkel's viewpoint. "Rekker told me how much it costs to own his house. He said he has to pay more than twice what I make in a year and he owns it. Hunter said the same about his house in Sweden." Taxes confused Mikkel even after more than one person tried to explain it to him. All he knew was that he had to pay part of what he made while in the US to the government.

Edited 2023-07-28 04:59 (UTC)

Minoru’s eyes widened. Houses could cost that much?! He was pretty sure his parents owned their house. They’d been there for almost thirty years, after all. They never mentioned it costing that much, but it wasn’t like Minoru had ever asked.

“Geez, better add ‘ask my parents how much their house costs’ to that list.”

Taxes were confusing even for someone who was born there. (Never mind how confusing they were for someone who technically worked inter-dimensionally… you think being a doctor in the Nexus is rough, try being an accountant…)

Mikkel frowned with worry since it seemed like his friend was going through a lot of stress.

"Maybe ask where you're going to live?" Mikkel thought that was good idea. Different countries cost different amounts. LA was very expensive compared to where he grew up.

"Can I ask you a question about houses?" Mikkel was thinking now and had his own questions.

(no subject)

itmeanstruth - 2023-09-20 11:16 (UTC) - Expand