Jean AKA Jeannie AKA Jeanie is a film, book, and magazine reviewer for a national magazine. Most of Jean’s work is done through email, which means he doesn't have to go into the office.
On a trip to find a gift for his girlfriend, Jean found an empty Genie Bottle. Upon picking up this bottle, Jean became the bottle’s new genie-powered occupant. Not only was Jean turned into a genie, but the bottle turned him into what he believed a genie of the bottle should look like. Which, due to his fascination with a classic 60s TV show, turned him into a busty blonde woman.
A junior engineer working for a small engineering firm in Cocoa Beach. The firm focuses mostly on NASA projects.
Neil is Jean’s best friend. When Jean was turned into a genie, Neil became Jeanie’s master.
“Oh, it turns out your old roommates were drug dealers and car thieves, and the police raided your old place. So I thought I’d better erase anything that might indicate we used to live there too, and move us and our stuff out to this new house. I’m a good genie, aren’t I? Imagine all the trouble you’d be in if I weren’t around to look after you.”
I was concerned about the agents who arrested the stoners getting suspicious regarding Neil’s new house, but if the later can actually prove having won the lottery…
People buy houses all the time without any FBI agents getting suspicious. As long as it’s a run-of-the-mill, middle-class house, no one will think anything of it. Neil’s a decently-paid aerospace engineer; he could easily have been saving up for a down payment for the last 10 years or so. Or they could say that his parents gave hime the money. Or that he cashed in some stock options. I bought a old house once for 200,000 in cash, and no one even asked me where it came from. All they cared about was that the bank transfer went through.
Now, if Jeannie had bought a mansion on the beach, THAT probably would have raised some red flags. But a run-down fixer-upper? No one will pay any attention.
That lottery ticket had to be cashed and the money deposited somewhere, probably in Neil’s name long before this reveal. Rodge mentioned the 2 winners on page 617, and $500+k is a bunch of money that can’t be cashed at a grocery store. How she did it remains a mystery, other than time travelling back to buy the ticket in the first place.
Getting back to the Feds: any investigation into Neil’s finances will reveal that he won the money and paid taxes on it (again, how Jeanie arranged that is yet to be revealed).
Assuming a $500k windfall (might be more) taxes will siphon off about a third leaving Neil with around $330k to pay for a run down, fixer upper. He’ll have some cash left over for repairs. Florida’s median home value is $378k, meaning there are a lot of homes available for a whole lot less.
You’re not thinking 4th dimensionally. Jeanie doesn’t have to have bought the house yet. Later, after all the hijinks in this story arc are over, she and Neil can go back in time – between her buying the lottery ticket and all this stuff happening – and purchase the house. As long as they will do that (time travel to the past) some time in the future, they own the house here and now.
Now if Jeannie was bright enugh to pick a week where no one else won the lottery, then the shift in the timelines would be barely noticeable. And the state takes out taxes before the recipient gets their cut, so there will be no repercussions come April 15.
And Neil’s complaint about a “legal identity” is a complete non-issue. Jeannie can easily magic up some completely valid ID documents; all she has to do is change the sex and picture on her original ID, and presto, she’s a valid US citizen again. In fact, she could even do that WITHOUT magic; just walk into the correct state office, say “I want to change the gender identification marker on my ID”, and she’d be just another M-to-F TG individual. The clerks nowadays wouldn’t even blink, except to compliment her on how nice she looks.
You can’t successfully take a picture of a genie. Can a genie *create* a picture of herself? (I don’t know why not, but then, I don’t know why they can’t have pictures taken of them, other than “it’s the rules.”)
and then there’s the whole concept of finding a fairly rich person (~millionaire) and offering them the winning ticket in exchance for say half the post tax winnings. Jeanie walks away with a pile of cash and doesn’t have to go to claim office at all (though Neil would still have to pay capital gains tax on the winnings to remain OK with the IRS)
See, Neil, she’s not a complete idiot, like you are. Settle down and tell her what a good genie she is. Say thank you. Put your arm around her waist, give her a quick, happy hug.
see this is how one should wish for wealth.
Wishing to win the big lottery. Because no one will bat an eye where these money came from, especially not after ye have paid the lump sum income tax
Even then, taking the annuity instead of the lump sum can give you great flexibility. $500k divided over 20 years pays out around 2k per month (before taxes). You can get a mortgage based on just that guaranteed income and funnel the payment directly to the bank.
American lotteries are mostly a scam because.
1) the winning amout is before taxes
2) ye get even less if ye actually want it paid out
3) ye can’t do it unanimously.
but it is much better to take the lump sum due to inflation. And with that she can buy a house outright
If I were her I would have taken the Eurojackpot when it is at 120million, because for that ye can get more then a house, ye can get a private island
Not a scam, but generally a (very) bad bet to make. It’s not like they don’t list what the odds are, and what the cash vs annuity amounts are for the jackpot.
Whether you can remain anonymous depends on the state you live in, and what rules they have.
They’re a scam because the states regulate the max percentage that casi nos can keep of the money that’s gambled (usually they only let casi nos keep between 5%-10% – the other 90%-95% has to be returned as winnings). But then completely ignore that when they run their own state lottery (state usually keeps 25%-40%). Yes that’s right, you are literally better off gambling at a casi no than playing a government-run lottery. And that’s not even getting into the states which prohibit gambling, but happily let you gamble in a state lottery.
Odd word spacing because the site apparently blocks any post with the word casi no properly spelled.
As someone else mentioned some days ago- first they freeze your assets, THEN you prove you got the money through legit means. So as long as my residence is listed as “CA”, I am going to have to pay Calif and Federal taxes on any Euro lottery winnings. At least the state sponsored lottos are not subject to state tax.
The anonymous part is a big help (again, not in CA), but it mainly is to prevent you from being targeted by aggressive salespeople/relatives- the Lotto still reports to the government that they paid you the money.
Indeed, and the Eurojackpot lottery is only tax free for citizens of an EU country, but even so, ye can get the winnings privately, and the fed wont care after ye have given them their share.
there will still be enogh left over for Jeannie to herself more then just one crappy house.
Because I really think she is the “private island” kind of gal.
But it needs to have a volcano though, and her lair must be inside the vulcano
The taxing based on citizenship is almost uniquely an American thing. Most other countries tax based on whether or not you’re a resident. The U.S. taxes everything you make simply because you’re a citizen. On the state front at least, you can simply move to another state which doesn’t have an income tax. So if you’re a California resident and win a big lottery, it’s a good idea to establish residency in a no-income tax state and wait until the next calendar year before you cash in your ticket.
This is why you read stories about wealthy Americans renouncing their U.S. citizenship. Because even if they live abroad and make most or all of their money from things they do and own abroad, the IRS still insists they need to pay Federal income tax on that money. Boris Johnson (former UK PM) found this out the hard way when he was mayor of London and sold his house. It turns out he was born in the U.S. when his parents were there as grad students, which made him a dual US/UK citizen. He’d never been to the U.S. since he was a baby. But when the IRS found out he sold his house, they demanded he pay capital gains taxes on the sale. He fought it in court for a bit, gave up, paid the IRS, and promptly renounced his U.S. citizenship.
I’ve often thought you should go for the ones with huge jackpots and a couple of winners. 4 people winning 25 million each vs 5 people winning 20 is likely to pass unnoticed as opposed to no one winning 70 million or 1 person.
“Win the lottery for her Master” would likely be a much lesser infraction than “tinker with causality in order to make large-scale changes”, such as stopping a war.
“You don’t even have a legal identity.” Jean is a film, book, and magazine reviewer for a national magazine.
Does Jean still have that job? If he quit, it was never mentioned. Jean wouldn’t have done so in the early days post-transformation since he hoped to revert to “normal”.
If “he’s” working then he has a bank account where his pay is deposited and “he” has to fill out tax forms and pay them.
Failure to do any of those things would bring on an investigation. Neil could file a Death Certificate on his behalf, but that would also arouse suspicion. No body? Just disappeared? Why didn’t you report it at the time?
You’re right. Canned because of Covid.
Still requires paying taxes, having a bank account, and negotiating for the house.
She must have done it all acting “as an agent of Neil”. Without a SSN and proof of who you are, you can’t open a new bank account. (Well, maybe you can in Florida. A lot of ‘laundering’ there.) So the funds would have gone into Neil’s existing account and after a couple of months (says “earlier that year”) Neil hasn’t checked his balance?
There’s been no publicity? If I suddenly had $300,000 or so, the bank would be calling me, trying to interest me in investment opportunities.
Also, back in 618, Neil sort of sympathizes with Jeanie about how bored she must be. Can you imagine being ‘bored’ with magic powers like that? I’m sure she’d think of ways to amuse herself when not ‘on duty’.
Actually, I think you can open up an online account without having to prove you are the person the account is opened under. (I’m pretty sure that I didn’t need to show anything like that when I created one.) If you refuse to provide a SSN (no reason Jeanie wouldn’t be able to provide Neil’s though), the bank “just” withholds max-tax on any interest, and it gets flagged for more attention with the IRS.
You are not required to have a social security number to open a checking or savings account.
To open a checking or savings account, the bank or credit union will need to verify your name, date of birth, address, and ID number. An ID number can be a social security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). To get an ITIN, you will need to fill out a form with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) .
If you don’t have a U.S. government-issued SSN or ITIN, some banks and credit unions will accept a passport number and country of issuance, an alien identification card number, or other government-issued ID number.
Visit different banks and credit unions to find out what types of accounts they offer, and what types of ID numbers they accept.
Right. But if you create an online banking account, you aren’t in front of someone who can see that the person applying doesn’t resemble the identification that’s used.
I provided my SSN when I created an online account, and along with my name, address, etc they could see it matched. But I’m 99% sure that — at the time, anyway — they didn’t ask for a scan of a DL or photo ID. And they certainly didn’t ask for a video conference to try and match me with the ID info I provided.
So Jeanie could probably open up an online banking account in Neil’s name — she could get any ID card information that she needed.
But she wouldn’t be able to claim the winnings in Neil’s name. A few states — including Florida!!! — allow a trust to be created (as long as you call it something generic, it won’t identify you), and a registered trustee can then claim the winnings in the name of the trust. So if Jeanie was thinking about it, she could conceivably set up the “Genie Generosity Trust” with Neil as a beneficiary, got a lawyer and fiduciary to represent the trust, and then had one or both of them turn in the ticket.
Non-trivial, and honestly, I don’t see Jean(ie) as being that clever and forward-thinking.
I usually don’t have to go through all of this because by the time the guy gets to me, he pretty much knows what he wants, and it generally has to do with tons of money and power!
Do me a favor, do not drink from that cup.
I promise you there is not enough money and power on earth for you to be satisfied.
That’s the problem with learning. Instead of learning not to try it again, people just learn not to try it again *that way*. They always figure it’ll work this time, if they just try it a different way.
She should have just used stock market info – that would have been a million times less likely to cause time travel shenanigans and probably get even more money.
Time travel, remember? It is going to be tough to build an “insider trading” scandal, if she got all the information from open sources (newspaper, magaizines, newsletters) after the fact. Sure, they will be suspicious, and probe for information- but it unlikely you have a “personal” relationship with a random company.
Now, “price fixing/market manipulation” on the other hand- that might be something they could work with.
I’m going to guess it’s because Jeanie is lazy. And buying a single lottery ticket is a lot less work than tracking which stocks to buy and when to sell them.
Am I the only one who is hung up on the idea that an engineer working in the Aerospace industry cannot afford to buy a house? Choosing to have an apartment with roommates to save money is one thing, but unless he has massive debts or is grossly underpaid, or the house is in an exceptionally expensive area, I am hung up on the idea he finds paying a mortgage unimaginable.
Neil can probably afford the mortgage payments, but given his age and thus his likely savings balance, he probably feels he couldn’t afford the down payment. Of course, there are ways to minimize that, but it’s still a sizable chunk of change, and he may not have it yet, particularly if he’s paying off student loans.
According to Google, the median home price in Cocoa Beach is $520,000. And the average down payment is about 20%. So a down payment would likely be about $104,000. For a cheap fixer-upper, figure half that.
Even a young aeospace engineer like Neil might take a few years to save up $50K in cash.
I think it may be longer. Junior engineers don’t usually get important projects without being supervised by someone more experienced. I’m thinking closer to 6, maybe 7.
Jeanie explicitly stated that it was seven years ago when they went back in time to their high school prom. If Neil took the typical four years to get his degree, then he got his degree about three years ago, give or take a few months.
Whoops, Jeanie said they wouldn’t find the bottle for “another five years” in https://jeaniebottle.com/archives/comic/jeanie-bottle-645 . But if we assume that she is not grossly lowballing it, then it is not more than seven years between Prom and finding the bottle. We can then add in the time elapsed since finding the bottle (somewhere between several months to a year plus several months).
Well, we know one thing is for certain, Jean has been Jeanie for 1 year (Belle’s birthdays mark the year).
I made the assumption in Reunion that it was 10 years post-graduation based on an estimate of how long it would take to obtain an MA in engineering because, frankly, BAs are not likely to land a prestigious position in the space program (sub-contractor or not).
Evere since you came back from hiatus, I’ve noticed that Jeannie’s facial expressions are drawn more precisely than before. Are you taking extra care with the detail on that?
Also: What are the plans for Wolfpac? Been a while since that has moved…
So, reading all the comments, I don’t think anyone twigged on the fact that Jeanie’s still Jean with all his assets, bank accounts and other stuff. Jeanie could have won the lottery, deposited to her bank account and paid the taxes on it in Jean’s name all legal and proper.
The problem is, that to cash in a lottery jackpot, at some point you have to show up in person to sign the paperwork, along with presenting some ID. Jeanie could probably do that, but she’d have to magic up a driver’s license with her current likeness and gender on it. Personally, I think that shouldn’t be any trick for her, given that she’s managed to accomplish much more difficult things, (Time travel, etc.) but some people question as to whether she could produce a picture, given that genies can’t be photographed. (One wonders if, like vampires, they produce reflections?)
Of course, there’s also the genie rule that says that genies aren’t allowed to own anything. So maybe she’d get in trouble with Haji unless she turned the cash over to Neil immediately. Hard to say. Maybe that’s why she arranged for ownership of the house to be in Neil’s name.
Genies are not allowed to own property under Genie law—i.e. Haji will not recognize it as Jeanie’s property. That does not mean that she can’t convince a human government to recognize her as owner. Genie government seems not to care about deferring to human governments beyond “don’t bring law enforcement down on our heads”.
All this being said, it’s really saying something that Neil, a engineer at NASA, can’t afford a house without having a magic user abuse time and space to get a winning lottery ticket.
He works for a company that subcontracts with NASA (Jupiter 2 Engineering). And NASA’s budget is in tatters these days, so him not making a heck of a lot of money is really not that surprising.
Jean that was pretty smart, but your Time Travel adventures are going to catch up to you again.
Since she did nothing to alter the numbers, the win is completely legal. There are no laws against time travel in Florida or in US federal law.
Yet.
Just you wait…
my family and i WISH we were that lucky in the lottery.
Is that precognition or did she magic the balls?
She probably checked what the winning numbers were, and then went back in time before they were drawn.
If it weren’t for it saying ‘earlier that year’ I’d assume this was the lottery Rodge mentioned earlier this arc.
Maybe this is the lottery win that Neil and Rodge discussed WAY back at the beginning of the Timey Wimey arc?
Bingo!
No, I’m pretty sure it was the lottery, not bingo.
^_^
I feel like we’re still missing closure on what happened to Neil’s roommates. And her double outside, and the bottle poofing away.
Oh, but if this is just one example of her time traveling shenanigans, then I bet we’re getting closer to that story where we saw them in the 60s.
I agree! It would be very unsatisfying to have that story arc end as it did, with two lives ruined.
Gotta think that will be one of Neil’s questions, what happened to the roommates. Maybe we’ll get a frame or two to update what happened.
“Oh, it turns out your old roommates were drug dealers and car thieves, and the police raided your old place. So I thought I’d better erase anything that might indicate we used to live there too, and move us and our stuff out to this new house. I’m a good genie, aren’t I? Imagine all the trouble you’d be in if I weren’t around to look after you.”
😉
It interesting that they don’t have charecter icons. When did we see them in the 1960’s? What story?
Not the roommates, Jeanie & Neil. In the story about Rouyaa.
Yeah, the roommates look too young to have been alive in the 1960s.
It’d be nice to at least get an “this happened to them”
I would say ‘don’t mess with time’ lest you get the time police on you …
… but Jeanie has/will/now got away with it on multiple occasions.
If you would be time police, would you risk trying to stop one of most powerful genies of all times?
Powerful genies, renegade timelords, pesky Perry Rhodans, it’s the lot of the time police to deal with all those types.
Weird people in blue police boxes…
Which, uh, are renegade timelords, more or less. (Ok, for a time sie was also the president of Gallifrey …)
I was concerned about the agents who arrested the stoners getting suspicious regarding Neil’s new house, but if the later can actually prove having won the lottery…
People buy houses all the time without any FBI agents getting suspicious. As long as it’s a run-of-the-mill, middle-class house, no one will think anything of it. Neil’s a decently-paid aerospace engineer; he could easily have been saving up for a down payment for the last 10 years or so. Or they could say that his parents gave hime the money. Or that he cashed in some stock options. I bought a old house once for 200,000 in cash, and no one even asked me where it came from. All they cared about was that the bank transfer went through.
Now, if Jeannie had bought a mansion on the beach, THAT probably would have raised some red flags. But a run-down fixer-upper? No one will pay any attention.
That lottery ticket had to be cashed and the money deposited somewhere, probably in Neil’s name long before this reveal. Rodge mentioned the 2 winners on page 617, and $500+k is a bunch of money that can’t be cashed at a grocery store. How she did it remains a mystery, other than time travelling back to buy the ticket in the first place.
Getting back to the Feds: any investigation into Neil’s finances will reveal that he won the money and paid taxes on it (again, how Jeanie arranged that is yet to be revealed).
Assuming a $500k windfall (might be more) taxes will siphon off about a third leaving Neil with around $330k to pay for a run down, fixer upper. He’ll have some cash left over for repairs. Florida’s median home value is $378k, meaning there are a lot of homes available for a whole lot less.
You’re not thinking 4th dimensionally. Jeanie doesn’t have to have bought the house yet. Later, after all the hijinks in this story arc are over, she and Neil can go back in time – between her buying the lottery ticket and all this stuff happening – and purchase the house. As long as they will do that (time travel to the past) some time in the future, they own the house here and now.
Now if Jeannie was bright enugh to pick a week where no one else won the lottery, then the shift in the timelines would be barely noticeable. And the state takes out taxes before the recipient gets their cut, so there will be no repercussions come April 15.
And Neil’s complaint about a “legal identity” is a complete non-issue. Jeannie can easily magic up some completely valid ID documents; all she has to do is change the sex and picture on her original ID, and presto, she’s a valid US citizen again. In fact, she could even do that WITHOUT magic; just walk into the correct state office, say “I want to change the gender identification marker on my ID”, and she’d be just another M-to-F TG individual. The clerks nowadays wouldn’t even blink, except to compliment her on how nice she looks.
I think that she’s not ALLOWED to have legal identity as a genie.
Asha did though?
You can’t successfully take a picture of a genie. Can a genie *create* a picture of herself? (I don’t know why not, but then, I don’t know why they can’t have pictures taken of them, other than “it’s the rules.”)
photoshop exists afterall XD
would tale a little work but it’s not impossible (just working around the camera vs magic issue)
Photoshop is pretty much a forger’s dream come true.
But I’m sure that Jeannie can magcally do anything that Photoshop can, and instantly, as well.
and then there’s the whole concept of finding a fairly rich person (~millionaire) and offering them the winning ticket in exchance for say half the post tax winnings. Jeanie walks away with a pile of cash and doesn’t have to go to claim office at all (though Neil would still have to pay capital gains tax on the winnings to remain OK with the IRS)
* meant to say a third of the post tax winnings, but you get the point
I’m just wondering
When she purchased the house did she use the name Mrs Neil Anton?
Best option.
Matter of *which* gubmit agency you want coming after you. FBI, or IRS?
I see no way in which this will come back to bite anybody in the ass. None whatsoever. Yes siree…
See, Neil, she’s not a complete idiot, like you are. Settle down and tell her what a good genie she is. Say thank you. Put your arm around her waist, give her a quick, happy hug.
And kisssss… too much?
See how she responds to the hug–then maybe touch on her cheek or forehead.
She does look like she’s hoping for some aknowledgement.
Ah shit, here we go again…
see this is how one should wish for wealth.
Wishing to win the big lottery. Because no one will bat an eye where these money came from, especially not after ye have paid the lump sum income tax
Even then, taking the annuity instead of the lump sum can give you great flexibility. $500k divided over 20 years pays out around 2k per month (before taxes). You can get a mortgage based on just that guaranteed income and funnel the payment directly to the bank.
American lotteries are mostly a scam because.
1) the winning amout is before taxes
2) ye get even less if ye actually want it paid out
3) ye can’t do it unanimously.
but it is much better to take the lump sum due to inflation. And with that she can buy a house outright
If I were her I would have taken the Eurojackpot when it is at 120million, because for that ye can get more then a house, ye can get a private island
Florida doesn’t have an income tax and lottery winners are protected for 90 days after collecting. The Feds take 37%.
Not a scam, but generally a (very) bad bet to make. It’s not like they don’t list what the odds are, and what the cash vs annuity amounts are for the jackpot.
Whether you can remain anonymous depends on the state you live in, and what rules they have.
They’re a scam because the states regulate the max percentage that casi nos can keep of the money that’s gambled (usually they only let casi nos keep between 5%-10% – the other 90%-95% has to be returned as winnings). But then completely ignore that when they run their own state lottery (state usually keeps 25%-40%). Yes that’s right, you are literally better off gambling at a casi no than playing a government-run lottery. And that’s not even getting into the states which prohibit gambling, but happily let you gamble in a state lottery.
Odd word spacing because the site apparently blocks any post with the word casi no properly spelled.
I’m 71, I’ll take the cash please.
As someone else mentioned some days ago- first they freeze your assets, THEN you prove you got the money through legit means. So as long as my residence is listed as “CA”, I am going to have to pay Calif and Federal taxes on any Euro lottery winnings. At least the state sponsored lottos are not subject to state tax.
The anonymous part is a big help (again, not in CA), but it mainly is to prevent you from being targeted by aggressive salespeople/relatives- the Lotto still reports to the government that they paid you the money.
Indeed, and the Eurojackpot lottery is only tax free for citizens of an EU country, but even so, ye can get the winnings privately, and the fed wont care after ye have given them their share.
there will still be enogh left over for Jeannie to herself more then just one crappy house.
Because I really think she is the “private island” kind of gal.
But it needs to have a volcano though, and her lair must be inside the vulcano
You are putting her up against Chloe?
The taxing based on citizenship is almost uniquely an American thing. Most other countries tax based on whether or not you’re a resident. The U.S. taxes everything you make simply because you’re a citizen. On the state front at least, you can simply move to another state which doesn’t have an income tax. So if you’re a California resident and win a big lottery, it’s a good idea to establish residency in a no-income tax state and wait until the next calendar year before you cash in your ticket.
This is why you read stories about wealthy Americans renouncing their U.S. citizenship. Because even if they live abroad and make most or all of their money from things they do and own abroad, the IRS still insists they need to pay Federal income tax on that money. Boris Johnson (former UK PM) found this out the hard way when he was mayor of London and sold his house. It turns out he was born in the U.S. when his parents were there as grad students, which made him a dual US/UK citizen. He’d never been to the U.S. since he was a baby. But when the IRS found out he sold his house, they demanded he pay capital gains taxes on the sale. He fought it in court for a bit, gave up, paid the IRS, and promptly renounced his U.S. citizenship.
I’ve often thought you should go for the ones with huge jackpots and a couple of winners. 4 people winning 25 million each vs 5 people winning 20 is likely to pass unnoticed as opposed to no one winning 70 million or 1 person.
Yeah this wont come back to bite her in the ass…
how did she konw what numbers will be the winning numbers the ods of winng are very low
The internet. The winning numbers are recorded. Look ’em up and pop back in time.
Never fear. Mr. Peabody and Sherman will fix everything. Just wait for the one liner at the end of the arc.
Is the Genie Council aware of Jeanie playing around with time travel? Because I imagine they must have rules about that.
“Win the lottery for her Master” would likely be a much lesser infraction than “tinker with causality in order to make large-scale changes”, such as stopping a war.
“You don’t even have a legal identity.”
Jean is a film, book, and magazine reviewer for a national magazine.
Does Jean still have that job? If he quit, it was never mentioned. Jean wouldn’t have done so in the early days post-transformation since he hoped to revert to “normal”.
If “he’s” working then he has a bank account where his pay is deposited and “he” has to fill out tax forms and pay them.
Failure to do any of those things would bring on an investigation. Neil could file a Death Certificate on his behalf, but that would also arouse suspicion. No body? Just disappeared? Why didn’t you report it at the time?
This was kinda addressed in 618, pandemic issues.
You’re right. Canned because of Covid.
Still requires paying taxes, having a bank account, and negotiating for the house.
She must have done it all acting “as an agent of Neil”. Without a SSN and proof of who you are, you can’t open a new bank account. (Well, maybe you can in Florida. A lot of ‘laundering’ there.) So the funds would have gone into Neil’s existing account and after a couple of months (says “earlier that year”) Neil hasn’t checked his balance?
There’s been no publicity? If I suddenly had $300,000 or so, the bank would be calling me, trying to interest me in investment opportunities.
Also, back in 618, Neil sort of sympathizes with Jeanie about how bored she must be. Can you imagine being ‘bored’ with magic powers like that? I’m sure she’d think of ways to amuse herself when not ‘on duty’.
Actually, I think you can open up an online account without having to prove you are the person the account is opened under. (I’m pretty sure that I didn’t need to show anything like that when I created one.) If you refuse to provide a SSN (no reason Jeanie wouldn’t be able to provide Neil’s though), the bank “just” withholds max-tax on any interest, and it gets flagged for more attention with the IRS.
Yes, it’s possible, but you still need SOME government-issued proof of who you are.
And some other stuff which Jeanie cannot provide — honestly.
>https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/can-i-get-a-checking-account-without-a-social-security-number-en-929/
You are not required to have a social security number to open a checking or savings account.
To open a checking or savings account, the bank or credit union will need to verify your name, date of birth, address, and ID number. An ID number can be a social security number or an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). To get an ITIN, you will need to fill out a form with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) .
If you don’t have a U.S. government-issued SSN or ITIN, some banks and credit unions will accept a passport number and country of issuance, an alien identification card number, or other government-issued ID number.
Visit different banks and credit unions to find out what types of accounts they offer, and what types of ID numbers they accept.
Right. But if you create an online banking account, you aren’t in front of someone who can see that the person applying doesn’t resemble the identification that’s used.
I provided my SSN when I created an online account, and along with my name, address, etc they could see it matched. But I’m 99% sure that — at the time, anyway — they didn’t ask for a scan of a DL or photo ID. And they certainly didn’t ask for a video conference to try and match me with the ID info I provided.
So Jeanie could probably open up an online banking account in Neil’s name — she could get any ID card information that she needed.
But she wouldn’t be able to claim the winnings in Neil’s name. A few states — including Florida!!! — allow a trust to be created (as long as you call it something generic, it won’t identify you), and a registered trustee can then claim the winnings in the name of the trust. So if Jeanie was thinking about it, she could conceivably set up the “Genie Generosity Trust” with Neil as a beneficiary, got a lawyer and fiduciary to represent the trust, and then had one or both of them turn in the ticket.
Non-trivial, and honestly, I don’t see Jean(ie) as being that clever and forward-thinking.
I usually don’t have to go through all of this because by the time the guy gets to me, he pretty much knows what he wants, and it generally has to do with tons of money and power!
Do me a favor, do not drink from that cup.
I promise you there is not enough money and power on earth for you to be satisfied.
didn’t we already learn the troubles this sort of thing causes
That’s the problem with learning. Instead of learning not to try it again, people just learn not to try it again *that way*. They always figure it’ll work this time, if they just try it a different way.
She should have just used stock market info – that would have been a million times less likely to cause time travel shenanigans and probably get even more money.
um then there’s insider trading information as in Martha Stewart
Time travel, remember? It is going to be tough to build an “insider trading” scandal, if she got all the information from open sources (newspaper, magaizines, newsletters) after the fact. Sure, they will be suspicious, and probe for information- but it unlikely you have a “personal” relationship with a random company.
Now, “price fixing/market manipulation” on the other hand- that might be something they could work with.
I’m going to guess it’s because Jeanie is lazy. And buying a single lottery ticket is a lot less work than tracking which stocks to buy and when to sell them.
Am I the only one who is hung up on the idea that an engineer working in the Aerospace industry cannot afford to buy a house? Choosing to have an apartment with roommates to save money is one thing, but unless he has massive debts or is grossly underpaid, or the house is in an exceptionally expensive area, I am hung up on the idea he finds paying a mortgage unimaginable.
the smart thing to do for a single guy with a career and with no life is to move in with people he can tolerate
save every dime that he can save
invest in low yield, low risk
if he is making six figures and living on a fifth of it, then he could afford a house or a family or whatever he wants in just a couple years
Neil can probably afford the mortgage payments, but given his age and thus his likely savings balance, he probably feels he couldn’t afford the down payment. Of course, there are ways to minimize that, but it’s still a sizable chunk of change, and he may not have it yet, particularly if he’s paying off student loans.
According to Google, the median home price in Cocoa Beach is $520,000. And the average down payment is about 20%. So a down payment would likely be about $104,000. For a cheap fixer-upper, figure half that.
Even a young aeospace engineer like Neil might take a few years to save up $50K in cash.
Yes. We must remember that Neil is only three years out of school at this point.
I think it may be longer. Junior engineers don’t usually get important projects without being supervised by someone more experienced. I’m thinking closer to 6, maybe 7.
Have we seen any indication that the things Neil is working on are particularly important? Or that he’s unsupervised?
I can’t recall any such… He and Rodge seem to be fairly low on the totem pole. And he has a nitpicky boss that he’s scared of.
Jeanie explicitly stated that it was seven years ago when they went back in time to their high school prom. If Neil took the typical four years to get his degree, then he got his degree about three years ago, give or take a few months.
Where did she say seven years? I can’t find it.
Whoops, Jeanie said they wouldn’t find the bottle for “another five years” in https://jeaniebottle.com/archives/comic/jeanie-bottle-645 . But if we assume that she is not grossly lowballing it, then it is not more than seven years between Prom and finding the bottle. We can then add in the time elapsed since finding the bottle (somewhere between several months to a year plus several months).
Well, we know one thing is for certain, Jean has been Jeanie for 1 year (Belle’s birthdays mark the year).
I made the assumption in Reunion that it was 10 years post-graduation based on an estimate of how long it would take to obtain an MA in engineering because, frankly, BAs are not likely to land a prestigious position in the space program (sub-contractor or not).
Hey, CD –
Evere since you came back from hiatus, I’ve noticed that Jeannie’s facial expressions are drawn more precisely than before. Are you taking extra care with the detail on that?
Also: What are the plans for Wolfpac? Been a while since that has moved…
So, reading all the comments, I don’t think anyone twigged on the fact that Jeanie’s still Jean with all his assets, bank accounts and other stuff. Jeanie could have won the lottery, deposited to her bank account and paid the taxes on it in Jean’s name all legal and proper.
The problem is, that to cash in a lottery jackpot, at some point you have to show up in person to sign the paperwork, along with presenting some ID. Jeanie could probably do that, but she’d have to magic up a driver’s license with her current likeness and gender on it. Personally, I think that shouldn’t be any trick for her, given that she’s managed to accomplish much more difficult things, (Time travel, etc.) but some people question as to whether she could produce a picture, given that genies can’t be photographed. (One wonders if, like vampires, they produce reflections?)
Of course, there’s also the genie rule that says that genies aren’t allowed to own anything. So maybe she’d get in trouble with Haji unless she turned the cash over to Neil immediately. Hard to say. Maybe that’s why she arranged for ownership of the house to be in Neil’s name.
Genies are not allowed to own property under Genie law—i.e. Haji will not recognize it as Jeanie’s property. That does not mean that she can’t convince a human government to recognize her as owner. Genie government seems not to care about deferring to human governments beyond “don’t bring law enforcement down on our heads”.
Didn’t she have issues with her apartment and Neil’s at the begining?
All this being said, it’s really saying something that Neil, a engineer at NASA, can’t afford a house without having a magic user abuse time and space to get a winning lottery ticket.
He works for a company that subcontracts with NASA (Jupiter 2 Engineering). And NASA’s budget is in tatters these days, so him not making a heck of a lot of money is really not that surprising.