Twilight Lexicon Discussion Forums

i dont really see why they would need alice to predict trends in the stock market if carlisle is a doctor, i mean, don't doctors make like, ALOT of money? but i guess they would also be rich because they dont need to spend thousands of dollars on food each year =) lol

ilovetwilight wrote:i dont really see why they would need alice to predict trends in the stock market if carlisle is a doctor, i mean, don't doctors make like, ALOT of money? but i guess they would also be rich because they dont need to spend thousands of dollars on food each year =) lol

Maybe they want to buy more cars, or designer clothes, or thousand dollar tuitions, or half-a-million dollar dresses from France.

Amivera wrote:

ilovetwilight wrote:i dont really see why they would need alice to predict trends in the stock market if carlisle is a doctor, i mean, don't doctors make like, ALOT of money? but i guess they would also be rich because they dont need to spend thousands of dollars on food each year =) lol

Maybe they want to buy more cars, or designer clothes, or thousand dollar tuitions, or half-a-million dollar dresses from France.

lol, half-a-million dollar dresses from France. that sounds reasonable

seroiusly they could not bother buying these things
they could get to see france and then when they are about to leave they can steal the dresses and make a run for it without spending a cent
and most of all alice would love france
I wonder how many times she has dragged Jasper to the french shops

ILY_E.C_4EVA wrote:seroiusly they could not bother buying these things

They couldn't? You mean they aren't allowed to buy cheaper cars that use up less gas? They aren't allowed to shop at Macy's instead of spending money for useless designer dresses?

I. Am. Surprised.

Well, obviously there is some illegal activity going on. Just for basic interaction needs. They need names and birth certificates and licenses.

But as far as the US government goes they don't really exist. The Social Security Act was not established until 1935. I think most of them fell before that deadline (Rose and Emmett?) Plus, some of them speak other languages, they probably haven't lived in the US constantly. The way they travel they don't need passports, or credit cards (a luxury for them not a need). They only need birth certificates and licesnses if they want to be around humans. It's not a necessity.

I don't feel like they probably cheated the stock market or lottery too too much. Carlisle's been a doctor for about three hundred years-- that's a nice chunk of change. They've all been to some degree of college and may have had some kind of professional job for at least a small while (before people realized they looked really young and weren't aging). Doing that cycle every ten years for a hundred years get's you a good nest egg.
Plus, they don't need food (I don't know about you guys but my groceries cost ALOT). Carlisle probably pays for the houes in full or a rather small mortgage, and when they leave I don't see him selling it. Maybe just playing it off like they sold it. They don't need bathrooms or ergo running water. And they don't sleep. Humans spend over 1/3 of their lives sleeping. So no sleep x immortality= alot of free time. They need to do something: work, study, invent.

So this got a little offtopic (many apologies) but the gist is that they don't really need to cheat into alot of money and they only need a couple of basic documents for survival.

I thought they still pay their tax. Since Alice's ability to predict the stockmarket and they have loads of money, how come no one realised they were that rich? Like Forbes or something.


Its amazing how they managed to escape all these stuff. What about finger prints for ids and others at international checkpoints?? How do they get through this?

ilovetwilight wrote:but i guess they would also be rich because they dont need to spend thousands of dollars on food each year =) lol

Didn't they say in one of the books (BD - but I can't be sure cause I don't have the books with me) that they do buy food to keep the pretense up? And knowing Alice she probably only buys really expensive stuff... So no money saving there...

BreathelessVampire wrote:I thought they still pay their tax. Since Alice's ability to predict the stockmarket and they have loads of money, how come no one realised they were that rich? Like Forbes or something.

Fake names aren't hard to come up with, and its fairly easy to formulate a false business or network in which to buy and sell stocks without drawing attention to themselves.

Its amazing how they managed to escape all these stuff. What about finger prints for ids and others at international checkpoints?? How do they get through this?

The fingerprint thing actually make a lot of sense. For holding a job like a doctor you do, I believe, need to be fingerprinted. It states in Midnight Sun that they managed to reconfigure touch-screen computers not to read heat signatures. If they can do that I think for sure they can forge fingerprints, or forge fingerprint documents, at the very least. I've been fingerprinted for a job before, and I imagine if you had the time and knowledge of the Cullens it wouldn't too difficult to get a set-up like that to function and forge, because the set-up isn't that fancy at all. Even if they can't, Jasper probably has a connection who can.

As for the taxes, I suspect they do pay taxes. I highly doubt the hospital pays Dr. Cullen under the table. If they were all involved in jobs where they were self-employed then skipping out on your taxes would be pie, but Carlisle, at the very least, has a presumably high paying job at a hospital.

BreathelessVampire wrote:I thought they still pay their tax. Since Alice's ability to predict the stockmarket and they have loads of money, how come no one realised they were that rich? Like Forbes or something.

I was wondering about that too. The Cullens are probably millionaires (they have a car that doesn't exist OR make logical sense?) Jacob and the wolves are probably the tallest guys in the world...