Corcaigh

People who continue to work after financial independence are choosing to spend their precious time to make money they don’t need to pay for experiences they probably won’t have. Unless you are doing something like running a fishing boat charter and drinking beers with the customers. But working on autopilot doing something you don’t absolutely love for money you don’t need is a terrible waste of your hours on this earth. Of course, volunteer and do things that you enjoy, but the reality is that 90% + of what most people do in their jobs is tedious. We tell ourselves stories as working stiffs that our work is important or interesting to make the passage of time less depressing. 😁

If you put a chunk, say $100m, in the most common (and sensible) investments … stocks, bonds or savings accounts you will receive monthly and quarterly dividends and interest to the tune of multiple millions a year that will far, far outpace your income from being a working stiff.

I just saw on a press conference that they are just looking for six contractors who were still on the bridge when it collapsed. They said are not looking for vehicle occupants. That might suggest that they managed to stop traffic just in time as you could see cars and trucks crossing in the last few seconds leading up to the impact.

Apparently they haven’t lived there for years and have been trying to sell it starting in 2018. Reducing the price by $14million last summer didn’t bring any buyers. With property taxes and upkeep I expect he’s very glad to be rid of it.

I suppose this is most relevant here … Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. USA is fourth in consumption of resources per capita. More at: https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/newsroom/country-overshoot-days/

Not knowing the technical design of the different pieces we have no information to make that assumption. Anyone in the field would look at the risks and determine when COTS components can be used to build critical systems.

There’s the battery, then there’s the battery management system, then there’s the charging infrastructure, then there’s the subsystems for managing the electrical and thermal loads, and to manage shutdown etc. In an implementation for demanding applications that you can actually trust they all need to be implemented in an integrated way. If your Tesla breaks down or catches fire on the side of the road it’s good for a laugh and a social media post, but less so in military applications.

It’s not likely ever going to be a significant part of our overall net worth and so it doesn’t provide any diversification benefit. It’s analogous to investing a few $10s of k in iBonds versus just putting more in a total bond fund. There's a lot to be said for simplification and having a smaller number of broad diversified index funds.

I never sold my modest stake bought back in 2017/2018 which is currently up about 6x. I am in two minds at this point whether to just let it ride to the moon (or zero), or with the goal of simplifying my life a little just sell it all and stick the proceeds in an existing stock index fund account, delete my crypto wallet and never think about it again.

It seems like one area that the Internet and buyers/sellers having immeasurably more information has not made a dramatic change unlike in many other industries. I think Redfin uses a commission of 1.5% versus 3% and yet has not blown up the traditional realtor industry. People in the business have for years offered to waive the buyers fee in return for a discount. I can imagine that there will be different pricing packages but traditional realtors will still end up with similar total comp. Their biggest asset is a somewhat warm database of sellers and buyers who they nurture with holiday pies and tchotchkes and as their clients have a transaction no more than once a decade they are more willing to pay for ‘white glove’ service.

The Census is a pretty sophisticated operation uses various techniques to estimate undocumented including data from at least 30 other government agencies. I wonder if this complaint is real or they are whining because the results they got aren’t what they like. The Earth could support about 20 billion in a sustainable manner if we lived in a more resource conscious way. So Elon and Jeff can ditch their super yachts and space tourism. if humans don’t want to do that then we would do better of the Earth’s population was about half current levels.

If you are in Scotland or Northern Ireland and you are given local bank notes, ask for English ones instead. It’s understood that people who are visiting Scotland or Northern Ireland don’t want the local bank notes when they leave and the establishment giving you the notes should be happy to oblige.

The billboard was poorly worded. It would have been more accurate to say: ”You have no musical talent and your only commercial worth is as a sexual fantasy to your loser incel fans. Having a partner bursts our pathetic bubble and you are no longer interesting to us.”

I'm pretty sure that a 'K-pop Star' must be a breakfast cereal influencer.

Yeah, RMDs kick in at 75 for someone born after 1960 and so between the time when you retire and when you start taking Social Security and later RMDs there potentially are a number of years when your income with be at its lowest and so you can withdraw from your tax deferred IRA and convert a chunk into Roth. Dependent on how your work retirement plan is set up there is the possibility of backdoor and mega backdoor Roth conversions, but probably prohibitive tax-wise. The Bogleheads forum is a great place where you can post your current assets (anonymously of course) and ask about strategies that make sense to you specifically to avoid unnecessary taxes in retirement.

I’m sure most people don’t realize how much cost they are incurring by working with an advisor managing their investments. It’s pretty well proven that a balanced equity and fixed income portfolio appropriate for your risk tolerance and timeline when you will want to make withdrawals (such as the allocation in one of the target date funds) will outperform most active management, even without taking into account fees. But people don’t do the math to realize how much the advisor is costing them. Take a scenario where someone invests 1000 per month over 40 years and gets a 10% return (S&P historic average). You will have about $5M after your 40 years of saving. If you get lucky and an advisor is getting similar performance (after their meddling in order to justify their fees), with their 1% fee creating a drag on the returns you will end up with a sum more than a million less. And many advisors charge above 1%, especially until you have a multi-million dollar portfolio.

This is the S&P performance for the past decade. In only three years out of ten investors have not done well, and in some years they’ve done exceptionally well. Better than historical averages. But for most of us we remember losses more than gains. And because of volatility you see on the chart, trying to pick when to enter and when to exit the market is very inefficient.

$2975, unless you are getting the family discount. https://shop.tesla.com/product/cybertruck-basecamp

And only $3000.

I’d like to see a diverse approach: (1) more renewable, including home solar (2) better energy efficiency - my utilities are a third now in a properly constructed and insulated home compared to the ****ty construction late-1980s McMansion I used to live in. And the square footage is higher in our new home. (3) increase nuclear (4) more reservoirs that can serve to smooth out the peaks and troughs of rainfall with climate change, and also to act as pump storage for when renewables are producing more than we can use.

I think we are still a few years away from commercial SMR offerings and until then it’s hard to evaluate the economics. Because of complexity, nuclear reactors are currently about 50% higher than wind/solar and natural gas. Reducing the size of a reactor might reduce some costs but would increase others such as security and waste management given there would be more of them and spread out geographically.

Nice quote from William Bernstein who has written a number of highly regarded books on investing and financial independence: "People do not seek employment in investment banks, brokerage houses, and mutual fund companies with the same motivations as those who choose to work in fire departments or elementary schools. Whether investors know it or not, they are engaged in an ongoing zero-sum, life-and-death struggle with piranhas, and if rigorous precautions are not taken, the financial services industry will strip investors of their wealth faster than they can say 'Bernie Madoff'".

Bogleheads.org - a message board with fabulous advice on investing and personal finance for people who want to self manage their finances. Incredibly knowledgeable and helpful people there.