Search found 1179 matches

by GCD
Mon Dec 11, 2023 8:25 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Wine - what are we paying more for … ?
Replies: 185
Views: 32773

Re: Wine - what are we paying more for … ?

I would argue that if you are just pouring a bunch of wines and drinking them from cups back to back you are kind of missing "a" point, although not necessarily "the" point. When you decant a wine, the flavor changes. When you pair a wine with food, the flavor changes. I suggest https://www.amazon.com/Taste-Buds-Molecules-Science-Flavor/dp/1118141849/ref=sr_1_1?adgrpid=1346902306257887&hvadid=84181717151995&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=89514&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-84181730949649%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=16184_13557413&keywords=taste+buds+and+molecules&qid=1702347526&sr=8-1 if you are interested in a deep dive into the nuances of pairing wine with food. I have to second all the com...
by GCD
Fri Aug 25, 2023 10:34 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Epic kid focused summer in the US
Replies: 41
Views: 5043

Re: Epic kid focused summer in the US

This may be a bit out of your way, but could I recommend the Black Hills of South Dakota? Also the nearby Badlands. Lots of varied terrain there and Rapid City, SD has this weird hotel/waterpark thing going on. Several hotels have pretty big waterparks attached to the hotel. I used to live there and you can get a good 2-3 weeks out of the area before you've used it up.

I sure wouldn't waste my whole summer there...
by GCD
Thu May 18, 2023 7:55 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Fun science/nature experiments to do with kids
Replies: 32
Views: 2039

Re: Fun science/nature experiments to do with kids

A simple trebuchet is interesting to build (though hard to do successfully). "Build a Catapult in Your Backyard" by Bill Wilson published by Loompanics Unlimited has pretty good plans if you are completely new to this, but honestly, there are schematics all over the internet. I would also recommend "Backyard Ballistics" by William Gurstelle, but maybe the table of contents is again all you need since there are schematics for all kinds of things online these days. When they're a couple of years older you might consider fermentation and distillation for an introduction to the life sciences. LOL!!! His kids are 8 and 6! :sharebeer On another note, we always had great fun just going for walks off the beaten path and identif...
by GCD
Wed Jan 18, 2023 9:28 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Good books on relearning math basics
Replies: 17
Views: 1767

Re: Good books on relearning math basics

Here's another vote for Khan Academy. I sympathize with your plight. I had to relearn everything up through Pre-Calc when my kids were in HS and teach myself enough Calculus that I could help them occasionally. Khan Academy was the best resource I found. I was good through Algebra, but had to refresh after that. Calc was entirely new to me.
by GCD
Mon Jan 10, 2022 4:06 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: The Great Courses: Critique
Replies: 55
Views: 6499

Re: The Great Courses: Critique

It's been a few years, but I taught my kids, then HS age, some logic. I used my old college textbook and the Great Courses logic class. I used the Great Courses class just to mix it up and give them someone to listen to besides me. When I took logic in college it was a 200 level course. The Great Courses class did a decent job of covering a little less than 1/2 of the material in the college course. What GC covered was done well, it just didn't cover 1/2 the material.
by GCD
Sun Apr 11, 2021 2:04 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: The primary factor for picking a College/University is out of pocket cost
Replies: 422
Views: 35049

Re: The primary factor for picking a College/University is out of pocket cost

Your community college 2 years might not even get the student the perquisites for a desirable major, let alone actually to be permitted to enroll. They may need another year, or two, at the state U before they can start on their major. Again, assuming they can get in to the major at all after community college. This is certainly true, but it's not a mystery. Anyone who takes the time to research it can find out exactly how this works. I know of at least 3 states (IL, ID, VA) where the process is explicitly laid out and written in stone. Go to X CC, take Y courses, get Z GPA and all those classes will transfer and you qualify for a specific major at a specific state school. I assume that is the case for most states, but I haven't looked int...
by GCD
Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:23 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Buying a house in Bay Area
Replies: 57
Views: 6799

Re: Buying a house in Bay Area

Schools can change in 7 years... This. Neighborhoods change and even when they don't, redistricting can change up the quality of a school. Read through some of the threads on here about houses and school rankings to get a sense of all the things that can make a school's rank change. There is also the issue of whether you are concerned about school "quality" because of its effect on home value or because you actually have a kid in the school, or both. Read through the threads with an eye toward discussion about how school quality rank is somewhat tangential to the education a particular student receives. Some of these threads have gone on for dozens and dozens (hundreds?) of posts. Way more detail and nuance than I can summarize h...
by GCD
Tue Mar 30, 2021 9:17 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Which Subaru would you recommend for my mom (mid 70s)?
Replies: 31
Views: 2728

Re: Which Subaru would you recommend for my mom (mid 70s)?

Meh. A Subaru Ascent malfunctioned and almost caused me and my kids to be rear-ended on the interstate at 80 mph by a semi. We won the lemon law lawsuit pretty easily and painlessly. Foolishly we bought another Subaru on the theory that it was a lemon and we should go off national averages, not our one off experience. Ooops. Major fail on my part. New Subaru is an endless source of problems and we are documenting those for another lemon law lawsuit.

Want mom to be safe? Buy Toyota.
by GCD
Tue Mar 23, 2021 5:01 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Federal Job Relocation Benefits?
Replies: 10
Views: 1337

Re: Federal Job Relocation Benefits?

Hard to say without specifics on the exact job. As Retiredjg said, generally there are no moving benefits for your first fed position. There are exceptions, such as FBI, DEA, etc. There are no "federal" movers. The feds simply pay private sector movers to do the work. My results have run from good to bad on that. My experience every time was that the driver and helper were pros employed by the company. They then hired local day labor to load the truck. Those folks need to be watched carefully, or at least the best you can. In my experience there is no option to take a lump sum. I moved 5 times with 3 different agencies. An obligation to stay on for 12 months was part of the deal in each of my moves. If you are a direct hire into a...
by GCD
Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:28 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Buying a revenue stream
Replies: 5
Views: 1024

Re: Buying a revenue stream

OP, what you are describing is a job, not an investment. It may be fairly rewarding on a per hour basis, but most jobs don't make you pay $10K+ up front to get the job. Your friend can't go on vacation, even a long weekend getaway, without hiring an employee. Now it's a business, not a job. Be careful you are comparing apples to apples.
by GCD
Sun Mar 14, 2021 3:58 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: How neccesary are good schools
Replies: 19
Views: 1993

Re: How neccesary are good schools

What often isn't considered is how quickly the rating of a school on Great Schools can change due to redistricting. When we bought our house in 2014, the HS was rated 8/10 on Great Schools. In the last couple years there has been a rapid drop down to a 6. This occurred simultaneously with redistricting where a large block of apartments got moved into our HS district. In Fall of last year, before COVID hit, the school was actually locked down for a bit when a gun was found in some kid's locker. However, my kids take honors, AP and IB classes and don't encounter the unmotivated kids in any of their classes, except the occasional elective. Since my kids were taking extra science classes as electives, instead of gym or whatever, they didn't eve...
by GCD
Tue Mar 09, 2021 9:17 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Estate (Home) clean-out after my parents passing - tips and best practices?
Replies: 56
Views: 10414

Re: Estate (Home) clean-out after my parents passing - tips and best practices?

I'm vaguely familiar with estate sales, having attended a few, but never having arranged one. I would assume, very possibly incorrectly, that this is not entirely an option for a hoarders house in the early stages. In the early stages I had several professional moving companies refuse to even bid the job because of the concern about vermin, etc. No estate sale company is going to be able to sell old McDonalds wrappers and mousetraps with the skeletal mice still in them. Clean up of trash sometimes involves snow shovels and wheel barrows. There's going to be a lot of work to be done before an estate sale company is likely to enter the game. But I would consult them early so you don't throw out stuff they might sell.
by GCD
Sun Mar 07, 2021 11:44 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Buying Fine Art - advice needed.....
Replies: 71
Views: 5936

Re: Buying Fine Art - advice needed.....

If it's not for investment and you are just buying it to enjoy looking at it, buy a print, not the original.

Tell your wife, in the future, only look at prints.
by GCD
Sat Mar 06, 2021 8:19 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: recommend me some books on personal finance and investing
Replies: 12
Views: 1408

Re: recommend me so books on personal finance and investing

Sandtrap wrote: Fri Mar 05, 2021 6:11 am There's a huge amount of information on the forum WIKI.
Suggest starting with the "getting started" section and reading everything as well as all of the suggested books on the book list.

IMHO: there's more condensed information that's easy to read and digest in the forum WIKI than in stacks of investing books. All cake, no icing, no fluff, pure fiber.

j :D
I absolutely concur with both points. The suggested reading ought to keep you busy for awhile.
by GCD
Fri Mar 05, 2021 2:15 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Anyone employ personal assistants? House managers?
Replies: 49
Views: 5371

Re: Anyone employ personal assistants? House managers?

The fix for that is to be expressly clear they are independent contractors. We let our maid pick the day of the week she will come and her hours. I should probably do something further to firm up that independent contractor status though. Thanks for the reminder.
by GCD
Fri Mar 05, 2021 2:04 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Anyone employ personal assistants? House managers?
Replies: 49
Views: 5371

Re: Anyone employ personal assistants? House managers?

We had some interior painters steal from us and another maid service in another state, not Molly Maids, steal from us. We make it a policy to never let workers in our house unsupervised, but if you have a crew working you can't be on top of all of them all the time. The maid we have now is one we trust and think very highly of. We are always home when she comes though, but being retired that's easily done. We don't follow her around, but we are present in the house. She says about half her customers are home and half give her a key and she lets herself in and out. Just as a data point, back in the mid 80's I read an article in an industrial security magazine where they said research had shown that the break point in buying employee loyalty ...
by GCD
Fri Mar 05, 2021 1:47 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Anyone employ personal assistants? House managers?
Replies: 49
Views: 5371

Re: Anyone employ personal assistants? House managers?

Anyone have any ideas how much "house keepers" or "housemen" cost to hire? Any good sources of information out there to survey what the options are? You are perfectly justified in hiring domestic help for your house and grounds. I think you pay for what you get. We had Molly Maids and lived in perpetual fear that they were going to steal stuff from us. It was pretty clear that several of them were drug users, alcoholics, etc. We eventually found a wonderful self-employed maid who comes once every 2 weeks for 6 hours. We pay her about $150, but give her a Christmas bonus and about 4-5 paid days ("weeks") off whenever we have a scheduling conflict. She cleans the house and would do laundry and dishes if we broug...
by GCD
Thu Mar 04, 2021 9:10 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: 2021 Sunglasses Thread 😎
Replies: 61
Views: 6647

Re: 2021 Sunglasses Thread 😎

unstoppable wrote: Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:39 pm
I did see some weird California cancer warning, is this something I should be concerned about?
Having lived in California, I'd tell you what I think of that, but someone would report me for giving medical advice.
by GCD
Thu Mar 04, 2021 6:54 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: 2021 Sunglasses Thread 😎
Replies: 61
Views: 6647

Re: 2021 Sunglasses Thread 😎

What’s the best for daily use and also for extreme conditions like driving directly into the Florida sun? What’s the best price range for quality? Assuming I’m half decent at keeping my possessions safe/nice. Ideally I’d just like to order tonight online, so something easily accessible. Thanks. My vote is for Stihl, the chainsaw company, Timbersports series. They are available on Amazon. But Dewalt is easily accessible at Home Depot or Lowes if you want to buy it physically tonight. Both give perfectly good sun protection, UV rated and polarized if you want it. And they have the added bonus of giving you industrial eye protection from debris. I think they look better than that Maui Jim stuff :happy , but I'm not very trendy and even when I...
by GCD
Thu Mar 04, 2021 1:47 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Anyone employ personal assistants? House managers?
Replies: 49
Views: 5371

Re: Anyone employ personal assistants? House managers?

See link below for all sorts of household help. This is one of many companies that provide these employees. If you search around you can find job sites that you can post your own requirements on. I remember seeing one with chefs making $100K plus in NYC, plus fairly nice benefit packages. There seems to be some differences between housemen, butlers, caretakers, housekeepers, estate managers, laundresses, etc. Many more specialties than I ever knew about. I guess that just shows my socioeconomic stratum. Sounds like you may want a houseman. "Some additional requirements may be: Deep cleaning Laundry Cooking Formal serving Home repairs Gardening Pool maintenance Car maintenance Pet care" But what you want is obviously on you. https:...
by GCD
Sun Feb 21, 2021 3:17 pm
Forum: Personal Investments
Topic: 401k plan audit after ceo termination
Replies: 22
Views: 2450

Re: 401k plan audit after ceo termination

is it customary for a 401k plan to be audited after a ceo is terminated for fraud , theft from company, I don't know if an internal audit revealed the fraud and I don't know your position in the company, but I'd want an independent, multi-year audit. who does those. You can take your suspicions to the nearest US Dept. of Labor office and make a complaint. This used to be enforced, circa 1995, by the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration within the DOL. They changed the name of the sub-agency to something else now, but any DOL office ought to be able to get you connected to whoever it is that enforces ERISA. It all depends on who you get on the phone and how busy they are and how hungry they are for a potential case. But a fiduciary b...
by GCD
Sun Feb 21, 2021 3:08 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: too much in 401k may be forced to quit job
Replies: 183
Views: 20454

Re: too much in 401k may be forced to quit job

someone in administration at my place of employment spilled the beans about my 401k balance, newly appointed president of company angrily informed me, that my balance was highest in plan, way higher than all other participants. This situation is creating a lot of conflict with fellow employees, everyone is asking why I just don't retire. Have multiple job offers monthly(highly skilled labor) but really don't want to resign from place I have worked for 20 plus years. Anyone else here been in similar situation, am hoping this situation will die down with more time. i dont think it is mathematically possible, considering most 401k have limited funds to choose from to begin with, so most people probably invest in the same funds anyway. how is ...
by GCD
Sun Feb 21, 2021 3:04 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: too much in 401k may be forced to quit job
Replies: 183
Views: 20454

Re: too much in 401k may be forced to quit job

gonefishing01 wrote: Sun Feb 21, 2021 3:00 pm I’m still not sure why the overall account balance-which can include rollovers from previous employers-matters vs contributions.
Agreed. I'm just wondering if it is a miscommunication re contributions vs. balance.
by GCD
Sun Feb 21, 2021 3:00 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: too much in 401k may be forced to quit job
Replies: 183
Views: 20454

Re: too much in 401k may be forced to quit job

... newly appointed president of company angrily informed me, that my balance was highest in plan, way higher than all other participants. Is there a miscommunication/misinterpretation of the issue? Is this about contributions and not the total balance? From my link a few posts above: "Each year, employers run the 401(k) plans they sponsor through non-discrimination tests. The IRS requires these to make sure plans don’t favor highly compensated employees over the rest of the company. So to pass the test, average contributions made by HCEs can’t be more than 2% higher than average contributions made by non-highly compensated employees. So if the average contribution non-HCEs make equals 4% of their salaries, the average contribution HC...
by GCD
Sun Feb 21, 2021 2:45 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: too much in 401k may be forced to quit job
Replies: 183
Views: 20454

Re: too much in 401k may be forced to quit job

I won't get into the ethics of disclosing an employee's account balance to other employees, but the company very much has a reason to track the contributions of its employees. The bar for being deemed a highly compensated employee is quite low and depending on a variety of factors contribution limits can come into play. This is forced on plan sponsors by ERISA, it's not the company just arbitrarily deciding to pick on people.

This isn't totally on-topic relevant to the OP, but may interest some people based on their posts in this thread.

https://smartasset.com/retirement/401k- ... d-employee
by GCD
Wed Feb 17, 2021 9:04 am
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: TSP 3-Funds or TSP Target Date Fund?
Replies: 85
Views: 9050

Re: TSP 3-Funds or TSP Target Date Fund?

I recently accepted a federal job as well. Most of my retirement will come in the form of pension as opposed to TSP. I still use target date fund in TSP. I don't know what your personal situation is, whether you started your federal job at age 50 or whatever. But many federal retirees are TSP millionaires. https://www.fedsmith.com/2021/01/06/2020s-bull-market-leads-more-federal-employee-millionaires/#:~:text=To%20put%20this%20in%20perspective%2C%20at%20the%20end,last%20quarter%20and%20over%2036%2C000%25%20since%20January%202012. From the article: "To put this in perspective, at the end of September 2020, there were 55,183 TSP millionaires. At the end of 2019, there were 49,620. In January 2012 there were just over 200 TSP millionaires...
by GCD
Tue Jan 26, 2021 10:18 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Does TV Commercials, Online Ads and Telemarketing Affect Your Consumption Choices?
Replies: 73
Views: 4982

Re: Does TV Commercials, Online Ads and Telemarketing Effect Your Consumption Choices?

I bought a Denver Leather Briefcase from Buffalo Jackson. I was initially looking at a Saddleback leather briefcase and a Buffalo Jackson ad popped up on my computer. I eventually decided I liked that briefcase more than the Saddleback product, albeit after much research and rumination. Other than that my only weakness to advertising is the book feed on Amazon. Those guys have me pegged. Soooo many books targeted right to my interests. I probably buy 2% of all the books Amazon pitches me. Which is more than I can keep up with. But I'm a bit of a bibliophile, so it's more of a specific mental disorder they are preying on than a general susceptibility to advertising across the board.
by GCD
Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:29 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Web site that lists recent home sales?
Replies: 7
Views: 852

Re: Web site that lists recent home sales?

If you type a zip code into Zillow the first thing it returns is recently sold homes.

https://www.zillow.com/homes/60540_rb/
by GCD
Sat Jan 16, 2021 5:49 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: FireCalc Question
Replies: 8
Views: 964

Re: FireCalc Question

I don't know. I just noticed the strange result, other users agreed it was a problem, and after notification FireCalc has done nothing to fix it in over 2 years. I'm not concerned enough to dig in and figure out the details of what is happening. I don't rely on FireCalc's projections, it's just a curiosity for me.

Sorry I don't have an explanation.
by GCD
Sat Jan 16, 2021 3:35 pm
Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
Topic: FireCalc Question
Replies: 8
Views: 964

Re: FireCalc Question

Not directly in answer to your question, but I just checked and this bug has not yet been fixed. They've known about it for quite awhile too. So take their output with a bit of skepticism and double check it before relying on it for anything.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=251083&p=3960982&h ... c#p3960982
by GCD
Sat Jan 16, 2021 3:24 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: How to become proficient at Research?
Replies: 68
Views: 5064

Re: How to become proficient at Research?

Also, never done it, but I've read if you can't access the research for free, you can email the author and state your purpose and the author may share a pdf with you. I've done this. It works. In addition to journal articles, I had someone send me a PDF of a $150 book. This is pretty thin anecdotal evidence, but I think this generosity may be pretty widespread. It's a pretty slim group of people interested in academic research that aren't students or faculty with online access to everything. I don't think it is a very common request to get so the authors are pretty generous. The unfortunate reality is that in the biological sciences, there is so much non-reproducible and biased research that it is rare to find readily reproducible results....
by GCD
Sat Jan 16, 2021 10:44 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: How to become proficient at Research?
Replies: 68
Views: 5064

Re: How to become proficient at Research?

This would give you a good overview of research methodology from a social science perspective. It was a required text in a research methods class for PhD students circa 2016.

https://www.amazon.com/Research-Methods ... 289&sr=8-1
by GCD
Wed Jan 13, 2021 8:41 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Who's keeping Netflix now? (price increased to $13.99)
Replies: 215
Views: 19859

Re: Who's keeping Netflix now? (price increased to $13.99)

I don't know if this was mentioned upthread, but Comcast provides Netflix for free in whatever package we have. Otherwise I wouldn't get it because, IMO, 98%+ of Netflix content sucks. We'd pass, but Comcast seems intent on offering it for free. To be fair, a lot of cable content is really terrible. But maybe I'm just an old grumpy reader.
by GCD
Thu Jan 07, 2021 9:00 pm
Forum: Non-US Investing
Topic: Retirement £ mindset
Replies: 26
Views: 3520

Re: Retirement £ mindset

Edit.
by GCD
Tue Jan 05, 2021 7:07 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Any multimillionaire's (more than 2mm) out there still mow their own lawn?
Replies: 341
Views: 33436

Re: Any multimillionaire's (more than 2mm) out there still mow their own lawn?

New Providence wrote: Tue Jan 05, 2021 7:03 pm
mak1277 wrote: Tue Jan 05, 2021 10:11 am
livesoft wrote: Mon Jan 04, 2021 4:44 pm
H-Town wrote: Mon Jan 04, 2021 4:28 pm... Maybe we should judge how much millionaires can deadlift or squat.
Or how many still cook their own food? Or clean their own bathrooms? Or vacuum their own rugs? Or do their own grocery shopping? Or brush their own teeth? Or do their own laundry?
I haven't done my own grocery shopping since COVID. I can't imagine ever going back to doing it myself...grocery delivery is the nuts.
Same here. Life is short, every little joy counts.
There's a certain joy to eating vegetables, fruit and meat that I picked out myself. As opposed to a 16 year old boy making minimum wage... :wink:
by GCD
Tue Jan 05, 2021 10:36 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Any multimillionaire's (more than 2mm) out there still mow their own lawn?
Replies: 341
Views: 33436

Re: Any multimillionaire's (more than 2mm) out there still mow their own lawn?

mak1277 wrote: Tue Jan 05, 2021 10:23 am Re: #2, I am always happy that I have very low standards when it comes to how my lawn looks. I would never spend time/money/resources on watering or fertilizing, and if my mowers did a "bad" job I doubt I'd notice.
OMG. One year I stupidly fertilized my lawn. What was I thinking? :oops:

During peak season, for about 2 months, I had to mow the lawn twice a week instead of once. If I didn't keep up with it the lawn got so long it clogged the mower. Never again!

My lawn looks great from 50 yds. away driving by on the street and that's good enough for me.
by GCD
Sun Jan 03, 2021 8:12 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Any multimillionaire's (more than 2mm) out there still mow their own lawn?
Replies: 341
Views: 33436

Re: Any multimillionaire's (more than 2mm) out there still mow their own lawn?

TravelGeek wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 8:03 pm
jfn111 wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 7:56 pm
GCD wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 5:55 pm I still mow my own grass, but in deference to my multi-millionaire status I want to get one of these to "shovel" the drive: https://throwflame.com/products/flamethrower-drone-kit/
I'd end up burning down my house with that. :shock:
Forget the drone part. I didn’t know I could just order a flamethrower on the internet. That might make snow removal a lot more... fun. Says Napalm compatible - what local retailer would stock the fuel? :shock:
In anticipation of no nearby local retailers, they conveniently supply a napalm mix! Apparently they expect you to home-brew it. What could go wrong?

https://throwflame.com/products/napalm- ... ng-agents/
by GCD
Sun Jan 03, 2021 5:55 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Any multimillionaire's (more than 2mm) out there still mow their own lawn?
Replies: 341
Views: 33436

Re: Any multimillionaire's (more than 2mm) out there still mow their own lawn?

I still mow my own grass, but in deference to my multi-millionaire status I want to get one of these to "shovel" the drive: https://throwflame.com/products/flamethrower-drone-kit/

Lucky for me, my wife thinks it's a hysterical idea and supports it. I still can't bring myself to spend money on it though, because I'm cheap. Such is my curse. Lots of money, but psychologically I can't bring myself to spend it. :oops:

Well, there's always alcohol. Maybe I will make a drunk purchase. :beer
by GCD
Sat Jan 02, 2021 6:12 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Tips for Frugal Living
Replies: 284
Views: 33032

Re: Tips for Frugal Living

H-Town wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 5:48 pm Because wine is bad. Period.
So judgmental! :beer :P
by GCD
Sat Jan 02, 2021 5:21 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Tips for Frugal Living
Replies: 284
Views: 33032

Re: Tips for Frugal Living

Starfish wrote: Sat Jan 02, 2021 4:59 pm Your posts in defense of alcohol, wine pairings, etc.
Will wonders never cease?!?!?!?! I'm starting off the new year in agreement with Starfish! Must be my wanna-be sommelier coming out.

Recently I've become interested in Blue Zones. Not as rigorously scientific as they pitch it to be, but interesting nonetheless. Blue Zones supports Starfish's assertion that moderate drinking may be a component of a long, healthy lifespan.

https://www.bluezones.com/

Although, being transparent, a group of 7th Day Adventists also apparently qualifies as a Blue Zone, so drinking is not a requirement of a long life, it just may not preclude a long life.
by GCD
Fri Jan 01, 2021 12:44 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: How important is tax strategy for building wealth?
Replies: 158
Views: 14000

Re: How important is tax strategy for building wealth?

This article, and subsequent book of the same title, have been discussed elsewhere on this board (generally getting good reviews). But it addresses, among other things, the relative unimportance of tax strategy in amassing wealth.

https://www.collaborativefund.com/uploa ... 9dbc86.pdf

Master the bottom before you move higher on the pyramid. It's not that taxes don't influence things, it's just that there are other more important concerns. Here is the author's hierarchy of investor needs:

Image
by GCD
Fri Jan 01, 2021 11:53 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: 2020 Net Worth
Replies: 111
Views: 10410

Re: 2020 Net Worth

Old Sage(brush) wrote: Fri Jan 01, 2021 11:51 am Happy New Year to all.
:sharebeer
by GCD
Fri Jan 01, 2021 11:11 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Effective Altruism. Using the fact based approach to selecting charities.
Replies: 142
Views: 7869

Re: Effective Altruism. Using the fact based approach to selecting charities.

oldfort wrote: Fri Jan 01, 2021 11:07 am
College scholarships would score poorly on effective altruism's metrics, which is approximately life years saved.
True, that would be a bit off-target and off-topic for lives saved as the metric. I went off on the tangent of general charity rather than effective altruism.
by GCD
Fri Jan 01, 2021 11:05 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: 2020 Net Worth
Replies: 111
Views: 10410

Re: 2020 Net Worth

Old Sage(brush) wrote: Fri Jan 01, 2021 10:41 am My post was to provide context to a statement made that I don't believe is factually accurate.
In my post I said that there is a lot of opportunity in America relative to the rest of the world. America doesn't need to be #1 in opportunity for that to be true. Although there are any number of ways to pick "opportunity" apart, I offer you the Heritage 2020 Index of Economic Freedom. The US ranks 17th out of 180 ranked countries. By this measure, Denmark did indeed beat the US, but you were wrong on Finland. 17th isn't as high as I'd like to see it but you can't really argue that there isn't a ton of economic opportunity here.

https://www.heritage.org/index/ranking
by GCD
Fri Jan 01, 2021 9:59 am
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Effective Altruism. Using the fact based approach to selecting charities.
Replies: 142
Views: 7869

Re: Effective Altruism. Using the fact based approach to selecting charities.

I'm starting to think the only real solution is to start directly paying the college tuition of some poor friend of your kid or asking around to find someone who needs help getting their welding certificate or whatever. Find multiple people who can use a leg up and give them some direct support while remaining engaged enough that you know the money is being well spent. Saves on overhead and admin expenses. Also puts you in a position to give advice, which may be the most useful thing of all and you may put yourself in a position where the kid would actually listen to you. Of course there will be no tax deduction for this, but then what's the purpose of charity?