Search found 228 matches
- Mon Jan 04, 2010 3:17 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Life changeing books recommendations for twenty-somethings.
- Replies: 114
- Views: 18058
- Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:22 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Could you/do you live on $50,000 a year?
- Replies: 356
- Views: 74657
Piece of cake. Right now I'm living in my vehicle (a big SUV). So the biggest expenses are food, gas, campgrounds (but there are many free/cheap options), vehicle maintenance and repairs (I'm learning to do more of this myself). At some point I plan to buy a small travel trailer, but I'm waiting to ...
- Fri Jan 01, 2010 7:07 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Best Cell Phone Plan?
- Replies: 54
- Views: 12870
Wal-Mart recently came out with their exclusive "straight talk" plan. It's 1000 minutes, 1000 texts, and 30 mb web access for $30 a month. Unlimited text, calls, and web is $45 a month. It runs on the verizon network so the coverage should be very good. Is the $45 "unlimited" data plan truly unlimi...
- Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:04 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Do you use a Kindle, or any type of ebook reader?
- Replies: 43
- Views: 7136
I read ebooks on my Nintendo DS + slot-1 flash cartridge. The moonshell media player can handle all sorts of audio and image formats, videos converted to DPG, and plain old text files. The battery life is excellent (12-17 hours, depending on screen brightness and processor usage) and there is also a...
- Sun Aug 30, 2009 12:28 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: That Frugal Thing You Do
- Replies: 535
- Views: 125413
I actually researched RV's and Trailers... they are like studios! Which is what I'm staying in now to save money and its really comfortable and I'm happy though it costs 1 grand a month . I was wondering, would you know where in the Bay Area around SF or the surrounding cities could you peacefully ...
- Thu Aug 27, 2009 10:47 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: That Frugal Thing You Do
- Replies: 535
- Views: 125413
Living in the forest? Nice, but careful where you do it. That's why I'm heading out west, where most of the NF and BLM areas are and for that matter large expanses of wilderness where I can camp out in solitude, with only the local animals as companions. The animals won't give me tickets or look do...
- Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:10 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: That Frugal Thing You Do
- Replies: 535
- Views: 125413
Check it out.... you can save a ton of money by selling all your stuff and moving into your vehicle. Well it helps if you have a nice, big vehicle, like a truck, van or SUV. If not, you can find one in decent condition for around $5K. If you want to make it livable, all you have to do is install an ...
- Wed Jul 22, 2009 9:34 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Could you survive without money? Meet the guy who does
- Replies: 26
- Views: 4021
Re: Could you survive without money? Meet the guy who does
His views on money are very sound. But he seems to still be partially dependent on modern society for some things. It doesn't have to be that way though. The native americans lived much more advanced lives than simply dwelling in caves and scrounging from nearby civilization. They were master tracke...
- Mon Jul 20, 2009 8:18 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Settlers of Catan
- Replies: 43
- Views: 7009
Never tried SoC, but we used to have a lot of fun playing Kings & Things back in the day. It's long since out of print though. Btw, free old-school boardgames for download: http://dwarfstar.brainiac.com/ds_index.html You just have to print them out and mount the counters on light cardboard or someth...
- Mon Jul 20, 2009 6:44 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Best computer security options?
- Replies: 53
- Views: 8565
isleep, I like what you've stated, and I too am a personal fan and supporter of OpenBSD. However, as stated above, some people can't get away from the Windows environment. That's why I don't generally push it, and elsewhere have also mentioned that I too use Windows and am looking forward to Window...
- Mon Jul 20, 2009 6:36 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Best computer security options?
- Replies: 53
- Views: 8565
This is a hopelessly amateur approach. You don't start with the OS you think you would like. You start with the applications that you want to run to do the work you want to do. An OS simply provides access to applications. The rest is foolishness. In my case, and for most people, the list of applic...
- Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:45 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Robert Kiyosaki ("Rich dad poor dad")
- Replies: 52
- Views: 10388
Re: Robert Kiyosaki ("Rich dad poor dad")
He says nothing in the article. There is no actual content. I thought the same was true of his book "Rich dad poor dad". He keeps talking about how great it is to be rich, without giving any concrete steps. Reading the book is like reading a hundred empty pages. You are left with no useful informat...
- Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:24 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Changing my computer buying habits
- Replies: 87
- Views: 13183
Ever since the 16-bit era (Commodore Amiga in my case... good times), the longest I've used a single computer as my "main" machine was 3 years. Today my two laptops (2003/2005 era) do everything I need, but I'm probably going to have to sell them and get a smaller system with a less powerful CPU but...
- Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:30 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Best computer security options?
- Replies: 53
- Views: 8565
On the other hand, please understand that many of these are workarounds designed with something else in mind that just happens to offer a measure of security. For example, running alternative operating systems, such as Linux for example, isn't always designed with security in mind (although such ex...
- Sun Jul 19, 2009 2:13 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Best computer security options?
- Replies: 53
- Views: 8565
You might want to try and get away from Windows altogether. The OS is inherently insecure, and adding bandaids and chewing gum on top isn't going to help in the long run. I suggest trying out one of the Linux distros and see if it works with your hardware and has all the software you need. Ubuntu mi...
- Sun Jul 12, 2009 5:47 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Semi-retiring in your 30's
- Replies: 105
- Views: 22701
I guess everyone has their own visio of how a king lives. On 30,000 yo can live very nicely in many places (even under a more typical definition of how a king lives) but the U.S. isn't really one of them... I'd reccomend Vientienne, Laos or Kuching, Malaysia myself among others. Yeah, for me like a...
- Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:59 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Semi-retiring in your 30's
- Replies: 105
- Views: 22701
The key is minimizing expenses. Owning a small home or condo free and clear with low maintenance charges. Living in a no state income tax state and low cost of living area. That makes the $30,000/year feel like a lot more. If I had $30K/year of interest income today I could live like a king for the...
- Sun Jul 12, 2009 3:30 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Young workers push employers for wider Web access
- Replies: 9
- Views: 1633
If you work in a cubicle environment you won't get much work done anyway, no matter how hard you try. Unless it's trivial work, the constant chatter and disruptions will ensure that you waste most of the day trying to regain your concentration and pick up where you left off. I've made up my mind up ...
- Thu Jul 09, 2009 8:30 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Semi-retiring in your 30's
- Replies: 105
- Views: 22701
Most of the world does not have the advantage of living in democracies that value human rights. The race of a person has nothing to do with this argument. If you see no value in a somewhat free society versus a totalitarian society, then try living in one of those places. I don't want to get into a...
- Thu Jul 09, 2009 5:09 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Are dual monitors at home worth it?
- Replies: 36
- Views: 5522
I hate juggling windows and moving them around. It's an incredible waste of time which I avoid by not doing it or even having to do it because for years I've mainly used a tiling window manager rather than a floating one. With tiling, my windows never overlap, so I never have to move them around. I...
- Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:35 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Semi-retiring in your 30's
- Replies: 105
- Views: 22701
Oh, these evil fertile women! They hunt for innocent single guys with stable jobs, spike their beer, and get pregnant on the first attempt. A poor guy is then on the hook for 18 years and 9 months, or worse. You cannot be too careful. :twisted: You joke but this basically happened to a friend twice...
- Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:34 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Semi-retiring in your 30's
- Replies: 105
- Views: 22701
Oh, these evil fertile women! They hunt for innocent single guys with stable jobs, spike their beer, and get pregnant on the first attempt. A poor guy is then on the hook for 18 years and 9 months, or worse. You cannot be too careful. :twisted: You joke but this basically happened to a friend twice...
- Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:18 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Semi-retiring in your 30's
- Replies: 105
- Views: 22701
I think those of you who are holding up China as an example to follow are sorely mistaken when it comes to a good way to go about limiting the population. Don't read too much into my example, it was simply an example. You can also find many dead children on the side of the road in india and other c...
- Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:35 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Semi-retiring in your 30's
- Replies: 105
- Views: 22701
It is truly a different life if you live for yourself. Once you have a partner (and possibly a family), you will see that being "self-centered" is not necessarily what life's all about. Are you saying it's better (more socially acceptable) to raise a family? Or is your point that if that should hap...
- Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:44 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Are dual monitors at home worth it?
- Replies: 36
- Views: 5522
I have two laptops, each with one screen, one 14" and one 15" wide. I use the 14" laptop more often, because it's a better machine (IBM Thinkpad). I've never used two monitors at once, though there have been some times when that would have been handy. Now I'm looking to replace both of them with a m...
- Thu Jul 09, 2009 5:15 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Semi-retiring in your 30's
- Replies: 105
- Views: 22701
I agree with tc101. Life is too short to spend most of it working at boring or stressful jobs and doing the rat race thing. I expect that a lot of americans are starting to realize this now, given recent history... I have almost $100K, and that's not "enough" according to conventional wisdom, but I ...
- Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:54 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: I want to chuck it all, quit my job, and travel the world
- Replies: 121
- Views: 17041
Another idea... You could take a motorcycle trip all the way to the tip of south america. Check this out: http://mahridingsouth.blogspot.com/ The photos are amazing, but even so they don't do justice to being there in person. This guy slept in tents for the most part, so most of his costs were food,...
- Tue Jul 07, 2009 7:03 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: I want to chuck it all, quit my job, and travel the world
- Replies: 121
- Views: 17041
You're still pretty young and may not be entirely sure of what exactly you want in life. This money can be your ticket to achieving your dreams, but you have to know what those are first. And you'll want to make sure they are your dreams and not those of others that you "bought" into. I too started ...
- Thu May 14, 2009 4:39 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Who has the oldest primary computer?
- Replies: 56
- Views: 9171
I very much miss my CBM Amiga 1200. Nice, simple, elegant design, both in hardware and software (and still significantly cheaper than a Mac). It only had a 14 MHz M68020 CPU, but could easily keep up with Intel 386 or 486 class machines. To this day I kick myself for "upgrading" to a PC in 1994. Tha...
- Thu May 14, 2009 3:49 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Simplicity
- Replies: 61
- Views: 10119
I'm going to take a guess that these numbers are "ideal" in the sense that they assume all shares are held in a tax-defered account, thus making rebalancing easy (no tax hit). I'm also going to guess that a significant portion of the gains over a TSM/TBM portfolio are a result of rebalancing. Now my...
- Thu May 07, 2009 2:24 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Best watch for around $5,000?
- Replies: 1066
- Views: 262185
So Ivy diplomas have to be burned along with the Mensa membership card in order to attain reverse chic? Yes, please burn them. Not for the sake of status, but because they're meaningless. Raw intelligence by itself has very little use. It's like having a certificate to show you have big muscles. So...
- Thu May 07, 2009 12:15 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Buffett On Everything
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2273
I wouldn't bet on, or against anything 100%. America isn't exempt from freak disasters. It's interesting to note that WB doesn't have to worry much about unemployment. It's much harder for the mass of wage slaves to apply these principles, especially if their monthly expenses are high enough that th...
- Tue May 05, 2009 1:40 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Guys with no Cable, Internet, Phone (from frugal thread)
- Replies: 77
- Views: 12799
Dialup isn't bad if you use a text-mode browser (Lynx is still actively maintained, and there are newer, more advanced ones such as Links and eLinks). You can also switch off the image loading on most regular browsers (then manually click to load the images you really want to see). I haven't owned a...
- Tue May 05, 2009 1:13 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Financial Mistakes you have made- non-investing
- Replies: 77
- Views: 12597
Re: Mistake--A bank trust department
The trust department was on two heavily carpeted floors high over Miami. Fine wood paneling was everywhere and coffee was served from silver pitchers. I felt very special the few times I was there. This sounds a lot like the dot-com bubble... fancy offices, expensive furniture, all the latest gadge...
- Mon May 04, 2009 10:43 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Books for kids - summer
- Replies: 12
- Views: 2213
A Japanese comic book series with no words... The art will blow them away. So much can be done without words. Back in the 70's, the french comic book artist "Moebius" did something similar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arzach His other stuff is also very good. I consider him to be one of the master...
- Sun May 03, 2009 11:57 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Books for kids - summer
- Replies: 12
- Views: 2213
- Sun May 03, 2009 11:09 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Thinkers who early on predicted the financial crisis
- Replies: 21
- Views: 3282
Even psychics can't predict the market:chaz wrote:We need a psychic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Cayc ... xas_period
- Sat May 02, 2009 2:27 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Influenza Epidemic- The Next Black Swan?
- Replies: 121
- Views: 17967
Note there is no expectation that anti-virals like relenza and tamiflu will actually do something useful when the true avian flu comes. We'll be reliant on public health measures: handwashing, closing public places like theatres. Closing public places... like grocery stores? How's that work? Nobody...
- Sat May 02, 2009 1:18 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: IIHS report: mini cars unsafe
- Replies: 55
- Views: 8609
It's just another arms race... I need more steel! I'll be safer that way! ..and everybody needs to outweigh everybody else, with the predictably farcical result. We are well on our way to driving tanks, and hang the costs. Let them have their tanks, I'll be getting myself a nice hovercraft (like th...
- Fri May 01, 2009 10:53 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Eat Out - How Often
- Replies: 102
- Views: 18454
Re: eating out
you will gain a lot more weight eating 4,000 calories a day consisting of vegetables, fruit, rice, and lean meats than eating 1,500 calories a day of McDonald's burgers and fries. That's an unfair comparison. A better one would set the bar at 1500 or 2000 calories (or whatever it is the average adu...
- Fri May 01, 2009 6:21 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Eat Out - How Often
- Replies: 102
- Views: 18454
Re: eating out
Almost all the large studies have shown that it doesn't matter what you eat, it matters how many calories you consume. Eat whatever you want, but don't eat as much or as often. Who funded those studies? Who stands to benefit from indoctrinating americans into believing that what their fuel their bo...
- Fri May 01, 2009 11:52 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Best way to get out of debt?
- Replies: 58
- Views: 8146
As much as he needs to reduce his debt, he also needs to enjoy life a little bit and carry on. There needs to be a balance between eliminating debt, and living IMO. This is a critical point, because without balance nothing is sustainable. The stress of divorce is immense for many people, and debt o...
- Sun Apr 26, 2009 8:45 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Cognitive enhancement software
- Replies: 24
- Views: 4405
It would be more cost-effective to buy a Nindendo DS and the "Brain Age" game (used to come bundled with the system, perhaps still does). You can get used NDS for really cheap on ebay or craigslist. But like SP-diceman says, you can achieve similar results in other ways. And if you don't like chess,...
- Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:36 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Family money Envy and how it chages relationships
- Replies: 63
- Views: 11645
Remember when you got your grades back and you innocently actually shared that you got a perfect score on your chemistry final exam? If people were actually happy for you and respected you more for it, you are either fortunate, or they were good at hiding how much they hated you. It's really that s...
- Sat Apr 25, 2009 8:57 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: That Frugal Thing You Do
- Replies: 535
- Views: 125413
So is staying single frugal or not frugal? I consider it as 100% guaranteed divorce insurrance. By getting married, you may save money (though that's debatable), but you stand to lose much of it 50% of the time (along with money you haven't even earned yet). This happened to a co-worker just a coup...
- Sat Apr 25, 2009 11:26 am
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Article:Fin'l markets face a lost generation of investors
- Replies: 42
- Views: 5405
Might be for the best. Average americans should not purchase or invest in something without doing their homework. Since the 80's its been too much of "stocks return 8% annually over a long period" when there are alot of caveats to meet that advertised number. Its almost like a teaser line. Only 8%?...
- Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:16 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: If *potential* bubble was coming - What would you do?
- Replies: 44
- Views: 4888
OK, thanks. Somehow, I think these savings rates ($25K from $50K net income) are unique. But if you can pull it off, more power to you! He's slacking off. :D I was (just now lost my job) saving $30K out of $48K net income. But that wasn't even trying hard. I could have saved another $5K by really c...
- Fri Apr 24, 2009 6:18 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: Tax Break for New Auto Purchases
- Replies: 15
- Views: 2574
Re: spending on a car
It isn't really accurate to compare $20k to $0k (if you don't buy a new car); it might be more like $20k to $19.5k. I imagine this is true for american cars, but the hondas/toyotas tend to fare better on average. You can increase your odds also by doing research and considering only the make/year/m...
- Fri Apr 24, 2009 5:46 pm
- Forum: Investing - Help with Personal Investments
- Topic: Tax Break for New Auto Purchases
- Replies: 15
- Views: 2574
For some time now, at least on the recommended Japanese marques, it appears to have been essentially cheaper to buy a new Honda or Toyota, than to try to pick up a 1-2 year old one. A combination of large discounts on the latter (30,000 unsold Toyotas sitting at Long Beach) and relatively high dema...
- Fri Apr 24, 2009 3:44 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: If *potential* bubble was coming - What would you do?
- Replies: 44
- Views: 4888
Re: If *potential* bubble was coming - What would you do?
I wouldn't make any moves solely on abstract information like P/E or market-cap/GDP, except to make sure I rebalance, and perhaps re-evaluate my AA for my age if needed. To me, abstract information is pretty meaningless in and of itself, because it represents a symptom and not the cause of the marke...