Search found 1179 matches
- Thu Mar 15, 2018 11:42 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
- Replies: 3572
- Views: 1040108
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
Fire and Fury was the other book I finished reading. I didn't want to be the first to report. :) I suspect book is a work of fiction for the most part. In a recent interview , Bannon speaks to the veracity of the book. I mention it only because it's pretty clear Bannon was one of the main contribut...
- Sun Mar 11, 2018 7:31 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Blocking URLs/Sites on home network for kids
- Replies: 33
- Views: 2050
- Sun Mar 11, 2018 6:13 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Blocking URLs/Sites on home network for kids
- Replies: 33
- Views: 2050
Re: Blocking URLs/Sites on home network for kids
Just thinking outside the box... One way would be to make a particular site too annoying to use. Like disabling images and/or javascript, or changing the color scheme so it's white on white. Or making the font size too big or too small. Some of that can be done in a browser using one or more of the ...
- Sun Mar 11, 2018 4:33 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Need Help Solving A House Smell Mystery
- Replies: 46
- Views: 5082
Re: Need Help Solving A House Smell Mystery
It is a year-round smell. I know our house has relatively high humidity levels, if that helps with suggestions at all. People in high hunidity areas often have problems with mold in the closet. They move into a house, fill their closet up with clothes, then when they prepare to move out and remove ...
- Sat Mar 10, 2018 6:01 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
- Replies: 3572
- Views: 1040108
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
I just started Last Seen by Rick Mofina. The book begins with a couple taking their 9-year-old son to the Chambers of Dread -- a ghoulish house of horrors -- at the local carnival. The son never comes out. A parent's worst nightmare. The horror house was described so vividly, I don't think anyone r...
- Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:47 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Anyone watching Ari Melber's "The Beat"?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1555
Re: Anyone watching Ari Melber's "The Beat"?
Does anyone know Ari's connection with music? I originally thought the "The Beat" referred to beat reporting, but he's made a number of allusions to music and in some cases has quoted lyrics. I get that he must be a huge music fan, but I'm wondering if he has a side gig in a band or maybe he DJs.......
- Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:47 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: The Illusion of "The Long-Term Average" in Investing
- Replies: 61
- Views: 8794
Re: The Illusion of "The Long-Term Average" in Investing
I agree with the premise here. However, that raises a more insidious question. Isn't the whole Boglehead investing approach based on the assumption that over the "long term", equities "tend to" go up? I wouldn't single out Boglehead investing in that regard. From what I gather, most theories of inv...
- Thu Mar 08, 2018 1:13 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: To sell or not to sell
- Replies: 39
- Views: 3397
Re: To sell or not to sell
That is the question. I have in my holding a few individual stock winners in my personal account that I have not sold yet. These are about 50% of my total investment assets (not counting house). Knowing how you guys preach about "diversification", I wonder which course of action I should take with ...
- Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:50 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: The Illusion of "The Long-Term Average" in Investing
- Replies: 61
- Views: 8794
Re: The Illusion of "The Long-Term Average" in Investing
I kept hearing that interest rates were the lowest since Hammurabi. I finally looked it up. https://amp.businessinsider.com/images/55fc1bcb9dd7cc18008bb525-960-574.png Source The chart makes a distinction between short-term and long-term and I can't vouch for the reliability of any of this data. But...
- Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:23 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Online customer review denied
- Replies: 33
- Views: 3963
Re: Online customer review denied
I don't trust reviews anymore. Even places that used to be more trustworthy are having trouble maintaining integrity. It's a troublesome and time consuming process that many people don't take the necessary time. Often I would see a bunch of nice praises only to have the rating a 1 star, because it'...
- Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:25 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Needing To Simplify Retirement Accounts
- Replies: 18
- Views: 2332
Re: Needing To Simplify Retirement Accounts
As for "all the mutual funds", all were purchased as they are/were available options inside each retirement plan with the goal of diversification There's a common investment saying that the more funds one has in their portfolio, the more the portfolio acts like an index fund. :) IOW, you might as w...
- Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:29 am
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Seeking portfolio advice!
- Replies: 30
- Views: 2612
Re: Seeking portfolio advice!
Target date retirement funds aren't very good for taxable accounts because they aren't tax efficient: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Tax-efficient_fund_placement I seem to recall hearing about a Vanguard balanced fund that uses tax-exempt bonds for the bond side. It would be interesting if that ap...
- Tue Mar 06, 2018 10:41 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Seeking portfolio advice!
- Replies: 30
- Views: 2612
Re: Seeking portfolio advice!
Thank you, azurekep. REITS has not gone up since we bought them. VAW has been more volatile in the last 3 months. We stopped the auto reinvesting for dividends and interest on those two funds. Just not sure how/when to get rid of them. If we don't have plans to hold these two or similar funds again...
- Tue Mar 06, 2018 12:37 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: New to Investing! / 401k Advice
- Replies: 17
- Views: 1571
Re: New to Investing! / 401k Advice
The Vanguard TD 2050 has a very high allocation to equities, which means 32 years of opportunities for the stock market to crash and possibly stay crashed during most if not all of your retirement. Others views will differ, but to me that allocation is too risky for a retirement program. FPURX is n...
- Mon Mar 05, 2018 11:01 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Seeking portfolio advice!
- Replies: 30
- Views: 2612
Re: Seeking portfolio advice!
I agree with the other poster on eliminating the sector funds (or holding and not adding but with the eventual aim of selling) and increasing the bond allocation. Another consideration is that you're dealing with a fairly large number of funds. That makes it harder to monitor one's portfolio, especi...
- Sun Mar 04, 2018 10:22 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: U.S. stocks in free fall
- Replies: 10245
- Views: 1804135
Re: U.S. stocks in freefall
Sometimes markets are just weird. The only thing I can come up with is that people are weird sometimes too. It is that element of human emotion, the old greed and fear thing. No, no - that's just the market being "efficient." It's the wisdom of the market. :| Efficiency and wisdom are different thi...
- Sun Mar 04, 2018 9:56 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: U.S. stocks in free fall
- Replies: 10245
- Views: 1804135
Re: U.S. stocks in freefall
I have always had the mindset that the market will be down every session. When it actually ends "up", I think, well tomorrow is another day, it'll likely go back down. Helps temper expectations. Other that & Philly sports I'm pretty optimistic. That's sort of like anchoring. You're anchoring on a d...
- Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:24 pm
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Federal Employees, leading up to retirement?
- Replies: 117
- Views: 10634
Re: Federal Employees, leading up to retirement?
I'm willing to bet this is much ado about nothing. The federal employees I see and know are pretty tightly monitored. They're getting what they're entitled to by policy and nothing more. I wonder why people don't focus more on waste, fraud and abuse where it really happens. This reminds me of stand...
- Sun Mar 04, 2018 3:51 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Annotating locked pdfs
- Replies: 13
- Views: 1149
Re: Annotating locked pdfs
PDFs are a pain. Can't offer any help since my usual strategy is avoidance. However, I was recently wondering about converting one to an "audiobook" through some sort of text-to-speech program. I'd rather read a Government document while doing something else like running. The problem is that in addi...
- Sun Mar 04, 2018 3:32 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
- Replies: 3572
- Views: 1040108
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
I just started Last Seen by Rick Mofina. The book begins with a couple taking their 9-year-old son to the Chambers of Dread -- a ghoulish house of horrors -- at the local carnival. The son never comes out. A parent's worst nightmare. The horror house was described so vividly, I don't think anyone re...
- Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:05 pm
- Forum: Personal Investments
- Topic: Lost My Way - Advice Needed
- Replies: 44
- Views: 5185
Re: Lost My Way - Advice Needed
I started investing in 2014 at the age of 27 and was immediately drawn to the Boglehead approach. Since this time I've realized that I'm very risk adverse and switched from index funds to a strategy of investing in REITs so that I could show progress in the way of gaining shares even when the marke...
- Sat Mar 03, 2018 3:08 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Walking shoes for plantar faciatis?
- Replies: 61
- Views: 6011
Re: Walking shoes for plantar faciatis?
Vivobarefoot is the only way to go. Plantar Fasciitis is a condition most likely caused by weak hip muscles (glute med, glute max) tight hip flexors/rec fem, and poor intrinsic foot strength . Do NOT get an orthotic. Orthotics are a money grab that turn off all the muscles in your feet and further ...
- Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:42 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: Is it "cute" to invest in sector funds?
- Replies: 46
- Views: 5642
Re: Is it "cute" to invest in sector funds?
Big investors sometimes do sector rotation when a major sector, like maybe the financial sector, is threatening to pull the entire market down. Their efforts at finding specific sectors to profit from help keep the overall market up. These big investors (e.g. hedge funds) can nimbly go from Homebuil...
- Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:47 pm
- Forum: Investing - Theory, News & General
- Topic: U.S. stocks in free fall
- Replies: 10245
- Views: 1804135
Re: U.S. stocks in freefall
I'd love to meet that person/persons who's currently long, but then reads that headline - 10% tariff on steel announced, then quickly panics and that's what did it for them - that's what made them hit that sell button. I also wonder if 5-10 years from then, they'll still be recounting the story at ...
- Thu Mar 01, 2018 1:01 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
- Replies: 3572
- Views: 1040108
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
Night Moves by Jonathan Kellerman Alex Delaware Series - Book 33 I finished Night Moves , and it remained a page-turner throughout. It had imaginative plotting along with in-depth backstories on some of the more interesting characters. The initial crime involved an unidentified body dumped in the h...
- Mon Feb 26, 2018 12:59 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
- Replies: 3572
- Views: 1040108
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
Now reading: Night Moves by Jonathan Kellerman Alex Delaware Series - Book 33 I had been reluctant to start this series since it's about a psychologist — and I had visions of a (boring) clinical practice setting — but in this book Delaware is simply partnering with the homicide detective on a murder...
- Mon Feb 26, 2018 12:58 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
- Replies: 3572
- Views: 1040108
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
I finished One L by Scott Turow and it was excellent. Turow taught creative writing at Stanford before deciding to go to Harvard Law School (HLS) in 1975, so he was already an accomplished writer. The characterizations of his fellow students, study mates, and professors was as one would expect from ...
- Sat Feb 24, 2018 4:42 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: manual typewriters?
- Replies: 43
- Views: 2860
Re: manual typewriters?
I don't have any suggestions, but just by coincidence, I'm reading a non-fiction book by novelist Scott Turow who details his first year in Harvard law school. At HLS students can either handwrite or type their exams. There are separate rooms set aside for each method. I chose to type, because I do ...
- Fri Feb 23, 2018 12:47 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: How Secure Is Your Apartment
- Replies: 42
- Views: 4832
Re: How Secure Is Your Apartment
If you are going to black out before scanning it is best to scan in black and white or scan and then optical character recognize to remove all the actual image. Some scanners have a lot of shades of gray that appear black on a display and the obscured data can leak through, so somebody can read the...
- Wed Feb 21, 2018 3:12 am
- Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
- Topic: Need help - first major career choice (fed. gov.)
- Replies: 39
- Views: 3143
Re: Need help - first major career choice (fed. gov.)
I work for the federal government and am very happy with it. I think most of the pros have been mentioned. One con that I haven't seen mentioned, though, is that federal employees are something of a punching bag for certain political interests. It can be demoralizing to read every week about some p...
- Tue Feb 20, 2018 1:12 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Scratch-removal products for cars
- Replies: 3
- Views: 667
Scratch-removal products for cars
My mechanic has a special formula for removing scratches from cars. Out of respect I haven't asked him to divulge the formula since in the past, he's done the scratch-removal for free. His formula is vastly superior to the product I've used from an auto parts store. And I mean vastly superior. It's ...
- Tue Feb 20, 2018 1:03 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: What frugal thing did you do today?
- Replies: 646
- Views: 64903
Re: What frugal thing did you do today?
Ok, calm down. I understand you wouldn't want a stranger's clothes drying with yours, but illegal? Come on. What law was violated? I think this is the most idiotic and a low-life thing one can do. This is not being frugal; this is downright theft. I believe it is illegal and I am sure if the person...
- Tue Feb 20, 2018 12:05 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Gorilla Tape for Labels?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1273
Re: Gorilla Tape for Labels?
If you are having trouble with labels sticking to a flash drive, it might work to wrap a larger label all the way around so that it also sticks to itself. Too late now. ;) About a year ago, I bought little labels -- 1/2" by 3/4". Surely they would fit, right? And they did. Perfectly. They just didn...
- Mon Feb 19, 2018 10:50 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Gorilla Tape for Labels?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1273
Re: Gorilla Tape for Labels?
The boxes are black. You could probably use a permanent metallic marker to write on black plastic. Would one of those work with a black flash drive? I have a bunch of black SanDisk drives that I apply little stick-on labels to and I'm looking for something better. I'm assuming that the metallic mar...
- Mon Feb 19, 2018 10:35 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Gorilla Tape for Labels?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1273
Re: Gorilla Tape for Labels?
The boxes are black. You could probably use a permanent metallic marker to write on black plastic. Would one of those work with a black flash drive? I have a bunch of black SanDisk drives that I apply little stick-on labels to and I'm looking for something better. I'm assuming that the metallic mar...
- Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:54 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Gorilla Tape for Labels?
- Replies: 14
- Views: 1273
Re: Gorilla Tape for Labels?
The clear plastic tape over a piece of paper should work well for being stored indoors, it always has for me. I do that too. Or specifically using 3 x 5 cards. I'd prefer to use Sharpies but the plastic storage containers are a dark color and black or blue sharpies don't show up well on dark plasti...
- Sun Feb 18, 2018 4:02 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Question for music experts about musical keys
- Replies: 102
- Views: 7869
Re: Question for music experts about musical keys
Not sure how to make this "actionable" other than to agree with one poster and say to the OP that you should organize your music either by composer (Mozart), by the name of the band (Rolling Stones), by the genre (Swing), or any other categorization system you want--hey, it's your collection; you c...
- Sun Feb 18, 2018 3:44 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Anyone watching Ari Melber's "The Beat"?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1555
Re: Anyone watching Ari Melber's "The Beat"?
Just a general comment, if you are interested in legal issues, there are quite a few blogs run by law professors that discuss issues of the day. https://www.lawfareblog.com/ is a really good one. It's an excellent blog. Lawyers are indeed windy with their long commentaries ;) , but I fully read the...
- Sun Feb 18, 2018 3:42 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Anyone watching Ari Melber's "The Beat"?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1555
Re: Anyone watching Ari Melber's "The Beat"?
My impression is that MSNBC does not allow opposing viewpoints at all on the network now that Scarborough is as rabidly anti-Trump if not more so than anyone else on the network. I think it depends on the time. When I watch MSNBC, my expectation is that it will be liberal and I'm frequently ticked ...
- Sun Feb 18, 2018 3:14 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Anyone watching Ari Melber's "The Beat"?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1555
Re: Anyone watching Ari Melber's "The Beat"?
I'm a Maddow fan, but I time-delay her show and jump through parts of it because she has a lot of windup before each pitch. (Like, I don't need the same information three times in the opening twenty-minute segment.) But she usually has interesting takes on the day's events, plus she's wicked smart,...
- Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:51 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Anyone watching Ari Melber's "The Beat"?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1555
Anyone watching Ari Melber's "The Beat"?
"The Beat" has been on MSNBC only since July, but it's definitiely a welcome addition. Melber is a lawyer and he breaks down legal issues in a way that's educatonal. He's a man on a mission to bring order to the legal chaos we normally see on the news. My only nit is that he sometimes cuts off a gu...
- Sat Feb 17, 2018 3:03 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
- Replies: 3572
- Views: 1040108
Re: What Book Are You Currently Reading? Part VI
"The Burden of Proof" by Scott Turow Dave I see you're on a Turow kick. :) I read "Presumed Innocent" and I think "The Burden of Proof" was the next I read by him and liked. I read a third before losing interest for some reason (before I started keeping notes). I do have his non-fiction book, "One ...
- Sat Feb 17, 2018 2:57 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Windows 10 > task manager > App history > photos--what is it?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 528
Re: Windows 10 > task manager > App history > photos--what is it?
I have my Windows 10 machines offline, and use them only for specific purposes, so I haven't delved into the various apps. But on other Windows systems, to avoid the CPU usage and bloat, I always uninstalled or disabled the default programs on Windows and used freeware variants. They typically are s...
- Fri Feb 16, 2018 12:25 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Question for music experts about musical keys
- Replies: 102
- Views: 7869
Re: Question for music experts about musical keys
Re: the questions on bass, it's helpful when you can find the instrumental version of a piece. A recommended one is: Everything She Wants Instrumental (Wham) This appears to be the same one I have on my player that says "original" instrumental version. IOW, it isn't the actual song with the vocals s...
- Fri Feb 16, 2018 12:06 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Question for music experts about musical keys
- Replies: 102
- Views: 7869
Re: Question for music experts about musical keys
As mentioned earlier in this thread, I am reading a book on Steely Dan (FAK) and their use of session musicians for recording was sometimes over the top. The book goes into great detail of the recording of each song and the session musicians used. I've been following some of the history re: session...
- Fri Feb 16, 2018 11:55 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Question for music experts about musical keys
- Replies: 102
- Views: 7869
Re: Question for music experts about musical keys
So when pitch is changed as in the app you mentioned, it might only change the pitch a little. That does not change the key. It does indeed sound complicated. All I can say is that when I increased the BPM a lot for a given song, I got Donald Duck sounds. When the change was smaller, it didn't soun...
- Fri Feb 16, 2018 11:43 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Getting healthcare retroactively covered under COBRA?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2044
Re: Getting healthcare retroactively covered under COBRA?
The COBRA notice doesn't even address how to get care. Only premiums and deadlines. Theoretically I could call the insurer (Blue Cross Blue Shield), since their website isn't helpful, but past instances of doing so have at best been a big waste of time. I'd rather spend time job-searching than wait...
- Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:52 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Question for music experts about musical keys
- Replies: 102
- Views: 7869
Re: Question for music experts about musical keys
It was not uncommon for some rock or other popular music to be recorded at a slightly slower tempo than desired for the final product... There is a reason for that. Recording is much more demanding than playing on a stage with a noisy audience. In fact some bands didn't even play on their records a...
- Thu Feb 15, 2018 12:05 pm
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Question for music experts about musical keys
- Replies: 102
- Views: 7869
Re: Question for music experts about musical keys
The last band I played in (lead guitar player), the singer determined the key. We'd switch on the fly when the pre-chosen key by the band leader wouldn't work. Last night, I was listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan -- some live songs from YouTube. On one song, I realized Albert King and Stevie sort of n...
- Thu Feb 15, 2018 11:43 am
- Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
- Topic: Keep crows off of chimney caps
- Replies: 29
- Views: 2294
Re: Keep crows off of chimney caps
Plastic owls are effective. They're on the roofs of many buildings. I've seen them in action in our backyard. One look at the owl and the black birds (not sure if crows or ravens) flee in fright. Occasionally the wind will turn the owl around so that the scary eyes aren't visible. The birds may rega...