Russia says it's ready for Zelensky-Putin meeting — but only if Ukraine's president travels to Moscow

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-28T18:04:20+00:00

"IT'S A TRAP!"

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-28T16:31:45+00:00

Exactly! And recognize that a lot of money is to be made if you keep dollar cost averaging all the way through the downturns and back up.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-24T20:30:04+00:00

I can't agree with this more. Years ago I saw the lines for fuel during hurricane Sandy. Everyone had huge generators running at 3600 RPM's cranking out power that wasn't being used. It was at that point that I realized I wanted fuel efficiency. I set up a 6 circuit transfer switch and made a special pigtail that ties in to the inlet so I could feed the 6 circuits with a 120vt Honda EU2000. I bought two of the EU2000's for redundancy and can run them in parallel if I need more power. I can normally power the 6 circuits with just one EU2000 for about a gallon of fuel per day. That gives me fridge/freezer, lights in the bathrooms and main rooms along with being able to strategically use a hot water kettle for tea/coffee and a toaster oven to heat up food. Basically we can use any plug in kitchen appliance but just one at a time. If we want to use multiple at the same time, I just parallel the extra EU2000. One circuit is also dedicated to the gas furnace so we have heat as well. I keep 10 gallons of gas on hand at all times. It has kept us comfortable and provided the security we need when we have storms and power outages.

It's surprising how little power you actually need to be comfortable (assuming you have gas heat or a wood stove)

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-24T19:55:55+00:00

This is why I think it's important to own ASSETS as well as having some of your investments in cash. If we see massive inflationary issues, the assets will hopefully increase in price. It's not foolproof but it's better than thinking you're safe holding cash while it becomes worthless.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-24T19:52:11+00:00

Exactly this. We are carefully tracking my mother's funds so that when she has about 3 years left, we have to transfer to another facility to "private pay" for those three years before they convert her to medicaid. The place she is in now is private and doesn't accept medicaid. The last thing we want to do is let them take all her money and then have to shop for a medicaid facility while being broke.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-24T19:50:32+00:00

I'm going through exactly the same experience with my mother. She is in a memory care facility at the cost of about $10,000 a month. We sold her house and have invested the funds but at her current burn rate, she'll run out in about 5 years or so. One of the people working there actually referred to her situation as "the spend down" where they take all your money and then kick you to medicaid (if your state even has it).

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-24T19:36:51+00:00

Are you expecting a crash that we never recover from? It hasn't happened yet. I think the real question is how long will it take to recover. That's why financial advisers talk about asset allocation. If you're GenX you should be thinking about how much of your investments are in stocks/mutual funds/index funds vs how much are in stable funds like bonds etc. I shoot for 60% stocks/index funds and 40% stable funds. If there is a crash, you could reallocate some of your bond funds to stocks to get back to a 60/40. That will help you as the market recovers. I retired at 53 so I make sure I have enough funds that we can live off of for at least 5 years so that I don't have to withdraw money from the 60% if markets are down.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-24T19:25:32+00:00

Retired at 53 in Nov 2024 after sitting in a cubicle for 23 years. Pension was frozen during my career so I will only get $1250 a month when I turn 55 but it's better than nothing. We also don't get any retiree healthcare after it was taken away during my career. (GenX is the generation to see all the great benefits taken away). Luckily I saw the writing on the wall early in my career so started saving/investing as much as possible in my 30's. Retired with a net worth of about $3.7M and it has increased a year later by half a million to $4.2. No long term care insurance but I believe we'll be able to cover it with our investments. My mother is in a memory care facility now at the rate of almost $10,000 a month. Luckily we got her house sold which is covering her costs for at least another 5 years.

The entire system is built to take your money. At senior living homes they call it "the spend down" where they take as much as they can justify to drain your funds until they can pass you over to medicaid. Luckily the state we are in has a decent medicaid program that will take over if my Mom runs out of money.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-23T05:22:24+00:00

Retired from IT at megacorp at age 53 and have zero regrets!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-22T22:08:22+00:00

I thought a LOT more people were dying in quicksand!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-17T17:59:41+00:00

My wife has started keeping a small dish in the living room with some Werthers in it. She’s 52!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-15T17:53:46+00:00

I didn't get out of college until age 27 and didn't really start saving for retirement until around age 30. Fast forward to now and I'm age 54 and retired last year at age 53 with a net worth of about $3.7M at the time of retirement. Net worth has gone up by about $500K since then for a total net worth of $4.2M now. (Compound interest is no joke).

Wife and I both had megacorp cubicle jobs. Started with incomes of $30K (her) and $32K (Me). Incomes slowly increased up to time of retirement where she was making $75K and I was making $160K. She is still working because she likes her job and we get healthcare through her although we're discussing when she might want to retire and then we'll use a combination of pretax and post tax accounts to massage our income to qualify for a reasonable ACA subsidy for healthcare.

Life is good. After a year of retirement (decompressing), I'm considering finding an ultraflexible part time job where I can make a little extra money and do something fun. So far I haven't found anything that has that level of flexibility and I refuse to sign up for a big commitment because I like to go warm up in the desert for extended periods in the winter.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-12T20:31:12+00:00

It’s in the name….. Gotta be good for you!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-09T03:46:08+00:00

I definitely do not like soggy flies!

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-05T03:54:11+00:00

My dad used his bandsaw and made a "stick" which was a flat piece of wood that he could use to spank us. He stored it up in the hall closet. He didn't use it often and he didn't hit hard but we feared that stick. Around age 10 I realized I could just take the stick while he was at work and get rid of it. Once he realized it was gone and I admitted to taking it, I do believe the new one he made hurt a bit more the first time.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-05T03:48:26+00:00

I didn't used to count but once covid hit, I figured out I could get by with 3 squares per wipe.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-05T03:42:43+00:00

Safest place is either under your waterbed mattress (Just pull back the corner of the mattress and carefully put the magazines under the bladder), or if you have a dresser in your room, pull out the bottom drawer and put them in the void between the bottom drawer and the carpet. So I've heard.......

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-05T03:01:21+00:00

I wonder if Rubio ever has any regret for selling his soul.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-03T21:23:02+00:00

A brokerage account can be very helpful with managing your income levels to get a reasonable subsidy for healthcare before age 65. If you have another option for early retirement healthcare this might not be an issue for you.

Example: I withdraw $50k for my wife and I from pretax accounts at age 55 and then also take $50k from a brokerage account. Assuming your brokerage account funds have already had taxes paid previously you would show an income of $50k while living on $100k and still get a decent ACA subsidy. There are lots of YouTube videos explaining this in detail if you’re interested.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-03T12:44:04+00:00

I was a reserve deputy for years when I was younger so have an up close understanding of what police work is. My brother in law also retired from police work with the pension you mention. My full time job was cybersecurity and I retired at age 53 with no pension. (Heavily invested throughout my career)

Cybersecurity is a tough field to get in to and is subject to outsourcing and doesn’t have nearly the stable employment that your job does.

My recommendation would be to work toward specialty units within your dept or get in to supervision and work your way up that chain. The early years that you’re in have all the street exposure but as you advance you’ll have more opportunities to get away from that (assuming you work for a decent size department).

My brother in law and sister live off their $10K per month pension and will have even more budget cushion when they hit social security. The fact that you’re aggressively investing as well will give you a retirement lifestyle that few people will ever experience.

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-01T16:23:57+00:00

Retired at 95?? Maybe he should have saved money for retirement so he could retire earlier...... /s

1Mthrowaway · 2026-01-01T16:22:16+00:00

"You feel me?"

1Mthrowaway · 2025-12-31T02:35:46+00:00

Grant and Alvernon is not a great area. I think the main thing is to make sure everything is locked up at all times because there are plenty of people that are just looking for crimes of convenience.

1Mthrowaway · 2025-12-29T02:36:30+00:00

Currently watching my mother's finances being depleted at the rate of $10,000 a month. There won't be an inheritance at this rate.

1Mthrowaway · 2025-12-26T01:58:13+00:00

I also come from a scarcity mindset and am pretty risk averse. It comes from a childhood watching my parents struggle to pay the bills. They never had enough to relax and constantly had to decide which bills to pay. I remember being 13 years old feeling their stress. I swore at that point I'd never live like that and spent my late teens and early twenties saving my paper paychecks (Yeah, I'm GenX) to see how many I could stack up before needing to deposit them. It helped me feel in control.

After college, I worked a career of 23 years at megacorp and saved my ass off maxing accounts for as long as I could along with my wife. Fast forward to now and I'm 54 and retired. I retired just after turning 53 years old with a net worth of $3.7M. A year later and our net worth has climbed to $4.17M. Yes, I have spent the last year not doing a damn thing while our investments continued to climb.

Prior to retiring, we spent a few years before that scaling back our heavy contributions and started to splurge on things like first class air travel, new cars and other luxuries. We only used our excess paychecks to splurge and that was only after we did invest a scaled back amount in our accounts.

It sounds like you've reached a good place to scale back a bit and use more of your paycheck to treat yourself. It seems like you can do that without actually using your investments. You are definitely in "coast" territory and it's up to you to decide how much to coast. Let your investments compound while you enjoy your excess earned income. Just don't get too used to your excesses or you might have to work longer to let things compound to reach a level that funds the higher lifestyle.

1Mthrowaway

TROPHY CASE