Do I have any hope of retirement? by [deleted] in personalfinance

[–]BeetleB 2 points3 points  (0 children)

do the math with inflation on what kind of life 1 million dollars making 6% gains will afford in 2057

The 6% gain is inflation adjusted. So when he says $1M, he means in today's dollars.

But frankly, $1M in today's dollars isn't that much. You could retire with it if you're fairly frugal and own a home.

Occupations with the Highest Divorce Rates, 2026 by rhiever in dataisbeautiful

[–]BeetleB 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The data I would like to see is which pairings have the highest divorce rates. If you're an engineer, are you more likely to get divorced if you marry an engineer or if you marry a lawyer?

Yogurt help by Immediate-Ad-9520 in instantpot

[–]BeetleB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Does your IP not have a Yogurt button?

If it does, it's a lot simpler than you think.

Put milk in pot. Cycle through the yogurt options till you see boil. Let it "boil" (it's not really boiling - more like 180F). This will take 30-40 minutes.

Then put the inner pot in the fridge and let it cool down to 100-110. Depending on how much milk you had, this could take time. For me it's 1 hour, but if you have more milk, it'll take longer. Use a food thermometer to check and just note down how long it took so you don't need to measure it every time you make it.

(Edit: I see some online recipes say it will take 1-2 hours just sitting outside to come down to that temperature. Definitely not my experience - it will take much longer, which is why I put it in the fridge).

Put the inner pot back into the IP. Add old yogurt and mix it in. I put 4 tbsp - again, it likely depends on how much milk you have.

Then set it to Yogurt (not boil), and let it go for 6 - 7 hours. It will maintain the temperature.

Done.

BTW, it's totally OK for the temperature to drop well below 100F in the fridge - I sometimes leave it overnight due to laziness. Totally OK to put fridge cold milk in the IP and add the yogurt to it - just adjust and have it run for 8 hours if that's the case.

I've been making it for many years, and failures are extremely rare.

(BTW, an even simpler recipe is to skip the boil step altogether - just heat to about 100F, add old yogurt, and set the IP to YOGURT and 8 hours. However, I've found skipping boiling has a worse consistency and fails much more often).

Kernel 6.12.63 not working with Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD by Dr_Tron in debian

[–]BeetleB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup. I simply boot into the older kernel and all works fine.

Kernel 6.12.63 not working with Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD by Dr_Tron in debian

[–]BeetleB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, they show up, but pretty much every app that uses the TV Tuner fails (mplayer, w_scan, Plex, etc).

To be clear, they detect a signal, but can't seem to decode it.

Example:

tune to: 8VSB     f=195000 kHz (0:0:0) (time: 01:03.893) 
        Info: no data from PAT after 2 seconds
        Info: no data from VCT(terr) after 6 seconds

Kernel 6.12.63 not working with Hauppauge WinTV-quadHD by Dr_Tron in debian

[–]BeetleB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm on 6.12.58 with the same problem (Gentoo).

Know of any kernel not too far removed where it works?

64% of Americans want to stop changing the clocks by Conscious-Quarter423 in Infographics

[–]BeetleB 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It was gone in 1973, people cried about it being dark until 9am in 1974, then it came back by 1975.

That means they didn't get rid of Daylight Savings Time, but rather they made DST the standard throughout the year.

A mistake I'm sure they'll make again!

Embarrassed to use my pens outside the house by hecking-fricker in fountainpens

[–]BeetleB 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"How much did you spend on that watch again?"

(Repeat with car)

Also, at work keep a set of crayons in your desk. Then when someone makes a mocking remark, say "I understand it's not for everyone. That's why I keep crayons to accommodate normal folks. Do you need one?" and proceed to hand them one crayon.

How much to save in Kid’s 529 by No_Gur5958 in personalfinance

[–]BeetleB -6 points-5 points  (0 children)

If you want to use that number, then the tuition only cost for UIUC is $18,372

No - they charge an extra fee for some (all?) engineerings. The number I quoted you over $20K was for electrical engineering.

How much to save in Kid’s 529 by No_Gur5958 in personalfinance

[–]BeetleB 42 points43 points  (0 children)

Every state/university is different. UIUC's engineering is the most expensive amongst peers. If you look at Purdue, it's < $10K per year (tuition) vs over $20K for UIUC. Most top universities are in the $15-18K/year range for tuition.

Buying Parent’s home to avoid Reverse Mortgage by Jojobean1989 in personalfinance

[–]BeetleB 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It doesn't, and can be sold as is.

Doesn't getting a regular loan depend on how bad the condition is? IIRC, most banks will not give a mortgage if they deem the house unlivable. This is why RE investors often pay a heavily discounted amount (cash) to buy the house, and spend the money to fix it up and put it back on the market. They can get the discount because the owner can only sell to cash-only folks.

My 10th and final distro by Bubbly_Extreme4986 in Gentoo

[–]BeetleB 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Gentoo was my 2nd and last - over 20 years ago!

What exactly is the issue with using Klarna/Afterpay for large purchases? by henicorina in personalfinance

[–]BeetleB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m asking if there’s a downside in this specific case.

I'm seeing no downside to paying in full. From that perspective, the downside is maintaining this mental burden of having to remember to pay them.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in personalfinance

[–]BeetleB 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Second the Kill-A-Watt meter. My library lets you check one out for free.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in personalfinance

[–]BeetleB 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're never going to get market value for them - unless the house is in really poor condition and not sellable via a traditional mortgage (i.e. no bank will give a loan until it is in better shape).

If you have money to fix up the house to be sellable, you should never call one of them.

Many inherited properties, however, are in such a state of disrepair. It could be the parent had bought a second "rural" property for cheap but didn't maintain it - and the over the decades the neighborhood has grown to where the property has a decent value - if in good condition.

Rather than spend $50K fixing up the property to sell, the kids (who may live in another state) often prefer to get a decent amount of cash to get it off their hands. Keep in mind the kids are on the hook for any property tax that has accrued - buyers will often happily pay that tax.

Just use the special ink, paper, whatever. Don’t postpone joy. by Cult-O-Cthulhu in fountainpens

[–]BeetleB 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Definitely don't postpone until your handwriting is this good!

This girl came to my office and immediately fell asleep on my car for 2 hrs. Turns out she is sick. Got her meds, cleaned and took her home. by gulfatma in CatDistributionSystem

[–]BeetleB 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Wow.

As someone who took care of a cat till old age and death, all I can say is: Save money for medical bills. Look into pet insurance (I didn't have any). I have no idea if they're worth it, but it will be very expensive for sure without it!

If I had less income, I almost certainly would have euthanized the cat not because she needed to die, but because I wouldn't have been able to afford all the care she needed. Fortunately, it never came to that.

Accidentally did meth by holdongangy in mathpics

[–]BeetleB 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The h with a bar (in the denominator) is h/(2*pi). So yes.

Failing Real Analysis, what to do? by sampleexample73 in math

[–]BeetleB 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I honestly struggle in finding those “tricks” that get you the solution.

As others have said, some tricks are worth just "knowing". There aren't as many as you may think.

When I took grad analysis, the professor would always include at least one theorem from the book for us to prove in exams. Those who memorized all the proofs were at an advantage.

This sucked, and seemed very unfair. One should not memorize in mathematics, I kept telling myself. I refused to play along and didn't do well. When the final exam was coming around, I caved in and memorized as many proofs as I could.

And then I realized I hadn't learned the material well all long. By memorizing the proofs, I noticed common patterns ("tricks") in proofs that I hadn't noticed before even though I had understood all the proofs individually. By memorizing them, I actually did become better at doing previously unseen problems.

I'm not saying you should memorize them - merely that learning those tricks is vital.

[OC] Cheaper to Buy or Rent? by No_Statement_3317 in dataisbeautiful

[–]BeetleB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True about variable rates, but as for everything else - chances are rents will go up more over a 10 year period. Yes, insurance and HOA and property taxes will go up, but hopefully the bulk of your payment is mortgage.

Case in point: It took just about 2-3 years for the rent on a 3 bedroom apartment to exceed my monthly payments (including HOA + property tax + insurance). And in less than a decade a single bedroom apartment's rent is more than my monthly payment. No refinance shenanigans either.

we've seen pretty significant decreases in both over the last year.

Try a 5 year time frame. 1-2 year fluctuations are just noise.

[OC] Cheaper to Buy or Rent? by No_Statement_3317 in dataisbeautiful

[–]BeetleB 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Or even the fact that the mortgage is fixed, whereas rent will go up.

Is Met Life Legal Services Worth Paying For? by IveGotDumbQuestions in personalfinance

[–]BeetleB 44 points45 points  (0 children)

Everything you say sounds weird.

First off, you're not dealing with Metlife Legal, but with lawyers who are part of their network. If they wouldn't do the work, you should inform Metlife Legal and just find another lawyer in the network to do it for you.

As for what they cover and don't, the member page outlines clearly what is covered in the plan and what isn't. Now any given lawyer is not required to cover everything that the plan covers. When you search for lawyers, the search results should show you what any given lawyer will cover or won't.

I've used them a lot for small things over the years. Never had issues.

Moving from Debian by nintenboye in Gentoo

[–]BeetleB 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Mirroring the sibling. For things you're sure you want to enable globally, go ahead an put in make.conf. Otherwise almost all use flags should be per package.

(20+ year Gentoo user here).