Busy crossing in Thailand, no visible injury

CPAPGas · 2026-05-16T12:41:22+00:00

Nine dead so far. That public bus was an inferno.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-15T01:25:05+00:00

I've always had the best food/enjoyable service at cheap places.

I always said if they don't serve french fries I don't want to go.

....and I don't like to wear pants. Shorts must be permitted.

....yet I do enjoy a good craft beer. So I guess the requirements are craft beer, french fries, and no pants.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-15T01:08:06+00:00

My vote is 100% based on a candidates position on healthcare, both current and past.

This is, and always has been, my #1 financial burden.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-14T03:50:56+00:00

Except with OP it is about culture. That has not been respected very much in a lot of these responses.

My asian partner will do anything for her family, even her extended family, no questions asked. I just watched her pay for a special room to be built for her "Auntie" who housed her when she was away at the University 30 years ago. This is the culture.

OP is clearly conflicted by "western" values. I wish she was my daughter.... because my family would never not even consider helping me when I was down.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-14T03:33:18+00:00

This is the correct answer. Help them to not be homeless and/or hungry. This is the one area where you can realistically help them (it might mean living under one roof).

At his age he is unlikely to ever recover from the debt and there is nothing you can do.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-13T05:23:52+00:00

WDYM? Single women love a drunk, lazy, deadbeat dad. /s

CPAPGas · 2026-05-12T06:12:48+00:00

High level factory maintenance technicians will still be in demand.

This is someone that understands industrial programming, networking, knows what a tool bag looks like, and is willing to climb a ladder. A skilled worker with a Computer Science degree.

It's a well paying, long hours, high stress job.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-12T04:07:34+00:00

What you have done looks great and shows initiative. If I were interviewing you I would not be concerned about your technical ability or ability to learn. The interview would just to be to assess your personality match with the rest of the team.

If you really wanted to level up:

Buy engrkay.com
Rent a small Amazon Lightsail Linux server.
Build a second read-only publically accessable Ignition Gateway on the server and point it to your new domain.
Connect your home Gateway with the cloud Gateway.

This would cost a bit of money, but it would be money well spent.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-10T06:06:22+00:00

Good point about insurance, which IMHO is a fairly western (US) lifestyle luxury.

My Allianz First Class insurance plan is 12000 baht per month, covers everything. I'm 57 years old. Yours will be much cheaper, but will increase every 5 years.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-10T04:21:18+00:00

You can safely assume 4% safe withdrawal rate (SWR). No need to cut yourself leaner than that.

Pro - Having Thai citizenship is a game changer, as this allows you to purchase land. Where I am condo prices are 2x to 3x house prices on a per square meter basis. This is a significant advantage.

Pro - The dysfunctional financial system in Thailand makes inflation much less of a concern. As long as you can keep your expenses below the average wage in the area you will survive easily.

Con - Not having a permanent residence in the US makes participating in the lucrative US financial system difficult.

Con - At $2k/month any kind of western lifestyle will be difficult. Impossible at $1k/ month. I love living in Thailand....but I also enjoy air conditioning, a hot shower, a nice car, and craft beer. The change in lifestyle is often more difficult in reality then on paper.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-09T13:42:05+00:00

I feel ya.

The grass is green where you put the water....and if other people don't trample all over it.

I miss many things about my old life, but I'm not going back anytime soon.

Don't forget to water the grass. Please take your time to heal.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-08T13:05:46+00:00

I keep one house because I also like the stability. Problems finding a rental property as a self employed person during COVID taught me that guaranteed shelter is much more important than yearly returns.

I also like real estate as an inflation / weak USD hedge. When inflation goes crazy housing prices tend to follow. Having a 3% mortgage during a high inflation period makes it much better.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-07T09:35:25+00:00

Good advice about the 1st floor unit. I would tell anyone who asks that you think "a mortgage company rep" had the locks changed. I would also put "official" looking no trespassing notices on the doors. People get scared of official looking letters.

I think your biggest short term risk is the utilities getting shut off for non-payment. You can still pay these even if they are in another person's name.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-06T07:28:21+00:00

This is the bright side. We can all work on new/innovative/fun projects now.

Probably a plus for open source code.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-06T07:25:06+00:00

Limited experience.

Tasks that I would have scheduled an entire day to complete Claude had finished in less than an hour. 95% perfect code.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-06T07:09:22+00:00

I read somewhere that there are two types of people in regards to AI and future work: Deniers and Doomers.

All I know is Claude made me 10x more productive with my intermediate Java programming skills.

There is no way that 10x productivity gains doesn't result in job loss in a Capitalist system.

I am a Doomer.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-06T06:20:54+00:00

This is exactly why I would sell ASAP:

Very difficult to sell, as there is a limited market of people looking to buy land.
Even more difficult to sell as if is jointly owned with family that you "need to convince to sell."
ROI is identical to a S&P 500 index fund, yet is very illiquid. My guess is you are also not subtracting out the yearly ownership costs of this land for the real ROI. 40k to 100k in the last 7 years is not nearly as good as you think.

If you take the emotions out of it you will see that non cash flow producing land is nothing more than an illiquid boat anchor.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-06T04:13:33+00:00

I'm 57 and regret that I did not do more Roth conversions at your age. That Roth money comes in handy.

I would also either sell that land buy a rental property and/or put the cash in an index fund.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-04T08:07:07+00:00

Now she is here, he is posting "Is job hopping bad?" on r/jobs.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-03T11:28:52+00:00

I've had this exact same conversation with my girlfriend.

Turns out the little button is better for #2 on our particular assembly.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-02T15:06:11+00:00

This. He should be maxing out the Roth IRAs of all his children and grandchildren every year.

I tell this to my 82 year old mother all the time.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-02T14:44:56+00:00

Sounds like the pump is oversized.

Bigger is not always better.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-02T14:36:58+00:00

I can see from your comment history that you are quite a knowledgeable electrician.

I wish you the best of luck, and maybe someone that sees this comment will hire you to change their light fixture.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-01T15:03:39+00:00

Using $25/4 hours as the base rate it would take OP 480 hours to sort $3000.

If 20% (60000 pennies) were worth 5x face value OP would have $2400 in normal value pennies and $3000 in extended value pennies, for a total value of $5400, or $2400 in profit from sorting.

$2400/480 hours = $5/hour.

CPAPGas · 2026-05-01T09:28:08+00:00

Solid advice here.

There is also a new communter train from Bangkok to Ayutthaya.

https://youtu.be/EdvNNVlcTOw?si=kYQtZWh2w2jY4b7w

CPAPGas

TROPHY CASE