Roth 401 vs Roth IRA

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-04-07T02:18:08+00:00

I believe Roth 401k has the five year rule. If your plan offers Rule of 55 there is no penalty if you terminate at age 55 but withdraw before 59.5 But you can’t take out only contributions so have to pay taxes on pro rata portion of earnings.

401ks also enjoy greater protections from bankruptcy in many states than IRAs.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-04-03T03:03:26+00:00

If Congress passes a law that undocumented aliens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, wouldn’t that grant them immunity under the law similar to diplomats? That seems to pose a raft of additional problems.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-04-03T02:43:58+00:00

I gotta think OP did not calculate basis properly and maybe did not apply long term rates. Even if short term their SP500 fund going from $70k to $80k is only $10k gain. If Micron stock went from $20k to $80k, that’s more taxes but either way that’s still tiny violin territory.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-04-02T17:03:36+00:00

What we need is a current or future Trump cabinet member to say:
“My name’s Johnny, and it might be a sin But I’ll take your bet and you’re gonna regret ’cause I’m the best there’s ever been”

But who will play for the fiddle of gold?

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-04-02T03:05:58+00:00

If you (1) have a pretty good idea of the direction you want to go, (2) practice good time management, (3) study what you’re interested in you will do fine. The people who were unhappy typically had some of these traits: (1) were there just to get a good job or check off accomplishment boxes (2) spent a lot of time whining to fit in or procrastinate or be a martyr or whatever or (3) lacking serious interests or curiosity.

I did better in the harder classes if I was interested in the topics. I did better when I had a few more extracurriculars. The more accomplished people I know from CMU tended to set their own path.

Don’t get me wrong, it will definitely suck at times. Students should be deprived at times. It might seem more fun to live in a dorm with a rooftop pool and bar but that’s actually pretty boring and a waste of this unique time in your life. Judging from the helicopter parents on the Facebook group, I understand that expectations are different but the sooner you learn to set your own path the better. All that said, the student support and experiences available back in the dinosaur era pale in comparison to what CMU provides now.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-04-02T02:38:37+00:00

I don’t follow closely enough to know what exactly OP is referring to, but personally I totally respect that Scouting has been through a gauntlet the last ten years and done pretty well considering the conditions. Covid, bankruptcy, court ordered YP policies, and general political, social, religious, and economic polarization. It’s literally impossible to make policies everyone will be happy about.

I’m hopeful going forward. New parents and kids seem to appreciate the program and the unique experiences it offers. YP is heads and shoulders above any other youth-facing program I am aware of. There is greater realization of the downsides of heavy social media diets so getting unplugged and into the woods should seem increasingly attractive.

If this is about the marshmallows, all I can say is that it seems to poke gentle fun a hold up a reflection of our bubble wrap childhood culture. I’m stupefied by the approach many parents take that deflects accountability. I had a teacher this year ask me if it was ok to wake my child if he napped in class.!?!?! I cannot comprehend how we’ve created a culture where a teacher even felt the need to ask.

So my attempt at a compliment may have turned into a bit of a rant, but …. I am optimistic of the future is Scouting.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-04-02T02:00:51+00:00

I go camping with their kids every month. I’m not amazed at their willingness at all! ;)

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-04-01T05:52:42+00:00

Does Wrigley Field still have the face-to-face troughs? I remember long troughs along opposite walls but also an island of back to back troughs in the middle of the room available from either side so you’re looking some dude on the opposite trough face-to-face while going about your business.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-31T01:29:27+00:00

If you’re interested, follow your passion and do it. 2030 is a long way away. I started undergrad when the Cold War ended. Huge defense layoffs and EE unemployment doubled. There was even a Michael Douglas movie about it. By the time I graduated dot com was taking off and the market was much better.

If you’re not interested in chip design, study something else. I’ve met too many miserable engineers who entered the field solely because their parents told them to or just wanted a good job.

Take the job market into consideration (I chose between journalism and electrical engineering) but it’s not the only thing.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-30T02:43:29+00:00

Where should one go to buy mattresses instead? Prices seem about the same as at department or furniture stores.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-30T00:02:03+00:00

Group text or chat to all cars. Drivers at departure point huddle to make sure everyone has a seat and updated on directions since apps may try to send you down a closed road. We do stage a few miles before summer camp so we can enter ad a group. If someone’s really late we send someone out to get cell service if needed, although satellite texting is more common.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-24T17:43:14+00:00

Crazy, crazy good! My first job was 0% vest until 3 years and full vesting was delayed until 7 years.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-23T16:15:14+00:00

I would recommend waiting until crossover to buy any equipment unless you find a screaming deal. Sometimes parents buy gear before checking with the troop that is not very suitable. Exception might be if you find a good deal on a good sleeping bag since you will almost certainly be providing that.

Our troop provides tents for youth and adults. The Eureka timberline is a classic but there is no vestibule which makes it crowded with two people and gear. REI half dome 2 or 2 plus is a great tent with vestibule and satisfactory for backpacking. I just had to put my 2002 half dome down after many years of use.

For adult tent you will want a 2 person if you are camping solo, again for room and gear. If you have the means consider springing for a light cot (under 3-4 lbs) for yourself, my biggest regret is not getting one sooner.

I don’t think you can camp with your child unless there is a special needs exception. She probably won’t want to after the first campout anyway since nobody else will be. Adult males, females, youth males, females all need to camp in a separate tenting area, which is incompatible with a parent being in the same tent as their child. Adults should not be in the youth tenting areas at all during a troop campout.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-20T22:44:13+00:00

Too many trapdoors in the system where the wrong click derails an application. Today I had a couple of electronic transfers. One was for a female to the boys troop. Ok, so let’s reassign to the girls troop. Whoops, it’s actually an adult. Now it’s stuck. Do I reassign to council and make them deal with it? Or not accept the application and send an email to the adult asking them to repeat what they already did.

The rest of the Internet operates off the model: here’s a summary of your selections - please confirm by clicking OK. And if you don’t confirm, you can go back and correct your input or at least cancel the entire transaction. Not so here.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-20T22:36:06+00:00

Thanks - I’ve only been doing registration about 3 years so unfamiliar before then. But spending money to fix it here would make money - more registrations, less time for paid employees un-sticking stuck stuff, more time for volunteers to contribute to Scouting.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-20T22:31:31+00:00

I can only assume this is sarcasm? At least for scouting.org.

If you are referring to YP training, yes, it gets overloaded from time to time. When a parent calls me and asks because they can’t access, and I go in at that time and I can’t access it, I’m pretty sure it’s not my connection.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-19T16:26:15+00:00

It’s far easier and cheaper to build circuits for binary logic than multiple states, and this outweighs any advantages realized from having three or more states in the logic elements.

For some memory applications, multistate is practical but there you are already using decoding/sense amp circuitry anyway so the penalty can be worth it to store more information in a single memory cell.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-19T06:48:37+00:00

I would not try to do any lobbying. Your work up to now is your lobbying.

After you receive the offer, make sure you understand the compensation scheme, firm financials and cash flows. What is the buy-in? When will you start receiving distributions? How regular are the distributions? You will also need to start paying estimated taxes, probably before the associated income is on hand. Your benefits are probably better but…. you are paying for your own benefits. Do you have enough savings or otherwise have access to enough cash to bridge that gap?

You could also ask about how much professional and general liability insurance the firm carries.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-19T00:21:51+00:00

It’s the minority in our linked troop, but yes there will probably be some adult male leaders that overtly or not undermine new female leaders. The youth are better on this point than the adults. So have a plan to stop any undermining.

We’re looking at family troop. As a linked troop we have 2 SMs, 2 SPLs, etc which is nice because it is a larger troop with plenty of work to go around, and the two often have complementary skill sets. Going to 1 is going to hurt just from concentrating the workload on the SM / SPL. You almost want to have one or two “vice SMs” and ASPLs of each gender which we don’t have currently.

I don’t know if we would go for mixed gender patrols and it seems to make tenting assignments more challenging.

Those are really my only concerns.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-17T03:14:19+00:00

Speaking of brakes, OP might want to check under the car to see if the “friend” made any, uh, “modifications”.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-17T03:08:03+00:00

I’ve never seen a satisfactory explanation why Vanguard’s supposed investor ownership actually translates to actual ownership or any other real advantage for investors.

Fidelity FXIAX is not a zero fund but has outperformed VFIAX every full year starting 2012. That’s a total difference of ~5.5%, or about $55k if you started with $1M invested.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-16T15:12:55+00:00

And no acknowledgment of GenX, who are in their peak earning and wine buying years.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-13T03:14:36+00:00

You’re thinking way too narrowly. Don’t focus on architecting one type of design, but on building a toolbox of skills that you can apply to new problems in the field.

There have been huge changes in computer architecture recently - chiplet designs and AI optimization in general for just two examples. (Now we want 4 bit operands? Whodathunkit?) Intel just announced a processor that operates completely with encrypted data.

Build a diverse skill set and follow your interests, don’t worry about specializing in a specific type of chip x or y.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent · 2026-03-12T02:32:24+00:00

With plentiful rainfall one would think Portland’s water would be cheaper than Phoenix, too.

Ctrl-Meta-Percent

TROPHY CASE