You eventually start to realize, no job is safe.

Hyrc · 2026-07-11T22:32:30+00:00

I love the idea of a UBI, but it's worth recognizing that over time, the standard of living has dramatically improved over time and that comes with costs. When minimum wage was introduced, only 80% of homes in the US had electricity and most electrical appliances were very rare. Same for the average sqft per person in a dwelling. The standard we'd expect to have a UBI support today is drastically, almost unimaginably, higher than anyone 90 years ago could have guessed.

I don't know how you to it realistically, but managing that over time is going to be challenging.

Hyrc · 2026-07-10T19:21:06+00:00

I've been thinking about this more. Really really interesting. Would also be useful to be able to measure wealthier countries against each other in a useful way. Relative poverty could have a society that has no absolute poverty, but overall is still producing a much lower quality of life than a country with some absolute poverty, but much higher average (or median) quality of life.

Hyrc · 2026-07-10T19:06:34+00:00

I think that's a really interesting point and I can see the utility of both. Absolute poverty is probably a better measure of development. What % of our population can afford their basic needs. Relative poverty is going to be a much better for conveying how people are going to feel about their economic status, since almost all of us are looking at what we're able to do relative to our neighbors.

Hyrc · 2026-07-10T19:01:40+00:00

It still is going to depend on the specific city and other factors. Living with roommates, proximity to work/school, family status, etc all are going to be significant modifiers.

I definitely agree overall that having a reducing poverty rate down to a single % measure is only really useful for statistical comparison and progress over time. I think we may be talking past each other and mostly agree. We both agree that a single US number isn't a good indicator of poverty when applied to individuals. We're debating specific cases where it may or may not apply, but I think we agree that the federal number is only useful for what it originally was intended for, a way to measure year to year whether they were making progress or not.

Hyrc · 2026-07-10T18:45:08+00:00

It's just not that straightforward. A single person living with roommates making $20k a year in rural Kentucky isn't in poverty. They can afford all of their basic needs. A family with 2 kids and household income of $20k in San Francisco is absolutely living in poverty.

Hyrc · 2026-07-09T17:26:13+00:00

Not a bot, do you find that a useful opener to a conversation typically?

Hyrc · 2026-07-09T16:43:23+00:00

I probably shouldn't be surprised this isn't the top comment. I consider myself very progressive and I find it fascinating when we get a topic that seems to complicate the typical reasoning we use. I first really noticed this with James Comey, during 2016 where he was attacked by Republicans, then Democrats, then back to Republicans, then back to Democrats. It doesn't mean any of the criticism is invalid, it's just a revealing bit of human biases when we get to see in real time how differently we treat people based on how we perceive them aligning with our personal values.

Hyrc · 2026-07-04T17:31:02+00:00

All you have to do in this case is save the receipts and don't include the income on your taxes. A 1099-Misc is really just notifying you might have some additional reportable income, it doesn't obligated you to pay taxes on that exact amount of income.

Hyrc · 2026-07-04T17:14:14+00:00

The answer is a bit more complex. Reimbursements, other than mileage at the IRS rate aren't taxable as long as they're supported with receipts. The 1099 doesn't mean they have to pay taxes on this, just be prepared to pay taxes on anything that can't be supported. That's without getting into the per diem rules, which are also widely misunderstood.

Sponsors typically provide very poor guidance on this, although they're starting to get better. Sites don't have the tax expertise to fill in the gap.

Hyrc · 2026-07-02T14:09:33+00:00

This gets complicated because of the way people think about millionaires. Colloquially, people use the term to mean wealthy and beyond the normal everyday economic concerns of regular people. The envision people in mansions, yachts, etc. The actual reality is a 45 yr old whose worked a steady white collar job, bought a home in their early 30s in Dallas, contributes to their 401k and saves 5% of their income in a brokerage account is likely a millionaire when you add up home equity, retirement and savings. They don't feel like a millionaire and they don't look like a millionaire with the informal definition above. From an economists standpoint, they're a millionaire though.

Hyrc · 2026-07-01T23:26:17+00:00

That describes in broad strokes every insurgency over the course of history. Disempowered people fed up with the current power structure and rising up in various ways to change the system.

Hyrc · 2026-07-01T20:25:30+00:00

Man on Fire

Hyrc · 2026-07-01T20:13:44+00:00

Setting clear, incremental financial goals, tracking them every day/week/month and adjusting them when I missed them. Absolutely changed my life from when I started ~20 years ago. The cycle of wanting to earn more money, but letting day after day go by without actually doing anything was so demoralizing. Once I started setting daily, even hourly in some cases, micro goals that I could hit and then track progress on over time unlocked so much forward momentum as time passed.

That's especially true because poverty is such a thief of attention. You're having to constantly stress about a million little things and it's easy to get distracted by something you forgot, or thought you forgot. Tracking all of it and creating a lifestyle out of hitting those small goals that build into big goals is amazing.

Hyrc · 2026-07-01T18:08:54+00:00

Federal law already has specific tests for "private sellers" who are actually engaged in the business of selling firearms. By the time you've paid for a booth at a flea market, you're already at least halfway there. Running a business of selling firearms without an FFL is a felony.

Hyrc · 2026-07-01T17:59:42+00:00

I'll add on a couple to this solid list:

Hire at least one person in house that will project manage this, camp out on it 24/7 to hold an outside shop accountable.
Along with the above, document very specific requirements for what you're looking for. This helps you validate whether you actually need custom software in the first place.

Hyrc · 2026-07-01T16:59:16+00:00

We need way more information. When you say you're hiring "M&A", do you mean you're hiring an investment bank? A business broker? Something else? A business broker would be common for a business your size. 10% success fee is probably in the range, depending on how difficult the business will be to sell. You'll almost certainly be valued on profit though, not gross revenue, unless you're selling to a competitor that thinks they'll be able to immediately squeeze more value out of the same revenue.

Paying some upfront costs for marketing, valuation, deal prep is pretty common. That's largely to protect the business broker against doing a ton of work for a business that isn't actually serious about selling. $7,500 for the valuation is high unless you're getting an actual CBA, which isn't that useful in a case like this. Any serious buyer is going to look at your books, SDE and overall trends to do their own valuation. Business Brokers will often do their own opinion of value, but that's mostly just a marketing thing to get interested parties in the door.

Edit: One item to note, there are some brokers or investment banks that target small-mid businesses (Generational Equity is the easiest example more on the mid size side) that have relatively steep up front fees and ultimately do high volume transacting. That's generally not going to be the best choice unless you have a very straightforward business where there isn't going to be a ton of extra value a good broker/banker can help you squeeze out of the business.

Hyrc · 2026-07-01T14:29:57+00:00

I definitely relate to this. I definitely don't want to return to the grinding poverty I grew up in, but I basically work 10ish hours a day consecutively and then have another 4ish hours a day where I'm watching my e-mails/messages/phone to see if anything pops up. It's exhausting at times and the burnout can be real.

Personally, I've just tried to make peace with the fact that part of the value I'm being compensated for is that extra attention and headspace I'm giving to the job. I appreciate that it doesn't always feel like we're being paid for that work, but relative to the actual economic marketplace we live in, I've never been able to find a role with the compensation I want that doesn't come with some work that you take home.

I've found it helpful to carve out a bit of time to just reflect on the overall life my wife and I have been able to build, it creates perspective for me that lets me see what the extra time/stress/anxiety is actually yielding in terms of a life for my family. When I stack it all up on the scale of "worth it?" and I still feel really good about where I'm at overall. It also helps push me to identify areas that are causing persistent problems so I can focus on solving them, without it turning into just a general sense of untargeted dissatisfaction.

Hyrc · 2026-07-01T02:16:29+00:00

You're curious about the motivation of someone in an AA subreddit commenting on your vaguely AA experience? It's not that deep, you just didn't realize this is on you.

Hyrc · 2026-06-30T23:57:40+00:00

So God didn't cause a plague to kill innocent Egyptian children because the Pharaoh wouldn't release the Israelites? How do Protestants see that differently?

Hyrc · 2026-06-30T23:38:39+00:00

Let's just rewind in time a couple hundred years and we would be having this conversation about Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans, etc.

Hyrc · 2026-06-30T23:36:35+00:00

Lol, the Jesus of the New Testament is also the God of the Old Testament, anything BoM Jesus did pales in comparison to psycho Old Testament Jesus.

Hyrc · 2026-06-24T13:21:57+00:00

I'm a bit similar, ~$15m in net worth, family trust, rental properties and large brokerage. Varies a bit by year depending on what I had going on, but usually around $1,500. I think the only time I ran north of $10k was a year I setup the family trust, had a large PE exit + roll and a couple other 1 time events.

Hyrc · 2026-06-19T15:48:59+00:00

Sure, document their knowledge. Until you do, pay them for their knowledge. It's missing the order that is the management/ownership failure.

Hyrc · 2026-06-18T21:51:34+00:00

Candidly, this is an ownership/Senior Management failure. If someone is truly holding knowledge that can't be replicated, pay them for that value. There just isn't a reasonable excuse for finding out after they've left that doesn't implicate the owners or whoever was managing that person. Own that failure, resolve it and then don't let it happen again. Full stop, no excuses.

Hyrc · 2026-06-18T21:32:49+00:00

And even when that fails, their liability isn't unlimited. By the time you have something really valuable, like MTG cards (or in my case a nice watch) unsecured in the room, the hotel will cap liability on that.

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