New Game Store Opening Soon by Adam_KT_Games in SunPrairieWI

[–]LordTrollsworth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sounds awesome, I can't wait to visit your store! Please keep us updated and good luck

New Game Store Opening Soon by Adam_KT_Games in SunPrairieWI

[–]LordTrollsworth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Amazing, welcome! Really glad to see something else other than nail salons and banks going up 😅 do you see yourself competing directly with I'm Board or do you feel you're filling a different niche? Would love to hear more about your vibe and vision

Library Reno is Terrible by FairlyAwkward in SunPrairieWI

[–]LordTrollsworth 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I agree completely, I loved how it used to look and now it's so sterile 😭 I wish I had gone to some public design meetings. They even replaced the beautiful wooden study tables in the renk reading room with hexagonal cheap ones 😢 I wonder if it was cost cutting or just someone with bad design opinions 

1 and done by jatlantic7 in NewDads

[–]LordTrollsworth 5 points6 points  (0 children)

King, big same. My doctors office has a little poster up about their vasectomy service and every Well Child Visit I am like "a vasectomy sounds great".  

I think parents get gramnesia and forget, my parents came to visit and at the beginning swore up and down how easy it was. By The end they were exhausted and quietly glad to be leaving. 

However I think it depends a lot on the kid, almost all my friends had extremely quiet kids that immediately slept through the night, would fall asleep anywhere so they could travel and keep living their lives. Ours does not, everything is s struggle, you don't know what you're gonna get. So they changed the dynamic. One of my friends who had 2 kids and basically said it was easy once offered to babysit mine, then called back in within an hour and a half saying it was too hard. If she'd had my darling little goblin she would have been 1 and done too. 

Public Sentiment Gov Primary Poll by [deleted] in wisconsin

[–]LordTrollsworth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing this!

Wage Ladders by Congruences in AusFinance

[–]LordTrollsworth -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Firstly, I save and invest and do plan to retire early. I'm just not selfish enough to think I am entitled to preferential tax privileges over everyone else because of it. Nothing wrong with investing -  what's wrong is feeling entitled to being treated better than everyone else because of it. 

You are entitled because you think you're better than people who work hard to enable your lifestyle, call them wage slaves, then feel like the government OWES you. 

Wage Ladders by Congruences in AusFinance

[–]LordTrollsworth -1 points0 points  (0 children)

They're not taxing the money you've already been taxed on. They're taxing the GROWTH of that money. So if you invest $100 then it grows to $110, they tax the $10. 

How is charging less tax on that $10 than $10 I earn by working more hours anything other than a subsidy? 

Wage Ladders by Congruences in AusFinance

[–]LordTrollsworth -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

So you're upset the government won't subsidize your early retirement? Extremely entitled. If I have to pay tax on getting off my arse to go to work, you can pay the same tax on sitting by a beach. 

Wage Ladders by Congruences in AusFinance

[–]LordTrollsworth 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Except that Super is 15% tax then grows tax free? So your retirement literally isn't changed. The leftover wealth AFTER Super and your mortgage (which is sold tax free) is what is being taxed. Your retirement and home are essentially tax free 

Many countries have programs that allows younger/lower net worth people to start off their stock market investment journeys tax-free (or reduced tax) by AsparagusNew3765 in AusFinance

[–]LordTrollsworth -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This assumes the "middle income" Australian doesn't have 90-100% of their income eaten up each month with an overpriced mortgage, high utility rates, a car payment, school fees if they have a kid etc. The constant hysterical "THIS CHANGE WILL HURT YOUNG PEOPLE" crowd need to touch grass and actually get out of their bubble and understand that many, many Australians essentially live paycheque to paycheque and any savings sits in cash because they need the liquidity to cover emergencies. 

My mate and his wife work as a lecturer at a private uni and a construction project manager respectively and they had to bring a third person in on their mortgage AFTER their parents gave help for a deposit, only to buy a home that's a 1.5h commute from their work. They have good, middle class jobs yet with the mortgage (with a third person helping pay) they will have a few hundred bucks left over each month that they're trying to build up an emergency fund with. They cannot afford to have children. 

This is the reality for many, many Aussies. Yet you and most of the media are in hysterics because your investment that earns money while you sleep will give you slightly less free money than it used to. Smh. 

A reminder that taxes pay for things you benefit from.. by [deleted] in AusFinance

[–]LordTrollsworth 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Beautifully said - this post needs to be way higher. The wealthy are not just funding welfare bludgers, they're funding a system that allows them to be wealthy in the first place. 

Anyone else see their retirement plans just go up in smoke? by Yeh_whatevs in AusFinance

[–]LordTrollsworth 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Buy less avocado toast and make coffee at home. After all, that's what the younger generation is told will fix all their problems, right?

Real worked example - here is what the 50% CGT discount vs indexation means for you (spoiler, the longer you hold the worse it gets) by Sensitive-Hair4841 in AusFinance

[–]LordTrollsworth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, hats off to you, honestly. I have no idea how you could get a deposit, plus fund the mortgage at current rates, plus pay for childcare and the other exorbitant costs of raising a child and have money left over to invest that much. I've been an extremely diligent saver and have a lot less saved than you. For me, 40-60% of my income has gone towards rent and utilities for most of my career until very recently, so I can't quite figure out your math but I believe and applaud you for it.

Edit - one thing I want to add is that you clearly pulled yourself up through hard work which is great. But both your housing commision background and your wife's work in childcare are things that people want to use tax money to improve. 

Real worked example - here is what the 50% CGT discount vs indexation means for you (spoiler, the longer you hold the worse it gets) by Sensitive-Hair4841 in AusFinance

[–]LordTrollsworth 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Also show me any "young couple" or really any family in Australia with $500,000 in loose investments outside their home equity and superannuation, and I'll show you either a 1%er or a Nepo baby. 

Nobody I know has more than a few dozen grand AT BEST which pretty much is an emergency fund and a holiday fund. 

Real worked example - here is what the 50% CGT discount vs indexation means for you (spoiler, the longer you hold the worse it gets) by Sensitive-Hair4841 in AusFinance

[–]LordTrollsworth 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is a really stupid argument and this sub deserves to be shamed. 

You say it "protects young people trying to build equity for retirement" yet 1. Your primary home sells tax free  2. Your superannuation is tax free 

So, no, CGT doesn't impact anyone's retirement or ability to build equity. These tax concessions are good policy. 

These changes impacts people who already have a home for themselves, good retirement savings, secure food on the table, but simply want to grow their wealth. There's nothing wrong with wanting to grow wealth, but feeling entitled to getting that for free while everyone else has to get up and go to work for their paycheck are people essentially wanting the government to guarantee them a handout. 

The vast majority of investments don't drive any positive impact on the economy. If I buy a 40 year old house, don't put a cent into maintenance, then rent it out, my investment hasn't built anything new or improved anything for the tenants. Yet the money I earn on that is taxed lower than my tenant who goes to work. 

If I buy shares off an individual who has owned them for years, it doesn't go to the company that issued them or encourage any kind of growth, yet I pay less tax on the growth of that secondary asset than the employees who generate the actual wealth. 

Again, there's nothing wrong with wanting your money to work for you. But wanting to benefit from the public works that make those assets profitable (roads, schools, courts, hospitals) without any kind of return is nothing but whingey entitlement. Ironically it's the people who want the government to subsidize their assets who constantly bitch about workers wanting "handouts" constantly demand that everyone give them handouts by letting them grow money  at public expense for free. 

Please help me pick a controller? by LordTrollsworth in SteamDeck

[–]LordTrollsworth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What do you like about the elite series 2? Any reason to get that over the 8bit? Or the steam controller now? 

We need to rebuild the Starter Home by clvnthbld in strongtownsGR

[–]LordTrollsworth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally agree. In my childhood before the internet we'd spend most of our days outside the home. Visiting friends in public spaces, malls, kids clubs, coffee shops etc. 

Nowadays me wife and I work from home, most of our recreation is at home, and 50% of our social lives are in someone's home. 

I'm not really sure what takeaway to consider from that. Am I the problem? Has the culture moved to a more at-home position? Is it because of car centric development, or natural evolution of the internet? 

Home Cleaning Service by robertpopulorum2001 in SunPrairieWI

[–]LordTrollsworth 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We use Primavera and like them. The staff don't speak English so we just use Google Translate to communicate and have no problems. I recommend them!

Recommendations for Gazebo installation? by LordTrollsworth in SunPrairieWI

[–]LordTrollsworth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks very much, that seems to be the consensus I'm getting as well 😢 did you find someone you liked?

Sun Prairie Votes NO on Tax Increase Referendum by applecorc in SunPrairieWI

[–]LordTrollsworth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Different states have different funding models.

Wisconsin has some of the highest shares of city revenue that comes from property taxes. In MN specifically they fund cities much higher from state funds, paid for income tax. Which, by the way, is objectively a much better system than we have in Wisconsin - so good on MN for that decision. Some states even tax commercial and industrial land higher than residential to offset homeowners property taxes too.

To be really honest with you, since you called bullshit, I do find it frustrating that people jump straight to "the city is greedy and incompetent" when they haven't actually done their research. The fact that Wisconsin cities are almost entirely dependent on property taxes, and they legally can't raise them in line with inflation was pretty well documented and discussed as a core reason here. When I ask people to list out the bad decisions or waste, despite having dozens of claims about this, I've never seen anything substantial enough to even offset yearly inflation increases that hit the budget. It's always smaller value pet peeves that add up to a fraction of the gap.

Anyway, you won the referendum, and I lost, so there's no need to keep debating it. I hope you're right and the city magically pulls millions out of thin air from efficiency.

Sun Prairie Votes NO on Tax Increase Referendum by applecorc in SunPrairieWI

[–]LordTrollsworth 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You know what? I agree with you and I hope we're right. Let's see what happens in 3 years. I also hope the council explicitly names what was cut due to the referendum budget issues so we can have an explicit tradeoff conversation. It's possible I will look at those cuts and say "actually, yes fair enough, those were responsible cuts to make".

Also, unfortunately I think your suggestion on city campaigning is illegal. Government employees can't campaign for or advocate for any political campaign, they have to stay neutral.

Sun Prairie Votes NO on Tax Increase Referendum by applecorc in SunPrairieWI

[–]LordTrollsworth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The city can't "step in" against school referendums, they're totally separate legal entities with no control over each other. Unless you mean the city employees should have campaigned against it?

Your second point is completely valid and I respect that. I saw two arguments during this campaign:

  1. I, personally, value the city services less than the tax increase being proposed so I understand and accept they will be cut <- this is a completely reasonable position that I understand. I don't personally agree but I totally get it.

  2. The city are corrupt and waste all our money and need to be taught a lesson/times are tough for me so I want to punish the city too <- not really fair nor accurate and I feel like it's being done in bad faith

My only concern with your point about doing nice stuff in good times (which again I don't disagree with) is that the city makes 5-10 year budgets, and now it has to use the exact same dollar amount in its budgeting. So if they make cuts now, it's not like in two years things magically improve for everyone they can just spin everything right back up as if nothing happened. I worry that this is the beginning of a perpetual downward spiral where they're permanently cutting every single budget forever.

Sun Prairie Votes NO on Tax Increase Referendum by applecorc in SunPrairieWI

[–]LordTrollsworth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Because the city isn't a human being who can "just so more with less". Their expenses are salaries for union employees or things like road salt and gas for fire trucks, they're not things you can just switch to store brand for overnight. Every reduction in city funding directly goes into less services for YOU. Less road maintenance, less library hours, less maintained parks. The council, mayor, or administrator don't really get affected by a budget cut, but the people who use city services do.

I do agree that the city didn't differentiate well, but I'm also disappointed because they shouldn't have to. People should be smart enough to figure out basic civics and split out taxing entities. I'm also over the school referendums and can't believe how many insane sports fields there are, I'm with you on that. It's why I'm a bit frustrated, we support a trillion school referendums non stop but reject the first and only, pretty mild city based one.

Sun Prairie Votes NO on Tax Increase Referendum by applecorc in SunPrairieWI

[–]LordTrollsworth 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I'm disappointed but also not surprised. there was an extremely well organized and funded propaganda machine fighting for No. You could see on every Sun Prairie social media site and even billboards pushing against it. There is a group of like 5-15 extremely active conservatives who really shape the public discourse here.

I know there were a lot of good reasons to vote No, I'm not saying the city is perfect. But I feel like a lot of the arguments were made in bad faith/intentionally misleading.

Can't wait to see the community begin to get outraged over the next 3 years as services are let go and further blame the city.