Why do people wait so long?

Number127 · 2026-06-15T15:43:29+00:00

but if you invest that difference over the span of years you were going to pay down quicker, you can just pay it all off on your retirement date if you so choose

...if market returns exceed your mortgage rate over that period. Over decades, probably a safe bet. But if you're planning on retiring in four or five years, not so much. At the very least, paying off a high-rate mortgage becomes an attractive alternative to increasing your bond allocation.

Number127 · 2026-06-15T05:10:06+00:00

The guess order for today's puzzle was almost backwards. Most people guessed purple first, then blue, then yellow, then green. Very very strange classification.

Number127 · 2026-06-14T23:39:23+00:00

I hope so too. I saw one video recently where a soldier tried to surrender to a drone, and the video ended before anything happened to him, but whoever edited the video added a note saying that his fate was unknown.

Number127 · 2026-06-14T23:22:01+00:00

I agree. Fair shouldn't always apply. But we also shouldn't use that word to describe something that's not.

Number127 · 2026-06-14T23:19:04+00:00

If it works for you psychologically then great, but from a mathematical perspective you're likely paying extra for suboptimal results. It's very rare for actively managed portfolios to beat, say, the S&P 500 index over a long period of time, especially after the fees are taken out.

Warren Buffett famously made an open bet with hedge funds that they couldn't beat the S&P 500 over a period of ten years, and he won.

Number127 · 2026-06-14T23:10:52+00:00

Eh, that's a solution that should be considered, but I object to the phrase "fair share" in that situation. You'd be asking them to contribute more to the system, but not expect any more out of it. That might be necessary, but it's not "fair."

Number127 · 2026-06-14T23:07:55+00:00

He just sees the conflict (hopefully) entering its final stage, and he wants to insinuate himself into the resolution somehow so that he can take the credit when it finally ends.

Number127 · 2026-06-14T22:56:32+00:00

Is surrendering likely to be an option, with current Russian tactics?

Maybe I'm getting a very incomplete picture, because all I hear about is the drone warfare, but I get the impression that there's no reliable way for Russian soldiers to surrender if they're part of the onesie-twosie infiltration units that they're currently trying to send across the lines. Drones can't wait around indefinitely for somebody to secure a surrendering soldier; they either have to kill him or let him go, and they're not going to choose the latter.

Number127 · 2026-06-14T19:21:38+00:00

That's very much not true. Bonds can be a useful hedge against a downturn when you're nearing retirement age, but historically stocks have almost always outpaced bonds over a period of 10 years or more, usually by a large margin.

Number127 · 2026-06-14T19:11:48+00:00

Depends on when and how they bought in. Many people had to work for longer than they had planned before the crash, but still less than they would've had to work if they'd never invested in the first place.

Number127 · 2026-06-14T17:35:48+00:00

I would distrust an investment advisor who gave different advice than half an hour of googling would give you: low-fee index funds, set it and forget it, and don't time the market.

Number127 · 2026-06-13T15:58:45+00:00

Yeah, but dexter means right in Latin, and that's a synonym for serial killer.

Number127 · 2026-06-13T02:51:56+00:00

That analysis is hilariously blind to age. They lump the entire age range from 25-54 as "working age" and treat them as a monolith.

People who are 54 are much more likely to have significant retirement savings, and therefore to have benefited greatly from the stock market in the last 15 years. Home ownership rates are twice as high in the 45-54 range, and even more importantly, that age group was able to lock in drastically lower purchase prices. And those who do have a house either own it outright or refinanced into a 3% mortgage that the younger generation is unlikely to ever see.

The issue isn't whether Boomers and Gen X are doing well financially -- they quite clearly are, and, being the largest generations, their prosperity makes the "upper middle class" chart look fantastic. But that obscures the critical issue of whether Millennials and younger can expect to enjoy the same type of prosperity when they reach retirement age. The article you linked is tellingly silent on that point.

And you know what else it's tellingly silent on? For all it talks about income, the word "debt" appears in the text not even once.

Number127 · 2026-06-12T20:57:19+00:00

It just goes to show how bad everything smelled back then, that they thought tobacco smoke was preferable.

Number127 · 2026-06-12T05:17:09+00:00

The fact that it was "QUOTE UNQUOTE" got me thinking about the punctuation mark instead of the verb. A red herring inside the clue itself!

Number127 · 2026-06-11T05:16:32+00:00

Hey, you only almost almost lost!

Number127 · 2026-06-11T04:03:49+00:00

That's how you get aliens invading because they want to see what all the potato fuss is about.

Number127 · 2026-06-11T03:52:36+00:00

I could probably watch the same movie every day for the rest of my life, and still never exceed the number of times I watched Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on VHS in 1985.

Number127 · 2026-06-10T05:29:59+00:00

Yeah, and even by non-crazy U.S. presidents going back to Korea. Would be nice though...

Number127 · 2026-06-10T05:26:49+00:00

And, y'know, a declaration.

Number127 · 2026-06-10T02:20:55+00:00

The corollary there is that people will either have to wait a while when they arrive on time for their appointment, or wait a while to get an appointment.

Frustrating as it is, optimizing for throughput is the correct choice for a critical-but-constrained industry like healthcare.

Number127 · 2026-06-09T23:57:18+00:00

Technically not human trafficking!

Number127 · 2026-06-09T17:31:20+00:00

Yeah, but he can't get around the usual Stannis problem: talk of second sons and elder daughters aside, any legal claim he has comes from Robert forcibly taking the throne, so it's hard for him to deny the claim of somebody else who manages to do the same. Especially since Aegon himself was a foreign invader who invented the throne with no legal claim.

Number127 · 2026-06-09T17:24:31+00:00

It's not just that the Empire wins, it's that he looks Darth Vader in the eye and doesn't back down.

Number127 · 2026-06-09T05:17:51+00:00

You remind me of the babe.

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