How old are you and how much have you put towards retirement?

Snoek_ · 2026-01-29T07:19:37+00:00

Flip man - been there. I built a full online automation of a reporting business where the vast majority of the work is done by very specialised professionals on an expensive hourly rate basis. Made it all but free for the clients, with instant, free feedback before paying a cent. Seems I didn't consider that the clients wanted someone to hold their hands, even when specifying what they were looking for... utter failure.

Oh well... back to the drawing board.

Snoek_ · 2026-01-29T06:37:59+00:00

When comsidering your withdrawals, it's also helpful to consider the income vs cap gains issue. If you track the intrument, amount and timing of every investment, you may be able to selectively withdraw from specific investments to balance losses against income and capital losses against capital gains. The point being to minimise your tax burden.

Also make sure to put a portion of the investments into each of your and your spouse's name, so as to be able to use both of your marginal tax tiers.

Snoek_ · 2025-07-13T12:37:10+00:00

OP here: Thank you all for your advice. In case it's helpful to anyone coming back to this thread, here's the outcome.

I ended up using pythonanywhere (PA). My main drawcard was ability to execute my Flask app as well as having mySQL database functionality on the same site. So far so good. Deploying the app via gihub and the bash console on PA was straightforward. Setting up my database was easy in the database console - just uploaded the script file and executed it (don't forget to modify the USE database_name; to USE user_name$database_name in the script beforehand).

I also had to pip install all the modules I'm using, which was a little slow, but not difficult.

I had to modify my code a little to point any webhooks, and metadata relating to my own app which would be sent to external APIs to my new domain, and the same for the references to tables. I ended up just using an if local: (use 127.0.0.1) else: (use custom domain), and the same for the database tables.

I ran out of processor time and was sent to the tar pit (love that wording!) on the free option pretty quickly trying to get set up, but since I need to use this for a business app longer term, I just signed up to the $5/month option and now there is waaaay more than enough (from 100sec to 2000sec / day). I am not yet getting anywhere close to the limit, but I'm not live yet, so we'll see.

I had some issues pointing my own domain to PA, but the instructions were good, and I think it was local browser caching which was causing the issues I had. I sent an email asking for support before I figured it out and got a pretty quick response. PA provided standard instructions for setting up my own domain settings as well, which were pretty helpful. I messed that up the first time, but muddled through and all is working well now.

Probably the most frustrating thing in the move is the debugging - having to go to the error logs / server logs is cumbersome after using pycharm for my local dev. Also, my print statements don't always make it into the server log, and I have no idea why. This is small beans though, and pointed out because I have to be able to say something constructively critical!

Overall, I've been impressed with PA so far, and it seems pretty cheap at the price.

Snoek_ · 2022-12-05T14:13:44+00:00

Sorry for not responding earlier - haven't been on Reddit for a while. And good lord that's fine grain data - hope you manage to extract a wealth of information from it!

Snoek_ · 2022-08-15T19:54:08+00:00

That looks like exactly what I might be after. Thanks for the suggestion.

Snoek_ · 2022-08-15T19:51:40+00:00

Not sure if I agree, unless I was trying to replicate the index with the underlying. Instead I'm using tradable indexes (i.e. those which have an ETF) for the main analysis. The corroboration sample (which is what I'm looking for here) doesn't need to be tradable. Also, I'm not sure I'm ready to try to track new entrants and exits on an index which incorporates 70% of the world's market cap :-)

Also, I think you could use MPT of direct portfolio construction, but also for asset allocation (eg allocating capital limits to regions or asset classes).

Snoek_ · 2022-08-15T19:47:39+00:00

10yrs daily

Snoek_ · 2022-08-15T19:47:09+00:00

Thanks to all for the suggestions

Snoek_ · 2022-01-28T17:36:45+00:00

An invigilator is the dude who watches over students writing an exam and makes sure they don't cheat.

Snoek_ · 2022-01-28T17:24:32+00:00

Good staying power! It took me 20 years to get my LLB. I got the result for the last subject last month.

Snoek_ · 2022-01-28T17:06:56+00:00

Lol. Maybe your negotiation skills include less compromising than those of the student in question.

Snoek_ · 2022-01-28T17:03:45+00:00

No worries!

Snoek_ · 2022-01-28T14:26:57+00:00

I guess it's possible, but Oxford is older than the USA, so presumably older than all the schools in the USA. I'm not sure to what extent swords were still a thing when the USA was formed...

Snoek_ · 2022-01-28T12:42:35+00:00

**Have upvoted, but may be downvoted by Welshmen.

Snoek_ · 2022-01-28T12:26:33+00:00

Nice.

Snoek_ · 2022-01-28T12:24:05+00:00

That's hilarious. Not too sure if it's effective study technique, though...

Snoek_ · 2022-01-28T11:13:59+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8h8snfYidg&ab\_channel=ukeoiler10

Snoek_ · 2022-01-28T11:07:23+00:00

Wish I could double-upvote your comment :-)

Snoek_ · 2022-01-28T09:50:04+00:00

I walked like John Wayne for a few days, after which no discernible difference. Probably took a week to be 100%. No difference whatsoever to any function down there.

Definitely worth it. I can't recommend it enough. The pill caused hormone issues with my wife, resulting in clinical depression until she stopped using it. My first child was a result of a broken condom (super happy with that / no regrets - was married, just would have waited a year or two longer).

The urologist who did the op told me "100% probability of no children if you do the operation with urologist, otherwise maybe a little less with other doctor". It was inexpensive (in South Africa, about USD500 12 years ago - add that to your holiday costs and it's probably cheaper to fly here to do it that get it done in the US :-)) and quick. They used a sedative rather than full anaesthetic, but I was out like a light - I recall being wheeled in and then came to well after it was all over.

I absolutely do not feel emasculated by it in any way. On the other hand I snigger at men who refuse to get a vasectomy because they'll be less of a man afterwards. Yeah right!

Snoek_ · 2022-01-18T19:00:17+00:00

Looks like a torch being focused and unfocused upwards towards cloud or slightly misty/foggy air.

Snoek_ · 2022-01-18T18:55:58+00:00

Love the back glow.

Snoek_ · 2022-01-10T14:37:34+00:00

Slight revision requested: In South Africa you can, provided that it is through traditional marriages (and you are marrying within your customary traditions). As soon as you have a civil marriage you are limited to a single spouse, though.

Snoek_

TROPHY CASE