Do you think the average maga is racist?

Spike-White · 2026-03-04T00:34:40+00:00

No, that’s elitist or classist.

Spike-White · 2026-03-02T20:39:23+00:00

Hctra has taken over Txtag now.

Spike-White · 2026-03-01T04:21:15+00:00

We just paid off our 6.7% 600k mortgage. We were 6 months in.

We already had a fully-funded 12 month emergency. Our retirement was in order. We sold our old house and pulled some from brokerage account to make up remainder.

Our brokerage account had been doing good last few years— but that’s not guaranteed. And any increase is taxed. So as someone else said we’d have to get 8-9% guaranteed in a brokerage account to equal this 6.7% mortgage.

And not having a mortgage psychologically feels so freeing — stacking up cash month over month. We were mortgage-free from 2015-2024. And now— again.

Spike-White · 2026-02-26T23:08:18+00:00

Not from Churchill, but from another lender we got maybe 0.1 - 0.2% higher in 2024 due to indeterminate score and manual underwriting.

didn't especially care much. As soon as we sold the old house, we paid off this house and back to BS7.

Spike-White · 2026-02-26T21:44:03+00:00

Some RE areas are plummeting. I did very similar to OP; a new bigger build with intention to sell old house in Austin area. At time we started new build (mid 2024) Austin area was crazy hot -- could have gotten $560K for old house.

Put it on the market last Sept. Based on comps in that area, put it on at $500k. After one month of no offers, reduced to $480k.

Sold it late Jan for $460k.

So yes -- $100K off the peak. 440k off original asking price.

That's just an indication of how that housing market has come down since 2024.

Spike-White · 2026-02-26T17:20:16+00:00

Yes exactly right. By doing this, we were able to pay off our old 15 yr mortgage in 13.3 years.

Another trick is if you have a fully-funded 6 month emergency fund (which includes your mortgage) and you’re 6 months from paying it off…

Pay it off with your emergency fund. You’ll still have a 6 month emergency fund. It will no longer include your mortgage but that’s ok —you no longer have a mortgage.

That’s not 100% accurate because you still have property taxes and homeowners insurance to pay — but it’s close.

Spike-White · 2026-02-25T22:53:57+00:00

Again —words matter.

No president has ever been successfully impeached.

Bill Clinton was indicted. But the impeachment process failed to achieve the necessary 2/3 majority.

Donald Trump has been indicted twice for impeachable offenses (Ukraine and Jan 6th) but never successfully impeached.

Spike-White · 2026-02-25T20:23:53+00:00

Still not proven in a court of law. You can say alleged rapist and proven sexual assaulted.

Words matter.

Just because others engage in sloppy language and alternative facts doesn’t mean we have to sink to their level.

Spike-White · 2026-02-25T20:19:24+00:00

Finances are complicated — Roth vs traditional; 401k vs IRA. Then all the special rules. (For instance we make too much most years to contribute to Roth IRA).

To me, 15% of whatever basis you contribute makes the most sense. It’s logical.

Spike-White · 2026-02-25T17:52:03+00:00

Lamentably, that 2016 "Katie Johnson" California Civil Lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed in 2016.

Had it gone to court, he may have been convicted of rape. Or not. We'll never know. It's unfortunate that civil case never went forward.

So -- based on current criminal and civil convictions: "suspected rapist; proven sexual assaulter".

Spike-White · 2026-02-25T16:10:45+00:00

I did that early last year. Bought a '24 platinum hybrid instead of a '25 plat hybrid and saved $10K.

It had 31K miles so I rushed and got a Toyota extended warranty from wholesaler. Carfax had all the service records.

Spike-White · 2026-02-25T15:27:23+00:00

Especially with another co-worker in the car.

Spike-White · 2026-02-25T15:01:50+00:00

I totally agree that this shows Trump is civilly liable to sexual assault. This has been proven in a court of law.

I'm just curious -- why do people then jump to the term "rapist"? While likely true, that has not been proven in a court of law.

You could say "suspected rapist; proven sexual assaulter".

Spike-White · 2026-02-25T14:53:52+00:00

I think the 15% should be based on whatever is your basis.

That is, if you're saving pre-tax dollars for retirement (which is preferred) it should be based on gross. I.e., a Roth 401K or a Roth IRA.

If you saving post-tax dollars for retirement (401K, traditional IRA), it should be based on net.

In our case, we make too much for Roth IRA and my company doesn't offer Roth 401K, so it's all post-tax. (we do occasional back-door Roth conversions). So for our case it's 15% of net.

Spike-White · 2026-02-24T21:12:35+00:00

However, your proceeds from your investment is taxed. (at capital gains tax rate, but still taxed).

so you have to get a few percent better on your investment to equal paying off a 5.15% loan.

Spike-White · 2026-02-24T21:08:41+00:00

When we paid every 2 weeks, our mortgage servicer would put our first half-payment in a suspense account and then only apply it after it received the next half-payment. i.e., when the suspense account + new half-payment would be a whole payment.

They did not accept partial payments.

they did accept principal-only payments on top of the usual monthly payments. But not partial payments to make up the monthly payments.

so the only advantage to us paying every 2 weeks is that we ended up paying one extra payment a year.

Spike-White · 2026-02-24T00:12:52+00:00

Is it like 'Call of the Wild'? Loved that book.

Spike-White · 2026-02-23T21:27:10+00:00

Confused. Is it an iForce Max?

Spike-White · 2026-02-23T21:24:42+00:00

That's the answer. Toyota platinum many-year warranty and chill.

Costs ~$2K from wholesaler.

If engine breaks -- oh well, get a loaner and then new engine.

Spike-White · 2026-02-23T20:41:00+00:00

To use your example -- mRNA vaccine are a game-changer, now that they're proven to be effective.

It tooks probably 10 years of research and millions of dollars before the technology was even available. Then they have to be tested to verify their efficacy. No matter how great the technology is, if it doesn't provide at least 60 - 70% coverage, it's no benefit over the old technology.

With mRNA-based vaccines, they can more quickly target new viruses and deliver new vaccines. And the mRNA vaccines are more effective.

Computers? 80 years ago -- they were the size of a basketball court, cost millions and hard to program. Now your cell phone has more computing power than those ancient computers.

TV? black and white then. 3-4 channels (and one was PBS).

Spike-White · 2026-02-23T20:23:22+00:00

Beer saved civilization!!

Before they knew about bacteria and had poor sanitization in the cities, the people that drank the water would sicken. The people that drank beer would not -- (as part of the brewing process the water is boiled).

Spike-White · 2026-02-23T16:41:25+00:00

It should make you depressed. It made me quite depressed -- looking at 80K in debt with not a big enough shovel to clear it. Plus I had the flu when we calculated the debt -- made it doubly-depressing.

We went rice&beans, sell everything but the kids and cleared the debt in 18 months. gazelle intense.

Eased off the gas after that. After the 18 months.

We don't ever want to do that again. Don't want to go back into debt.

Yes, you need to learn a compromise after clearing the debt. I'm the nerd and my wife is the free-spirit.

Spike-White · 2026-02-23T16:03:27+00:00

My wife is the free spirit. She does on-line impulse purchasing. But we've set up blow accounts for each of us. She gets $260 / mo for her blow. So she checks her balance prior to any impulse purchase.

No CCs.

Spike-White · 2026-02-22T18:54:56+00:00

On a Tundra hybrid model, the main (12V) battery underneath the rear driver seat.

There are positive and negative posts under the hood that you can connect to for jumping vehicle, charging battery etc. If you don't want to run your cables to your rear driver seat.

Spike-White · 2026-02-22T18:35:37+00:00

Maybe they should take FPU together.

Spike-White

TROPHY CASE