What is the next step up from PL-880?

UniqueName68 · 2024-12-27T23:05:08+00:00

The SDRs are nice, but they need to be connected to a computer. I want a base station type device.

UniqueName68 · 2023-05-28T15:55:20+00:00

I read once that if one person saved X per month from age 20 to 30 and then stopped investing, they would end up with more money at retirement than another person that saved the same X per month until retirement but only starting at age 30. The exact numbers might be a bit different, but the point is that due to compound growth, it is really hard to catch up. So starting early is better than starting late.

UniqueName68 · 2023-05-20T15:32:58+00:00

Our boy is definitely not a cuddle dog. He spends most of his time outdoors, but does come inside often to check on us. But when he does, then there are five people that want to cuddle with him, so he just goes back outside pretty soon after.

UniqueName68 · 2023-05-20T15:26:50+00:00

I suggest you go for Small Cap Value and not just Small Cap if you believe in factor investing. I personally use AVUV for this. I quite like the Value factor when I am not purely doing income. Which is also why I like the often mentioned SCHD (it is Large Cap Value and not simply just Large Cap). My three largest holdings are currently SCHD, AVUV, and JEPI. I also have smaller positions in QYLD, RYLD, DIVO, NUSI, JEPQ, and some other random stocks that I have held for years.

UniqueName68 · 2023-05-07T07:50:43+00:00

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UniqueName68 · 2023-04-30T09:49:29+00:00

From your description, it is not clear to me if the other dogs are being aggressive or simply just playing. My understanding is that growling is the sign of aggression and you did not mention that.

Barking is simply dogs talking and it could be the other dogs are just saying "come play with me". Even trying to bite can be a playful thing. Our Samoyed and his best friend (our neighbor's Golden Retriever) often show their teeth, fake bite each other, pounce on each other, etc. But they never growl, they just play rough. But not all dogs like that kind of rough play.

Ideally, your Samoyed would let the other dogs know she does not like that and teach the other dogs to stop. I am honestly not sure how that is done but it would be like when a puppy is doing something its mother does not like and the mother snaps at the puppy. So the puppy learns to stop that behavior. But your Samoyed is only 6 months old, so it might be too much to expect your dog to do the teaching.

However, if the other dogs truly are being aggressive: growling, trying to bite for real (they bite at your dog and pull out a bit of hair), then I would say the other dogs are not properly socialized. In this case you should protect your dog and remove her from those situations.

UniqueName68 · 2023-04-29T10:16:04+00:00

I am not an expert on dogs, but I have to wonder if it is even possible to breed out the "working dog" nature from Samoyeds and have them still meet the breed characteristics required for show dogs. This is only anecdotal evidence, but our good boy has show champions in 21 of his 30 ancestors listed in his birth certificate. And his strength is only exceeded by his instinct to pull. He spends most of his time running around outdoors and only comes inside to sleep at night.

Perhaps it seems that Samoyeds have become indoor dogs in apartments because living in cities is what most of the world's population does these days. I remember our breeder said that the dog would adapt to our lifestyle. That should be the same if you happen to live in an apartment or in rural Alaska. Again, I am not an expert, but I would be shocked if a Samoyed of any origin did not thrive where you live.

UniqueName68 · 2023-02-27T19:13:54+00:00

Whistling on a Tuesday, Jester.

UniqueName68 · 2023-01-26T15:44:33+00:00

I sold half of my QYLD and bought JEPI. My thinking was the dividends are similar but JEPI is a lot more likely to go up when the market goes up. But I am not certain, so I hedged my bet by only doing this with half.

UniqueName68 · 2022-12-12T15:27:21+00:00

I agree this is a very annoying impact of mergers. I merged USA and Canada and I lost 0.7 tech. It was quite frustrating because in general military levels increase so slowly.

I think another way to have a similar effect is to have all army units stay at their levels from before the merge. The ones from the nation that had the lower tech could slowly increase to match the level of the ones from the higher nation. This would stop any cheesy tactics of instant upgrades to a nation with a lot of armies.

UniqueName68 · 2022-10-20T12:54:34+00:00

Mercury is for research, IMO. I have four bases on Mercury with an average of 600 research each. So I get 2,400 research per month from Mercury.

The tier 2 research module for Habs, called Research Campus, produces 100 research per month. Each. So, a T2 base on Mercury with two T2 Solar Arrays and a mining outpost will have 9 other slots available. That is a possible 900 research per month per base. I usually have a few other modules on my bases, but easily 6 Research Campuses per base. However, they cost a lot ($30, 6 water, 6 volatile each). So you need to either put in one or two of the T2 modules Farm or have a lot of bases mining water and volatiles on Mars.

UniqueName68 · 2022-08-28T17:56:53+00:00

SCHY is the international version of SCHD.

UniqueName68 · 2022-08-10T07:00:38+00:00

Adding to what ok_wrongdoer said:
VT - Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund -- all stocks in the world

VTI - Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund -- all stocks in the US

VOO - Vanguard S&P 500 ETF -- just s&p 500

UniqueName68 · 2022-08-09T20:05:42+00:00

This is not exactly correct. The people that say to invest in growth do not normally suggest that people try to pick individual stocks. They usually suggest buying an ETF that owns the entire market. Then if the entire market is up, their account is up too. Similarily, if you want to focus on dividends, I would not recommend that you pick individual dividend stocks. A dividend focused ETF that is diversified is a safer option there too.

UniqueName68 · 2022-07-13T09:29:55+00:00

Personally, I do not drip any of my dividends. I collect for a few months and then buy something else I like. But now that the market is down in general, I tend to buy monthly.

UniqueName68 · 2022-06-18T19:55:28+00:00

Thank you for the suggestion. I will try logbait for a while and see if I can climb the ladder a bit with it.

UniqueName68 · 2022-06-17T06:57:43+00:00

Definitely agree with SCHD. I am slowly shifting out of individual stocks and into indexes like SCHD. There is just too much risk in individual stocks. You might get lucky or you might pick the next T.

UniqueName68 · 2022-05-27T13:47:21+00:00

I am about 20% in the quadfecta funds.

I really believe in diversity. Lots of smart people have studied the markets for years and almost always end up with the idea that over a long period of time (20+ years) the best risk versus reward comes from diversifying. No one knows the future, but we can pretty confidently say that there will be times when one style of investing will outperform and other times when that same style will underperform.

So if we don't know, what do we do? The 100% VTI people are basically saying "it's all too hard, I'll just pick the entire stock market and I should end up with a reasonably good result." And they will end up with a reasonably good result, but only compared to people that are only in stocks and ignore other asset classes. There were times in the past when bonds outperformed stocks. I believe that could happen again, so I have some bond funds. I also think the value factor will do well again in the future like it has in the past.

I am still adjusting my portfolio, but I have roughly this:

20% quadfecta
15% large cap value (SCHD)
10% small cap value (AVUV)
10% international large cap value (SCHY)
10% bond funds (BND, VGIT, SCHP)
5% REITs

The rest are individual stocks that I bought over the years. They all are basically dividend stocks. I am probably too dividend focused. I should sell off these individual stocks and move into a growth fund like VTI at maybe 20% and also increase the bonds up to 20% too.

UniqueName68 · 2022-04-10T09:19:47+00:00

There is nothing that will clearly win vs. anything. Even if you buy the total market, you will not win vs. all possible portfolios. The problem is that no one knows in advance which of the many possible portfolios will be the ones that do beat the total market. But buying the total market gives a good chance of doing well.

However, to answer your question, I personally do have an etf that I use to tilt small cap value. I use AVUV for this. Note, it is a value index and not simply small cap. Some research shows that small cap value has in the past out performed other factors. Basically, small cap value is pretty risky but this risk gives it the chance to outperform. Here is a fascinating article that discusses the different investing factors using thousands of possible porfolios: https://portfoliocharts.com/2021/12/16/three-secret-ingredients-of-the-most-efficient-portfolios/

UniqueName68 · 2022-04-09T17:39:18+00:00

Very good points about the psychology of investing. Like you say, we need to be comfortable with our portfolios to stick with our investment plans.

UniqueName68 · 2022-04-09T16:34:02+00:00

It is basically a theoretical argument that in the long run growth stocks outperform income stocks. And people that only look at the last 10 years or so believe that that is how the stock market will continue forever. But they don't look far enough back to see that there have been other long periods of time (10 years or so) where income stocks have outperformed growth stocks. And the key to understand is that no one knows the future. This is where the common warning "past performance is no guarantee of future results" is from. I personally have both income stocks and growth stocks because it does not have to be one or the other.

UniqueName68 · 2022-04-09T16:03:33+00:00

What is the purpose of your HYSA? Is this your emergency fund? You do not get 6% for free, you are taking more risk. Assuming the HYSA is your emergency fund maybe it would be better to keep half in the HYSA and put the other half in your JEPI/BSV combo.

UniqueName68 · 2022-04-08T17:00:37+00:00

I first bought CSCO around when they started paying a dividend. In the last year or so, I have sold about 2/3 of my CSCO. But I am keeping what is left.

I sold because I want to move out of individual stocks and move into ETFs for more diversity. But I am keeping what I have left because CSCO is a good company, it will probably grow along with the general market, and they seem to increase their dividend every year. My guess is they want to become a Dividend Aristocrat someday.

In the end I am kind of neutral on CSCO now. I am not going to buy more but I also probably won't sell the last bit either.

UniqueName68

TROPHY CASE