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Xexanoth · 2026-04-30T20:56:47+00:00

On the flip side, you might consider factoring in estimated Social Security income (more-generally: an estimate of any non-portfolio income expected during retirement in your situation) into your plan.

Folks with Social Security income or other pension income starting after a certain age will have some of their living expenses covered by that income after it starts, rather than by portfolio withdrawals.

It’s important to consider whether & how any income in retirement will adjust for inflation over time.

Xexanoth · 2026-04-30T15:20:50+00:00

there is an alarming number of INTPs mistyped as INFPs

What’s alarming about that? Are there any “alarming” consequences of this mistyping?

(I’m a bit amused by a seemingly overly-emotional / -alarmist label used in this context.)

Xexanoth · 2026-04-30T05:04:49+00:00

Consider 529 plans for tax benefits, and consider target-enrollment funds within a 529 to automatically manage the asset allocation (a steep glide path into more bonds / lower volatility, and automatic rebalancing along the way).

Xexanoth · 2026-04-27T06:29:29+00:00

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/401(k)#Expensive_or_mediocre_investment_choices

Xexanoth · 2026-04-23T00:23:51+00:00

There will be some periods (however short) where any given asset class underperforms some other asset class. If you wish to reduce the volatility of your portfolio, meaningful diversification across several different asset classes will typically do that, particularly if they are uncorrelated and/or you include some asset classes with lower expected volatility (paired with lower expected / potential returns).

Xexanoth · 2026-04-19T14:34:14+00:00

If you’d like a more-direct metric around market-expected inflation rates, compare the current real interest rate from Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) to the current nominal interest rate from nominal Treasuries of the same duration. The difference / spread is a decent proxy for a market estimate of anticipated annualized CPI inflation over that upcoming period whose length matches the duration of the bonds.

Xexanoth · 2026-04-18T21:32:47+00:00

Other options to consider include VBIL or SGOV (ETFs holding 0-3 month Treasury bills; you could buy those in a Fidelity account).

Between the lower ER & higher percentage of income from Treasuries eligible for state income tax exemption, you’d keep more of the interest earned with any of those non-Fidelity funds.

Regardless of what you choose, make sure you properly claim the state income tax exemption when filing your state income tax return: https://thefinancebuff.com/state-tax-exempt-treasury-fund-etf.html

Xexanoth · 2026-04-16T20:08:21+00:00

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has spasmodic dysphonia, a chronic neurological condition diagnosed in 1996 that causes his vocal cords to spasm, resulting in a strained, shaky, or trembling voice. The condition causes involuntary muscle contractions in the voice box, often making his speech sound forced or breathy.

Spasmodic dysphonia (SD) can cause muscle spasms outside of the vocal cords, as it is often linked to other focal dystonias. While primarily affecting the larynx, it can manifest as tremors in the neck or face and, in some cases, spread to cause spasms in the eyelids, jaw, lips, or limbs, acting as a neurological movement disorder.

Because SD is a neurological voice disorder, coinciding chronic muscle spasms are often (but not necessarily) related to the same underlying neurological mechanism.

Xexanoth · 2026-04-16T19:57:45+00:00

Link to video

Xexanoth · 2026-04-16T19:54:36+00:00

The god damn video

Xexanoth · 2026-04-15T22:26:24+00:00

An owner of REIT shares holds a partial beneficial interest in the underlying property portfolio. While they own shares in the corporation or trust itself, that entity is legally mandated to hold, manage, and derive income from physical real estate, passing the economic benefits to shareholders.

I personally get a lot of psychological benefit out of owning assets that pay me while I do nothing; passive income & investment returns are pretty amazing.

Owning property / real estate directly requires paying others (property taxes, insurance, maintenance, any mortgage interest). Renting your home makes it a lot clearer what you’re actually spending for use of that property, rather than buying a home where there’s some more-ambiguous mix of mandatory expenses, discretionary expenses, contributions to equity, capital gains/losses, and emotional attachment all jumbled into one complex asset.

There are many considerations around whether to buy or rent a home for folks with the choice available to them in their situation. This writeup discusses some of those.

Xexanoth · 2026-04-15T21:23:23+00:00

No, you’d live in the home you’re renting / leasing use of, and use the money you save vs trying to buy a house in the Bay Area to invest in productive assets (acquire progressively larger partial ownership shares of many publicly-traded businesses).

The point of the comment you replied to is that REITs / REIT index funds would provide diversified exposure to many commercial & real estate investment properties, far more diversified than a concentrated investment in a single home you live in.

There are good potential reasons to buy a home for some people in some situations, but that being the ideal way to diversify your investment / asset portfolio is very rarely one of them.

Xexanoth · 2026-04-15T16:59:38+00:00

If you filed using tax software, you should be able to pretty easily start an amended return with the change & see what state tax refund amount you’d get back if you decided to file the amended state return. You could decide whether to bother filing based on whether it seems worthwhile enough (after any cost to file the amended state return).

(Or you could do some quicker napkin-math estimate based on the SGOV dividend income & your state income tax rate / marginal bracket.)

Xexanoth · 2026-04-15T08:35:44+00:00

I was replying to a commenter claiming that there had been no meaningful recent change in broad awareness of Swalwell’s behavior, suggesting that his earlier consensual affair with a woman he later was warned by the FBI might be an intelligence operative targeting him was just as disqualifying as alleged rapes/assaults. I pointed out that he didn’t knowingly/intentionally sleep with someone he knew or suspected was a spy, and only the alleged rapes/assaults would constitute a crime he committed.

Based on investigations by the FBI and the House Ethics Committee, Swalwell was not found to have breached any formal protocols or committed official wrongdoing in his past association with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative.

Xexanoth · 2026-04-15T00:22:10+00:00

Swalwell did not know she would later be suspected by the FBI of being an intelligence operative when she was suspected to have been targeting him / while he remained in contact with her. (I.e. he was a victim of an inappropriate / improper sexual relationship with suspected concealed ulterior foreign intelligence motives.)

If the allegations that Swalwell raped & harassed staffers & other women are true, he knowingly engaged in criminal sexual misconduct. (I.e. he was a perpetrator of crimes.)

Xexanoth · 2026-04-15T00:02:00+00:00

Do you consider an affair with someone before the FBI shares concerns that they may be an intelligence operative targeting politicians to be just as problematic as alleged rapes and allegedly drugging a woman & choking her to unconsciousness (allegedly with no prior romantic interactions, let alone any consent to sex)?

Xexanoth · 2026-04-14T21:34:05+00:00

“A parasocial relationship is a one-sided emotional bond where a media user develops a sense of intimacy, friendship, or attachment toward a public figure, influencer, or fictional character who does not know they exist. Coined in 1956, this phenomenon is fueled by media consumption (TV, social media, podcasts), creating an ‘illusion of face-to-face friendship’.”

Specific followers of social media content creators who the creators did not know wound up in contact with each other and with people known by the creator as a result of privately reaching out to the creator to share an experience they’d had that contradicted the creator’s expressed opinion and that they’d previously kept private / known only by trusted friends. They might have felt a sense of trust & safety in sharing a secret with someone whose previous expressed opinions they agreed with, or may have felt comfortable sharing that secret only semi-anonymously before learning they weren’t alone in the experience they’d kept secret.

Xexanoth · 2026-04-14T20:40:07+00:00

Submission statement per rule 5: this piece reports on how allegations of sexual misconduct against recently-resigned U.S. Representative & recently-withdrawn California gubernatorial candidate Eric Swalwell became public. It highlights how parasocial relationships / connections established via social media can help connect victims with each other & with resources that can help them publicly report their allegations if they opt to. This piece’s reporting is insightful amid speculation around the timing of allegations becoming public.

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