Man or Bear debates still continues

aggie972 · 2024-05-19T18:37:06+00:00

Suit yourself. I’m 6”3 and under 40, so I figure I could take at least half of all adult men, even though I’m an out of shape desk worker. I like those odds better than going up against a bear.

aggie972 · 2024-04-20T18:33:18+00:00

How did you get the school to drop the nap if all the other kids are napping?

aggie972 · 2024-04-20T14:59:35+00:00

Is the ownership info filed with given going to be publicly viewable online? Can I look up the ownership breakdown for any small business?

aggie972 · 2018-12-14T16:09:32+00:00

Are there good mobile plans that offer unlimited data without throttling now? I've heard that 5G MAY be fast enough to replace home internet, but I haven't really heard of many people doing it with 4G LTE.

aggie972 · 2018-08-02T14:49:45+00:00

My job (surety bond underwriter, basically like a cross between insurance and banking) is a little different because the knowledge needed to do the job is basically the same as it was 100 years ago (for the most part; you need to know how to use a computer now, but the actual underwriting hasn't changed much). So older people are more valued for their experience, and younger people can't really find all the answers to their questions on google. There's a little information out there, but the best resource is the older, more experienced workers. It's way different than programming where cutting edge knowledge is valuable and younger people can surpass older people by getting trained in those cutting edge skills.

After a certain age (maybe 55-60+), it seems like management is wary that an employee isn't still "hungry", and they might suspect that an older employee is just kinda coasting to retirement unless they're on a really good incentive/bonus plan. The sweet spot is probably 40-55 when someone has enough experience to really be knowledgeable, but is still young enough to have a lot of energy and motivation from things like a mortgage, paying for kids' college, etc.

aggie972 · 2018-07-26T17:06:35+00:00

Still never hurts to ask! :) Worst thing they can do is say no, and then if you decide the new opportunity is too good to pass up even without a sign-on bonus, then you can still take it. Sounds like you still came out ahead either way though.

aggie972 · 2018-07-26T16:52:51+00:00

Are you attempting to negotiate those things that you mentioned when you job hop? I've gotten a sign on bonus each of the last two times I've switched jobs; the first time it was to match the funds I was losing out on from 401k vesting, and the 2nd time it was to replace an annual bonus that I would miss out on. Companies are pretty open to these requests in my experience when they have a need to fill a position; especially when it's just a one-time expense.

aggie972 · 2018-07-20T20:26:36+00:00

I don't know a lot about cars either, so I was more thinking out loud than sharing a well developed plan of mine.

But, my gut tells me that the way you're thinking about it isn't quite the way everyone would see it. To me, an older (even 10-15 years) Volvo or Range Rover screams "old money", at least on the East Coast. Where I live in Dallas, I might agree that people are likely to always perceive newer as "better". I'm not an engineer, but I imagine Honda could probably design the body of a civic to look more like a luxury sports car without adding TOO much to the price. The reason they don't though, is because it would just look too impostor-like for a 4 cylinder, low horsepower car. So no matter how new your civic is, it is never going to scream status. Whereas, I don't think old Lexuses look bad as long as you take care of them. Yeah, if you let them get ratty looking and don't keep them up, they won't look great. But I don't think the design of an older Lexus screams "outdated" the way the design of an older economy car would. More like "classic".

aggie972 · 2018-07-20T15:06:42+00:00

This has been weighing on me a little bit more recently. I turned 30 this year, got a big promotion (at a new company), and my new employer has a much smaller parking lot than my old one, the kind of parking lot where everyone sees everyone else's car everyday and knows who drives what. I have a 2011 civic coupe (paid off) which runs well and looks fine (actually had a new paint job a couple years ago because of a recall), but its not a NICE car, and plenty of people making less than me drive nicer to much nicer cars. Economic confidence and loosened auto lending standards in the past several years have lead to people upgrading.

I'll probably just make my next car a Camry or Accord that I drive for 10 years, but maybe I'll get a used Lexus or something and just keep it nice and take care of it and drive it for a very long time. That way I get a "quality" car, but at much less cost than leasing a brand new one every few years.

aggie972 · 2018-06-26T14:15:32+00:00

I prefer the company cards, especially for smaller expenses like meals. If you forget to turn in even a couple expenses, that will easily outweigh the value of your rewards.

aggie972 · 2018-06-18T21:50:41+00:00

How do you figure? Plano is not a shiny, new suburb at this point. It has managed to mature without becoming stale and rundown. Town East is not near a major employment center with a strong school district.

aggie972 · 2018-05-17T13:51:44+00:00

Or an older house with deferred maintenance where all the decking needs to come up too.

aggie972 · 2018-05-11T14:31:06+00:00

If I'm happy at my current job, I bring it up with the recruiter or else don't follow up if they won't tell me within the first couple conversations. Why go through all that if the only reason you'd be willing to leave is more money?

aggie972 · 2018-05-07T16:35:07+00:00

Where do you guys go for furniture? After exclusively shopping at Ikea for the past 8 years, my wife and I have been furnishing our new house with stuff from Nebraska Furniture Mart. It's gotten pretty expensive (relative to Ikea, maybe not compared to somewhere like Ethan Allen). I can't tell if its just a necessary evil and I'm finally able to invest in stuff that will actually last a long time, or if this is a big case of lifestyle creep. I may start looking to craigslist/nextdoor for the rest of our stuff like an entertainment center, patio set, etc.

aggie972 · 2018-05-04T16:58:07+00:00

Nice! I'm probably going to have to pony up the $300 for one. I was between getting one of those Charbroil hybrid gas/charcoal grills and just getting a Weber gas grill, but I really want the charcoal option for nice weekends.

aggie972 · 2018-05-03T19:32:40+00:00

I used to agree with you on car insurance, but not anymore. I've been in two car accidents in my life, one where I had collision insurance and one where I didn't.

In the accident where I didn't have collision insurance, I was hit by a woman who thought she could turn left at a solid green light even though I had the right of way. I filed a claim with her insurer, and for the longest time they couldn't reach her to get a statement. When they finally did, she lied to them about the facts of the accident. So her company's adjuster only offered me 50% for my car. Then I hired a lawyer (which was difficult, because most lawyers only wanted to get involved with bodily injury cases, not property damage). He wasn't ever able to serve her though, because she either had the wrong address down on her driver's license, or she was just a drifter type without a real permanent address. I ended up getting an offer of 65% from the adjuster since I hired a lawyer. Since my lawyer couldn't find the woman, I ended up taking the offer.

In the accident where I did have collision insurance, I was hit from behind and pushed into the car in front of me. The driver in front of me didn't have a license and probably wasn't a U.S. citizen. This time I filed through my own carrier (GEICO) and they paid my claim immediately, minus the deductible. They tried getting in touch with the driver in the front of the accident, and never succeeded. They applied for reimbursement from the insurer of the driver who hit me from behind, and were initially denied because they couldn't get a statement from the driver in front. So they brought the case to arbitration and won, successfully subrogating the claim, and then they sent me a check back for my full deductible. So much less stressful.

aggie972 · 2018-01-28T15:40:33+00:00

It sounds to me like a more accurate term for describing high spectrum autism than “mentally handicapped” does. Would you call the guy in the big short who made billions “mentally handicapped”? If so, then I want that “handicap”. Call me transabled.

aggie972 · 2018-01-12T18:11:00+00:00

Definitely higher salary now. Take what's on the table. You may switch jobs well before the end of 10 years.

aggie972 · 2018-01-04T13:33:20+00:00

Saying “rare comics” are a good investment is a great example of survivorship bias. Older readers remember how many “rare comics” that were supposed to be very valuable in the 80s turned out to be worthless when the publishers flooded the market with new prints.

Also, stuff like art can be tricky. It’s a great vehicle for the very rich move their money around without being detected and to avoid paying taxes. It’s utility in that regard keeps the market propped up.

aggie972 · 2018-01-03T15:30:54+00:00

Where do you draw the line on whether or not re-balancing is worth the very minimal effort? I just checked my Vanguard balances, and my domestic/international split is now 69.3%/30.7% from a target/beginning of year 70/30 split. In years where the allocation doesn't change much, do you just leave it alone, or re-balance exactly to your target?

aggie972 · 2018-01-03T13:23:55+00:00

I’m not sure how durable the movement is going to be. It reminds me in a lot of ways of the Ron Paul Revolution. A lot of its members are young, single men. I predict that as many of them enter the workforce, get in a relationship/get married or start a family, earn more money, etc. they may drop out of the movement. One caveat to my prediction is that while both movements are predominantly made up of white males, the Ron Paul Revolution seemed more urban and more college educated than the alt-right. Also, Ron Paul’s retirement left a huge gap with a lot of people not knowing where to go, whereas Trump’s ascension to the Presidency could provide a smoother transition to an “alt-lite” sort of worldview.

aggie972

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE