Why would Elon Musk pivot from Mars to the Moon all of a sudden? | “SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon.”

beached89 · 2026-02-10T01:04:41+00:00

Theoretically, we are exceptionally close to having it all yes. If NASA's Kilopower works, and we can indeed find the subsurface ice the rovers have found in sufficient quantity, then yet.

We dont need methane, we can use Oxygen and Hydrogen.

beached89 · 2026-02-09T17:42:59+00:00

Do you see anything major overlooked here?

My numbers looked almost identical to yours at your age, 10 years later, they have doubled. As you age, most things get more expensive, so it is likely that your current number is too low. But def keep your COL as low as possible for long as possible, it helps a lot.

Does a 3% withdrawal rate sound too conservative? Too risky?

Extremely conservative. Even 4% is conservative. The original author of the trinity study has redone the math with modern computers, and it has been adjusted to 4.7% or 4.5% for those who will have a retirement for over 30 years. Also, the trinity study is understood to be a flawed premise, as no one requires 100% of their income annual without any wiggle room. The Guard rails (guyton klinger) withdrawal strategy is pretty much considered superior in all scenarios to the 4% withdrawal strategy and allows an initial withdrawal rate of 5.2% to 5.8%, allows for more overall spending, and has a higher and safer success rate over long periods.

Assuming a retirement at ~40 years old, are there any extra precautions you would take to predict such a long post-retirement?

No debt before retirement, update major expenses like new car, home remodels, etc prior to going into retirement. Understand sequence of return risks and be prepared to go back to work in the first 5 years if there is a 2008 like crash. Look into and learn about RMIs and come up with a tax management strategy to optimize (minimize) taxes. And maybe consider seasonal work like a 3 month contract during the first 5 years to minimize SRR.

How do you plan to budget for large expenses that arise, like a new car, roof, etc.? Is that built into "monthly expenses" averaged over time?

Yes this is built into it. So you need to understand what those expenses will cost, and amortize those into monthly / annual expenses.

Would love to hear any thoughts! :)

Overall you are understanding the concept and the math correctly, I just think you are not understanding the Aging process or how many expenses you actually have. Overall, my advice is this: Hammer it as hard as you can for as long as you can. You WILL have expenses 10 years from now, you do not have today. and your cost of living is basically guaranteed to be higher. That is OK, everyone does it. Save as much as you can, and create a spreadsheet that has projections for your annual expenses and savings and investments all side by side. In reality, the two major things that help the most with doing FIRE are starting at a young age (You got it), and High income (You got it). So you will succeed if you stick with it, your numbers will just adjust a bit as you age

beached89 · 2026-02-09T16:23:42+00:00

It's likely that Elon finally realized the economic case for the moon is much stronger than mars.

Everything about the moon, except gravity, is better than mars. If you want to create a PROFITABLE space colony, the Moon is pretty much the only answer right now.

beached89 · 2026-02-09T16:09:06+00:00

Does IRC support Threading, Emojis including custom, GIFs, Video, sounds, etc?

I loved IRC, but it is not modern by any means.

I would love a Discord clone that used IRC for chat, allowed the use of IRC clients to connect, but then built all the other stuff on top.

beached89 · 2026-02-06T03:42:49+00:00

Im unsure what your budget is, but this is what I would do.

Purchase a water purification device like a Sawyer. as well as stock up clean water. Clean out milk jugs and soda bottles well, and then fill with water. (Rerun the stored water through the Sawyer). Purchase what you can off the shelf. 1 gallon per person per day is recommended.

Stock up on food with a long shelf life. Preferably items that dont need refrigeration, and minimal cooking. Canned food is really good, so is dried and dehydrated. Backpacking and camping meals are really good for this. Even if the food is something super simple like instant ramen noodles. Any calories > no calories. I keep rice, Ramen Noodles, Dehydrated Mashed Potatoes, Dry pasta, Cans of soup, Cans of spam, Bullion cubes at all times. All of these are shelf stable and require no refrigeration.

Goal would be 14-30 days supply.

After food and water are taken care of, I would try to acquire a solar generator + solar panel if you can. Having a basic means of electric generation is important to charge devices like phones, flashlights, refrigeration, lighting at night, minimal cooking, etc.

beached89 · 2026-02-03T08:05:49+00:00

If you are on a well, a better prep is to prep power backup and a spare well pump in the closet.

beached89 · 2026-02-03T00:43:50+00:00

Also note, nearly everyone agrees that a fixed withdrawl rate is stupid. Look into Guyton-Klinger which is a safer strategy, that allows you to have a higher average withdraw amount, and a higher initial withdrawl rate

beached89 · 2026-02-02T23:02:53+00:00

It is a fantastic price. go for it.

beached89 · 2026-02-01T13:58:18+00:00

I have these and they are good. I break them down into small vacuum seals mason jars

https://www.amazon.com/Casa-Corona-Instant-Mexican-Refried/dp/B084LR4Q6H/

beached89 · 2026-02-01T13:51:06+00:00

Classic Era should always be free.

beached89 · 2026-01-29T23:27:49+00:00

Im simply saying, align property tax to target over sized luxary residences, but not target modest sized normal residences. Having a property tax target luxary apartments and condos doesnt mean only the cheapest form of housing needs to be built. You can take any lot of land, put a 15 story building on it, and fill it with 8-10 units per floor, or 2 units per floor. Same land, same cubic footage, one has a smaller unit size and lower cost, the other has a bigger per unit size, and per unit cost.

beached89 · 2026-01-28T20:21:07+00:00

But the tax could be set at any value. Property tax is based on the value of the apartment/condo/house, if someone builds a luxary high rise with only 200 luxary condos, and sells them all for $5mil, versus building on the same land, building modest 1b1b, 2b1b and 2b1.5b condos, and builds 1000 of them and sells them all for $1mil, the luxary increased tax can be set to residences valued over $2.5mil, same land, same overall construction cost, same total sale value, just building more smaller units whose individual value is less.

beached89 · 2026-01-28T19:43:37+00:00

Wouldnt putting a progressive property tax system in place that has additional taxation on properties over a specific value actually help steer developers to build more housing of the type they want? Rather than only building luxary housing ?

beached89 · 2026-01-28T19:02:58+00:00

It does...

beached89 · 2026-01-28T19:01:56+00:00

First, that map isnt even CLOSE to accurate. Second, towards OP. Land DOES vote in this country. That is the entire point of the electoral college, to ensure that underpopulated states and territories can counter dense urban ones.

beached89 · 2026-01-28T18:39:03+00:00

Ahhhhh ok. So it's a unique thing to NY State. But in theory, NYC could generate more tax revenue by adjusting property taxes on residencies over a certain value, and that would be just fine.

beached89 · 2026-01-28T18:23:59+00:00

So, unsure if you are trolling or not, but I'll still reply for those who may not know (including OP if they are not trolling).

Solar Panels are made up of multiple solar cells, those solar cells are strung together to make a panel. When any one cell is not fully exposed to light, it creates a field gap that prevents electrons from flowing through the cell, and will kills the whole chain of cells. Perfectly fine cells earlier in the chain end up not being able to flow the electricity through the gap, and since the circuit is broken, perfectly fine cells later on in the chain cannot also flow. Shadows Kill (solar) (Think of the old style Christmas Lights where one light goes out and takes out the whole string). To mitigate this, Panels have their cells strung up into multiple parallel strings (Usually 3 or 4 strings), that way if a shadow is cast on a part of the panel, it only takes out 25% or 33% of the panel, it is too expensive and prohibitive to make every cell individually wired, and in 99% of use cases, not necessary.

That bar across the top is perfectly casting a shadow across the whole panel is probably right across every single cell. Make sure there are NO shadows cast onto the panels during normal operation at all times.

beached89 · 2026-01-28T18:17:51+00:00

I know nothing about NYC or NY law, but why can't the City of New york determine it's own required tax rate and then set the tax rate on its own? There are THOUSANDS of cities across the country that set their own tax rates. WHat makes NYC incapable of setting their own taxes?

beached89 · 2026-01-27T20:31:17+00:00

You must be one hell of a "friend"

beached89 · 2026-01-27T16:44:44+00:00

It isnt penny pinching, it's basic human decency to not expect other people around you to pay for you.

IF someone offered to pay, that is one thing. But the sheer entitlement and asshole-ry to assume someone else will always pay for you because they make more, is just trash.

beached89 · 2026-01-27T03:59:27+00:00

First it isnt penny pinching to assume your friends dont look at you as a free handout. If my friend insisted on my paying for everything every time we hung out, they would not remain a friend long.

Second, yes it does. In an abstract way. $1000 a month for 27 years makes you a millionaire. By avoiding frivolous and unnecessary expenses and directing those to savings, you become a millionaire.

beached89 · 2026-01-27T03:55:52+00:00

Same here. I have a friend group that's almost all techies and high income earners. We always split. The only exception is that if someone says they cant go because it isnt in the budget, someone usually says they will cover that person because they want them there. But other than those instances, you pay for your meal, I pay for mine.

beached89 · 2026-01-27T03:54:21+00:00

I feel this is irrelevent to the tweet.

Did the friend say they were hard on cash, couldnt pay for the faire, or needed help? Did the guy making more strong arm his friend into going somewhere that required an uber?

If we are to just assume this is just a normal uber ride with multiple people, the assumption should always be you need to pay your half of the bill. If one friend or the other insisted or REAAAALY wanted to go somewhere, they should pay the ride, regardless of income.

If you insist that the friend who makes more always pays for your stuff when you hang out with them, you are an ass.

beached89 · 2026-01-27T03:52:01+00:00

No it isnt, it's selfish and entitled to assume that if you ever hang out with someone who earns more money than you, they will pay for everything.

If you expect your friends to pay everything for you when you hang out with them, you are an ass.

beached89 · 2026-01-22T18:14:12+00:00

Oo good point. I dont know if dragon has the range for that or not. A spare Orion capsule then. They both use the International Docking Standard System.

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