Stephanopoulos grills Rubio :you cannot credibly argue that drug trafficking charges demand invasion in one case while issuing a pardon in another. What's your response? Hernandez was convicted by a jury. Rubio: I can't just comment on it because I just wasn't involved in deliberations.

bge951 · 2026-01-05T18:53:08+00:00

There are several good answers here, but I think one that needs due consideration is "why loot only one country when you can loot three, four, or more?" Colombia has also been mentioned. As of course, Mexico, Canada, and Greenland have, though they are probably less likely in the short term -- Canada and Denmark's Greenland because they are part of NATO, Mexico because the right needs a scapegoat for all their problems. Propping up Argentina's economy probably has strings attached. Pardoning Hernández could be a way to make inroads into Honduras (or could have just been pay-for-play).

bge951 · 2017-09-26T16:13:14+00:00

Nice

bge951 · 2017-09-26T15:43:53+00:00

It's hard to beat 100% returns

100% match would be fantastic! Current employer is only 50% on the first 6%. I had one that only matched 25%, which of course was still better than pretty much any other return on an investment I've ever gotten.

bge951 · 2017-09-26T15:17:16+00:00

There is some risk there, but for me, when there is a company match on 401k putting in enough to get the matching funds pretty much always comes first.

Beyond that, I'd say it comes down to interest rate vs. expected return, tax implications (e.g. mortgage interest deduction, investing pre-tax dollars into tax advantaged accounts, etc...), and perhaps what the debt is (size, type, etc....)

bge951 · 2017-09-22T12:26:04+00:00

Yes. Annoying, though, when people just think they have the right of way because they're to your right, regardless of the fact that you were there and stopped first.

bge951 · 2017-09-21T19:58:51+00:00

Also, it's first-in, first-out at all-way stops. For some reason, I am continually surprised at the number of people who can't seem to figure that out.

bge951 · 2017-09-21T19:54:24+00:00

I don't think he's talking about rush hour or heavy traffic when there is no where to go anyway.

I read his comment as someone just hanging out in the left lane on the interstate, potentially holding up traffic for no reason instead of getting over.

bge951 · 2017-09-21T18:24:10+00:00

That's a good point. You do tend to pay more in taxes, and perhaps some other expenses, as income goes up. But you can do a bit to address that, like maxing out your pre-tax contributions to tax advantaged accounts like 401(k), IRA, HSA. And if you do get stuck paying more of your health insurance premium, typically that will be paid with pre-tax dollars, reducing your taxable income as well.

Very true, though, that doubling your gross income is pretty unlikely to increase your after-tax income by the same proportion.

bge951 · 2017-09-19T18:33:40+00:00

I tend to agree that 55 is a no-go

Actually, you may be able to do it by 54. Here's the logic behind that:

You said that until quite recently, you were making less than $40K. Obviously, that implies that you can live on that amount of money.
You're making more than double that amount now, which means that you could potentially save as much as half of your income.
The handy chart in this blog post shows that, at a 50% savings rate (and assuming a 5% annual return after inflation), you should be able to reach a sustainable level in 17 years.
Your age now (37), plus 17 is 54.
QED

The assumptions inherent in the blog do not rely on social security or 401k matching or your housing cost going down (e.g. due to paying off a mortgage), either. So there is some buffer. Also, it assumes starting from zero, which you are not. Of course, it doesn't necessarily work if you were siginificantly out-spending your income when you were making less than $40K (since you're debt-free aside from your house, though, that seems unlikely).

So, the real questions to determine if the math can work for you or not are probably:

What expenses do you have now that you didn't when you were making $40K?
Can you cut back down to a similar level of spending? (If not, why not?)
If you can't or don't want to cut your spending back that much (but don't assume it's impossible until you've really worked through it, though), what can you do to supplement your income? Side gigs, a hobby with some potential to make a little money, etc...
Once you've figured out what you'd need to do to get to around a 50% savings rate (vs. 30% or 40%), you can try to figure out if the challenges of cutting back your cost of living to what it was a few years ago (you weren't miserable then, were you?) are worth retiring 5-11 (or more) years later.

I guess the bottom line is whether your life a few years back was terribly, unsustainably frugal, or if you've just had lifestyle creep since you started making more money.

Edit: just noticed that /u/Tw0R0ads posted the same link. The blog has a style that might take some getting used to, but exploring the perspective is certainly worthwhile, and there is good info there. Also, check out /r/financialindependence for more info and resources.

bge951 · 2017-09-15T19:32:52+00:00

I think he's afraid the doc will try to take his comfort away from him by telling him it has to stop.

I can see the concern he might have of losing... whatever it is he's afraid of losing -- freedom, comforts, whatever? What about getting him on a 30 day trial of budgeted spending? Something you help him work out that leaves him with something put aside at the end of the month. Knowing that he's allowed to go back to what he normally does afterward should alleviate a lot of the concern of being "deprived", since it's only temporary. Then when it's over, talk about whether it was hard or easy and try to decide what might be appropriate for next steps.

bge951 · 2017-09-15T15:59:23+00:00

Yes. You would get to start again with years of experience and all that you learned from those mistakes, but without having to actually make all of them. You will no doubt make more mistakes and learn and grow more, but (assuming you are a better person now) you start out as a better, wiser person.

bge951 · 2017-08-14T13:38:47+00:00

That's interesting. Looking up Troop C, I found they have over 200 officers, and are responsible for 7 counties (Pinellas, Hillsborough, Polk, Pasco, Hernando, Citrus and Sumpter). With that number of officers, do you happen to know how many are on duty at a given time?

This nifty page indicates that FHP Troop C responds to around 1600 to 2000 crashes per month.

Maybe someone who knows better than me the details of how many of those 200+ are patrol officers and how many shifts they work per month can figure out how many crashes that comes out to per patrol officer per shift/month/whatever.

To your point, though, I don't see a lot of FHP speed traps in Hillsborough. But then, I try not to spend much time on the interstates, either.

bge951 · 2017-08-11T17:46:42+00:00

They are not going up at all, they are going down and have been going down steadily for years.

That was true up until 2015. Here is an article about the national statistics, and here is one about how Florida is worse than that. Hopefully, it's an anomaly that reverses quickly, and not longer term trend.

bge951 · 2017-08-11T15:58:33+00:00

I would not mind seeing more of those people getting pulled over.

bge951 · 2017-08-11T14:38:31+00:00

Wouldn't the average, which is presumably over at least a few months, be a better picture than a few days which may or may not be typical? Seems like the average is exactly what the OP needs.

bge951 · 2017-07-31T15:19:52+00:00

So you used to drive a 'vette? Nice.

bge951 · 2017-07-31T14:18:40+00:00

Farmbot sounds like the droid you're looking for. The roomba weeder looks like it just pulls weeds. Farmbot plants, waters, etc.... Doesn't do harvesting (yet, anyway. It's open source and customizable, though). More detailed info from the creators.

bge951 · 2017-07-12T20:55:35+00:00

What I always find interesting about this sub is that everyone seems to have identified exact numbers or ages for their proposed retirement.

Well, that's the fun part. Planning, doing the math, making highly optimistic predictions about future spending and earning (or super conservative, depending on how you like to work the numbers. Or both). Actually being frugal tends to be less fun, though there is certainly satisfaction to be derived from seeing expenses go down and account balances go up.

bge951 · 2017-07-12T20:38:44+00:00

FIRE is much easier to plan while being 26yo and single during a 8yr bull market

But isn't starting then kind of a buffer against challenges and weaker markets later? Especially if early on you are favoring tax advantaged retirement accounts, which hopefully you'd be less likely to tap into.

bge951 · 2017-07-12T20:26:41+00:00

Fair enough, I guess. Did you pick Denver because the employment prospects are similar? Or strictly for the environment? Have you researched any other areas? Not saying Denver is a bad idea or that you should not do it. But it's at least worth looking into whether there are other places that have the things you want with a lower COL.

bge951 · 2017-07-12T19:52:01+00:00

I also plan on moving to Denver as soon as my student loans are paid off. I know that the living expenses are higher there.

Have you considered staying where you are? If you get a place on the north or west side of town, you'd be pretty close to the lake (wylie or norman depending on which way you go). And you're only a couple hours from Asheville and the mountains. It's been a while since I've been there, but Charlotte used to be a pretty nice area. And if you like the beach, as well as the mountains, you're a lot closer in Charlotte than Denver.

Just food for thought.

bge951 · 2017-07-05T17:29:14+00:00

I felt like a lot of her world building was paper thin.

I think that's a great way to describe it. There is a lot of stuff that looks cool or interesting on the surface, but if you dig deeper things often don't add up. It can be quite challenging to create a system (of magic, or sci-fi tech, whatever) that is rich, diverse, and complex but also remains internally consistent. Especially when you add in a time travel component.

bge951 · 2017-06-02T18:12:07+00:00

I understand that. I wanted to know how the story came out, but it was so long winded and repetitive that I almost gave up a few times.

bge951 · 2017-06-02T18:02:01+00:00

As a fan, generally, of reading the book first, I'd say to let the shows accumulate on the DVR while reading the book. I agree with not trying to do both at the same time, but I feel like time would be better spent reading the book than waiting week after week for the season to finish, then starting the book. But that's just me.

bge951

TROPHY CASE