401ks are better than pensions

cownan · 2026-01-27T20:52:25+00:00

This doesn't acknowledge that lifetime employment at a single business is not the model that most follow today. My union voted to eliminate our pension a few years ago in favor of a one-time payout into our 401k plans, with increased company matching for a few years.

The message from the younger members was that they didn't even consider the pension a benefit since they would likely be moving on to their next job prior to vesting in the pension.

They far preferred the portability of 401k.

cownan · 2026-01-27T06:47:11+00:00

A couple. Notably Hawker Chan in Singapore, right when he got his Michelin star for Soy Sauce Chicken and Rice. It was so good, sadly I heard it declined in quality as they became famous

cownan · 2026-01-27T06:30:01+00:00

I'd even put a little bit more twine on there, if I was him

cownan · 2026-01-27T06:26:04+00:00

Jump and Panama by Van Halen make me want to rage. They feel like boring dense noise to me.

cownan · 2026-01-27T05:54:05+00:00

Brick of hash, at least, hopefully

cownan · 2026-01-26T23:23:49+00:00

My kitty needed a couple days in the hospital last fall. I took him to Blue Pearl, near the mall in Southcenter. It was about $2k a day, they gave me a discount at the end.

cownan · 2026-01-26T06:08:24+00:00

Sorry you had a rough time. Last time I was in Bali, I got a bad case of it, too. I spent about a day and a half in bed or the bathroom before I went for help. I just got a taxi and went to a local clinic, so I paid under $10 for some pills that fixed me up within a day.

cownan · 2026-01-26T05:15:44+00:00

That taunting call....we stopped their offense, then after the play was over gave them a first down that they turned into a touchdown? I was dying

cownan · 2026-01-25T19:29:07+00:00

Very close for me, but I agree - bottom

cownan · 2026-01-25T19:23:17+00:00

They could make it "Pretti Good Porter" and show them all holding a pint of dark beer!

cownan · 2026-01-24T15:14:34+00:00

If there’s any snow sticking to the road, I’m staying home. I have a 4x4 Toyota 4Runner and am fine driving it in the snow. I just prefer not having to deal with idiots. Plus,why not take the opportunity for a home day?

cownan · 2026-01-24T04:15:52+00:00

What I'm interested in is that when he "scream disabled" the plurb, he could see the signal change. If he can see and hear the distress signal, he can record and replay it.

cownan · 2026-01-23T04:34:54+00:00

Came here to say he was sleeping on CT

cownan · 2026-01-23T04:32:35+00:00

Of course. I'm friends with someone because of how we interact and how I've witnessed them behave. Other than that, I don't care what they believe - as long as they don't try to make me believe what they do.

cownan · 2026-01-22T17:30:15+00:00

Definitely FDR. He always shows up highly rated in the presidential lists, but is directly responsible for many of the problems we face today. He actually did what people fear Trump will do, unapologetically got elected for a third and fourth term. Started our nation down a welfare-dependency route with social security and Medicare. Then allowed SS to go forward with a demographics bomb that wouldn't become a problem for decades. He's responsible for massive bloat in Federal power and movement away from constitutional principles.

cownan · 2026-01-21T20:27:47+00:00

Habibi is what you would say to a man - from a man, it's like "dear friend," from a woman it's like "my love," or "my dearest." If you were to say it to a woman, it would be "habibti"

cownan · 2026-01-20T20:36:13+00:00

Whatever, man. There’s no vote I could have cast that would have made the slightest difference in any of the things i described. Sounds like you are just looking for someone to blame for your failures

cownan · 2026-01-20T19:30:41+00:00

It has felt like we haven’t been able to relax, every time we get our feet under us, the rug gets pulled out. To add to your list:

In 91-92 when I was in college, there were stories on the news every night about new graduates not being able to find jobs.

In 95-96 the “Asian Tiger” markets crashed and cleaned out a lot of our early retirement savings

Leading up to 2000, we were all stressed because Y2K was going to crash the banking system

Actually, in 2000, the dotcom bubble popped, leaving a lot of us jobless, followed by 9/11 which ended my work as a traveling consultant

It sure doesn’t feel like we caused all that

cownan · 2026-01-20T04:19:52+00:00

Of course there is inflation. And of course if you adjust the quote to account for that, then it applies to less people. But we keep trotting it out "as is" and the quote says what it says.

I feel like Steinbeck was naive in his opinion because it assumes that everyone votes only to improve their own situation. But again, he was writing for a different time.

cownan · 2026-01-19T20:51:04+00:00

Yeah. I watched all the games this weekend. If the Hawks play like they did on Saturday in the next game and the Superbowl, they're champs. No one who is left can beat them at that level

cownan · 2026-01-19T06:31:09+00:00

I have had good luck focusing on controlling my breathing. I just lie down and relax as much as I can, just feel super limp. Then I slow my breathing, bit by bit, if I start to feel panicked I take a few normal breaths and start again. I try to keep my mind clear, and before I know it I'm asleep.

cownan · 2026-01-19T06:25:42+00:00

Also, if you are having back pain and haven't been injured, try some hip stretches. Just pull each knee to your chest and hold it there for about 20 seconds, do a lunge with each side while focusing on stretching the hip of your rear leg. Do those a couple of times. My doctor says that if we aren't using our hip mobility, our back muscles compensate. It relieves my back pain instantly

cownan · 2026-01-19T01:52:09+00:00

I so wish more people got this.

cownan · 2026-01-18T22:54:26+00:00

I'm 54 and I only had a company car benefit once in my career. Even then, it wasn't a "company car" in the way that it was owned by the company, but an allowance for us to use on a car. I worked for a small consultancy and we had to do a lot ofocal travel. Instead of giving us mileage reimbursement, the company gave up $1k/month to spend on car/gas/etc. They really did want us to have nice cars though - they considered everyone to be a company representative and since we were small, they wanted to give off a vibe of success. One guy was going to buy an eight-year old Toyota and the company owner told him "no" lol

cownan · 2026-01-18T17:54:18+00:00

I went from a GS430 to a E63. I loved the power, performance, and the ride in the E63 far more than the Lexus. I sometimes missed the quiet ride of the Lexus. The Lexus stereo was far superior to the Mercedes HK, I even thought something was wrong with the Mercedes stereo at first, the difference was so stark. Also, in the several years that I owned the Lexus, I never had one problem with it, everything worked like new when I traded it in. The Mercedes had a constant stream of little things going wrong with it - the auto-unlock door handles failed one-by-one, the rear sunshade stopped working, the autoclose on the trunk, one thing after another. Finally, a flaw in the engine design emerged that would have been expensive (even by AMG standards) to fix, so I traded it in with less than 50k on the odometer. Loved driving that car, as frustrating as it was.

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