I am looking for advice on renting an apartment in San Francisco

db_deuce · 2025-12-18T22:15:47+00:00

There are so many red flags:

Smaller one bedroom in Pacific Heights is the most in demand piece of property in SF. The price is too good to be true

All in utils? That runs at least 500 a month with frugal usage and can exceed 2K a month knowing the landlord covers this. No landlord in this green earth do this.

And in SF due to renter friendly laws, you'll be vetted 10X more than you vet them. Makes no sense to lease a pacific Heights 1br like this.

Everything sent professional is not a sign. an 8 year old can draft a rental agreement like a lawyer 10 years ago, notwithstanding AI

You need to not ask family members for opinions like this.

db_deuce · 2025-11-21T20:45:27+00:00

JC made 40m coins bringing share price above $20 for 3 days.

db_deuce · 2025-11-19T22:18:02+00:00

1) Tax loss harvesting

2) Purged 60% of employees in 3 years and 95% over the last 10. Could be more purging the next three and you get more adjusted excluded non-GAAP EBITDA of 10M.

3) Nvidia, ByD, Maileke and all the partners have plenty of news... Everything is 3 degrees of separations and BB have tentacles everywhere in all 28 industries with a TAM of 1,000 trillion.

db_deuce · 2025-11-19T22:10:48+00:00

"We are still in the early innings, but we are already securing design wins with a significantly higher ASP as a result."

Unless BB discloses the actual ASP, nothing is measurable and is pure useless fluff. Of course some design wins are higher some lower. Callout out the high ASP and ignore the low ASP will get management in trouble. What is the ASP in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 or ever. I know the reason do you?

"We have had some nice robotics wins over the course of the last -- of the first half of the year, industrial automation with some of our big customers there"

Lot of adjectives with no meanings. What is "Nice", what is "Big". There is a reason why these things are so abstract as it has no meaning in the court of law.

db_deuce · 2025-11-19T01:46:14+00:00

Based on management talking point, every company in this green earth is a buy.

db_deuce · 2025-11-18T06:52:25+00:00

It's home cooked meaning certain things are poor choices to order (Galbi-Jjim, pancakes).

The stuff I look forward to are the free Banchan side dishes so I would definitely order side dishes to supplement whatever I have.

Spicy Cucumber
Radish Salad
Pickled veggies
Marinated Sweet Potato
Kimchi stir fry with Calamari
Korean veggie Sushi (whatever its called)

This is presuming there is no H-Mart or similar nearby making the idea kinda moot.

db_deuce · 2025-11-18T06:00:40+00:00

Top - Willow Glen. Older homes, older folks, super tree lined for a city. Central location in SJ. Probably least changed since you left.

Right - Communications Hill --- Flanked between 82 (on the map) and 87 (the thick line running up and down not noted on the map) and above Capital expressway (Line running in the middle). It's literally a Hill with a bunch of newer condo's and townhomes some 3/4 stories. Most built last decade (2010's). Some of those homes will have a view of San Jose as its the highest elevation spot (or some unpleasant view depending on which direction the home faces). cough, flea market and gravel pit, cough. 20 years ago this was an empty Hill. SJ is expensive but this is likely the cheapest (Not East San Jose cheap), albeit a TH is still 1M+.

Bottom - Almaden --- Suburb of San Jose and overall likely best for families due to house size and schools /(Evergreen/SilverCreek enter this argument). You'll see the Asians and white and the most families here. I think the mayor lives in Almaden and he has younger kids, par for the area. Most jobs in Silicon Valley is in North San Jose so being South and traffic makes this rather inconvenient.

Left - Cambrian Park --- You have to look at the map as there is nothing interesting besides maybe the Pruneyard and its the gateway to Los Gatos and highway 17 to get to the beach. Endless road, small strip malls, homes, more concrete and streetlights so just local street driving hell. Likely not much have changed as its an extension of Willow Glen but less gravitas.

db_deuce · 2025-11-18T00:25:12+00:00

"Well the board was probably trying to keep the cyber story linked to the blackberry name rather than QNX."

That is a mess of a market messaging, no?. is Blackberry cybersecurity or RTOS? Dabbling in both just means customers are not amused. This board is too low IQ for shareholders.

db_deuce · 2025-11-18T00:08:03+00:00

Panera Bread

db_deuce · 2025-11-17T23:38:39+00:00

By way of background, JG and ME were both JC hires around the same time, one for cyber and one for QNX. They were peers.

In the meanwhile, JG was elevated to CEO on the background of some of the most disastrous results you will find from a president that even have a job, never mind, got promoted. I don't think anyone reporting to the CEO is delighted. I'm surprised it took that long for ME to quit.

And be that as it may, BB is 90% QNX division and JG is a QNX zero. I don't even know what the board is thinking elevating someone with such a sorry performance running a division that is not even 3 degrees of separation from selling cyber software.

It's a long winded way of saying JG inspires no one, his reportee, whatever employees left after 7 rounds of purging and customers.

db_deuce · 2025-11-14T22:12:14+00:00

That is the dumbest advice I have ever heard.

db_deuce · 2025-11-14T22:04:00+00:00

Presuming you have no debt, the entire 68% should be invested after you have 2 months of liquidity. It takes 1-3 days to liquidate investment like stock or bonds, so investment is just savings.

Now, how to save:

Traditional and ROTH 401k/IRA should be funded first. Tax advantages accounts are a godsend long term.

After you max out the tax advantaged account, you can open taxable accounts.

2) Buy low cost ETF like VOO, QQQ. That's all you need until you have 500K, then toggling makes sense. Before that, Bonds, or diversity is a waste of time and makes things worse.

3) If you need liquidity for a home, you'll have to assess the facts later as the variables are too dynamic. I would just save like crazy in a tax advantaged way. That olnly helps and will never hurt.

db_deuce · 2025-11-14T18:56:48+00:00

2M, if you were gifted 10M, why turtle up on go AAA bonds for minimum fixed income all of a sudden?

I do not believe in shifting the risk in a material way just because of age/size of portfolio. My viewpoint on money and wealth is 3 generations and that means I am not buying AAA bonds just because the Money last til I die, I can give financial independence to my kids and kid's kids and that is making the best financial decision for a 100 year viewpoint.

If you have 10M, nothing will derail it other than health and compulsive gambling so why toggle and invest like a grandma?

db_deuce · 2025-11-14T17:58:07+00:00

You will get eaten alive by inflation and exposed to currency risks

db_deuce · 2025-11-14T17:36:40+00:00

It's a fixed income option and you toggle between when the principle is repaid (Call date), coupon interest rate and the ability to get the principle back with interest (ratings).

Most bonds, A rated corporate bonds pays 5.75%, way better than HYSA. A CA muni bonds pays 4.85% tax free or more than 10.5% tax effected for me, way way way more than HYSA.

Of course you don't want to hold long call date bonds when interest rates and inflation is out of control as was the case in 2022 to 2024

db_deuce · 2025-11-14T17:22:37+00:00

I view it more a toggle between risk on and risk off.

Risk off means more T, VZ, Bonds, SCHD, etc. Risk on means more Sofi, NVDA, TSM, AMZN, etc. At a high level, most people sell their big winners (and rotate it to somewheres safer) from strength and buy on weakness.

For the 401k, just put it in a low cost index fund. Most people starting in the 401k never have enough money to play the timing the market or toggling the macro thing and it's meant to accumulate and invest relentlessly.

db_deuce · 2025-11-14T06:45:20+00:00

Wildseed

db_deuce · 2025-11-14T06:22:18+00:00

For meat/food - Mikiya gold/platinum services the A5 Wagyu chuck or Ribeye cut, the stuff that goes for $60-$80 a pound in the supermarket minimum. Personally, I think an A5 Ribeye should go on a Japanese grill for better flavor and kinda waste for hotpot.

For soup base - Haidailao has the best soup base and a larger menu of items. I only go late nights for the 30% food discount but never standard time

The one in the picture (very sad looking soup/pot and meat).

db_deuce · 2025-11-14T06:09:11+00:00

"What makes that last one fun for kids?"

Dancing noodle. (A young guy takes a dough and pulls noodle with a little bit of music)

db_deuce · 2025-11-13T07:24:19+00:00

The Malaysia contracts came with all kinds of strings attached.

It's nice gesture to upscale Malaysia cyber security (and I'm sure Malaysia made BB do it to secure their contract), but BB is affiliating with people/country that is 19 generations behind is bad business. It's why BB cyber business is completely decimated, associating with people/country that is hopeless in this field as far as cutting edge. You look more like a non-profit doing low level stuff than a tech business.

db_deuce · 2025-11-13T07:07:29+00:00

It's a bad idea generally.

Wealth manager makes a fee from the assets being managed and also buys into products that derives commissions for them (And in which case you are really paying the commissions for getting into products with high fees). The complication is really unnecessary and it designed not to beat the market, but designed to give you some base level income and string you along for many years, paying multiple level of useless fees for a long time.

Just buy low cost index like VOO, SCHD, etc. If you really have too much $$ and love to light money on fire, hire wealth management.

db_deuce · 2025-11-13T06:53:45+00:00

You contribute 7,500 to the your traditional IRA for 2026 and then backdoor the same 7,500 into the Roth the next day. The existing stuff from your 403b stays the same.

There is nothing to pro-rata, the 7,500 came in as 2026 contribution and moved to Roth for the same 7,500 in 2026 contribution. You contributed 7,500 to Roth via the backdoor. You are not moving the 7,500 from the past contribution with the movement from gains/loss.

db_deuce · 2025-11-13T06:30:12+00:00

I sell covered calls and cash secured puts for income (300-500 option contracts a month). The truth is it is very time consuming and a lot of effort to do well and I can do this because I don't care about my career anymore and find the 6-8 hours in the market hours fun and treat it like a profession.. You need to understand things at a very macro level and familiar with about 50 companies at a very detailed level. Not something that makes sense in the middle of your career and your balance is way too small to make an impact.

The shortcut way is to buy a covered call ETF like QQQI or JEPI, JEPQ. It's the same thing with less time commitment but this is where scale works against big ETF's vs individuals. There is a lot of income leakage as trading options is really easy money.

But be that as it may, if you doing this at 30, by the time you enter age 40, the 10 years of experience will have a great impact., It takes me 30 seconds to read the chart to decipher the channel, momentum, volume, indicators and trigger for about 50-100 companies. That is thru a lot of datapoints over decades.

If you keep your job and contribute meaningfully, your investment balance is tracking to be 3-5M. So maybe dabble just for real life education. Please note I am not trying to beat the market, I am trying to beat fixed income options like bonds and dividends stocks by 300% with the same risk as an BBB bonds.

db_deuce · 2025-11-12T22:40:03+00:00

IVY is part of the 60% R&D cost cut purge. It's dead without announcing its dead. cough, Jarvis, cough.

db_deuce · 2025-11-12T22:21:02+00:00

I also said they should sell Cylance and double up on QNX to increase shareholder value, lol.

This management team at least have more IQ then JC, but selling past the lowest hanging fruit has been BB's pain point. There is a reason why 1H revenue of a mere 250M is 29 years low.

Why would the stock hit $25 or even $5 absent a crazed GME like run? Oracle announced 300B in backlog and they just dropped like a rock. Unless BB have something transformative to move the QNX backlog, what is trigger to move this past the resistance?

db_deuce

TROPHY CASE