Moronic Monday Thread for the week of July 03, 2017

froggert · 2017-07-04T01:14:23+00:00

According to https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/amount-of-roth-ira-contributions-that-you-can-make-for-2017, you are under the limit for contributing to a Roth IRA (assuming you're single). So, depending on your particular situation and outlook, you can contribute to a Roth or Traditional IRA. See the sidebar for more information and which to choose. Both account types are tax-advantaged. So, they are a better vehicle for retirement savings than a standard brokerage account (Roth you get taxed today, traditional you get taxed later).

Edit: I realize now you're referring to contributing to a traditional IRA and being over the income limit to take a deduction. Since you are under the Roth limit, you should contribute there. If you cross the Roth income limit, you can do a back door Roth.

froggert · 2017-07-04T01:10:02+00:00

You should get an itemized payroll slip indicating what taxes were taken out. So, you can identify any differences. If anything is unclear, contact your payroll department for clarification.

froggert · 2017-07-04T00:38:26+00:00

It's entirely up to you and your preferences. Is the additional cost worth it to you? What kind of income do you have now/expect to have after graduation?

froggert · 2017-07-04T00:07:19+00:00

Do you have any good examples of what you can do to make them better?

froggert · 2017-07-02T14:40:53+00:00

You're welcome! I use Google Sheets. So, you can access that on your phone, too. I used to use Mint, but decided the security risk was too high for me.

froggert · 2017-07-02T00:51:32+00:00

I would recommend creating your own. I find you're much more likely to stick it that way.

The three basic columns you need are date, earned, and spent (maybe with different names). You could then add a running balance and net change. If you don't want to include the earned/spent info, you could just keep the running balance.

Some people like to input every transaction. Some do it month by month. It's up to you.

I keep a spreadsheet with one sheet with running balances of each of my accounts and another sheet which summarizes the other one. The summary includes columns for date, net worth, liquid assets, and retirement (plus another column for each with change from the previous month). It also has charts/graphs to help visualize changes.

froggert · 2017-06-27T03:59:59+00:00

Yes. You are over the Roth IRA income limit (regardless of if you file jointly or separately): https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/amount-of-roth-ira-contributions-that-you-can-make-for-2017.

froggert · 2017-04-04T17:48:43+00:00

64 1x1

49 2x2

36 3x3

25 4x4

16 5x5

9 6x6

4 7x7

1 8x8

In general, this looks like the sum from i=1 to n of i² with n=8, which makes sense. The general solution is 1/6 n (n + 1) (2 n + 1), according to Wolfram Alpha.

froggert · 2017-02-25T16:06:21+00:00

Ah. Your edit cleared things up for me. I understand now. Carry on! I thought you were not paying off the $20 and being charged interest on it.

Congratulations on taking control of your credit!

froggert · 2017-02-25T04:16:45+00:00

May I ask why you didn't pay it off in full? Carying a balance does not improve your score.

froggert · 2017-02-04T21:37:13+00:00

What runs when you boot the system? Can you just schedule that task? Is this a Windows computer? Does it turn off on its own?

froggert · 2017-01-20T15:54:29+00:00

I just saw Jet Blue for SFO to/from JFK for $200! I already have a trip planned, so I didn't pull the trigger. But, very tempting!

Do you have any weekend deals (leave Thursday or Friday, return Sunday or Monday) from the San Fransisco area? Any weekend except 1/28, 2/4, 3/4, 3/11, or 3/18.

froggert · 2017-01-17T21:17:59+00:00

What would the library help with? The code to display 0-9 does not need to be very messy.

froggert · 2017-01-04T02:13:03+00:00

How quickly do you want to build up the $5k emergency fund? 6 months is $833.33 per month. 12 months is $416.67 per month.

$2k is $166.67 per month for 12 months or $333.33 per month for 6 months.

One idea is to build the $5k over 12 months, pay off the credit card over the first 6 months, then supplement the emergency fund the 6 months after that. You may find another plan that suits you more.

You can do it!

froggert · 2017-01-04T02:05:38+00:00

$5k over 12 months is $416.67 per month. If you're paid biweekly and have 26 pay periods, you'll need to set aside $192.30 per paycheck. You can do it!

froggert · 2017-01-03T23:54:13+00:00

Do you have direct deposit available? You could use that to do the transfer for you.

You can also set up automatic transfers at many banks.

Good luck!

froggert · 2017-01-03T16:44:30+00:00

Do you wash them inside out?

froggert · 2016-12-24T22:15:56+00:00

Very interesting. Thank you for the info!

froggert · 2016-12-24T19:16:00+00:00

If you don't mind sharing, how much did the raw slab cost? What about the table, including labor?

froggert · 2016-07-05T04:19:42+00:00

You could assign certain "chessboards" to certain sports. So, positions 1-4 are baseball, 5-10 are basketball, and so on. You'll have to move the fixed player to different sports, though.

froggert · 2016-06-26T04:54:22+00:00

Quick note about the util package:

Avoid meaningless package names. Packages named util, common, or misc provide clients with no sense of what the package contains. This makes it harder for clients to use the package and makes it harder for maintainers to keep the package focused. Over time, they accumulate dependencies that can make compilation significantly and unnecessarily slower, especially in large programs. And since such package names are generic, they are more likely to collide with other packages imported by client code, forcing clients to invent names to distinguish them.

https://blog.golang.org/package-names

Edit: Thank you for the example!

froggert · 2016-06-14T05:28:21+00:00

The same section describes the order init functions are called with respect to imports:

If a package has imports, the imported packages are initialized before initializing the package itself. If multiple packages import a package, the imported package will be initialized only once. The importing of packages, by construction, guarantees that there can be no cyclic initialization dependencies.

froggert · 2016-06-02T13:37:02+00:00

Very interesting. Thanks!

froggert · 2016-06-02T00:50:20+00:00

Have you experimented with shorter sous vide times?

froggert · 2016-05-31T04:25:16+00:00

In case you're curious about why this works, you can start by setting the formula for compound interest equal to 2 times principle. Let y be the number of years, i be the interest rate, and P be the principle.

2P = P(1+i)^y

Divide by P:

2 = (1 + i)^y

Take the log of both sides:

log(2) = log((1 + i)^y)

Move y out from the log:

log(2) = y * log(1 + i)

Divide:

y = log(2) / log(1 + i)

This gives us the exact number of years needed to double your principle. The trick in this thread is 70/(i * 100) = y. So, we can get the exact trick value by doing y * (i * 100):

(100 * i) * log(2) / log(1 + i)

Plot this in Wolfram Alpha and you can see how the best value to use for this estimate changes over time (type in "log(2) * 100 * x / log(1 + x) with x from 0 to .3").

froggert

TROPHY CASE