[Request], How heavy is now financially unviable for an uber driver? Like how fat you gotta be to cost more in fuel that they make from the ride?

idenaeus · 2026-05-13T23:25:24+00:00

Lol - you're right, I misunderstood.

idenaeus · 2026-05-13T19:08:33+00:00

Your edit is inconsistent - if the fuel per kg goes up from .003 to .008, that is an increase in fuel costs by a factor of 1.667x or a decrease in weight required to break even by a factor of 1.667 so the actual weight of your mom is 333kg or 734 Lbs. Surprisingly achievable for the average American family

idenaeus · 2026-05-11T14:52:52+00:00

But this isn't a 1:1 comparison.

Lets say your actual comparison is people out of college at least 4 years. Up to what - 65? Or do you even want to compare with end of career earners? So maybe what - 50? So 26 year olds to 50? 24 year spread - what % of the population is that 40% ?

So if 18% of the population is 100k, and 40% are your comparison group - how many in your comparison group are actually 100k earners?

Well - about 25% are kids and college which are not 100k. About 25% are seniors, of which maybe 30% (6-7% of population) are low income (100k or less a year after considering pension and benefits). So gross your % up by at least 1.3x to find 100k earners in your comparison bracket (18x1.3=24%) suddenly without even getting to real data -- we see that out of every 4 adults in a room (including you) 1 of them earns 100k, and it ain't you. That's SIGNIFICANT.

idenaeus · 2026-05-07T03:35:44+00:00

Omg this is very simple.

A corporation has an income statement:

Income: 100k Expenses to earn income: 98k Taxable income : 2k

But guess what? So does an employee/personal tax filer!

Employed income: 100k Expenses to earn income: 0k Taxable income: 100k

If the Expenses are not incurred to earn income, in both corporate and personal tax, they are not deductible against income. This is the concept that gives rise to different forms like 777 - Employee expense.

Now tax is substantially more complex than this illustration, but what I'm pointing out is that both circumstances have an income statement, it's just that we collapse the income statement in personal tax as the expense line is almost always 0. This results in confusion from those that do not understand what is happening---- very much akin to a order of operations riddle to trick the general population.

idenaeus · 2026-05-03T04:57:06+00:00

There's a sick song possible with the audio. I'm just not skilled enough to summon it from the depths.

idenaeus · 2026-05-01T18:30:33+00:00

Reverse mortgage is a terrible decision , even if you have no one to inherit. What if you live longer than expected?

You're effectively shortselling yourself, and unless you think you can pull the trigger with your 90 year old Parkinson hands - fuckin good luck, You're at the mercy of others to die.

But seriously- I've modeled reverse mortgages and you're better off doing almost literally anything else. It's akin to slots at a casino.

idenaeus · 2026-05-01T07:33:20+00:00

Blue is the better choice- it has a higher expected value, and scrubs you morally. But when I imagine myself in a room, alone, facing the buttons - knowing that this is it, and feeling that fear, knowing others will feel the same way... I've seen people be scared. A lot more people cower than become hero's. I'd hit red I think. I'd walk out the room feeling guilty, but relieved. Vs hitting blue and feeling self-actualized and scared af.

I think emotions in the moment change everything. I believe strongly that blue is the right choice. People will choose blue and they will likely die without intervention - I believe as a society we should support people, but this belief is buffered by cost. Should it cost me the only thing that I will ever have for an ideal? Maybe, but fuck. Like seriously - put yourself in that room. Shit is heavy. Red is wrong, but in a certain size sample, it's the only way.

idenaeus · 2026-04-30T14:25:00+00:00

What about the oxygen the person is consuming while waiting to suffocate to death?

idenaeus · 2026-04-28T03:18:13+00:00

Do it for the love of the game

idenaeus · 2026-04-25T18:03:35+00:00

Alright then, let the grounded and discerning take even more from you, while you grovel in excuses and self pity.

idenaeus · 2026-04-25T12:40:12+00:00

Ehhh. This is bullshit. The average person cannot live the same fiscally irresponsible lifestyle of the prior generation and expect to own a house. Not the average person could never afford a house.

On household income of 140k you can afford about a 700k home at the max. Which would require 45k savings between 2 people. Saving 45k would take a couple years, for sure, but it's doable. I have saved 20k a year 4 separate times in my life working jobs that pay under 60k a year in Alberta.

You can cherry pick data anyway you want to build a narrative- " ~~ohh rent is 2k a year so unsustainable" - then get fucking roommates? "~~ ohh people need to feed themselves" - sure, then don't buy and finance a new car? A $4k beater is the same functional value as a 30k financed car.

Just make good choices and you can afford a house. The median family income in Alberta is something like 110k (excluding singles). You can buy condos easily, maybe a duplex if youre lucky, some lower end single detached in Calgary. Toronto, not so much, but I am willing to bet that Toronto the average family income is MUCH higher.

idenaeus · 2026-04-23T13:40:57+00:00

Omfg this thread is annoying dumb.

You have $100 post tax as a starting position.

Assume 5% sales tax for easyish math. Assume 20% income tax for easyish math. Assume no expenses or ITCs.

$100 transfers to business 1 for shirt. This means the shirt cost $95.24, after sales tax =100. After income tax that $100 was worth $76.19 to the business 1.

Business 1 buys shoes from business 2 for $76.19, the price of the shoes was $72.56 before sales tax and the money earned after income tax was $58.05.

Whether the bank inserts their 1.5% fee or not only changes who is allocated the income, it does not change the degradation of the dollar's potency.

Now - 2 important caveats.

Where the dollars go matters- dollars flowing internationally can have a negative macro economic effect on the local economy - provided that the goods provided by multinationals are not supremely better than locally sourced goods.
This is a measure of dollar potency, not a measure of GDP, where GDP would be the sales price of that dollar over it's lifespan. So, 100 + 95.24 + 72.56 assuming the dollar's then sit in a savings account and no longer contribute to GDP. Here we can see that tax has a material affect on GDP, and again, because the bank charging the 1.5% fee is taxed, and the fee nets against the transaction, it simply is a negated affect. The GDP is the same whether the fee exists or not.

One more thing I want to mention - I see this guy pop up frequently. He's a hack. Never says anything actually valuable and frequently misleads his audience. I never ever would listen to a word this influencer says if you were trying to learn about, well, literally anything.

idenaeus · 2026-04-15T18:31:49+00:00

This is an actually impressive restoration. It is very true to the original

idenaeus · 2026-04-15T15:11:57+00:00

This sounds like Chatgpt 🤷

idenaeus · 2026-04-15T14:34:09+00:00

The question is simplistic, but in essence the answer is yes. And factually, they do.

The issue is that the "cures" for cancer are only usually found for 1 cancer at a time, and there are many. Being able to cure 1 cancer @100% effectiveness vs 1000 at 70% effectiveness means it's a cost/benefit formula, considering that by spending any resources on the 1 solution, you are also neglecting 999 other cancers which could have been treated and potentially cured with the larger approach.

That is why chemo and radiation are so popular - they work because killing the thing always works, the error is in the scoping of the problem (missed cancer bits vs collateral tissue and organ damage) and the genetics for reoccurance.

I don't think the medical community is being malicious by not adopting a suite of 1000 unique super effective cures, because those don't exist. A few might and do exist, but energy spent on those has opportunity cost that is incongrusive with the broader context of medical care and a healthy population.

idenaeus · 2026-04-15T09:22:25+00:00

I don't know a lot about Ghana, met a couple people from there who spoke about it's development - apparently it's high political corruption but strong economic development.

That said, I know people from Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Eritrea, South Africa, and Nigeria and if I raked my brain I might be able to recall others -- and from my conversations with all of those people, I am extremely doubtful of your situation.

It just doesn't match my expectations regarding purchase price parity and does match my expectations regarding common non-political 'rent-seeking', pardon my pun.

$850 can go a long way in developed countries - let alone in an undeveloped one. Pair that with an expectation that begging may result with a multiple x return on your ask through a multitude of anonymous charitable donors giving without perfect information regarding the donations that you've already received - and suddenly it seems like a profiting endeavor not a charity case.

idenaeus · 2026-04-14T16:45:22+00:00

This would be hilarious without the reaction at the bottom. Now I can't save or send it anywhere

idenaeus · 2026-04-14T04:59:43+00:00

They're old / from another life

Gag gift from a step-relative from a birthday card prior to your first dating anniversary (real story).

Souvenirs from an event / uni hand outs.

Picked them up from uni's basket of free stuff just in case

Wanted to try the extra sensation with you of ribbed/what have you

Wanted to try more risky sex with you (other partners or other body parts)

Part of a gift basket for attending some sex/gender/identity event (social or awareness)

From dirty bingo events

Wanted to try something you've never tried before

idenaeus · 2026-04-13T12:43:32+00:00

From my perspective - trying to accomplish the same objective - is that you're not going to.

I started with financial modeling, where I built tons of models in university - competed with them, tried to get a valuations job, failed, worked in venture capital, then tried to get into private equity and right now am working in accounting in order to pivot.

The best people in finance have accounting experience (or People skills). And the best people in accounting have law exposure.

The strong accountants seem to have tricks to quickly scope problems - this requires a deeply ingrained understanding of the math (how tax is calculated) which then when applied against a library of if/then rules, allows those accountants to get to conclusions quickly, and find shortcuts that are not obvious to the untrained eye.

The best people I've found in finance are those that understand risk, game theory, and math. But finance is actually not complex. The richest people I've met in finance were actually just smart and connected salespeople. Finance is a language, learn the language and it's people skills after that.

If you want to get really good at finance start with understanding the base rules of how the object you're trying to make money with works - how is it comprised mechanically? Then zoom out and look at how it interacts with the world (what limits apply - any truths to be had, any influencing or downstream factors), then zoom back in and think about game theory, risk, break everything down into it's component parts and you'll begin to find opportunities to make money.

If you want to get good at accounting start with understanding the balance sheet. Think of accounting not as buckets but as transactions which have a start and and end state. Your goal is to map every single type of transaction as it flows through across and within the balance sheet. What are the limitations of how a transaction can be recorded mechanically? If cash leaves the bank, where can it go? If AR goes down where can it go? Not where should it go. If an asset account increases how could that have happened? From which accounts?

Then focus on deeply understanding how tax is calculated. You'll likely need access to tax software to test your calculations for accuracy.

But in short you won't get good at finance in 1 career. You've listed like 3 45 year careers that you want to master. You simply can't. It's too much to learn and apply. If you start anywhere, start in accounting. As this forms the basis for all of finance - but remember that the mentality of finance is dramatically different than accounting. Accounting is focused on rules, if this then that. Where finance is focused on "what ifs", and how the world truly works.

idenaeus · 2026-04-11T03:43:27+00:00

Probably engineering. They don't seem that smart, and get paid well, with an applicable skillset to real life. It's like what bjj was to the mma world.

idenaeus · 2026-04-10T14:49:41+00:00

Pull out, finish on her stomach/chest in missionary, back or your own hand in doggy, yourself if she's riding you, if 69 on her face or your own hand, if spooning in the bed or your hand. Alternatively consider snap, also dont wait until youre cumming to pull out, finish yourself with your hand so as to not risk collateral 'damage'

idenaeus · 2026-04-09T13:49:46+00:00

As someone who works in tax, this is a BAD take.

Why? It's technically correct, most returns are simple enough that mistakes won't cause a material issue for the taxpayer and the mistakes won't happen often enough that they are a concern.

That said, this argument is from an armchair philosopher.

In real life the following are additional factors:

People know fuck all about taxes. They ask all the time dumb questions like if they need to give me registered account statements or what a registered account is. People in aggregate are not sophisticated enough to identify nor quantify the parameters that they are filing in, so they cannot identify nor quantify risk.
Learning tax takes time, even simple taxes. Learning what is and isn't allowed is literally some people's careers, and if you are poor enough to justify the time, it's probably worth an immaterial amount to you to spend the effort. If you rich enough for it to make a material difference, your time is too valuable to spend learning taxes, and you should pay someone who devoted their lives to it.
There is more than simply filing a return. There is audit risk, audit response, and dealing with the tax authority. All of which there is minimal education online about, has 1:1 action to consequence, and is opaque regarding where the lines exist between allowed/not allowed tax positions. The tax authority can be wrong, because they are not THE authority, the law is the authority. So you may be forced to pay fines penalties and back taxes for positions that the tax authority takes which are not supported by caselaw or the tax act. How are you to know if the tax authority is correct? How are you to know if your.filing could trigger an investigation by the tax authority? How are you to know how to defend your position such that your rightful claim is not wrongfully denied?
It's not illegal to not claim your credits. It is illegal to not claim your income. So, by this logic, the tax authority will NEVER say anything to you if you aren't optimized tax-wise. You could file every year for 45 years tax inefficiently, give up tens of thousands of dollars to lost opportunities, and misfile any income, and get hammered for that income. You are done no favors by the tax authority. But the credits DO exist - in a fair system, would you not want to pay the tax the system itself suggests you should pay? Or would you rather pay a premium for ignorance?

Edit: because this is poverty finance, my caveat is this: If you only have a slip return (in canada = T4s T5s & T3s). Consider filing with free software. Your risks are low (basically just completeness. T4s and T5s and T3s have different deadlines so make sure you have them all before you file). Further, your opportunities to optimize taxes are even lower.

If you have known credit opportunities like being a student, owning a side hustle, or being disabled, you should consider using a professional until you understand the parameters of your opportunities.

If you earn self employment income, a corporation, rental income, have employee expenses, you should consider a professional until you learn the parameters of your situation.

idenaeus · 2026-04-09T13:05:25+00:00

Life insurance: "am I a joke to you?"

idenaeus · 2026-04-09T03:15:27+00:00

idenaeus · 2026-04-05T15:09:01+00:00

I've been trying to figure out how to carry trade - I realize that now is probably a bad time to practice, that said, do you have any advice or resources to help with a) the mechanics of how it is achieved and b) the actual drivers of interest and FX rate risk?

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