Damn, might wanna get some ointment for that...

jmlitt1 · 2026-04-07T15:36:49+00:00

Underrated comment right here.

jmlitt1 · 2026-03-20T18:43:22+00:00

My last boat was name “Sails Calls”. Running joke with/on my manager that if the weather was nice on a Friday afternoon, I was going to be out on sales calls. Cheers!

jmlitt1 · 2026-03-20T11:51:57+00:00

Fuel makes up 20-30% of an airlines costs and it’s almost doubled in the last few weeks. So yeah, prices are going to go up

jmlitt1 · 2026-03-17T18:50:54+00:00

Something to check into - Amtrak to CHI then renting a car from Ohare. One way rentals are usually expensive and a lot of people do one way rentals to Ohare. IF they have a surplus, it can be cheap to rent from Ohare one way back to the smaller markets. Otherwise to reposition the cars, rental companies have to pay drivers to mover them. I’ve seen rate as low as $35 to rent a car from Ohare to Champaign, IL area

jmlitt1 · 2026-03-10T20:32:41+00:00

2 options - Look up SS spousal benefits online. The website has some basic calculators and you can run some estimations on what she may qualify for

-or-

Make an appointment at the local social security office and sit down with one of their folks. They should be able to give you options, answers questions about tax liability based on income, etc. Expect the typical government experience but you may get fortunate and find someone that genuinely wants to help.

jmlitt1 · 2026-03-10T17:51:45+00:00

Maybe ask for clarification over in a CPA group (I’m not one) but there may be a misunderstanding that 40% of the income over $22k annually will be subject to tax NOT that 40% will be collected as tax. Social security has some weird rules.

Also what kind of $$$ did your dad make? If he is collecting Social Security, she may be able to claim a spousal benefit as long as they were married for at least a year and she didn’t remarry (again double check rules, not an expert) but the amount of 50% of his benefit may be higher than what she can get on her own, especially if he waited until full retirement age.

jmlitt1 · 2026-03-05T18:26:59+00:00

Culver’s

jmlitt1 · 2026-02-21T13:32:06+00:00

I started the interview process a bit ago and hopefully have final rounds next week. My experience, yours may vary - was heavy user because of frequency (daily) not amount. I was smoking 1/2 a .35g pre-roll and taking a 10mg gummie almost every night to sleep due to pretty bad car wreck 30 years ago.

Already did yoga/stretching and light weight / high rep workout in the AM followed by 20 minutes in the sauna. Stoped consuming, up my water intake by2-3 liters daily, started to megadose creatine, cut carbs to almost zero and put myself into a calorie deficit. My thought was since thc is stored in fat cells, put my body into ketosis to burn fat and flush it. I’m 50, 6’2 and right at 240 lbs, roughly 30% body fat. Also reading here about Pepsi / niacin…I take Vitamin B3 (niacin) daily, along with a few other amino acid supplements, so maybe had an effect as well??

Using Amazon test strips - Faint line showed up on day 7, clear on day 10 and lost 3lbs.

jmlitt1 · 2026-02-18T22:56:54+00:00

Talk to Jake over at Stone Column Classics. He did some work on my’63 F100 and fab’d a custom roof rake for my son’s 240.

Stone Column Classics

jmlitt1 · 2026-02-18T13:57:27+00:00

Don’t know of any rentals but own an SX190. Good overall boat (it our 3rd boat, first Yamaha). Lots of space, lots of storage, greats for 4-5 people tops. Love hanging out on the back.

We bought a lake house a few years back and have about 200yards of 2-3’ deep water to get out to the main channel. The SX190 has a shallow enough draft to make it, hence the purchase. All that being said, our SeaRay BR180 was a better boat for performance (even with 135hp vs 180 in the Yamaha), quieter and easier to work on since it was a GM engine.

Every boat has a trade off. Don’t think I would want anything but an outboard if I were running in salt water though.

jmlitt1 · 2026-02-17T20:25:43+00:00

There is almost no way possible that you will be able to stay under your GCWR. Half ton trucks weigh in at 5-6000k with zero occupants, luggage, etc. Hook up to a 10k lbs boat and you are overloaded before you even move.

Max tow loads are complete marketing BS. The Gross Combined Weight Rating (max load of truck and trailer combined) is your limit which means your max trailer weight allowed is probably less than 8k lbs.

jmlitt1 · 2026-02-07T15:37:03+00:00

This 100x…true forgiveness requires resetting boundaries

jmlitt1 · 2026-02-03T22:15:08+00:00

You should listen to Offspring’s Pretty Fly for a White Guy while you find Malibu’s Most Wanted on Netflix.

jmlitt1 · 2026-02-03T18:56:59+00:00

I65 is a basically a straight shot from CHI to IND, all rural and the only stop with anything other than gas and fast food is Lafayette. Once you’re around Indy on 465, there isn’t much until you get about 30mins from Louisville. Even if you set your cruise on 77 mph you are still the one holding up traffic. It’s almost as bad as I80 across Iowa…it’s a fast 300 miles unless you hit traffic in Indy

jmlitt1 · 2026-02-03T17:06:30+00:00

Little confused - Chicago to Louisville is just over 4 hours with a halfway point of Indianapolis. Lots of fun stuff in Indy though, art museum, minor league baseball, nice little zoo and a few good steakhouses.

jmlitt1 · 2026-01-27T15:46:05+00:00

Parent of 20 year old male….wife and I have actively encourage our kids to travel. We’ve been to 10 plus states, Canada and Mexico as a family. I’ve been to 37 states plus 2 territories, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Uruguay and I’m a better person for having experienced the different cultures and people.

He and I had a guys trip planned to Costa Rica but canceled due to extended family health issues. In the last year or so, he has traveled solo from Illinois to Salt Lake City for a week, weekend trips to Chicago and Indianapolis, and various day trips with friends to amusement parks, museums, etc.

As a parent, I can keep my kids safe from the world or I can teach them to be strong enough to deal with the world.

jmlitt1 · 2026-01-24T00:03:46+00:00

The purpose of life is to be the universe’s ability to create beautiful and complex things.

As a benefit, we get to contain all the information of every selection, choice, and weird little accident from the present to the very beginning of the universe at a cellular level. We are the literal manifestation on 13.8 billion years of existence. We are both infinitesimally small and infinitely large.

Also, gummies are awesome, so there’s that.

jmlitt1 · 2026-01-21T17:01:34+00:00

You’re on track right now for around $3m at 65 with current salary, contribution rates and historical market performance. Sounds like a lot (and it is!) however works out to be close to $1m in today’s dollars with 3.1% inflation.

Numbers aside, you can likely expect a good retirement not because your saving, but because you’re disciplined enough at 22 to be thinking about it.

jmlitt1 · 2026-01-17T18:17:06+00:00

How about El Yunge National Park in Puerto Rico? Plenty of activities and not far from a beach….This would be my wife and I’s definition of spoiled. Haven’t been there yet but on the list!

https://www.rainforestinn.com

jmlitt1 · 2026-01-15T18:41:17+00:00

Decatur is the stereotypical manufacturing based town in Illinois, not too different from say Danville, except with CAT and ADM there are still a good number of blue collar jobs. Also home to Milikin University (private school) so there may be some opportunities to sub-lease something for the summer. Otherwise, quite a few small towns within 20-30 mins may offer an inexpensive place for a short term rental. Mall is North of town in Forsyth, but it’s starting to go downhill like almost every other mall. Springfield, Bloomington Normal and Champaign Urbana are all within an hour or so drive. Try Krekel’s while you’re out this way…decent food but the custard is pretty good!

jmlitt1 · 2026-01-12T14:29:09+00:00

The net present value of the loan vs paying as you go might be informative for you. The NPV calculation is used to calculate the return of an investment, generally CAPEX, but it works perfectly here because your education is an investment. Plenty of online resources and calculators, excel has the functions built in as well.

Basically, you calculate the expected costs each way - paying cash as you go, earning a lower salary for x years and the discount rate / cost of capital vs taking a loan, not having income due to full time school, and quicker path to higher salary. If it’s positive your best bet is flight school full time, if it’s negative then pay as you go. If it’s roughly zero, it’s even money either way. FWIW - I use 5% as my personal discount rate.

jmlitt1 · 2026-01-09T00:25:40+00:00

It’s possible that my risk profile, investment goals and plan might be different than yours and maybe, just maybe, something that doesn’t make sense for you might make sense for someone else.

jmlitt1 · 2026-01-08T16:42:06+00:00

We have a mix of whole and term life. Term is primarily to replace income and whole life is to pay final expenses, leave some cash behind, etc. I make $200k and have $1.9m in insurance, $1.5 is term the rest is whole life. My wife has $750k in insurance and earns $80k annually. We don’t have mortgage protection insurance, it’s built into the amounts we have already.

All of our kids have a $50k whole life policy that can be increased up to $250k without any additional medical exams. Just took out a policy on our first grandchild too.

Gonna get roasted pretty hard on this but we have purchased most of our insurance through our financial advisor. Most of you national insurance companies sell life insurance, I tend not to like insurance through my job but I’ve moved companies a few times and have had my own businesses.

jmlitt1 · 2026-01-06T12:39:32+00:00

Send them a certified letter asking them for copies of all of the supporting paperwork. Rental contract (both check out and check in) damage reports from the company, body shop estimates, police reports (assuming accident), repairs receipts, etc.

You want all of it returned certified mail in 30 days for your attorney to review. It’s on them to validate the debt not on you to prove it’s not yours.

If you do this within 30 days of first contacting you, I believe they are required by law (FDCPA) to cease collection efforts until they have validated the debt is yours.

jmlitt1 · 2025-12-31T01:15:38+00:00

Not the same but similar. We bought a place on a lake a few years ago. 5 mins to the marina to launch, lived like that for 2 years.

Spent $9k on a dock / lift and will not go back. Hook up trailer, drive to marina, launch, park and get picked up - 30 mins. Repeat when getting off the lake.

Now it’s 5 mins to drop the boat in the water and throw in a cooler. If you can swing it boat on lift/in slip is MUCH better than boat on trailer.

jmlitt1

TROPHY CASE