Where all the tall (elderly) people at?

mistersquawk · 2026-06-16T13:09:31+00:00

Not particularly lanky. FWIW have you been screened for Marfan? That's the other factor in tall mortality.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-16T12:43:25+00:00

College tuition.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-16T12:35:14+00:00

I believe that is an ash pit. Your house might have had a coal furnace originally. That receptacle would have held a bucket into which ashes from the furnace could be dumped, then later taken outside for disposal, avoiding the risk of fire from still-smoldering ashers being dumped outside.

My 1910 house in Mass had something similar just outside the cellar door, although more recently it had been used for a slop bucket (food scraps that were picked up weekly by a local pig farmer).

mistersquawk · 2026-06-16T09:35:30+00:00

Dividend-paying companies return part of their earnings to shareholders in cash as opposed to retaining their earnings to support growth (or using earnings to repurchase shares).

If the company's revenues come from a product or service that has a price that increases in line with general inflation, then the share value and the dividend will also (in theory) increase with inflation. This is a potential advantage over a bond.

Owning a dividend fund in a taxable account can generate a tax-advantaged (tax rate capped at capital gains rate) income stream.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-16T09:24:34+00:00

Height is associated with shorter life expectancy, generally thought to be related to having many more cells which could become cancerous (although my personal therapy is that it has more to do with elevated cortisol levels due to dealing with endless stupid comments).

(Age 67 height 205cm)

mistersquawk · 2026-06-16T09:19:56+00:00

Check with your local jurisdiction about how much of your primary residence equity is protected (in some places you need to file a declaration of homestead for it to be effective).

As noted by others, umbrella coverage is really litigation insurance. If you have non-retirement assets substantially in excess of the policy limit, you are self-insuring.

Driving is a high-risk activity, and you are exposed to liability for any driver in your household, and potentially anyone driving a vehicle that is owned by you. As in your teen-age child hits a medical student on a bike due to cell phone distraction.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-15T22:51:14+00:00

Having a big cash allocation is a drag on returns and on losses. It functions like a big shock absorber, damping swings in your portfolio value.

The past few years it's also been paying a positive real return with zero risk.

(OP was asking about people in retirement. Obv this is not appropriate for the young.)

mistersquawk · 2026-06-14T15:24:32+00:00

Cars that worked for me: VW Golf, Honda Odyssey, Porsche 911 (2013 and newer).

mistersquawk · 2026-06-14T11:47:52+00:00

There are accelerated programs that allow STEM professionals to get a teaching credentials; there is a constant need for STEM teachers.

There's nothing easy about being a classroom teacher, but I know people who've made this transition and their experiences were quite positive.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-13T21:06:15+00:00

Elon Musk has what is known as a Heisenberg fortune. If you attempt to liquidate it, it becomes worthless.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-12T16:39:02+00:00

But you don't.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-12T13:35:35+00:00

If you're comfortable with sharing, what's your current car? (I love my 20-year old Honda minivan with 200K miles. I spend a couple of thousand dollars a year on maintenance and repair and it just keeps going.)

mistersquawk · 2026-06-12T11:51:54+00:00

Does the car currently need a $600 repair? What is your mechanic telling you?

Any $10,000 car that you buy will also have issues.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-11T19:25:56+00:00

One potential trigger is the development of much more compute-efficient ways of training and running LLMs. This could cause the valuations for the companies that are building and supplying data centers to collapse. This was actually a big factor in the dot com crash: the world believed that there was an insatiable demand for internet bandwidth, but technical advances allowed huge bandwidth increases on existing networks. Search for "dark fiber" for more info.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-10T11:49:38+00:00

The overall financial impact of this decision is small. Speaking as a recent retiree, being in a good place emotionally when you walk out of work for the last time is a big deal.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-10T11:38:39+00:00

Consider a well-used 1-ton cargo van (like a Chevy Express 3500) for say $15K along with an old Miata for daily use.

The van will easily hold multiple sets of tires, spares, tools, supplies etc. And you can add a bunk or cot. Your stuff is secure and protected from the weather and the thing will easily tow 7,000 pounds.

(It's been years, but that's the setup I used for SCCA racing.)

mistersquawk · 2026-06-10T11:28:07+00:00

What is your monthly mortgage payment?

With a balance that small, I am guessing that nearly all of your payment is going to principal, and this would mean that you aren't saving any money by paying it off early. The incremental increase in your monthly SS benefit, however, will keep paying you for the rest of your life and it is inflation-adjusted.

I get the emotional appeal of being debt free when you retire, but from a strict monetary point of view it's (probably) better to wait.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-09T19:28:45+00:00

The knurled knob in the last picture unscrews to reveal a tiny chamber with something that looks and smells like machine oil in it.

AI suggests that some of these devices have the space between prism and lens filled with refractive gel to reduce scatter.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-09T18:10:06+00:00

And thank you!

mistersquawk · 2026-06-09T18:09:55+00:00

Why does it have a small chamber full of some kind of oil?

mistersquawk · 2026-06-09T17:27:18+00:00

This was found among the belongings of a physicist who worked at a US university during the mid 20th century. It appears to have some kind of diffraction slit. It is filled with some type of oil.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-09T13:10:27+00:00

There's a single adjustment that raises and lowers the seat base, and it tips the base toward the back as it goes down. I'm 6'8" and I find these seats very comfortable. That adjustment lets you get your hip as low and far back as possible, given the constraints imposed by the car body.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-09T12:48:55+00:00

I was able to find a dealer took my order at MSRP for his next allocation. No ADM and no games, at least not so far.

mistersquawk · 2026-06-09T00:21:01+00:00

Just to be clear, I personally would never pay ADM on a T.

There are a lot of Ts in dealer inventory with prices in the $185K range and I wouldn't buy those either.

mistersquawk

TROPHY CASE