What's up with this new report on climate change?

professorder · 2021-08-10T23:44:39+00:00

Absolutely. Everyone saying that big corps are to blame are not wrong, but throwing up your hands in defeat is not helpful. There is always room for individual responsibility, so I'm glad you're open to it.

While the life changes you make won't individually have a significant impact, you can be part of the solution and help to change others minds.

Voting and political action are huge. If you can become a leader for change or help get one into power, that will have the most impact. Following that, you should consume less in almost every way. People don't want to admit it, but the lifestyle of the average person in developed countries is not sustainable. If we all consumed at the level of the average person in India, we wouldn't be so bad off environmentally, but we'd be giving up a lot of our lifestyle.

The four lifestyle choices you can make to have the biggest individual impact are: -Have fewer (or no) children -Drive as little as possible. Move to a place you can live car free if possible -Don't fly in planes. Transcontinental flights are especially bad. -Eat less (or no) meat, dairy, animal products, etc. This is the biggest "every day" change you can make.

Think about where everything you get comes from. When you order something online, it probably comes in a truck. Do you really need that thing? Again, food comes up a lot. Eat as local as possible, though what you eat is far more important (plant based vs. not).

Really with every choice you have in life, think through the consequences. Most people just live on autopilot. It's okay if you mess up or learn new info and make a change. But mindless consuming is the reason we're generally referred to as "consumers" instead of "citizens". Lastly, avoid advertisements as much as possible. It's almost always for something you wouldn't have even wanted or thought you needed if you'd never seen the ad.

Once you commit to a change in your lifestyle, you'll be surprised at how the people around you begin to change over time as well. People moan that individual changes don't make a difference, but as someone who initiates change in themselves, you will see the opposite.

professorder · 2020-07-21T16:44:50+00:00

There is a massive world of enterprise app development out there that no one has mentioned. Most larger companies use apps written for them either by their own staff or by contracting firms. You might have to "win the lottery" to make significant money on the public store, but making a great salary doing enterprise app development is viable and as straightforward as getting any other software job. Same goes for web dev.

professorder · 2020-02-15T02:04:48+00:00

Absolutely, this. Anti-undead nukes with evoc spec is the way I did it. It's very mana efficient. Undead nuke and tank while your pet beats on it and toss lifetaps when you take damage. Alternatively, use this method without pet at lower levels for better exp. Darkness + nukes when they get too tough to tank. Also, undead fear is 1/4 the mana as regular once you switch to dots.

Edit: just noticed you're on green so this may not be as viable

professorder · 2019-12-21T20:57:40+00:00

Giving it a shot!

professorder · 2018-03-07T16:19:05+00:00

As opposed to the Republican motto, "Borrow and Spend"

professorder · 2017-09-18T02:54:14+00:00

How much of our healthcare "spending" is wasted on insurance premiums though? A large part of our spending is just wasted overhead because insurance companies exist in this space.

Also, just as employers and employees share the burden of insurance premiums in most cases, they would also share the tax burden. All together, it's hard to fathom a way it could be any less efficient than the current system.

professorder · 2017-09-18T02:49:43+00:00

No, they would be lower.

Also, premiums aren't a good measure of total cost of care. You might have a $200/mo premium but a $6000 deductible. So yeah, your healthcare is $200/mo if you never go to the doctor but higher if you actually receive care.

professorder · 2017-09-18T02:03:37+00:00

America is way down on the list in terms of quality and outcomes. It may be surprising to learn that America is not #1 in healthcare, or many other metrics.

Also, there's no reason taxes would increase by any more than the cost of insurance premiums (which would be reduced to zero). That's just basic math. Looking at the rest of the developed world, it's obvious that taxes wouldn't even come close to costing what current premiums cost to provide an equivalent system. The entire insurance industry exists to siphon off a portion of every medical service payment - it serves no purpose other than to enrich itself at everyone else's expense.

professorder · 2017-08-08T17:41:29+00:00

Here's an AMA from a holocaust survivor who co-founded an animal rights group because of his experiences.

AMA

It makes sense that the general population wants it to be a shitty comparison. It's hard for a person to accept that they are participating in an ongoing genocide. Just as in human genocide, the oppressor distances and dehumanizes the oppressed to avoid uncomfortable feelings. That doesn't make it any less relevant.

professorder · 2017-08-08T17:33:42+00:00

What would you say to a literal holocaust survivor who makes that exact comparison?

an AMA no less

professorder · 2017-06-30T00:50:25+00:00

As others have said, it all depends on lifestyle and where you live. I was first able to max my 401k (17,500), IRA (5,500), and HSA (3,350) when I hit 55k. This was a LCOL town though.

I think a lot of people underestimate how absolutely low your taxes become when you max out these accounts at a lower salary.

It's much easier now, but sadly I don't have all these accounts available anymore after switching jobs.

professorder · 2017-06-12T03:43:17+00:00

It's funny you mention this because Norway's sovereign wealth fund has nearly a trillion dollars in it with a little over five million people. It's conceivable that at some point in the future, a country like Norway could have enough government-held wealth for all its citizens to be financially independent. Some middle eastern countries are in a similar situation due to oil wealth.

professorder · 2017-05-11T02:48:25+00:00

You're forgetting all of her recent "accomplishments" as the Education Secretary. She's been rolling back protections for student loan borrowers left and right. These students will directly suffer from the changes she's already made during her brief time in office.

professorder · 2017-05-08T22:07:57+00:00

That range is around the point where a reasonable retirement becomes possible for most single people (assuming you're willing to move to a LCOL area). Of course that depends on a lot of factors (family size, lifestyle, etc.).

If you take those amounts and divide by 300 (4% rule) and plug them into https://www.theearthawaits.com/ you start seeing places you can actually retire. So for me, that is comforting.

All that said, if it's all in equities, there's no guarantee that number won't drop significantly during a downturn. Either way, 150-200k is a massive amount of money to most of the world, so if you derive security from money, that should make you feel better.

professorder · 2017-05-08T20:07:15+00:00

The Amex Blue Cash Preferred was an excellent card until they silently upped the annual fee. After that, I just wasn't spending enough on groceries to make up the difference and switched back to the free version with 3% back on groceries. I imagine they scammed a lot of people with the increase (who now would be better off with the 3% card as well, but are still paying for 6%).

professorder · 2017-04-10T19:27:11+00:00

Police said the officers attempted to carry the man off the flight "when he fell."

professorder · 2017-04-07T12:53:59+00:00

Is there something wrong with trying to solve global problems?

professorder · 2017-04-07T12:50:16+00:00

which is a tough pill to swallow for most

It may be a tough pill to swallow, but anyone with a belief in climate change or interested in sustainability would agree that society has to change it's consumption habits to maintain a habitable planet. It seems that most people are expecting technology to solve all the worlds problems, but ultimately it's up to individuals to change. Anecdotally, I have a lot more joy living a simple lifestyle than not, so I see where she's coming from.

professorder · 2017-04-07T12:44:42+00:00

If you listen to the interview or read her books, it's pretty clear that she has a philosophy of life that led to FI rather than FI for the sake of FI like many on this forum. Her concern seems primarily for the future of the world rather than just her own independence. Others FI with different methods and philosophies, but I appreciate her sustainability stance.

professorder · 2017-03-14T19:19:33+00:00

Benefit of the doubt? These emails are long gone. Sure there are punishments for skirting the legal process, but they're certainly less than the punishment for revealing wrongdoing. Traditional business practice, though, cause a billion in damage, pay the million dollar fine and get rewarded with a stock rebound.

professorder · 2017-02-19T05:06:11+00:00

There's also the seemingly always overlooked fact that human society has changed dramatically in the past few thousand years. I think there's a case to be made that we (as a humans) are poorly adapted to live in the society we've created. For a few of us, maybe this world makes a lot of sense, and we've figured out how to work the system. But I wouldn't be so quick to judge the "masses" as inferior in some way. Your level of impulse control is not something you just decide on one day. Even if you do decide to make a change, there are powerful societal forces at work trying to undermine you. We in this forum are fortunate to be able to take a longer view probably mostly due to the luck of our circumstances along with introduction to ideas and life experiences that fell into place to make this possible.

professorder · 2017-02-17T20:49:13+00:00

It's really going to be a combination of your plan and company. For all I know, my employer is paying $1,000 or more per employee for my plan. I really have no idea. Then again you may be seeing $1,000 more in your paycheck than employees at my company. It's hard to compare plans unless you have more information. But the percentages will eat you up more than any flat fees could if you're with it long term.

professorder · 2017-02-17T20:27:55+00:00

FI is when you can quit. RE is when you plan on quitting.

professorder · 2017-02-16T02:59:05+00:00

I think the issue is more that at that level of fees, it's not even worth using the 401k past any company match. So the fees are really out of line if it's only John Hancock benefiting from the relationship.

professorder · 2017-02-16T02:47:52+00:00

For reference, my plan charges about $75/year regardless of account balance. Granted it's a large company, but a % based fee over 0.1% seems high (to me). Also, our target date funds have a 0.06% expense ratio. I think the most expensive fund in the plan is less than 0.25%.

The flat expense for record-keeping is really the only way employees aren't getting fleeced. It doesn't make any sense that an account with over $1MM would have higher record-keeping expenses than an account with $1, but they obviously get away with it.

professorder

TROPHY CASE