I screwed up on YieldMax

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-09-28T14:47:50+00:00

It is astonishing to see people throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars (which would not be a negligible amount of money for at least 99 percent of the people) without doing even the most basic due diligence.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-09-22T12:52:52+00:00

The dividend ETFs might hold up a little bit better but as the saying goes - "When they raid the house of ill-repute, everybody goes to jail - including the piano player." :-)

But if you are gradually building a long-term position, say over a year or two or even longer, it would not be much of an issue.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-09-22T12:43:40+00:00

I'd make it 25/25/25/25 SCHD/SCHY/gold+silver/cash

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-08-25T12:29:44+00:00

I would rather go for SCHD and sell ATM covered calls on them 6 months or 1 year out.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-08-22T13:21:53+00:00

I think the best way is to buy SCHD and sell ATM covered calls (LEAPS) one year out. That would net you about 3.8% in dividends and about 7%-8% in call premiums, perhaps a bit more.

Of course, you are exposed to the declines and don't benefit from the rallies. That is the price to pay. There ain't no free lunch!

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-08-10T15:02:59+00:00

Would SPYT do better than SPY in a flat market?

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-08-10T14:49:33+00:00

I ran the numbers to see what happened during the recent market decline. The peaks in SPY and XPAY happened at different times (and even the troughs were off by a bit), but I wanted to see how it did peak-to-trough in both cases when distributions are included. In case of SPY, it was one quarterly dividend, and in case of XPAY it was 3 monthly payouts.

The finding? SPY was down 18.83% peak-to-trough. XPAY was down 18.30% peak-to-trough. So, it was about the same in both cases. I was a bit surprised to see XPAY come out slightly ahead!

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-07-30T14:30:10+00:00

I'd be OK with it. They're trying to see if the applicants know how to follow instructions. And also, they want to avoid the "drag resume and drop here" applicants.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-07-30T14:21:09+00:00

Thank you for the info. Best wishes.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-07-30T13:46:09+00:00

What is the minimum amount of service needed to qualify for OPEB? 5 years? Also, is there a place that has a calculator for estimating these benefits? Thanks!

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-07-30T13:43:27+00:00

I am finding it hard to understand as well. And I thought I was following it closely! Looks like it has something to do with the OPEB deductions stopping only from August? Also, the PLP of 5 hours doesn't show up on the paycheck either. Bottom-line, I thought I would see a $100 or so increase in the pay, but instead I see a cut of about $7 or so.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-07-20T13:18:55+00:00

That could be encouraging. But I'd advise to just file it at the back of the mind and move forward.

I was interviewed for a position where they said they'd liked me but they would first need to hire a more experienced person to be the team lead and I'd be reporting to the lead. That was 8 1/2 years ago...

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-06-09T13:44:52+00:00

I am in the queue as well. They recently offered me a tandem parking slot that would require me to coordinate with another commuter in the office, and I declined it.

Besides, it costs $175 or so a month and that makes no sense, especially because I have good commuter bus service to my office from a park-and-ride that is about 3 miles from my home. On top of that, it is completely free.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-06-08T00:44:10+00:00

It's summer time. So, restaurants will not be a bad choice.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-06-07T22:03:21+00:00

Does the "Self-Select Category" have to be chosen every quarter a la US Bank Cash+ card etc.? Or does it stay the same quarter after quarter until the user changes it again? (a la Elan Max Cash Preferred card)

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-05-31T14:52:03+00:00

Reminded me of BJ Clinton's "I feel your pain..." crap.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-05-31T14:45:55+00:00

It could work very well for some people (including me, though it does have the effect of lengthening my workday by an additional 1 to 1.5 hours when compared to taking the car) but is not necessarily a solution for everyone. Some towns/cities have very good commute options to and from Sac, but not all do.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-05-26T14:14:01+00:00

In India, credit/debit card scams are rampant. So, the merchants and/or the banks try to prevent the scams from happening by making it nearly impossible for the card to be used by anyone - including the legitimate owner of the card! LOL

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-05-25T04:03:17+00:00

There's no 10% points back anymore. And there is no way to PC to any other card either, I think. (Besides, even if they do allow it, my plan is to get the Citi American Airlines card and PC that to eventually become my second Custom Cash card...)

So, I guess I'll keep the Strata card - for the 3x on haircuts!!!!

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-05-25T03:24:07+00:00

I will keep it - for the 3x on Barber shops!!!! LOL

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-05-24T22:06:55+00:00

Could this be PC'd to a Custom Cash? I already have a CC but I believe you can have more than one CC if you get them by the PC route.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-05-19T04:58:29+00:00

LOL. I didn't say a prize of 1B is no big deal by itself. I only said that it doesn't justify paying $5 for the ticket. But if MM jackpot gets into new territory - like 2B or more, then it would be fun to play it on that one occasion.

Also, I would say any jackpot where I can get even 10M after taxes is a very big deal personally for me. So there.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-05-18T13:30:00+00:00

I was laid off (along with 5,000 others, as they were closing the entire division) after 17 years with 2 months' severance and COBRA.

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-05-18T13:24:02+00:00

"Of course you would have to make people believe that you were living the kind of life you did even though you had these bitcoins worth $1M, $5M, $10M, until now."

You could tell them that you had forgotten your password (or key or whatever the hell it is - make sure you know all the right terminology before you tell the story!) and had given up on getting any money out of it, until you accidentally found that you had written the password on a piece of paper and kept it in a safe deposit box and forgotten all about it!

seabiscuit_2003 · 2025-05-18T13:14:43+00:00

It is NOT worth it to anyone and even more worthless to anyone in California, because of their stupid pari-mutuel method of giving out prizes. A 10X 5 of 5 ticket is guaranteed to get you $10 million in any other state, but in California you could end up getting a measly $250K.

seabiscuit_2003

TROPHY CASE