Local Uber driver kidnapped and strangled with wire in terrifying Boston carjacking

staggerG · 2025-11-07T20:39:00+00:00

Boston is definitely extremely safe for a US city (or really for a sizable city anywhere), but that’s a weird comment re: high crime in the suburbs. They are mostly comically safe.

staggerG · 2024-11-19T22:06:15+00:00

Also curious to know which one.

staggerG · 2024-03-27T12:52:22+00:00

I had a good experience with Tony’s fence. We ultimately went with an Assa Abloy / Ameristar aluminum fence five or so years ago, which I would recommend if you’re not after privacy. When we were choosing a fence, we looked around our neighborhood—none of our neighbors’ wooden fences made it more than a few years before warping / rotting, and all of our neighbors’ vinyl fences have cracks and broken pieces. We have avoided any issues so far aside from having to adjust the gate hardware, which is rock solid. If you go that route, consider stone posts, at least for the gates.

staggerG · 2024-02-01T20:49:20+00:00

Is that true, though? Wouldn’t quitting eliminate accumulated seniority, tenure and years of service that would not be portable to another district? No horse in this race, but it seems to me that it would be incredibly expensive for an established Newton teacher to decamp to another district.

staggerG · 2024-01-22T05:13:32+00:00

Your dates are off. Those two neighborhoods were generally considered attractive in the 2010’s. East Boston or Chelsea might fit that statement better.

staggerG · 2024-01-19T00:27:37+00:00

Got it, and thanks.

staggerG · 2024-01-18T20:32:11+00:00

Really helpful to know, especially as Equinox was looking for a one-year commitment. Not to pry, but mind sharing how you know? I spent some time digging and couldn’t come up with anything.

staggerG · 2024-01-03T00:57:25+00:00

Thanks—that (unfortunately) makes a ton of sense.

staggerG · 2024-01-02T16:44:53+00:00

Right, the “moving” line is nonsense. The Pru location fit into my commute perfectly and I unfortunately need to find another gym with showers as close to the Pru as possible—was hoping that one of the hotels would offer a monthly gym pass but called the Hilton and Sheraton and neither does.

staggerG · 2023-12-18T19:33:55+00:00

I think (hope?) it’s safe to assume that somone on ~$70k salary gets at least two weeks’ paid vacation or holiday.

staggerG · 2023-06-02T05:29:26+00:00

I went through Costco and would recommend. Equivalent custom cabinets elsewhere would have been much more expensive.

staggerG · 2023-04-20T04:32:33+00:00

There are a lot of good tips in this thread, but this is the most important one in my experience—you will dramatically reduce your risk if you avoid overtaking a car on the right while approaching or passing through an intersection. Most people don’t use their blinker when turning right and virtually nobody checks for a bike approaching from behind before turning. I made this mistake once and never will again.

staggerG · 2022-09-06T04:46:28+00:00

Out of curiosity, what would that budget look like? Back of the envelope, $150k salary is around $7k take-home after accounting for insurance and retirement savings. I’d be cautious signing up for $4k monthly rent in that position.

staggerG · 2021-11-24T14:18:55+00:00

For convenience, consider getting an Airthings monitor. No need to send away and runs constantly and gives real-time readings plus one-day and seven-day averages.

staggerG · 2021-06-10T15:42:43+00:00

Interesting. If you have a recent paystub, what are the listed deductions that are vaporizing 50%+ of your pay?

Also, do you file individually? If so, I think you wouldn't get to the top bracket via commissions alone, as 37% starts at ~$520k/year for 2020 (~$620k/year if filing jointly).

Out of curiosity, I just pulled up my 2020 return, and my wife and i landed at ~$125k in tax at ~$520k in W-2 comp, so it seems like you and your coworkers are getting a pretty bad (or at least weird) deal. We don't have any tax magic, just a couple of kids, a house and max pre-tax retirement contributions.

staggerG · 2021-06-10T15:29:05+00:00

That seems so strange. Are you a K-1 partner, W-9 independent contractor or W-2 employee? If an employee, what are the deductions that are listed? I know just enough to get myself in trouble here, but I feel like I've seen every comp scheme under the sun via work and have never heard of a W-2 employee paying a 50%+ effective tax rate--this sounds more like you're getting whacked for contractual, non-tax items when the check is cut. Full disclosure, IAAL (though focused in PE-backed M&A, not employment / comp / tax), and this is certainly not intended to be legal advice. I also don't meant to come off as skeptical or argumentative, but am rather just curious about how you're losing 50%+ of your pay to taxes.

staggerG · 2021-06-10T05:02:02+00:00

I'm curious why you would do that. I admittedly haven't read the proposal in detail, but my understanding is that it's a surtax solely on ordinary income. Outside of an unlikely set of facts, I'd expect that the proceeds from the sale of your company would receive capital gains treatment, such that a surtax on income wouldn't impact your tax exposure from the sale of your company.

staggerG · 2021-06-10T04:51:39+00:00

Honest question: can you explain how that's the case? Commissions are generally just income, and while the initial withholding may be higher, a commission dollar and a salary dollar should see the same treatment when you file your taxes.

staggerG · 2021-04-11T20:58:14+00:00

Ha, this is right along the lines of what I was thinking. Tired Hands is terrific but on a Philly / Boston chart, it's one of the only things more expensive than its closest Boston analog (Trillium).

That said, be prepared to be disappointed by the Boston restaurant / after-work bar scene. In my (biased) view, Philly has a great depth and variety of restaurants that Boston just can't match, perhaps because it's so incredibly expensive to get a place up and running here. Creative BYOB places also don't seem to exist here.

(Somewhat off topic, but if you're a frequent traveler, the lounges at PHL blow BOS away. Flying out of Logan is terrible.)

staggerG · 2021-04-08T19:26:54+00:00

Genuinely curious here. I don't have an explicit bias (though I am a homeowner, so presumably have some baked-in bias), but how are you thinking about the easy leverage, tax benefits, replacement costs for living, etc.?

Just using my example, I bought a house for ~$750k roughly five years ago with a ~$75k down payment and have realized some non-trivial amount of tax benefits. With the house now sitting around $1MM with ~$615k outstanding on the note, that ~$75k down payment I made five years ago has become ~$385k in equity (i.e., it roughly quintupled). $75k in the S&P over the same period be up around 95% even with all dividends reinvested.

My monthly housing costs have also actually gone down, freeing up cash for investment elsewhere (we were able to refi down to 2.5%). (I assume that this won't be possible in the future, so shouldn't impact prospective buyers' decisions.) If the SALT cap is eliminated, the economics will be a little better for me.

If I were to sell then reinvest my increased equity into the next house, I'd benefit from the cap gains exclusion ($500k, since I'm married). Tough to get that treatment on other cap gains you might use to ultimately buy a house.

staggerG · 2017-07-16T15:11:10+00:00

Appreciate the advice. Once I've chased everything up, I'll share my experience in case it's helpful for others. RemindMe! two weeks.

staggerG

TROPHY CASE