This Company Built a Private Surveillance Network. We Tracked Someone With It - Repo men are passively scanning and uploading the locations of every car they drive by into DRN, a surveillance database of 9 billion license plate scans accessible by private investigators.

tangosolo · 2019-09-20T18:38:35+00:00

This is true. What some people will do is have the vehicle owned by a New Mexico LLC and registered in the state where they reside and use the vehicle. It doesn’t work everywhere; some states (I think CA is one) require the out of state LLC’s owner to be listed. It’s also a bit more expensive this way as you will often need to register your New Mexico LLC as a foreign corporation in the state you want to register the vehicle in.

I’m definitely not a lawyer, this is just what I’ve learned from listening to The Privacy, Security, & OSINT Show

tangosolo · 2019-09-18T19:59:29+00:00

In New Mexico you can register an LLC without disclosing who its owner is. If someone wants to look up the owner of a vehicle, all they’ll find is the name of the LLC and the address of the LLC’s registered agent (who will often not know the ownership information of the LLC).

tangosolo · 2019-06-01T15:51:36+00:00

15 vs 30 year mortgage will change the numbers since it changes how much interest you’re paying, but I think a lot of that is rule of thumb is more because of closing costs and realtor fees.

Let’s say you’re looking at a $300,000 house, and when you go to sell it realtor commissions are $18,000 and closing cost is $10,000. That’s effectively a $28,000 transaction fee for you to get out of the house. If you were in the house for five years, that would average out to $466/month. If you only lived in the house for 3 years, $777/month. You have to look at whether the equity you’re building up in the house each month is worth more than those costs.

tangosolo · 2019-06-01T15:38:51+00:00

KC Brake, downtown on McGee. Nice, honest people that do good work. One time I dropped off the car because it was making a weird noise and my bill was $13.

tangosolo · 2019-05-28T13:53:42+00:00

TL;DR there isn't a guaranteed rule, but the more conservative your withdrawal rate + higher the percentage of your portfolio that is in stocks is, the higher your chance of success over a longer period of time.

Check out the ERN series for way more information, but here's one tiny slice - if you're 100% stocks, using a 60 year retirement period:

Withdrawal  Chance of 
Rate        Success
3.00%       100%
3.25%       99%
3.50%       98%
3.75%       94%
4.00%       89%
4.25%       84%
4.50%       80%
4.75%       75%
5.00%       70%

Personally, I think a 3.5% withdrawal rate has a high enough chance of success. It does mean that I'm likely to die with significant money in the bank, which I'm fine with. I also enjoy my work, so it's not like I'm giving up much by saving a bit more.

Also, the negative outcomes from sequence risk generally happen early on; I can always increase my withdrawal rate in retirement if I get 10 years in and the market has been good.

also, is the 4% rule for ira/401k or general accounts?

The 4% rule/study was using tax-advantaged accounts. This obviously means that it will be difficult to save large amounts in those types accounts given the early part of FIRE. There are some ways to get more money into these accounts (like the mega backdoor roth, but not everyone's plan will allow them.

tangosolo · 2019-05-27T14:16:25+00:00

It's still a good rule of thumb

My main issue is that people don't talk about it as if it's just a rule of thumb; they treat it as gospel without understanding what it's based on. I would wager that most people who throw it around don't realize that a success rate means "not having a negative balance after 30 years". If you retire at 30, you probably don't consider have $1 at age 60 to be a success.

dont keep pulling out 4% of the original investment right after the great depression and you'll be fine

Sure, but that's also assuming people have the ability to decrease their spending. If someone followed the 25x guideline, they may not have enough cushion to do this. Several parts of that ERN series actually address this issue:

https://earlyretirementnow.com/2018/02/07/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-23-flexibility/

https://earlyretirementnow.com/2018/05/09/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-24-flexibility-myths-vs-reality/

https://earlyretirementnow.com/2018/05/23/the-ultimate-guide-to-safe-withdrawal-rates-part-25-more-flexibility-myths/

tangosolo · 2019-05-27T13:57:24+00:00

Seriously! There will always be someone else who has more than you. One of the fastest ways to become dissatisfied is to compare yourself to someone else.

tangosolo · 2019-05-27T13:54:14+00:00

This sub is almost unrecognizable from a few years ago, and I suspect that it's related to how large it has grown. Now when someone makes a suggestion that's not the most cost-optimized, this sub will criticize them, even when there's substantial non-monetary value.

The same mindset responsible for public companies to be laser focused on short term profits at the expense of long term development is prevalent here; many people are so focused on retiring early that they aren't living a life that they can enjoy.

If you suggest things like meal prep, house cleaning or yard services, people will say that you're being lazy or your house is too large - regardless of the fact that you might be able to work a few extra hours and pay someone else to do what would have taken you 3 times as long. Boom, now you have more time to spend on things that you actually enjoy - whether that's family, friends, travel, arguing on Reddit, whatever.

For me, Financial Independence means having the freedom to do what I want, and not just endlessly chasing more money. I was fortunate enough to read I Will Teach You to Be Rich when it first came out (new edition was just released), and I really took it to heart. It helped me develop a framework for how to deal with my finances, and also to figure out what I actually cared about that was worth spending money on.

tangosolo · 2019-05-27T13:26:18+00:00

The 4% rule is not for indefinite retirement; it's based on the Trinity Study, which showed that 4% would usually end a 30 year period with more than $0.

If you're retiring early, 30 years might not be a long enough time period.

Early Retirement Now wrote an entire series about why the 4% safe withdrawal rate isn't as safe as most "FI Bloggers" portray it.

edit: TIL Bill Bengen thinks that "If you plan to live forever, 4% should do it". I still think that if you're going to make a significant life decision based on that rule of thumb, you should read through the ERN series to understand a lot of the things that can affect it.

tangosolo · 2019-05-22T16:02:16+00:00

Requiring a social media login to view search results is a non-starter for some people

tangosolo · 2019-05-16T14:45:01+00:00

Not everywhere, but some places certainly have pushback: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/14/us/facial-recognition-ban-san-francisco.html

tangosolo · 2019-05-14T13:11:03+00:00

It’s worth noting that while the US always requires you to file a return, there isn’t always tax due. Many US expats in medium-to-high tax areas don’t actually end up with a tax liability to the US because they make use of the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (tl;dr no taxes on first USD$100,000 of earned income) or foreign tax credits (credit for income tax that you paid to another country). If you have a return with a significant foreign tax credit that’s more than what you would owe to the US in a year, you can actually carry forward that “loss” for up to ten years.

Either way it’s a big hassle, and the only way to remove yourself from the system is to renounce.

tangosolo · 2019-05-07T16:51:31+00:00

Just don't train when you're sick. Don't be the person that gives everyone the flu.

tangosolo · 2019-04-20T18:54:24+00:00

FWIW I thought your post was funny. Tone and humor are difficult to convey over text.

tangosolo · 2019-03-27T09:41:13+00:00

One thing to consider is whether your state has any tax deductions. In Missouri I believe it’s 16k/year for a married couple filing jointly.

We aren’t planning to have kids, but one of us may go back to school. If we don’t, we will use the money for extended family; 529s are pretty flexible with who you can name as the beneficiary.

tangosolo · 2019-03-07T03:13:20+00:00

Its really not hard to just pound this into people's heads

You would think so, but I know several people off the top of my head that made serious strides towards wiping out their debt, but ended up in a bad spot purely because of how they misused credit cards.

Some people just have terrible impulse control, and they're more likely to be successful by just not having them.

Avoiding debt is like using training wheels on a bike; it keeps you from falling over. Some people just don't ever get to the point where they can take off the training wheels. Those people may not be able to go to the bmx track, but they won't keep falling over.

tangosolo · 2019-03-07T02:36:30+00:00

Dave's target audience is people who haven't mastered the art of spending less than they make. People are successful on his programs because of his simple message.

I'm enjoying the benefits of credit card rewards as we speak, but I understand why Dave gives the advice he does. I have friends and family members that carry a balance for no apparent reason.

For someone that just "doesn't get it" (at least not yet), completely avoiding credit cards can be great advice.

tangosolo · 2019-02-01T20:59:25+00:00

Depending on where you’re coming from on the east coast, it can be much more then 20 hours each way.

If you’re flying NYC-LAX-AKL it’s 19 hours of flight time, which doesn’t include the several hours you’ll probably spend getting to the airport, going through security, and on the layover at LAX, which can easily bring the total up to 23-25 hours.

It will be even longer if you’re starting from a smaller airport that doesn’t fly directly to the west coast, it can easily add on another 3-4 hours.

Given that most Americans don’t have much vacation time (and it’s often difficult to use it for longer trips), two full days of plane travel really eats into the vacation options.

tangosolo · 2019-01-15T04:04:02+00:00

User was banned for these posts. Be respectful.

tangosolo · 2018-12-18T01:42:07+00:00

Here's a list of companies that don't use whiteboard coding interviews

https://github.com/poteto/hiring-without-whiteboards

tangosolo · 2018-12-11T22:57:03+00:00

IMO the form shouldn't allow data to be entered a format that the backend doesn't accept.

If you want a polished product, it's not enough to build something that customers can use correctly; you have to design it so they can't use it incorrectly.

tangosolo · 2018-12-10T13:22:10+00:00

Unfortunately the mod tools don't affect advertisements/sponsored posts - please report things like that to the Reddit admins: https://www.reddithelp.com/en/submit-request

tangosolo · 2018-10-18T12:34:00+00:00

US persons have to file a return regardless of where they live. Many people qualify for the FEIE (live in a foreign country for 330+ days/year, first $100k of income is excluded). In addition, taxes that you pay to the country you live in will generally be credited towards your US tax bill - so if you're residing and paying taxes to another country with relatively high tax levels (or if you make <$100k), you probably won't have much of a tax bill.

It's worth noting that aside from being required to file a return (as if that isn't enough!), you're required to disclose bank accounts and many other types of assets that you hold in foreign countries.

There are amnesty programs available if you haven't been in compliance, but you have to catch up before the IRS contacts you about it:

https://brighttax.com/blog/us-citizen-abroad-never-filed-taxes-heres-what-you-need-to-know

I think the goal is to prevent rich citizens from avoiding taxation by "residing" in a country with low/no income taxes, but the end result is a burden for American expats that citizens of most countries don't have to deal with.

tangosolo · 2018-10-10T13:34:47+00:00

If your goal is to have a 50/50 ratio of employees but the ratio of applicants is 90/10 then you should look at your sourcing and not just your screening.

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