sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
I'm cool with my SO not parting after death, provided we can still get the romance on.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
As a strict monogamist, the only paranormal sex I'm interested in is if my SO turns.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
We have (had?) separate registrations for bars vs restaurants, and there are (were?) limits on how much revenue from each source a bar vs restaurant could have (bars must primarily derive income from alcohol, restaurants from food). I haven't seen the little signs they used to have to place out front that signified whether the establishment was a bar or a restaurant, so I'm not sure if they changed the rules generally or just that one.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
You can’t stabilize any finances if you’re taking out payday loans in order to pay rent every month
Oh, I 100% agree. But in many cases, taking payday loans is a symptom of other serious problems in someone's spending patterns and not necessarily an income problem. Maybe the car payment is too high, or perhaps they're paying too much for food. Whatever it is, that needs to get fixed to end the need for emergency cash.
If you're in the lower middle class or higher, there's no excuse for it IMO. If you're in the lower class, you'll need to get creative (government assistance, co-living, etc).
you can just sell the supercar or downsize your house or whatever
You say that, but in many cases, they still end up net worth negative. The problem here isn't with income, but spending, and you're not going to sell your way out of a spending problem.
I think income divided by local cost-of-living could be, maybe.
Certainly. Economic classes are very much location-dependent. If you live in NYC or SF, you'd need to adjust the numbers a bit, likewise if you live in rural Mississippi or something. And there are calculators available online to help with that.
most people who are struggling financially are not in those situations
Pretty much everyone will say that though, because people are pretty bad at noticing the excesses in their own spending. If you're not standing out as being "weird" for spending so little, then you're probably "keeping up with the Joneses," because the average American is pretty irresponsible.
This is a pretty broad brush stroke to be sure, and I'm sure there are plenty who are legitimately struggling despite a conscious effort to cut costs. I'm just saying that many, if not most, people who aren't "financially stable" could make room in their budget to get financially stable, but instead end up throwing a ton of money down the drain due to interest.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 25%
Perhaps. But this article has nothing to do with left/right ideology. So while they definitely seem to be socialist, I'm not convinced their frequent posting is politically motivated, I think they just have a curated feed, and that includes socialist stuff.
I consider myself pretty centrist and despise both the political left and right. I consider myself Libertarian, and this election has left me really scratching my head because pretty much everything both candidates are pushing for the wrong direction IMO (I don't like tariffs, value balancing the budget, price controls suck, etc).
So I strongly disagree w/ OP's political ideology, but I still don't really have an issue with the posts they make. If I think it's leftist noise, I usually just move on to the next one, but if it's a high quality article, I'll upvote.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
my salary hasn’t kept up with inflation
Yes, that certainly is a problem. Salary increases tend to lag inflation a bit, so you'd either need to switch jobs or wait to get caught up.
That said, wage growth has exceeded inflation for the last year and a half or so, so hopefully you'll get a yearly salary bump to help out. Our salary bump was higher than usual last year (about 5%), but still below inflation (8-9%), and I hope our salary bump this year will fix that (4% would be enough to catch back up).
But the fact that you've been able to stay financially stable despite high inflation means you're probably closer to "The Millionaire Next Door" than the average Joe drowning in credit card debt. If you can stay out of debt and put money away for retirement every month, you'll be doing fine in your 60s when you're looking at retirement.
you can budget yourself from the top of one financial class into the bottom of another one
Sure, if you follow the average advice (save 10%), then yeah, one bump-up is essentially expected. But if you're more aggressive, jumping up more than one level should be feasible.
This video talks about economic classes, and the portion I linked shows how you can go from $65k/year salary (middle middle class) to lower upper class by age 50 by just investing 10% of your income. So this is essentially middle middle-class to lower-upper class. If you do 40 years instead of stopping at 50, you'd have $3M by retirement age. If we account for 2% inflation, you'd have about $1.7M in today's dollars, which is almost to upper upper class. If you bump to 15% of your income, you end up with $2.6M after taking inflation into account, which is in that upper upper class range. So with just a median household salary, you can have an upper upper class retirement.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
Perhaps, idk. It's really hard to tell someone's motivations just by looking at posting frequency.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
Ideas:
- donations - these need to actually go toward Firefox development, they don't, so I don't donate
- paid services (e.g. their white-labeled VPN, they could also white-label Tuta or Proton services)
- and add-on that pays sites to not see ads (my preference)
- funding of privacy-oriented startups - they have something like this, so do more of it
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
Ideas:
- directly ask for donations, and actually use those donations to fund browser development
- build an add-on to pay sites instead of seeing ads - Mozilla could take a cut here
- push harder on existing, optional add-ons that generate revenue, like their VPN
But the article here reads like, "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas. Have ads..."
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
I would prefer Mozilla to ask. Some options:
- on first install, pick your poison - donate, accept ads, or accept negative karma
- pay to remove ads on a page - you'd pay into a bucket, and payments to remove ads would subtract from that
- more optional, revenue-generating services (e.g. push their VPN harder)
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
Eh, I care about a third: browser engine diversity. If they drop Gecko, I'm out, there's literally nothing left to keep me here.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
Eh, they've been speedrunning this for years, this is just the most efficient way to get to the end goal of complete ruin.
I have a few alternative ideas, but I honestly don't think they're interested in hearing them.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
And wealthy.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 62%
Cool, they banned my account some years ago and nothing of value was lost. And I don't think I even did anything to violate their rules, I only used it to pay rent for a few years and a handful of eBay purchases. My best guess is that someone "hacked" my account (my PW was pretty bad and in multiple breaches), but I tried logging in after years of not using it and couldn't do anything with it.
But yeah, nothing of value was lost. I haven't needed PayPal for years and don't need it now. Just say no and pay directly on whatever site you're buying at. I've bought tons of stuff from eBay and other online sites for years and it has never been an issue.
So screw 'em, just don't use their service.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
Fair. Here are some that I find to be pretty consistently competitive:
- Vultr
- DigitalOcean
- Hetzner
I've used each and liked each. They're rarely the absolute cheapest, but they are usually competitive at all tiers with no pretty much no shenanigans. I'm currently with Hetzner, which has been good for the few months I've been with them, but I've spent multiple years with the other two.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
No, we avoid our local Kroger store (different name here), but when we go, I use my parents' number since they go there a lot and frequently use the fuel rewards. Our local grocery is supplied by Associated Food stores, which has the "Food Club" and related store brands.
The main options in my area (Utah) are:
- Kroger sub-brand Smith's - not very convenient in my area, but the stores are large and have everything
- Associated Food brands - smaller, more plentiful stores
- Walmart/Sam's - I avoid like the plague, but they're just as plentiful as AF brands
- Target - crap quality and high prices, not an option at all
- Costco - good selection and great quality for the price
- random specialty shops - higher price, but niche selection
Most of our spending goes to Costco, most of the rest goes to specialty shops, and we fill in the gaps with the local grocery chain. We spend something like $100/month at the grocery store, so it's not worth interacting with their loyalty program.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
Got pulled aside by my boss for being a bit lazy, which is totally fair (I've been coasting a bit). But by some miracle, he gave me a positive review for the year. I think what that means is that he was considering me for promotion, but didn't feel I was ready.
I'm at the point in my career where promotions are pretty rare (like every 5-8 years instead of 2-5 years), so I'm going to push this year to lock in that promotion and then probably dial it back down a bit. Doing the math, a promotion doesn't meaningfully change my FI date (at most a year), but having that higher title might give me more leverage when I either change jobs or ask to reduce my hours, since I'd be in a more advisory role than a "doing things" role. I still want to work when FI, so I'm hopeful this will be a good move, so I can just drop most of the "doing things" bits and keep the advisory bits (I'll shift the "doing things" to hobbies and whatnot).
Anyway, this year could end up being pivotal for me. I should be getting an extra week of vacation as well due to seniority as well, so we're also thinking of a big international family trip. I usually don't use all my vacation as-is, so I'll probably take some more random vacations and whatnot just to get a taste of FI (e.g. go mountain biking when everyone else is working).
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
And since I have young kids, I don't play with my homies much anymore. So single player and couch coop (with kids) it is.
sugar_in_your_tea Now • 100%
Still finishing Yakuza 3, and looking for something spooky to play.
I'll probably go back to Alan Wake and the Metro series, but if anyone has some great indie suggestions that work well on Steam Deck, I might pick some up.
I found [the graph at 10:55](https://youtu.be/QvZQonPfwGs?t=655) to be especially interesting because it shows how someone with around the median income ($65k) can make it to the lower upper class by retirement through some discipline (10% saved per year). As a quick TL;DW, here are the median incomes, net worth, and percent of population for each class: - lower - $34k income, $3.4k net worth (many are negative) - 25% - middle - lower - $44k income, $71k net worth - 20% - middle - $81k income, $159k net worth - 20% - upper - $117k income, $307k net worth - 20% - upper - lower - $189k income, $747k net worth - 10% - upper - $378k income, $2.5M net worth - 5% Some questions to spark discussion: - Do you agree with his breakdown of the economic classes? Why or why not? - What strategies do you think someone in each category should take to improve their situation? - If you don't mind sharing, what class do _you_ think you're in, and does the breakdown match your experience?
I watched this video a couple weeks ago, and while it has nothing to do with FI, I thought it was quite interesting how he divides the economic classes. TL;DW: - lower class ($34k income, $3400 net worth) - ~25% of population - truly struggle with emergencies and flirt w/ the federal poverty line; net worth is pretty much nothing (often negative!) due to student debt - middle class - three categories (lower, middle, upper) - lower ($44k income, $71k net worth) - ~20% population - identify more with middle-middle class and tend to get into more debt than necessary by trying to keep up with the Joneses, but _could_ be financially stable w/ some discipline - middle ($81k income, $159k net worth) - ~20% - financially stable, most of assets are in home - upper ($117k income, $307k net worth) - ~20% - passive income and compound interest supplement income; some live paycheck-to-paycheck due to lifestyle inflation (i.e. keep up w/ next group), but some can do really well with investments - upper class - two categories (lower and upper) - lower ($189k income, $747k net worth) - ~10% - specialized professions; most people can get into the lower upper class with discipline (10% savings rate on $65k salary => $787k investments by age 50); little pressure from everyday expenses - upper ($378k income, $2.5M net worth) - ~5% - some college grads working as employees, but a _lot_ of these are business owners At each level, I see two types of people: - savers - have enough cash to weather emergencies, tend to have upward mobility - everyone else - tend to stay in that economic class, and may regress in retirement; routinely keep up with the Joneses and stay in debt I personally have been in the middle to upper middle class for most of my career (started in lower middle class, but that quickly changed), and I'm shooting for lower-upper class to upper-upper class in early retirement. I didn't get any inheritance and don't expect any, and I haven't been particularly lucky with my investments (for every major win, I can show an equal major mistake), I've just been very frugal. Some details: - car(s) - single car for most of my married life; currently have two at 16 and 17 years old; I do most of my own maintenance - house - bought in mid-late 20s and haven't moved - savings rate - was 45%, but it's now 35-40% - current income - upper-middle class range, _might_ get to lower-upper class if I stick with my career; about half my career was middle-middle class - FI target - something like $50-60k spending/year, or $1.5-2M; I plan to be FI around mid-40s, and I intend to keep earning income after FI, but the nature of my work will change Anyway, I really enjoyed this video, and I think it's interesting to compare myself to the various breakdowns, as well as forward to people who argue that the main thing keeping them down is income (despite being middle-middle class or above). What do you think? Do you agree with the breakdown? What do you think the "minimum" income range is for someone who'd like to pursue FI?
I've been reading Yahoo Finance a bit recently due to all of the shifts in the market, and they have a PF section where they cycle through a variety of PF topics. One of them linked to a retirement calculator, which I had a _lot_ of trouble with as someone looking to retire _way_ earlier than typical, so I decided to go look at a few more and compare them. Warning: these are pretty US-centric. # [Smart Asset retirement calculator](https://smartasset.com/retirement/retirement-calculator) - maxes out at 40% savings rate - minimum retirement age is based on birth year (i.e. can't retire before today) - default annual rate of return is 4%? This is worded oddly, because it's called "savings" and is right under "cash savings and investments" - no option for HSA, but you can lump it in with IRA - seems to estimate Social Security income, which is cool - has on option to add a spouse, which was cool This was was pretty awful, but with some fiddling, I got it to spit out some halfway decent numbers. It seems to be a simple flat return tool, so no backtesting or randomness at all, but it _does_ try to account for taxes and whatnot. That said, it got my tax rate _completely_ wrong for some reason. I guess this is acceptable for someone to get a rough idea of what retirement looks like, but it was also really fiddly and buggy (i.e. Social Security age kept resetting to 66 for whatever reason). # My 401k provider (Empower) - minimum retirement age is 50?! - automatically pulled in elective deferrals and employer match, but it was way off (surprising because it's literally the custodian for my 401k...) - can link accounts, but can't add any accounts w/o linking (weird, because my old 401k provider that they bought allowed me to) - assumes 60/30/10 stock/bond/cash split, with no way to adjust it (I'm going 100% stocks) - links with a budgeting app they have internally? Why would I use my 401k as a budgeting app?? - option to simulate what automatically increasing retirement contributions does (not useful for me, but could help others) - option to add kids and estimate college expenses, which was cool This one was absolutely terrible. Not only was it a pain to figure out how to input my numbers, it also didn't really give useful output. Even if I was a typical retiree, I'd _still_ find it largely useless, unless my 401k was literally my _only_ retirement account (which I admit is probably pretty common). # Fidelity brokerage - retirement age must be greater than current age (can't retire _immediately_ - lots of estimates for retirement expenses (i.e. no stupid % of income metric) - can set asset allocation for retirement accounts (domestic, international, bonds, etc) - can link accounts, or just enter their values - can add Social Security, and it'll estimate for you if you want - seems to do some kind of back-testing because portfolio growth isn't a smooth line All in all, I found Fidelity to be pretty good! It's easy to add all of the accounts and provide as much detail as I'd like, and I feel like the result is pretty realistic. # [FiCalc](https://ficalc.app/) Primarily for backtesting withdrawal strategies, and it provides a bunch of tools, such as: - withdrawal strategy - constant dollar, percent of assets, etc - constant withdrawals (e.g. putting a kid through school, pay off house, etc) - extra income - i.e. barista FI or whatever - adjust range of historical data It won't tell you when you can expect to retire, but it'll tell you your retirement plan's chance of success, which is way more important IMO. # [Fire Calc](https://firecalc.com/) Primarily backtesting, but there are some knobs you can mess with as well if you click through the tabs: - pensions/additional income - future retirement date (plus how much you'll contribute until then) - withdrawal strategies - portfolio makeup - additional portfolio additions (house sale, inheritance) and subtractions (one-time expenses at a certain point in retirement) This is the first one I used, so it holds a special place in my heart. # What _I_ personally use I like mucking about with the above, but at the end of the day, I mostly just use my spreadsheet to estimate things. Some specific calculations I find a lot of value in: - FI Date - `EDATE(TODAY(), NPER(...))` - progress toward FI - `1-(NPER(with current assets)/NPER(assuming starting from zero))` - Social Security calculator - [this one exists](https://ssa.tools/), but it assumes _zero_ inflation going forward; so I wrote my own in my spreadsheet that uses average inflation from my working career going forward, and actual inflation numbers going backward; not used in any calculators, but it's nice as a backup plan - withdrawal simulator - how much I'd need to withdraw from tax-deferred accounts before RMDs, by SS max age, and SS min age (helps w/ tax planning) But at the end of the day, the first is the only one that matters. I update my total spending about once/year, my investment accounts when I remember, and my savings rate comes from my budget. I periodically check my FI number against back-tested portfolios, but I've settled on a SWR of 3.5% and assume a 7% real market return. # Conclusion These aren't the only retirement calculators I've played with, but the easier ones to access (i.e. search results or though 401k) tend to be pretty awful, while the good ones are a bit more hidden away. I think with a bit of searching, you can find some decent tools without having to DIY. Then again, I _prefer_ to DIY. Do you have any retirement calculators _you_ like? Do you DIY?
Here's what I currently have: - Ryzen 1700 w/ 16GB RAM - GTX 750 ti - 1x SATA SSD - 120GB, currently use <50GB - 2x 8TB SATA HDD - runs openSUSE Leap, considering switch to microOS And main services I run (total disk usage for OS+services - data is : - NextCloud - possibly switch to ownCloud infinite scale - Jellyfin - transcoding is nice to have, but not required - samba - various small services (Unifi Controller, vaultwarden, etc) And services I plan to run: - CI/CD for Rust projects - infrequent builds - HomeAssistant - maybe speech to text? I'm looking to build an Alexa replacement - Minecraft server - small scale, only like 2-3 players, very few mods HW wishlist: - 16GB RAM - 8GB may be a little low longer term - 4x SATA - may add 2 more HDDs - m.2 - replace my SATA SSD; ideally 2x for RAID, but I can do backups; performance isn't the concern here (1x sata + PCIe would work) - dual NIC - not required, but would simplify router config for private network; could use USB to Eth dongle, this is just for security cameras and whatnot - very small - mini-ITX at the largest; I want to shove this under my bed - very quiet - very low power - my Ryzen 1700 is overkill, this is mostly for the "quiet" req, but also paying less is nice I've heard good things about N100 devices, but I haven't seen anything w/ 4x SATA or an accessible PCIe for a SATA adapter. The closest I've seen is a ZimaBlade, but I'm worried about: - performance, especially as a CI server - power supply - why couldn't they just do regular USB-C? - access to extra USB ports - its hidden in the case I don't need x86 for anything, ARM would be fine, but I'm having trouble finding anything with >8GB RAM and SATA/PCIe options are a bit... limited. Anyway, thoughts?
finance.yahoo.com
Looks like inflation is around 2.6% and holding steady/falling slowly. This is good news for the stock market and could impact elections in November since we'll likely see a rally if rates do get cut in Sept.
m.youtube.com
This interview mostly goes over social policy, so I hope there's a follow-up with fiscal policy as well. [Here's an AI-generated transcript](https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=usmh1DSzwdc), which has some mistakes but hopefully is helpful. I tried copying it here, but it was too long. Some interesting tidbits I liked: - Liz challenged Chase on gender affirming care - his response was "no to surgery before 18, yes to medication if parents and doctors agree" - open borders - wants an "Ellis Island"-style system where you register and then get to work, while still maintaining a strong police presence to keep out criminals - courting those on the right of the LP - wants to work together on common causes, but will disagree on social issues - vaccine mandates - no mandates from the government, but private businesses absolutely can; he thinks businesses requiring masks/vaccines is stupid because it limits customers The whole discussion was pretty interesting, and I think it's interesting that Liz Wolfe came out as more conservative than Zach (apparently, Zach rarely discusses personal opinions). So far I'm pretty happy with Chase as the candidate because: - he's pretty well-spoken - reminds me a bit of Gary Johnson with less "aloof"-ness - he appears confident and seems to do a good job justifying his positions on core libertarian principles - very different from both Trump and Biden, so he should contrast well - going after young voters - he's young, and he's highlighting issues that young people seem to care about, so I'm hopeful that'll resonate with young voters I certainly disagree with him on some issues, but I think he'll be a good voice for the party. I would like to see more discussion on economic policy though. Anyway, what are your thoughts? Are you excited for a Chase Oliver campaign, or do you think the Libertarian Party should have made a different choice?
This is exciting for me because: - I model ny taxes in my spreadsheet anyway, so I'm likely to notice a mistake - I usually use FreeTaxUSA to file for free, and this means there's one less party to share my personal information with - my state's taxes are pretty simple, so I don't need state-specific tax software I hope this helps simplify things for some people and save a bit of money as well. I'm going to try it out next year. Do any of you estimate your taxes? Are you interested in trying out this service?
news.opensuse.org
Looks like most of the improvements have nothing to do with GNOME, so they should also probably impact Kalpa (the KDE MicroOS distro). I'm particularly interested in these developments because I'm going to upgrade the CPU on my NAS (old Phenom II -> Ryzen 1700), and I'm considering reinstalling w/ MicroOS. It's currently running on an old SATA SSD, but NVMe drives are getting so cheap that it's probably worth an upgrade.
reason.com
> Oliver's victory on Sunday night was a blow to the Mises Caucus, the right-leaning faction that took control of the Libertarian Party at the 2022 convention and that had orchestrated Trump's appearance at the convention. That faction's preferred candidate was Rectenwald. I'm not a fan of the Mises Caucus, so I think this is hilarious. > There was widespread media attention in recent weeks fixated on whether the Libertarian Party would nominate a prominent non-Libertarian like Kennedy or even Trump. > > Neither got anywhere close to winning. Kennedy was eliminated after the first round of balloting, while Trump did not even qualify for the first round and received just six write-in votes. Good on you LP. Now, I know next to nothing about Chase Oliver, but being gay and young will certainly set him apart from the old men he's competing against. I hope he'll get a good amount of media attention to spread the libertarian message. Anyway, what are your thoughts? Did the convention make the right call? Would one of the other candidates have been better? Would you prefer no candidate?
www.madfientist.com
I haven't finished listening to this, and unfortunately there isn't a transcript. According to the comments, the transcript exists on Spotify (I don't have a subscription, sorry), so that can be an option. Anyway, I'm well on my way to my number, so I've been thinking about maximizing my time while I wait for the market to do its thing. I've been listening to a lot of The Money Guy show recently, which has a lot of overlap with the FI mentality, and the recording theme is to optimize for enjoyment. I think that's something I've been forgetting recently, so I'm glad I found this podcast to help keep me grounded. Anyway, thoughts? How are you spending you time now? How to you expect that to change when you're FI? Are there changes you'd like to make to optimize things today?
news.opensuse.org
[From the website](https://docs.openvino.ai/2024/home.html): > OpenVINO is an open-source toolkit for optimizing and deploying deep learning models from cloud to edge. It accelerates deep learning inference across various use cases, such as generative AI, video, audio, and language with models from popular frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow, ONNX, and more. Convert and optimize models, and deploy across a mix of Intel® hardware and environments, on-premises and on-device, in the browser or in the cloud.
Here are just the number for all of you degenerates who just want some milestones for your spreadsheets. Average total retirement savings by age: - <35 - $49,130 - 35-44 - $141,520 - 45-54 - $313,220 - 55-64 - $537,560 - 65-74 - $609,230 - >=75 - $462,410 Average 401k balance by age: - <25 - $5,236 - 25-34 - $30,017 - 35-44 - $76,354 - 45-54 - $142,069 - 55-64 - $207,874 - 65 and older - $232,710 And retirement savings targets from various advisors: Fidelity: - 1x by 30 - 3x by 40 - 6x by 50 - 8x by 60 - 10x by 67 Rowley: - 1x by 35 - 5x by 50 - 7x by 70 Anyway, do you like metrics like these?
news.opensuse.org
Important dates: - expected summit date is Nov. 2 and 3 soon after Open Source Summit Japan - call for speakers is going to end around the end of July There will be another announcement in a couple weeks.
> For crying out loud, Jonah! Three days late, covered with slime, and smelling like fish! … And what story have I got to swallow this time?
> You know what I’m sayin’? … Me, for example. I couldn’t work in some stuffy little office. … The outdoors just calls to me.
> Look! Look, gentlemen! Purple mountains! Spacious skies! Fruited plains! … Is someone writing this down?
> Sure, I’m a creature—and I can accept that … but lately it seems I’ve been turning into a miserable creature.
sugar_in_your_tea
sh.itjust.worksMama told me not to come.
She said, that ain't the way to have fun.