Jay Rent

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/07/business/zohran-mamdani-ken-griffin-taxes Not sure how much NYC property tax rates have been discussed in this thread. I never followed before or knew it was based on rental rates and not market value. Interesting quotes, if you take the Mamdani politics (or any politics) out of the equation most of the quotes are from right leaning organizations.

VTI and VOO are very correlated so just go with the total market VTI. (Although VOO has outperformed VTI over the last 5 years as larger companies have outperformed). If the Mag7 have lower returns in the future due to their higher valuations, VTI will slightly outperform VOO. I am not a fan of RSP. All an equal weight index does is tilt toward smaller companies, value based companies and as UK mentions the weeds. It also cancels out the good with the bad. You can see that as WBD has become the largest weight with its runup, however by digging you can find another company that has fallen equally. Over 5 years VTV has returned 13.14% compared to RSP 10.79%. (compared to the S&P 500 at 15%) . The difference with VOE (11.16%) and VBR (10.94%) is less however just by how it is constructed it will not beat them. So just go with VTV, VOE or VBR. If you want to reduce Mag7 , just tilt toward mid cap (VO) or if you want to reduce downside exposure tilt toward value such as (VTV and VOE) VTV will give you exposure to BRK.

Calling Trump a fascist was a huge political miscalculation by Biden. The reason the real Antifa has been quiet in his second term is because the skinheads for the most part have also been quiet. Calling him a fascist allows him to respond by calling all progressives Antifa. Go after Trump for having an unqualified leader of DHS, hiring a bunch of non trained agents acting as thugs misrepresenting the constitution, not acting like real police, under the pretense that America is invaded by a social class of poor criminals and predators. Don't forget the Central Park 5 still have a defamation lawsuit (the irony) against Trump. Trump has been going after those not in his social class for years under false pretenses.

Cubs, hope you are enjoying your day. Many continue to dodge that 'entering' and 'supporting' are not the same. See https://today.yougov.com/politics/articles/53431-republican-opposition-military-aid-ukraine-rising-november-15-17-2025-economist-yougov-poll Americans overall are more likely to support Ukraine military aid than to oppose it 34% of U.S. adult citizens would increase military aid to Ukraine (including 54% of Democrats saying this), while 21% would maintain the same amount of aid, 11% would decrease aid, and 16% would stop it altogether - yougov has a good reputation as being non-partisan. I made by point that non-partisan and the majority of US citizens continue to support Ukraine. So I am moving on. Enjoy.

Cubs, with all due respect, a stalemate is very different from winning the war. A surrender is not a proposal. While Moscow has remained tight-lipped about how many of its soldiers have been killed or wounded, the recently concluded summer offensive “has come at an enormous cost” but “achieved no major objectives”, said The Economist. History tells us not to underestimate the willpower of people repelling a larger army when defending their homeland: See 1. Russia / Afghanistan 2. US/Vietnam 3. Russia/Finland Greg, I provided specific action items which the current administration changed on Jan 20th with respect to US support of Ukraine. You responded with JD Vance jibberish about inflation and everything else under the rainbow, but nothing about how the USA is providing better support for Ukraine than before. It's all blame others with this administration, at least some Republican's are doing their job and pushing back! GOP Rep. Don Bacon is speaking out against it, saying the plan amounts to Ukraine surrendering to Russia. Some of the Senate GOP’s top Russia hawks are up in arms over a peace plan President Donald Trump hopes will end Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. The plan — which would see Ukraine ceding Crimea, Donbas, Luhansk and parts of Kherson and Zaporizhia; place limits on Kyiv’s military and permanently block a pathway to NATO membership — has drawn the ire of Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who are urging the White House to refrain from actions they say would be detrimental to the region

Yes very serious, but thanks for a thoughtful Trump can do no wrong response. Russia had made no meaning operational breakthru since 2022 - pretty impressive by the Ukrainian people. Check out Kupiansk. Since January 20th: 1. Bombing attacks by Russia have significantly increased as the US stopped helping with defense 2. Trump has put a real estate developer in charge overriding anything from the current Secretary of State (let alone the prior Secretary of State). 3. Trump met with Putin in Alaska and achieved nothing beneficial for Ukraine. 4. Russia leaked the current peace proposal - knowing it would weaken Ukraine. 5. Anybody that is an investor on CoBF , understands the concept of economies of scale and a United DC, Brussels and NATO is better than a fractured alliance.

Why can't it become an ally, with Europe and the US, as that is better than the alternative. The fact Europe and the USA f'ed Ukraine in the past is irrelevant to the current. Go to Europe, you will see the grassroots effort to support Ukraine is there and Ukrainians (specifically the ones closer to Europe) are more aligned with Western values. Clearly they know how to fight! Yes, corruption has always been an issue. Again they were holding their own until Jan 20th.

I probably wont keep going after this on the political thread but I had a few beers. You guys have serious Charles Lindbergh blood in you. If France had thought about staying on their side of the pond 250 years ago we would all be speaking English and driving on the wrong side of the road. Read this Economist: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/11/22/donald-trumps-peace-plan-would-be-bad-for-ukraine-europe-and-america. Instead of Fox talking head propaganda. The Ad hominem, misdirection attacks on Obama and Europe do not address what Trump just did to Ukraine. Facts are Russia has not gained any meaningful land since 2022. Before January 20th, Ukraine was holding its own against Russia with a unified NATO message led by the USA (Although clearly Europe did not go far enough in what it should do). Only one thing changed since Jan 20th - so history will and should place the blame on that person. This is the date Ukraine's position weakened significantly. A US president for the first time in it's 250 year history ever just told a foreign ally to surrender! This is blatant support for Russia, which is vastly different from not our problem and we don't want to spend anymore money (also a bad argument). Arguments that we should remain on our side of the pond do not hold, as that is not what the US President is doing - He is clearly siding with and benefiting Russia.

Very sad day for US politics and terrible for the Ukrainian people. Private BoneSpurs meeting w/Putin in Alaska will go down as one of the top 10 worse things a US President has done in its 250 years. No US president should ever meet directly with a foreign adversary without the assurance of receiving something beneficial in return. Every Military General knows that. Propaganda news networks in Russia are laughing at the USA. Biden made alot of mistakes but one thing historians and independent scholars are going to give him credit for is leading a strong coalition with NATO and Europe in defense of Ukraine. I sure the Hannity/Carlson garbage propaganda machine will get Trump's brainwashed group thinkers in line - but its just awful. Hopefully some Republicans will push back and Finland's President will be able to sway him. Trump's moronic negotiating with China (and Canada and Greenland) is incompetence but Ukraine actually affects families who died for their county and he does not give a shit, just doing it so he can tell his followers he deserves the Nobel Peace Price. Pathetic!

Except the index funds which invest in Berkshire cannot do this.

What? You can get my attention but if you have nothing for me and my position is just as strong, I don't give a shit. What do you actually expect Canada to do to deescalate without harming themselves (honest question, please no right wing responses)

Charlie - Except as a business owner you want to sell as much product to your customers (yes Canada is a customer) as possible. He needs to give Canada a win-win solution that is negotiating 101. Currently he is not. Even if you give Trump credit for his business skills it is as a landlord not as a seller of a multinational product.

Trump knows that placing tariffs on Canada is a losing battle which is why he keeps backing down at the last moment. Unfortunately as he is weak he will eventually take it too far.

The DOGE firings are straight out if the GE/Boeing no real strategy playbook and will have some long-lasting negative consequences. Saluki- Nice post and i am glad its in the non pay section.

I've always been impressed with her. Seems to do things the right way while maintaining a strong company culture and brand. Very opposite pricing strategy from 5 Guys. They also have success with a lower out the door pricing tab for consumers without creating a smaller less filling meal as the big boys do (McDonalds, Burger King etc.)

A better term for this is 'Direct Indexing' . Some wealth managers like Josh Brown - CNBC switched their clients to direct investing closer to market bottoms in 2021, 2022. It's harder if you already have a significant amount of unrealized capital gains. It can be popular for those in high tax brackets. Fidelity direct indexing fees seem to be close to 35 basis points and your index portfolio returns might improve by 1% (ignoring any capital gains from liquidating your funds) Can't speak for Gotham and achieving 25% tax harvesting but it might be possible as a one off (switching after a significant decline in the overall market.)

The Kungsleden is a fantastic trek. I highly recommend starting in Kvikkjokk and taking a few day detour into Sarak National Park (no official trails but plenty of online gpx tracks now). The Abisko- Nikkaluokta section has great scenery but is mostly in the valley and crowded, when planning a trip there, try to get off the primary trail and explore some of the amazing side trails in the mountains. Highlights of the Abislko - Kebnekaise mountains include: STF Nallo hut - just off the Kungsleden Unna Raita - a small two person A frame shelter reachable from the Nallo Hut STF Tarafala - a few miles up the mountain from Kebnekaise And closer to Norway border: (Just an amazing remote place to see the Northern Lights in September) STF Unna Allakas hut - on Sweden/Norway border. STF Karsavagge

AZ, My recommendation is to place 2 years of expenses $100k to $200k in a mixture of high yield money market and 2 year or so CDs (ladder), the rest in short term and intermediate term investment grade index bond funds (or treasuries). You have not mentioned specific medical and care costs but I would assume they could cancel out any taxes owed if done correctly. A fixed annuity seems to late at her age and condition - just dip into the principal. An annuity at her age is just going to take the principal anyways. A (possibly) concern based on the family dynamics you hinted at is to make sure all legal stuff is airtight. Asset POA, Health Care POA, Will etc. With her condition this will require an elder care lawyer.

The returns are very long dated. We are talking a decade and depend on the exit strategy. 1. Mesa, Arizona has at least four (4) fiber overbuilders, some are open and some are not, the returns are going to be poor with more than one overbuilder. 2. A Telco copper to fiber overbuilder (Frontier and Brightspeed an Apollo PE company) who do not offer up their fiber to third parties Brightspeed plan is 3mm homes over 3.5 years. It's going to spend $3billion on this iniative 3. A single open fiber overbuild (competing against the telco old copper and the cable companies hybrid network) the margins are high but the investment return timeline is extreme (10-13 years). The 10-13 years is coming from Brookfield's projections. As an example Brookfield (Intrepid) is building 78,000ft of aerial and 29,000 ft of buried in Pueblo, Colorado. (about 20 miles) passing 41,000 homes for a total cost of $4.6mm (with $2.7mm received in federal grants) . T Mobile is the initial company but small ISPs might become customers later.

For those who are bitcoin bullish, how do you respond to the quantum computing threat argument ? While time disagreement exists for when the technology will be powerful enough, its coming. Some smart subject matter experts put the timeline for quantum computers to be powerful enough as soon as 20 years in the future. But even if you dismiss the hacking argument, smart mathematicians can create an algorithm different (better?) with quantum computers. Bitcoin at the end of the day is just complex crypto math. Gold survives as it cannot be faked (no fools gold), hacked or replaced (except maybe by Bitcoin). Not to mention that it can not be easily used for ransomware payments. I have not read all 121 pages - so forgive me if it has been discussed.

Saluki - yea very interesting Tilson and Stansberry are the worse of the worse! Tilson actually has the brains and ability to be decent if he wanted to and tries to come across as such, but he goes low to fund his lifestyle. Stansberry is just scum. From Tilson's writing recently: Porter is a big name in our space... some might argue the biggest. And right now, he's predicting some scary things ahead for the market: A huge global recession 10% unemployment Bank runs A 50% drop in the S&P 500 As my readers know, I don't share Porter's super-bearish outlook... but he makes some compelling points. And, interestingly, we end up in nearly the same place to protect and grow your money in spite of the possible headwinds: focused on the stocks of high-quality businesses. He presents a compelling solution, which you can learn.

Jason's concern is mostly with Washington state estate tax. Even if the federal sunsets to $10mm for a married couple you really want to keep it as simple as possible unless your assets greatly exceed the threshold. 1. You and your spouse can gift $17K each ($34K) to each and as many heirs as you have, each year. (although you might not want to do this until your kids are old enough and rational with money). 2. Its a tough decision to make, especially depending on current age and kids age, but you and your spouse can give away up to $25mm before the 2025 sunset. If you are still too young the exclusion amount will probably come down but be negotiated higher than the reversion 'sunset' amount. It should be $10mmn(couple) in a worse case environment. For Washington state, I have no experience, but you probably should talk with a qualified estate lawyer and your estate planning should still start with the above two and also look into a credit shelter trust (A/B or bypass trust). For Washington state , no estate tax is due when passing assets to your spouse however you do lose portability. The credit shelter trust doubles the estate tax exclusion to $4.3mm by providing the portability. You want to use federal gift rules to keep your assets close to $4.3mm (hopefully increased by Washington over time) and just use (hopefully cheap) term life insurance to pay the taxes above $4.3mm. With federal gift exclusion for a couple (assuming sunset) of $10mm and $4.3 mm (Washington state) you are at $14mm before needing to look at more complex and costly alternatives. If you are over $14mm (plus yearly $17K ($34K) gift to as many people as you choose) than each family is different but your heirs are probably set and you are getting to the point where you should focus more on the Gates/Buffett philosophy of expanding your charity giving. (Or just spend it for large family exotic vacations). Putting all your assets into a revocable living trust will be beneficial. (especially for the real estate and probate purposes). I have no experience with more complex irrevocable trust planning.