Gregmal

One of the most useful skills Ive been able to develop over the years is simply being able to identify, rather quickly, people whom have a special skillset in specific arenas, and then rather quickly being able to assess if what they're pitching makes sense. Its allowed me to invest in areas I otherwise wouldnt be comfortable with, or areas that woulda taken me wayyyy tooo looooong to do proper diligence on.

Oh this 100%. But I got there the opposite way. Was raised to "never talk about money", especially exact financial figures. Parents were consumed with money though. Everything was "a business decision"...yes, even things like whether they'd co-sign for my siblings student housing because of "liability" or things like itemizing dinner bills to ensure they only pay for "their" items, even down to the tip being "only what they thought was appropriate" when eating with others. It is/was a true sickness. So when I got into the work force, and began cold calling for a senior broker, it was pure amusement when it was demanded that to ensure we weren't wasting our time, that we qualify random leads by asking them(total strangers) how much money they make annually, what they're liquid for, and where the net worth lands.....oh boy! But the openness and dialogue was refreshing and stimulating for me. It became apparent early on that investing was really the only viable path to freedom. When I started it was just after GFC, back when people thought cash was a cool and edgy portfolio position. But when I ran my numbers, I wasnt going to want to be a desk jockey til 60; I wasnt going to make $150k a year for all those years(viewing it from 2010s lens at least, this certainly wasnt my baseline), and even if I did, there was no way I'd be saving 30% of my after tax paycheck....yet even if all of those things were true, just flopping those paychecks for all that time into a savings account, it was only gonna get me to about $1,000,000...which just didnt seem like it was worth slaving away til my 60s for. So investing was the only option. Doing it for a living forced me to become a student of the game and it was a game made for folks with the four letter youth diagnoses. Things honestly couldn't have unfolded better in my wildest of dreams, but I dont ever find it necessary to be defined by something like money. When people become defined by things, they become boring. Being defined by money to me is like the lowest form of personality. So like folks above, I really dont think I ever really discuss finances with people in the sense of money. I'm more or less the same as I was when I was 20, at least to the folks whom knew me when I was 20. But thats not the same thing as being open or even the instigator in terms of encouraging people to learn how to invest. If you enjoy doing something, being generous with your knowledge and skillset isnt a burden it's a way of giving back. Seeing a friend of mine go from special-ed classes and being made fun of for being slow in high school, to being financially literate 20 years later is awesome. Same with my little brother who's figured out how to parlay the necessary student loan costs into zero interest tranches of credit card debt while piling away his meager PHD student paychecks into stocks. Or my 9 year old son starting to understand things like rarity and productivity. Its incredible and more rewarding than a momentary boast of "wow look at how much I have"....

I’ve held some of those talks lol! Even bigger deficiency; it’s kind of shocking actually, is the complete lack of butchers in NWFL. Went to Publix and asked, nope….no butcher on site. Just “what comes off the truck”…Went to a bunch of local delis…no butcher. Some looked at me like I was crazy even asking. Gave in and finally went to the tourist trap at Greenway next to Lodge30A, literally called “Salty Butcher” which had a decent variety of cuts and whatnot, but when I asked for something simple like pork scallopini was told “we only have what comes frozen and vacuum sealed”….Finally found a place with an in house butcher…Carousel on West End PCB, but it’s like 2/10 quality compared to what us Yankees are used to in the NYC burbs. Here I thought, my whole life, that every town has 2-3 local butcher shops, because who doesn’t demand fresh cut meats? Now I live in paradise and have it all; except highly allocated booze and a butcher shop. But I think that might be part of the schtick….because every super nice restaurant has whatever cut of whatever animal you want, and no shortage of $50-150 a pour spirits. Go figure.

Core four did their thing this year. Trading occasionally was fun and quite profitable. Only change of real significance was running like hell from FRPH and dumping it all at $30 and reallocating to more MGM and Fairfax which proved quite timely in both directions. Not looking to do a whole lot otherwise. Liking how things look.

Haha yea excited about the KC 21 as it’s a new limited release. Heard excellent things from people who’ve tried it so figured its worth tossing in. Had to bundle up cuz the one downside of living in Florida is that the booze selection is total garbage. It’s basically Publix and big chain store crap and the ABC and Total Wine stuff where they do dumb lotteries based on customer spend. My guy in NJ always gets decent allocation of the big boy December releases so the stars aligned fairly well which will hopefully hold me over til summer. It did come at a cost. About four dozen Benjamin Franklin’s. But end of the day this stuff ain’t for mere mortals and the likelihood of even seeing one of these bottles anywhere near where we are living is nil unless you see it at a bar to the tune of a single Mr. Franklin for a 1.5 oz pour. So the struggle is real!

Holiday Care Package waiting for me in NJ!

Yea they’re losers. If you’re high level you do well regardless of what idiots in office(at least in terms of POTUS). Leave the “concern” for “those kind”, (back in the 90s we had a two word phase, championed by Eminem, for them), to take it to twitter or Reddit for adoration…

Imagine sitting next to that guy at Christmas dinner? Like looking down at your plate, then looking up, then trying to make conversation but not knowing what to say because he’s clearly mentally off and most likely just defined by his political angst; then just kinda shrug and go “hey, buddy, everything’s gonna be alright”….

Lmfao. That’s so cute they think that. Must really be in a state of distress!

I don’t have the first clue how the FBI works, but what does this say about society!?! This Reddit posting incel sees something bizarre….hes nearly certain (according to his posting) that it’s related. And rather than take this to the authorities, he’s posting on some loser message board?

MGM

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/us/politics/bill-gender-transition-treatments-minors.html Now of course, the NYT with its agenda is going to try to frame this sympathetically to the liberals…but the content speaks for itself.

And that’s fair. But it needs to at least be acknowledged that Trumps prominence is largely the response and backlash to how over the top the perverts and creeps have gotten with their agenda, especially when they were in power. This idea that the government is entitled to your money, that they know better than you do as a parent, and that the expansion of said government must always be occurring, is abominable to many. To the same degree and conviction that you validly hold your opinion.

Under 18, 16 in some instances

Well yes, you are right, except for as Mike mentions, once the local creeps start undermining your rights as a parent. But bigger picture, 211/214 out of these perverts voted to block this...you have to ask, how in the fuck does the 99% representation, translate to something policy wise a normal person can get behind? Or further, when you look at how voting goes, how theres unanimous support, across the board, for ALWAYS raising taxes on the best citizens? Is there, like can you go find me one...anywhere, a Dem besides John Fetterman or Joe Manchin(two guys I like but are quickly being thrown out of their own party by radicals) who staunchly support NOT raising taxes and oppose the mutilization of children? Cuz otherwise voting gets pretty simple and easy from a policy standpoint...as @73 Reds has mentioned many times.

I mean do we need to look any further as to "why Trump" than the current UNANIMOUS voting amongst lefties looking to block the banning of sex change surgeries for minors? Its disgusting.

Probably why hes a politician and previously a celebrity and you're not. I could've pursued career and life paths thats would've resulted in significantly more financial gain than I ultimately did. There were things more important to me than that. To each their own.

I know right? I dont think Ive ever looked for a tweet or watched a speech; or more broadly been so obsessed with another man like they are. Can you imagine? Not only that, but hanging on every literal word and getting all ruffled by it? In the midst of my morning routine I came across "Trump rips Biden in speech" articles and shrugged and was like dont even need to read it cuz what else is new? On with my life......

The tax revenue these teams bring in for the areas is insane. Again this comes down to business oriented people understanding how investments work, and then politicians grandstanding so they can post slogans on Twitter or campaign signs.

@cubsfan https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47340940/bears-again-expand-stadium-search-including-illinois These retards are now gonna run the Bears outta state LMFAO

See free or universal right to healthcare is one of those grandly stupid liberal ideals that with 1/7 of a working brain can easily be deduced to something that makes no sense. Healthcare essentially translates to people, resources and time. Once you start assigning names to whose resources and time, you need participants. And those participants likely aren’t doing it for nothing. So you’d either need to pay them(hence not free) or steal from them. So non starter.

Can you imagine the headlines and the reactions from the uneducated and poors? Try to fix healthcare waste woulda been met with “they’re trying to steal your universal right(says who? Lol) to healthcare!

Ironically enough one of the biggest beneficiaries has been liberal super donor John Morgan. But after previous liberal super donor Harvey Weinstein went down I can imagine they just need to keep the coffers flush. Especially after Willie Browns lover blew a cool billion on a failed campaign inside of 4 months…

There’s been a huge shift with MDs moving to big corporate practices mainly driven by ambulance chasers and subsequently getting raped by the insurance companies. No one wants to run their own small or mid sized practice anymore

Man you guys are all crazy. I’m just longing for the days when the guv was doing its job and protecting citiz…eh I mean documentless inhabitants of soil…from vacuum cleaners…