Castanza
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Posts posted by Castanza
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19 hours ago, Paarslaars said:
Cardio is overrated, just walk.
Failed consistently meditating though... Really should give that a try again.
Walking is recovery, Assault bike is work
The exercise is the meditation part imo
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18 minutes ago, Intelligent_Investor said:
You can get rich with a much lower than 50% win rate
You can also become poor with a similar rate
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2 hours ago, james22 said:
Nah.
You have to work a little just to maintain your capabilities, but you certainly can.
100% - Mobility, core, low impact cardio (assault bike, rower, etc.) bodyweight exercise, heavy functional 2x a week.
Eat less, drink less, stress less
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36 minutes ago, Santayana said:
Added to JOE and NTDOY.
Same two
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5 hours ago, Parsad said:
Yup, I agree! I also think the opportunities people have today...be it in the job sector or entrepreneurship...there is no excuse for not building a comfortable life if you hustle and work hard.
Of course there are exceptions where tragedy/crisis can delay, affect or hinder a person/family's economic growth...but opportunities in my opinion have never been better! Cheers!
No time to work when you're focused on "building your brand"
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15 minutes ago, Parsad said:
Being debt free, money in the bank, income coming from passive investments...that's a life where you can tell the banks, bosses, lenders and everyone else to just fuck off! Cheers!
LOL it's funny this even has to be said!
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As I said different strokes for different folks. I'm a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush kind of guy. But as Greg said it is mostly psychological. However that works both ways. Because there are a lot of people on here scoffing at the idea of paying off your mortgage early because you could be better returns elsewhere....But then some of those same people are out here leasing expensive vehicles or dropping 1k a month at fancy restaurants or 30k a year on vacations. Everyone has areas where they could be more efficient with their money. I look at it as a way of handicapping myself and my unknown future financial situation. More is not always better imo.
I think a lot of people are conditioned to think 2010-2020 of zirp, 3% mortgages and ~13% market returns are the norm. Did people have the mindset of invest over save prior to the 2000's? This is before my investing career.
Maybe I'll change my screen name to Spicoli:
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37 minutes ago, Spooky said:
I don't have a mortgage and am currently debt free. The flexibility / psychological benefits are underrated in my opinion but that just could be me. Many people around me in Canada are over leveraged and the rise in interest rates is causing significant stress among a number of friends. Meanwhile I feel a sense of zen / calm just saving each month, watching my wealth compound. I have a healthy dose of cash which is earning interest. My rent is capped and if something goes wrong I just need to give my landlord 60 days notice and I'm out of here. I am also not tied to any specific location so if I wanted to pick up and become a nomad it is pretty easy.
Thought this article on debt by Morgan Housel was interesting: https://collabfund.com/blog/how-i-think-about-debt/
Yup, Morgan is a good resource on this. People simply can't comprehend it, because we live in a hustle culture/keep up culture. They focus on 65+ and how much they will have then, instead of how much time/money they have now.
I think a balance needs to be made. I live debt free, and also invest, work full time, have side hustles etc. But I spend as little time as possible thinking about money and how to eek out an extra 50 basis points on a lump sum of cash. YOu can go too far with that shit imo. Not good for the mind and body imo.
The flexibility of never having to worry about your job, market downturns, or making payments etc. is priceless. A lot of people out there break their back because of their cashflow situations. Also a lot of people overleverage themselves and live that lifestyle and still aren't saving enough for retirement. To me it's cleaner this way and easier to predict/project into the future. There is something to be said about lack of complexity as well. If I die, my wife is not going to want to deal with all this financial engineering. And the cost of paying someone else to figure it all out with lawyer fees, financial advisors, etc. is not insignificant.
To each there own, there isn't a right or wrong way. But I think a lot of people "do" things because that's what the "experts" say. No different than "everyone needs to go to college." Well look how that's turning out for a lot of people. I don't have to bust my balls working 60+ hours a week hoping the boss throws me a bone and gives me that promotion, pay raise or bonus. I don't have to put on the networking face and live that LinkedIn life where you're constantly competing against your peers and the new tech/stack blah blah bah. If you enjoy that go for it!
Let me be clear too. I lived pretty much debt free before I decided to go ahead and pay off the mortgage. I did prioritize investing, saving, and education. I worked full time, paid cash for school and paid off existing student loans etc. It's not like I skipped the step of saving, investing for retirement, and investing in myself. It was 10 years later when we figured "hey we are here financially, this is next for us, will paying this off improve this situation and allow us to enjoy this chapter of life more?" The answer was YES then and has been YES since then. So context does matter.
I just see a lot of peers my age and younger with a huge mortgage, expensive cars, mountains of student loan debt, financed furniture, expensive phones, expensive vacations, expensive and financed everything.....always worried about their jobs, always complaining about the hours they have to work, where they work and how they don't have time with their kids etc. When you talk to these people though, their opinion is always "invest and finance because you earn more in the market." Well not many of them are maxing their 401k, ROTH IRA, HSA, Savings bonds, etc. They now feel like they need to earn more and work more to reach that goal.
To quote Dealraker..."Life is great if you can stand it!"
Seems like there are a lot of people who CANT stand it!
The title of the thread! 78%! Something ain't working....and I don't think the problem is people having too little debt to pay!
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32 minutes ago, Ross812 said:
I don't agree with paying off the mortgage especially if you have a low fixed rate from 2009 to 2022. Math favors 100k in home equity a 400k mortgage at 4% 30yrs fixed and 400k in liquid investments versus a 500k illiquid asset.
I can pay my note off 10x over with a wire, but why would I make the bank whole on a note they're underwater on? I even did a cashout refi @2.8% when inflation was running over 4% to buy a vacation home in 2021 because I don't turn down free money. Run your finances like a business.
The standard financial response
I don't disagree with the math. You can't put a price on the other things. No longer servicing a mortgage means my wife can raise our kids more (as she wishes) and work less. Less daycare costs etc. I work from home, get to take my son for walks or go tot he park on my break. etc. Something you can't get back in retirement. I be a lot of retirees would give that 400k liquid asset in a heart beat if hey could go back and have more time with their kids/family.
I by no means want a life that resembles a business where I'm always thinking about money or how to make an extra percentage point here or there. But I'm a simple man who lives a simple life. Yeah I enjoy investing and get the importance of sound financials. But the less I think about it the better!
I have zero desire to own a vacation home, go on 20k vacations, or own fancy sports cars. Not my cup of tea! Nothing wrong with that that choice if you do. And if you do, your approach makes sense. Different strokes for different folks!
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21 minutes ago, Jaygo said:
SD a while ago commented that paying of my mortgage may be a good idea rather than investing and I am starting to come around to that even though it may not be the best outcome. I can definitely invision a down year for business but a steady year of higher expenses and having the protection of paid shelter sounds pretty good.
Paid mine off and don't regret it a bit. Nothing like waking up in your early 30s with very little financial stress. Debt chains you to your investments and your employment. I said early on I have no desire to have a ball and chain on my whole life hoping to enjoy a few years once I reach 65+. The idea of traditional retirement is ludicrous to me and I'm not sure I buy the stability/predictability of it moving forward.
Peace of mind and freedom to do is priceless.
edit: Everyone will tell you you're dumb...ignore them.
We all love businesses that gush FCF now not 30 years from now....so why not run your life the same way? Beg borrow and steal during your startup phase. Reduce capex and then focus on FCF and flexibility. Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow so imo a healthy balance of now and later is preferred to only later. I see a lot of people who retire with terrible health and can't do much but sit on a couch and slowly fade away. No thanks!
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Should the labor sector fail....this will be the demographic that will soon be voting themselves money with the proxy politician promising them "bread and circuses."
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5 minutes ago, boilermaker75 said:
No, and I thought it never rains in southern California, LOL.
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5 minutes ago, boilermaker75 said:
That is for sure. We were just in LA and my wife took our daughter out shopping for a rain coat. The result? Burberry $2,200. At least it has two D-rings for hand grenades!
Does she at least live in the PNW?
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54 minutes ago, mattee2264 said:
Post-pandemic I can definitely understand the issue.
Official government statistics claim that the price level has risen about 20-30% since the pandemic. But in the real world it is probably more like 50% especially for items such as groceries, entertainment, restaurants, travel etc. and salaries haven't even kept up with official inflation rates.
You are seeing the cost of some items such as groceries come down. But a lot of companies have been able to get away with jacking up prices using the pandemic supply chain disruptions as an excuse and when these disruptions eased and their costs came down didn't pass on the lower costs to consumers. And got away with it because consumers had excess savings from the pandemic, unemployment is low, in many cases mortgage payments are low as people refinanced during the pandemic, and consumers have credit cards that allow them to live beyond their means at least in the short term. You also have some criminal buy now pay later schemes (phantom debt) to trap consumers.
Wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if we did have a recession, a lot of credit card defaults, and companies were forced to lower prices (and margins are still close to record highs) so they can easily afford to do so.
While true to some degree it still doesn’t account for poor personal finance decisions. In fact it highlights it. People spent more than they had pre and post pandemic.
The middle management couple with matching BMWs sitting in the driveway pre pandemic probably aren’t springing for 5 year old Accords post pandemic.
Live below your means, save at least 20%. Don’t go shopping for things you don’t need.
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39 minutes ago, Fly said:
I do agree the push to get employees back into offices is ridiculous for the most part, but beware of unintended consequences. When a job is no longer tied to an office (typically in a city) then that compensation is no longer tied to that region as well. You could be expected to live in a super cheap middle of nowhere part of the country since you can WFH and paid accordingly. Then the next step is why not just pay someone to Work From India?
Eh companies already do that. Employers with poor working environments will have unintended consequences as well. The cat is out of the bag now (thanks Covid?) A lot of companies have to be global with follow the sun support etc. Not all countries offer the same quality of support though…nor reliability. I’ve seen my share of outsourced jobs to Costa Rica (a hotbed for tech right now) and it’s been nothing but problems. Poor training, unreliable ISP, unreliable power, different mindset when it comes to work culture etc. it’s not apples to apples for sure…..yet. But will probably be someday?I hear you though, it’s not out of the question. My pay would be the same regardless of where I live now. But yes that makes sense for NYC job with a guy living in Alabama.
At the end of the day it’s your job to make yourself valuable to an employer. I do think it’s becoming harder to separate yourself from the pack though. At least in tech. The most adaptable people do the best…but people last 35 have a hard time learning new tech or stacks (don’t blame them). It’s exhausting keeping up with everything.
This is why I choose to live debt free. I like my tech job, don’t love the work itself, but the flexibility is great. I don’t love “tech” enough to constantly learn a ton of new things, but definitely get some new stuff under the belt every year. It’s interesting enough and I have my niches. Frankly I don’t trust the tech industry. It feels like something has to give because everyone is being outpaced by new stacks/niches/fads. It’s like watching the NFL where you’re washed up by 30-40 max. There are a lot of 50+ year old tech workers that are clutching their pearls that “their” stack doesn’t get dropped before they retire. I have no problem working any job inside or outside of tech though . I don’t live to work and I keep my finances in check. I’m about reducing financial stress.
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39 minutes ago, Eng12345 said:
Yes - I am an engineer and my wife is a pharmacist both from the same town of ~35k in middle America.
I work a lot of overtime and so does she, and we are very much ahead of the curve of our friends but by no means wealthy. We can sock away an extra 2-5k a month depending on overtime and thats after my massive mortgage payment. However, by all friends and family accounts they think of us as "rich". I think not - we just work incredibly hard and have worked hard for the past 10 years. One or two bad events or decisions could wipe us all out.
My dad was a truck driver - he lives on social security now. My mom has a minimal state pension and social security to look forward to in retirement. Her retirement job is the most money she has ever made - $18/hr. I made that in 2016 working as an intern.
The hard truth is when you get down to it most of America doesn't have two nickels or two brain cells to rub together. We are incredibly blessed not only financially to be able to have these discussions on this forum but also from an intellect perspective. One of the greatest things my mom did for me growing up was fostering a love for reading and learning - taking me to the library every weekend and making me entertain myself there. Looking back I know why she did that - she couldn't afford to do much else.
Most peoples homes are their biggest assets not their retirement funding. They have no hope. I hope to never lose my hope.
Rich is somewhat relative to your peers income and areas cost of living. 2-5k a month in savings is not a negligible amount and at an average market return would could net you upwards of ~13m at 65 if we assume you're around 30.
Personally I think people spend too much, buy too much house, drive too nice of vehicles and in general finance too much. I see a lot of 250k houses with 125k worth of vehicles parked in the driveways.
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Employers have a control problem. If they don't want to "lose time" with their employees working second jobs, then switch them from Salary to Hourly and send them home or have them clock off when their work is finished. If you have salaried employees who work diligently and finish their work then end up with some downtime, that is your problem not theirs. You're paying them to do a job. If I pay a contractor to build a house, I don't expect them to leave me all the leftover supplies and tools they purchased to build that house. I expect a house.
My favorite is when they try to say "It's a privilege to work from home and not everyone has that advantage." <--- what assholes
My work recently tried to say everyone needs to be back in office 3 days a week. They hosted a webinar webinar with some C-suiot execs present and opened it up for questions (big mistake). Employees went off and they couldn't provide any justification from their perspective.
- All of our work in on a screen
- My team is global so there is no in person collaboration
- All training is online (and has been)
- Productivity numbers have gone UP since Covid
- Employee happiness surveys UP
- Office lease lapsed and we moved from individual office to hoteling style with less than half the number of offices for total employees
- 1/4-1/3rd of employees moved over an hour away from office location (at HR approval)
So why did they want us back in office? No idea, but likely so they could dick swing and feel important when they come to town once a year. How ere they going to track "employee engagement and collaboration"....badge scans LOL
So you want me to drive over an hour and a half three days a week (costing me 10k a year) so I can sit in a noisy open office environment, log onto Teams and collaborate with employees in different countries just like I already do?
End of they day, they are "re-thinking" their approach and not enforcing anything at this point.
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On 5/3/2024 at 1:39 PM, beerbaron said:
Unethical. Nothing to discuss here. Not putting the time you charge is similar to stealing. Just because its harder to get caught does not make it more ethical.
I dont think anybody on this forum would be thrilled if a contractor came to your home for a days work on hourly contract, left half way through at lunch and billled the full day.
Beerbaron
It's not for hourly jobs. You see quite a bit of this in tech and other fields like marketing, content, finance etc. Nothing unethical about it imo unless you're using info from one employer to help the other and vice verse. Not much different than being freelance and working for multiple clients at one time. Now if you're working two jobs and sandbagging just to collect that paycheck until one of them notices and confronts you? yeah you're a pos. But hey if you can swing it why now?
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2 minutes ago, Xerxes said:
What exactly do you define as “right wing? Because compared to Arab nations, Israel is about as progressive as they come.
Right wing ? any people or group of people bent on annihilation or submission of another group of people. Hamas, Ben-Gvir and his ilk, Ali Khameni all fall into that basket. Their hatred can be codified into slogans, into direct actions covert or overt.
The excuse that “ohhh look we got Stalin, but it is better than Hitler” is frankly not answer.
Nor the excuse that it is “western democratically elected” so it is all good and takes a pass. For Christ’ sake, Hitler was democratically elected. That didn’t make him nor cabinet any good. And yes Hiter 1933 was not the we came to know until 1940s.
Women, Children, humanitarian zones, aid uniforms and other disguises have been utilized by many Arab “nations” to wreak havoc on opposing forces.
what do I do with this comment ? I am talking about West Bank. I have no clue what you mean or trying to say with this seemingly random high level comment.
Would you rather be a Jew in Gaza or a Palestinian in Israel?
is that a joke ? Of course I rather be a Palestinian in Israel.
Did I pass your test for biasness ? Guess what you didn’t pass mine.
What bias do I have? I’ve supported many of your views on US vs Arab nation engagement in this forum for a long time. I think in general most cultures should keep to themselves because mixing of some simply doesn’t work. The Middle East has its problems, but I understand their reasonings or origins of hatred of the west etc.I just think with this current conflict there isn’t much to stand on for Palestine. I don’t think Israel is an occupier or committing genocide. I think it’s a shitty situation with some bad feelings on both sides that will never be easily resolved.
I try hard to understand both sides of the coin (hence my view on Russia/Ukraine I share with you)
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9 minutes ago, Xerxes said:
Thanks Ulti,that is very helpful
For me it is more like an acid test, if folks in North America cannot even acknowledge some of the unsavoury character in the Israeli cabinet (w/o making excuses), they are just repeating talking points.
Israel is not perfect in any way shape or form. Follow their 6000 year history and they have done their share of unsavory things. -
17 minutes ago, Xerxes said:
I don’t follow (nor care) about campuses that much. It should be a place of learning as far as I am concerned.
That said, i rather be a Jewish person in North America* dealing with antisemitic morons than be a Palestinian in Gaza/WestBank with no prospect and to be shot dead depending on the mood of the IDF soldier firing the bullet and/or indirectly by Hamas thugs.
The dead don’t care about politics.
*Being a minority in North America, that I am use to it.
As far as your example of 1930s, maybe you should look into extreme right factions in (elected) Israeli government. Somehow it has become ok to kill “vermins” and to de-humanize a whole population.
Fine, it war. It is ugly. Hamas, Gaza, Nagasaki, Hiroshima. Blah blah blah. Go all in. Make a splash. A “few” bad apples shoot unarmed women walking down the street. Ok. Makes sense that is not systematic.
So solve me this riddle ?
why is the killing in West Bank have gone up. So is it really Hamas, or much more than that. How deep is that expansionary right wing ideology has seeped itself into IDF and their society.
What exactly do you define as “right wing? Because compared to Arab nations, Israel is about as progressive as they come.
Women, Children, humanitarian zones, aid uniforms and other disguises have been utilized by many Arab “nations” to wreak havoc on opposing forces.
Would you rather be a Jew in Gaza or a Palestinian in Israel?
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I remember in HS a teacher prompted us with the introspective question of If you were a 16+ year old German before WWII who would you have supported. Everyone said they would have gone against the grain and supported the Jewish people.
We are watching real time, the failure of peoples personal optimism when contemplating this question. College campuses across the globe sadly don't look much different than this.
Regarding the conflict: Civilian deaths suck...we all agree...welcome to the reality of war that we have been fortunate enough to avoid here in the States for a long time.
Regarding the sentiment: The amount of support for antisemitism right now is baffling. If you find yourself supporting or partaking in similar actions as the photo above....you're rooting for the wrong team.
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29 minutes ago, SharperDingaan said:
If it also results in fewer deaths, and more people retaining their limbs, so much the better. Field treatment and prosthetics have come a long way, but its better never to require one.
SD
Wounds outlive the physical in the mind and manifest themselves throughout future generations. This conflict was not the start of this war and certainly will not be the end.
“It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge. War endures. As well ask men what they think of stone. War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner. That is the way it was and will be. That way and not some other way.”
― Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (The Judge) -
3 minutes ago, jfan said:
Don't do illicit things on the blockchain.
Instead do them at a too big to fail bank
What are you buying today?
in General Discussion
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JOE, AIV