Early Retirement Extreme Forums (est. 2010)

https://mises.org/wire/american-middle-class-isnt-disappearing-%E2%80%94-its-not-all-good-news This is somewhat topical re the US. The main takeaway to me is that even though it doesn't pace the growth of wealth in the 1% or whatever, the number of US people in the higher income cohorts are growing ...

I thought you parted ways with the cowboy several episodes ago? I have to admit that I did not follow your explanation of the problems. Being relatively direct and simple in my thinking I would just ask, "Do I want to stay or not?", leave the "Why?"s out of it, and either stay or go. I get the sense...

Yes. If you frame wealth accumulation in a relatively free, free-market capitalist society as a sporting contest (just for the sake of illustration), a huge number of people aren't even playing or paying attention. For most of those accumulating wealth isn't high enough in their value hierarchy that...

October 2019 Summary Well, I guess I haven't been paying attention. Invested assets were up about $27,800 for the month. Seems down days get a lot more attention than up days. I don't have final spending numbers but the tally seems like it will come in around 3,300 or a bit below. A couple auto rep...

Well, I'm speculating about the future but I think the answers would be, "Yes" and "Yes". But only a small fraction of them. Most are good people but we don't have much in common other than wallowing up to the same hog trough.

I don't really have issue with any of his new rules, although to me none of them seem "new". My Megacorp has been preaching all the same things for 20 years (it seems mostly like a lullaby to sooth the minions and keep them from growing restless). It's a pretty flat straw man of "neoliberal economic...

jacob, if I'm understanding you correctly re Gabbard, I'd agree she's not the elder stateswoman in the exchange and her response was arguably a bit over the top as is commensurate with the environment and her relatively youthful passion. I think she was a medic over there on her first tour and that'...

Key to this, I think, is to realize that a scale exists between being an asset in the deliberate sense (like a spy, which against the law---which is always lagging reality) and an asset in the exploitative sense. The term for the latter is "useful idiot". Note that there are also so-called "useful ...

I can't read the whole thing but it sounds like the article is talking about something different than you are. Vanguard found a way to avoid having to pass on capital gain distributions that might be triggered by redemptions to shareholders who don't sell. They supposedly have a patented way to conv...

The story I heard from Rogan's podcast is that Peterson's wife has been undergoing cancer treatment. He got onto prescribed anti-anxiety meds during the worst of that, went into rehab to go off those. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR15EKRlU8U Dunno anything about his daughter, but I don't think it...

ffj wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 20, 2019 12:17 am

Refreshing, even if it didn't come from Fox News

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjzBJWUyWI

Proof I got some of my "talking points" from the rightwing conspiracy nuts at CNN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph_7hN_1fKM

Not sure who "they" is, but if it's the media, they got Trump nominated before it blew up in their face. "They" as I used it referred to the Clinton op research people, the intel community, HRC herself, and a wide swath of the media. I dunno if it got him nominated, but I think there's a real possi...

Gosh, ffj, I guess Ego busted us in our little conspiracy. We should be more clever than to occasionally agree with each other while participating in the same thread/conversations. Ego, not that I suspect it matters but for the record I picked up the HRC/Gabbard/Russia story from AOL where I still h...

unemployable wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 19, 2019 1:31 pm

Hillary gave Tulsi the best gift possible: publicity. Maybe that was the plan.

If that's the case, what are they giving Trump?

Tulsi illustrates how broken the Democrats have become: she's a woman, a minority, a veteran, under 70, measured and well-spoken and something Clinton will never be, a leader. Sounds like a dream candidate for their party yet they want to shit on her and call her a Russian spy for having the audaci...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55hVhbBfNig Another reason to like Tulsi Gabbard maybe. I know it's sort of common for aging dudes to start saying the world is going to hell in a handbasket and get off my lawn and all. But seriously, the last three years have been truly bizarre and sometimes a littl...

At first glance I would agree that something seems to be missing. I would expect that among the middle and upper-middle income tiers, a savings rate of 10-15% would come with a significantly higher percentile rank.

I don't see my human capital solely as exchangeable for money. So if I reserve a portion of it for other endeavors once I have enough money, I don't see it as having missed out on or lost anything.

Sounds like a great trip. I used to love New England in the fall (the three I spent there, anyway). Tell your son to hang in there. I was in my 40s before I got a relatively close moose sighting. Prior to that I'd only seen one swimming almost a mile away when I was 14.

In my taxable account I intend to minimize realized gains. I do tax loss harvesting and if I need to sell things to pay bills I'll pick the ones with the least tax liability. In my 401k it doesn't really matter, it's all income. When RMDs come I'll probably just let them come out in proportion to my...