Five Years, Lord Willing

[suomalainen]

@Robert DeNiro - GET A GD VASECTOMY

[jennypenny]

Haha, I don't have much sympathy for guys who insist on having their own grandchildren.

[Jason]

We had a money meeting last night and came to some realizations:

(1) We have stumbled/fumbled to hovering at the $500K (492K) net worth mark i.e. saving/investing semi-conservatively/not touching, letting compounding interest do its thing. Basic Dave Ramsey stop being a fucking idiot type of stuff. Our net assets have risen to $675, house debt causing the disparity. It looks as though I'm going to have a nice year, which means we might be able to push the meter a full click forward. Reminiscing on the complete broke ass years, we realized that (1) under no circumstances can we go back, it will break us psychically (2) how much more we could do if we got serious. Hence, a "no spending" pact was agreed upon that includes the elimination of next year's European vacation. This includes books, clothes, household items, outside food unless absolutely necessary. Focusing on net worth provides the fulcrum of saving/not spending. ERE practices will necessary follow - how to save/not spend more. We are digging in. I don't know exactly what the number is but I will know it when I see it.

(2) Marie Kondo has helped. Although her book is screaming in literary form, I recommend it.

(3) Like a lot of people, I am kind of fascinated by this stranded soccer team. It's just a reminder how dangerous gym teachers are. If we really cared about the safety of children, we would immediately detain any person who states "teaching people who are younger than me recreational activities." My gym teacher was this middle aged steroid guy with veins that a junkie would die for. I mean he had eye lid veins, like shoe lace veins that were thicker than most people's major arteries that would pop out when he got all red faced when I couldn't figure out how to do a backwards somersault. The fucking guy terrorized me. Whenever something would happen as is wont when you forcefully congregate 13 year old dips hit boys in a communal shower, like when my best friend pulled down his pants in front of the learning disabled girl who didn't realize she walked into the wrong locker room or we would chant that the female gym teacher was a lesbian, the fucking fire hydrant come to life would single me out and say "You look smart. Who showed the retard his dick?" And I would say "I don't know" and then he would make me run the fucking obstacle course five fucking times while my showing the retard his dick best friend would laugh at me with the girl I liked. I hope they shoot the guy who brought those kids in that cave and if they don't want to, I'll fucking do it and pretend its the veiny failed Greco Roman wrestler who terrorized me. I mean who else but a guy in athletic shorts would think its a good idea to take 12 kids who can't survive in water spelunking. Is that something a person who wears formal wear would think of? Not to mention the kids are in there smiling like its perfectly acceptable to be stranded in a fucking cave for two weeks because the only people more idiotic than gym teachers are fucking kids at the mercy of gym teachers. Now Elon Musk is turning into it into an amusement park ride which is kind of his take on everything. I can see him thinking "I bet I could have stopped the Holocaust by just giving every German a Rubik's Cube."

[EdithKeeler]

Congrats on the net worth achievement. That's great!

Like a lot of people, I am kind of fascinated by this stranded soccer team. It's just a reminder how dangerous gym teachers are. If we really cared about the safety of children, we would immediately detain any person who states "teaching people who are younger than me recreational activities."

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I, too, am fascinated by the soccer team, and while I appreciated your riff on gym teachers, it brought up a lot of feelings that I'm not quite ready to deal with yet, including memories of a truly frightening dyke of a PE teacher who watched us girls shower when I was in middle school.... I heard recently that she died, and I wasn't sorry.

But what really gets me about the soccer team story are the comments at the ends of the articles online. The ones that have suggestions for solving the problem. "Why don't they just let them swim out?" when the article just explained why that's not possible. "Just knock them out, put a mask on them and drag them through." "Strap a kid to a diver and swim them out that way." "Run a rope through the tunnels and they can pull them out and be out in no time." One guy had a suggestion that I couldn't really follow that involved a fast-setting gel, and another guy had a plan that somehow involved quick-setting concrete. I've seen a version of "tie each kid to a rope and just pull them through." "just drill a hole through the rock and pull them through." You know... because I'm sure the rescuers are reading the comments on Yahoo just looking for that brilliant idea. "Just pull them out! Yeah! WHy didn't this team of experts, here on the scene, think of that???"

It's amazing to me how many "experts" come out of the walls, people who've never dived a lick in their life, have no knowledge of ANYTHING about the situation, but don't hesitate to offer their solutions and then are mystified when people call them on it. It's frightening to know how many freakin' morons are out there who think they're smart.

I hope this story has a happy ending, but I am pessimistic after everything I've (obsessively) read about it. I hope I'm wrong and they all get out OK. If they don't, it won't be because the world didn't care and/or pray hard enough for them, that's for sure.

[Jason]

It went from comedy of errors of water being pumped in the wrong direction to a tragedy when the Navy Seal died. So gym teacher already has blood on his hands. What I have read is that its just an ill advised trip in the first place. It wasn't "a wrong place wrong time" thing. It was from the get go a "you sure you want to go there?"

I have no idea how it resolves itself, but it seems to me to already be psychological torture. Someone is going to get sick. Someone is going to have a panic attack. Plus, if thing start going sideways, its not a tragedy where everyone goes at one time. This is like a Boy's Life story meets Steven King. It's a cluster.

When I read that they found them but couldn't get them out, I thought that can't be good.

[Jason]

The gym teacher was a monk. I think this is the background story to the situation I have read.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as ... 5ad7f80b15

I understand there is a huge cultural divide from where I stand that I cannot begin to fathom and it is unfair of me to sit in my Western chair and cast judgment. That being said, there's no way to get around the fact that an unwise decision was made. I feel bad for everyone involved. It seems its do or die time.

[EdithKeeler]

They've gotten the first 4 kids out.

[Jason]

I'm assuming selection was based on severity of condition. Three were malnourished, which included Coach Monk as he has been rationing to the kids. The Good Coach has also been putting his Monk training into use, helping the children meditate. Maybe he also spent time showing them how to a bonsai the shit out of cave fungi. I guess if this happened in the West with someone like my gym teacher they could use the opportunity to act out Plato's Cave i.e. "Stop crying for your mother you little spoiled shit and pretend its a fucking illusion."

I guess we'll learn more details when they make the movie. I'm thinking they'll call it something stupid like "Caved In" instead of a more appropriate title "Stupid Fucking Soccer Monk Leads 12 Innocent Children Into a Cave As Bonding Exercise Despite the Approach of Monsoon Season."

[Jason]

All the soccer players are out, including their coach. Experts say their is still risk of infection but no chance of any of the children becoming monks.

[Frugalchicos]

So, hitting the 500K, are you thinking in putting more money towards mortgage or say goodbye some time soon and move somewhere cheaper in the US?

[Jason]

Due to age, we are "tweeners" - not young not old - I believe it's the mortgage. Working is still necessary and my job doesn't translate well to other areas.

Residential uncertainty is something that never leaves your bloodstream. A paid off home is something we personally need, irregardless of its true financial sense.

I know this is UK, but these scenarios make me wince;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09sz2rv

As I get older, the possibility of domestic disruption needs to be eliminated.

[Frugalchicos]

Yeah, I also have the "need" of having a paid of house to feel totally safe.

[jacob]

It's never truly paid off in the sense that there will always be real estate taxes. If those are not paid, a tax lien goes up for sale and the purchaser can eventually foreclose and legally take over the house.

Ownership comes at a number of tiers delineated by how many people one has to pay off in order to stay in the home:

Renting: rent profit + landlord's mortgage + RE tax
Home buyer: mortgage + RE tax
Home owner: RE tax

There's no way to get to 0.

[7Wannabe5]

@jacob:

True, but precedence in the U.S. is such that owning a home of modest or minimal footprint (maybe 800 sq. ft) and then sharing/leasing out the excess, so that you are left with happiness maximizing 350 sq.ft./human, is likely to be most frugal option.

[Mister Imperceptible]

The mortgage on my rental is 3.625%. If short-term rates continue to go up, they can eventually surpass my 30-year-fixed rate. If you are still working and can factor in the mortgage interest deduction, I am almost already there. Not sure what your mortgage rate is.

I’m sure there’s a disastrous scenario possible, like a bank run, but I like the idea of staying liquid, and being paid by my bank more on my deposits than I am paying my lender for my mortgage. Use your mortgage to have a leveraged Permanent Portfolio, or something like it.

[Jason]

(@) JLF

Completely understood. Not only is there way no way to zero, there's no way to a fixed number above zero, as RE taxes go up.
My mortgage payment is now less than the US average rental payment. Every landlord I ever met was a complete heyhole.

I have read the buy vs lease scenarios. I think I understand it. But its not for us.

[Mister Imperceptible]

If the amount of interest you are paying is negligible and it’s mostly going toward the principal, why not just carry the mortgage and keep the liquidity for an FU stash if nothing else? The degree to which you can be an arsehole increases the more liquidity you have.

Every landlord I ever met was a complete heyhole.

Hey.

[Jason]

Present company excluded.

We are not at that point in the principal/interest dichotomy.

[George the original one]

Home owner: RE tax

There's no way to get to 0.

In some states, it's possible to defer taxes once you reach retirement age. They come due (with interest) when you sell or when you die. If the latter can be arranged and you're not trying to leave something for the heirs, then essentially you've made the RE taxes = 0 during your old age. But it's a bad gamble IMHO.

[7Wannabe5]

There's also a huge variation in property taxes from region to region. I live in one of the worst states, so when my ex and I were attempting to buy a house based just on his very modest income, the lower property taxes in rural area was a huge factor. Actually might have a good deal to do with why Michigan voted very purple.