Lurker > IronTusk

I used to run a recycling center.

-Aluminium recycling is not a scam. The scam part is that bauxite ore often comes from slave labor.

-Glass, depends. Most of my center's glass got shipped to China and it had to be hand sorted by color. The shipping is expensive and causes pollution.

-Plastic is mostly a scam. Only #1 PET has much of a chance and it has limited shelf life.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-insects-feel-joy-and-pain/

ThisIsAKnoife posted...

King Crimson

Tony Levin specifically

Robert Fripp imo

FL81 posted...

Iron Maiden

Steve Harris is my forever crush but Bruce Dickenson is the best known member I think.

Type O Negative
Blue Cheer
Sonic Youth
The Beach Boys
Loving Colour

And... uh... Winger.

John Jacob Astor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jacob_Astor

Absolutely

Yeah, have it preloaded on Game Pass.

Yes, several times a year for birthdays and wedding anniversary. Just did omakase last week. Last year did an incredible farm to table prix fixe in Scotland.
Expensive but very worth it.

I much prefer chef's choice to ordering individually at a restaurant if I can afford it. You're buying an expression of someone's art and craft instead of just a service transaction.

It's great

Water

"I hate art"

It's great

Can you still do the gold conversion to GP until then?

Stray Cat is GOATed.

Raffelesia from Jidoor is worth it too.

Good stuff.

Once you have an emergency fund covering 6+ months of expenses and the full employer match on your 401K (some people love HSAs too), I'd recommend investing in the total market in a Roth IRA as close as you can get to the cap. I think you'll still do better than early mortgage payoff, especially because of the Roth's tax advantage on cashout.

Read this:

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042415/what-average-annual-return-sp-500.asp

While it's no predictor of future performance, over long periods of time, the S&P 500 in low cost index averages over 10% annual return.
That's more than twice the return of your mortgage debt being paid off early.
But that upside of course comes with additional risk of the market taking a dump in the short term. And technically you're not supposed to access your retirement funds until 59.5 years old, though there are ways around that.

People complaining about the stock market being a ponzi scheme aren't totally off base, but it's a lie we are ALL playing into because of capitalism, including the rich and powerful. The stock market is a machine for money generation. Might as well take advantage of the thing even if it sucks. It's never been easier to open a brokerage or retirement account and people still don't do it.

Wall Street Bets has triggered mass panics in the financial status quo. It has caused major companies to defraud themselves and saved or delayed others from shuttering. It has also resulted in common people losing everything.

What are CEs cultural impacts

It really depends on the interest rate on your mortgage. If it's less than 4%, a high yield savings account, treasury, i-bond, or money market fund are currently beating that.
And of course over time a S&P 500 ETF or mutual fund will destroy the 4% return (if you have the risk tolerance).

There is almost no chance paying your mortgage off earlier is a better investment than the free tax-free money from the remaining 3% of your employee match (and its compounding over time).

At least do everything in your power to fully exploit your employer match. It is free tax-advantaged money.

Historically an investment in the S&P500 or total market index doubles every 7.2 years. So in a couple decades you'll have 8x your money.

Negatives:
-The rate will eventually go down.
-On a long-term basis, returns on S&P 500 (VOO) or total market ETFs (VT, VTI, VXUS) or mutal funds have a much higher return on investment. So you have an opportunity cost, with obviously higher risk.

The French would not care. Free million.

Questionmarktarius posted...

https://givingcompass.org/article/building-generational-wealth-to-end-child-poverty
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023119831799
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/06/racial-wealth-gap-may-be-a-key-to-other-inequities/

These are arguments against snowballing historical wealth inequality (most notably across race), which generational wealth perpetuates. Money is a finite resource. If there's no redistribution through taxation the rich will continue to hoard it at the expense of the poor.

"Clearly, you want everyone in poverty, since generational wealth is the most effective means of avoiding poverty."

Citation needed.

GWB had a prestigious boarding school education. He holds a BA in history from Yale and an MBA from Harvard -- while he almost certainly got in through nepotism, he must have gone to some classes and research at least. He had the best expensive private tutors you can get. He was surrounded by brilliant (often evil, but certainly highly-educated) advisors most of his life. And he mostly ran (or shadow ran depending on your opinion) the wealthiest country in the world.

None of these signals of wealth make Dubya naturally intelligent or a great orator but by osmosis and environment he's likely "smarter" than the average American depending on the definition.

Being rich sure helps.

The estate tax should be 100% of inherited wealth after $10M in today's dollars.

Multi-generational wealth is some monarchist nonsense. Why should kids with rich parents get even more of an advantage than they already do.

Christ had nothing bad to say about homosexuality and hung out with sex workers.

The Saiyans having such high-pitched voices in Japanese sure is a thing

I thought this story was proven to be a con...

Simon staking Dracula today

Snake Rattle 'n' Roll

Life Force / Salamander

Faxanadu

I would have also said Little Nemo but that's happening.

Toured nearly the whole US (35ish states + DC), lived in BC Canada few years, been to nearly 20 countries, worked or pseudo-commuted out of Japan for a few years (been there over a dozen times).

Never been to Africa. One day!
Love love love traveling.