Maybe a third or fourth party should be the last hope.

No, YOU get this. There’s a huge amount of misconception and misinformation about financial investing. It’s not even a majority of people who know that, when they hold mutual funds, they’re in the stock market. People don’t understand why things go up, why they go down, and when to not freak out. You might not think…

Aren’t annuities, like, the worst form of investment?

Remember, though, you didn’t lose that 2k unless you divested. You still own the shares, and they should increase in value over time.

With you. No good.

Missionaries?

Wow... and generally do salaries inflate to match?

Wow. Well, the answers to those questions would be no (for now), and yes. How far out would you need to go for things to get a bit cheaper?

Well then! We agree don’t we!?! ;)

Totally agreed with that. I just disagreed with the idea that, having discussed it before marriage, you could never be at odds with financial planning again. Even if you don’t grow apart, circumstances change.

I’m not arguing that. You ask how someone could marry someone else without having a solid agreement on financial future. I’m saying even if you do, that conversation sometimes doesn’t hold and becomes moot.

Sorry, I should say “when nothing changes”. “Enough income” gets into a subjective conversation I never intended.

I’m looking at relocating around that area, with a wife and two kids. Any tips on where to live and how much (ballpark) would be a minimum to make/year to get by?

It’s easy to have your financial house in order when you have enough income. As soon as things get tough, like someone losing a job and is unemployed for a long period of time, it’s different.

Maybe in the people you know. The perception of polarization is far more extreme than the reality.

I’m normally with you on everything you write, but I took this in a totally different way. I took this as “the culture and demographics in this town has changed substantially, which has an impact on people, but politicians have not felt that impact because they are sheltering themselves from the change”. I took it…

The fact that you’re lumping police in with military for ANY reason highlights the problem.

This. We are training cops to confront and escalate. De-escalation is necessary.

LEO’s shouldn’t be scared. They should be aware that the next encounter could be dangerous. They shouldn’t be scared because they should be trained to handle the situation such that it doesn’t escalate. They should be trained to make it NOT get to that point and get dangerous for everybody involved. They should be…

Honestly? I think cops should be given an education in persuasion and conflict resolution, potentially social work, and training on empathy. If that were done and were effective? I think guns would rarely leave holsters.