Index funds are a great choice for money that you don’t need to fall back on for awhile. Seeking better returns is going to be challenging. Investing in a place to live, like an apartment, condo, or small house, will provide good returns on your investment by insulating you from increases in the price of rent.…

Have you paid the taxes on the $100K so it is free and clear? What kind of rate could you get on the car vs the mortgage? What are your other fixed monthly expenses beside rent (student loans, credit card debit, etc.).

I used to do this, but it didn’t help. The flow never stops. It is like standing in a river tossing a bucket of water downstream.

I had no idea that they would deliver boxes for free, but I’ve never really needed that service. It is a little disconcerting, but it is a great service and a good way to stay competitive. It makes me wonder why they keep selling boxes and other products in post offices, when you can walk up to the USPS kiosk and pick…

That is an interesting perspective.... The bulk mail “lobby” does suck, but you could look at it as a way to subsidize the cost of first class mail for the rest of us. Without the bulk mail (sure no one wants it), the entire system would have to subsist on first class and packages. While the system could be shrunk,…

So my current collection of forever stamps is, much like some of my 401K holding, giving me negative returns... Time to dollar-cost average into the market!

In general, the force of drag on an object increases with the square of velocity. In ICE vehicles, transmissions & engines can work together to give an optimal fuel efficiency between 50 and 70 MPH (55, 60, 65 are often the chosen sweet spots). They could be tuned for maximum efficiency at lower speeds and do even…

Lots of good info in the post and in the thread. I would suggest that people developing a bug out bag should seriously consider what they are bugging out from, and their actual ability to bug out. This includes physical condition and family condition. I have a wife who is Type I diabetic (insulin dependent), a two…

Anyway, this has been a good, rational, well-spoken discussion that hasn’t devolved into insults, name calling, or other cheap shots. Taking a step back from our differences in belief, we should pat ourselves on the back for being able to engage in intelligent discourse on-line! If I could, I’d join you for a pint or…

You make some compelling arguments, but ultimately we will have to disagree. I don’t think that it is the landlords who are driving up prices... it is the popularity of living in big cities that is driving up prices. Demand will drive up prices, and builders will build to make as much money as possible.

I agree that canceling/matching momentum is the greater superpower. Without it, teleportation would be much less useful as a power. To travel N-S, you’d need to make a lot of small hops. Traveling from the equator to 30 degrees latitude would be a difference of 140 MPH (approximate). That would be a rough landing.

I disagree depending on the mechanics. After you jump back in time, do you have to wait for 24 hours + 1 second before you can jump again? Do you jump into your same body, just a day younger, or are there multiple “yous” in the past? If you don’t jump into your past self, do you continue to age? I could see myself…

I highly recommend you go read Jumper by Steven Gould, along with his follow-up novels. Gould addresses the practical aspects of teleportation in his novels. The story telling is fairly “meh”, but his treatment of the mechanics of teleportation is awesome.

That is what I’m thinking.... They got an interest free loan of $115M today. Impressive.

Method = the way something is done

The problem is that when you control the cost of rent, you remove the incentive for companies to build apartments. By controlling rent, you are essentially controlling the amount of profit a company can make by investing a huge amount of capital to build a new apartment building, or a new complex. You also reduce the…

I’m surprised that they only cost $100 per cart. Have you tried to pick up a full sized cart? They are HEAVY. 70 pounds of steel in them. Between the materials and the manufacturing and shipping costs, I figured a cart would run at least $250, if not more.

It is the norm here in Sinagpore, too. A $1 coin unlocks the cart, and you get it back when you chain the cart back up. The first time my wife and I went grocery shopping in a large shopping mall in Singapore, I commented that I didn’t know how far we could take the cart into the mall to get back to our car. Her…

I listened to that Freakonomics episode as well. The big take-aways for me were that the pay gap was due to career choices that women made vs their male counterparts as well as how aggressive women are in negotiations. While some level of regulation could help level the playing field as far as negotiations go,…

Agreed on the retirement savings. People shouldn’t sacrifice their own retirement savings to pay for their kid’s education. It seems to be a heretical viewpoint for many people, with the thinking that we should put our kid’s needs above our own. However, I’ve seen situations play out where a parent has sacrificed…