I’m married and my wife lets me take care of the financial planning. I keep her up to date on what I’m doing and why and we talk through things, but she usually doesn’t question my judgement. That being said, I tend to be pretty conservative financially. I was out of work for several months after I finished my…

After selling my home and moving to SEA for a couple of years for an expat assignment, I had the same question... where should I store the equity from my last house knowing that I plan to buy another in a couple of years. I know I am taking a hit on inflation, but I decided that a CD was the best place to store my…

Agreed on the CD ladder approach. I also like the idea of using a HELOC and investing your emergency fund. The bond fund doesn’t seem like it would pay off between transaction fees, etc.

This is an idea I can get behind as opposed to pure rent control. Fixing the price of rent in an apartment for 30+ years is absurd. If you want to live at a fixed price, buy a condo or a home, pay the mortgage, and eventually you will own the place out right. Expecting to live in an apartment for an indefinitely long…

I think the math you did towards the beginning of the article is very, very interesting... Granted that there are sunk costs in that we have already manufactured the weapons, but I wonder how we would affect ISIS ranks if we simply gave each fighter $10K USD.

Agreed, its mass would have to change and therefore gravity would be stronger. I wasn’t sure if your original post appreciated that fact. I was referring to a situation where jupiter was replaced by a smaller object of the same mass via “magic”.

Gravitational pull is a function of mass and distance. If the mass of an object and its distance to another object don’t change, then gravitational pull doesn’t change either.

If your having tax problems I feel bad for you son
I got 99 deductions but a dependent ain’t one

If you pay for something, whether you need it or not, it is your’s. Cheeseburgers, TVs, Social Security. If you want to redistribute SS funds by taking funds from people who don’t need them and giving to those who do, and we can by and large agree that it is the right thing to do, then fine. But call it a social…

I think it is cultural, but I wouldn’t have wanted to live with my parents. I love them, and they love me and would have welcomed me, but it would have been a miserable situation.

Yes, the scheme relies on population growth outpacing life expectancy and inflationary increases. Compare SS with the scheme used in Singapore where every person must contribute 20% of their income to a Central Providence Fund (CPF). The CPF is managed by the government and provides a relatively low rate of return.…

But they paid a tax to reap those benefits. Even if I have plenty of money in retirement and don’t “need” the social security benefit, I am still entitled to it because I paid for it. It would be like getting in line at McDonalds to buy a cheeseburger, paying for the cheeseburger, and waiting for the cheeseburger only…

One of the issues in making this comparison is ensuring you compare apples to apples. Comparing the costs of renting a 1-2 bedroom, 800 sq ft apartment are going to be very different than the cost of renting or buying a 2000 sq ft home. Back when I was house shopping, if I had to choose between renting my $1100…

In my opinion, unless you are going to save 50% on fuel economy, it shouldn’t come into the equation. Fuel prices fluctuate wildly. We’ve seen both historic lows and highs in fuel price in the last 10 years relative to where gas cost in the 1970's.

You did the math! Most people don’t. Keep in mind that MPG, while a convenient number, can be misleading. Stepping from 1o to 20 is a huge savings in fuel! Stepping from 20 to 30 is much, much less. In fact, 20 to 40 will only net you half the savings as going from 10 to 20. Diminishing returns sets in quickly with…

I think that you almost have to do the math for everything, but the key is not investing too much time/effort on the analysis. If you don’t drink coffee, but you want a coffee maker for your guests, then you should think about how often you will use it and what you want to spend per use. Even a $25 coffee maker should…

Agreed... I made more money going to grad school, and had my education paid for, than I would have working at a super market. Granted I would have made more by taking my BS in Chem. Eng. to industry, but I thought I wanted to pursue a career in academia, so I went to grad school.

Quick charging isn’t a limitation of batteries.... it is a limitation of physics. The amount of power you deliver to your ICE vehicle when you fill the gas tank is equivalent to the amount of power delivered to run 3000 A/C units in the average US home. Let that sink in for a minute...

My wife and I took a tax hit when we got married. Before we wed, my wife and I were living together in my home. She was a teacher paying on her student loans, and didn’t itemize. I was an engineer making a good salary, but benefiting from the mortgage interest and property tax deductions when I itemized. When we got…

A focus chassis pick-up? yes please.