Recent Posts

21

Investor Alley / Re: Is Tesla a good investment?

« Last post by ChpBstrd on Today at 07:25:04 AM »

I think it has been a toxic place for a while now. Layoffs will make morale worse.

I was interviewed for a role at Tesla a while back. Person interviewing me was doing similar as what I do but at Tesla and wanted to hire someone to help him. The guy was asking me how my work is done in a large organization like where I was at. I explained to him and mentioned we have a team employees working together to accomplish our work. He was clearly frustrated to hear that. It seemed to me he alone was to do entire teams worth of work, seemed overworked and exploited at Tesla..

I don't do very well with toxic bosses or environments. I knew right away that role was not for me

I recommend the Elon biography by Isaacson. It's a good read. Musk is incredibly demanding, impulsive, unpredictable and unfair. A flawed genius, no doubt.

Working at Tesla doesn't sound all that far off from my own experience when I first came to the USA. It was great for a young, single, hungry engineer, willing to put work first and go where they sent me at a moment's notice. Tesla could be like that, only with far better tech. It would be great experience. Yes, you might get fired so save like a fiend, which won't be too difficult because you'll have no time to spend money anyway.

I wouldn't do it now. I would advise my kid to try it, or Space X preferably.

Seems like the people willing to sacrifice years of their early lives on the alter of work might be better off as entrepreneurs.

The people getting shitcanned at Tesla are left with nothing. The people keeping their jobs - also get no significant equity in a business. Entrepreneurs at least have a chance of owning a growing business, and the ones who fail are often no worse off than the laid-off employee workaholics.

22

Ask a Mustachian / Re: How to find (somewhat) niche tax help?

« Last post by FLBiker on Today at 07:22:29 AM »

Personally, I wouldn't worry at all about finding someone local.  I would just look for crossborder tax accountants.  I use one and it has been good for my piece of mind.  We moved from the US to Canada almost 4 years ago.  I'm eventually going to DIY it, but there's definitely a learning curve.

I suspect if he had someone in Canada who did their US taxes, they'd have the crossborder expertise necessary to do this.

23

Real Estate and Landlording / Re: When will homebuyers give up on the idea of being able to refi at a lower rate?

« Last post by ChpBstrd on Today at 07:19:54 AM »

I think we need to give up on the financial media narrative about there being this huge pent-up demand for homes, or many millions of people waiting on the sidelines for rates to fall. It's starting to become an implicit, unquestioned assumption.

Yet if we look at the home ownership rate in the historical context, it appears we are in very average times. Could home ownership go up another 2% or so? Maybe. But how likely is that in the context of the worst price-to-income ratios in history and 7% interest rates?

24

Welcome and General Discussion / Re: What are your leanFIRE, FIRE, and fatFIRE numbers?

« Last post by Turtle on Today at 07:07:14 AM »

I'm late to this party, but wanted to toss out some numbers for myself (for two married adults, no kids):

Lean FIRE:  <1.5 TNW
FIRE: 1.5 - 2.5 TNW
Fat FIRE:  >2.5 TNW

Your numbers are exactly what ours were 5 years ago.  My numbers actually went up and not down when my spouse passed away.  Less income, more taxes, same house, different travel goals.

25

Real Estate and Landlording / Re: When will homebuyers give up on the idea of being able to refi at a lower rate?

« Last post by Jon Bon on Today at 06:22:13 AM »

Question was about home buyers not home owners.  Separately I agree re the view of stagnant prices and elevated inflation making homes cheaper in real terms is a realistic base case.

A buyer and a seller are the different side of the same coin. The vast majority of home buyers are also home sellers the same day.

Those low rates essentially locked up 50% of the market? There are lots of old folks that want to downsize, families that need more space, and none of us are making moves due to interest rates. So we sit and the supply remains constrained. Demand remains high due to lack of building and the construction mix that gets built.  I do consider buying, and that maybe I could refi at some point, but its too big a risk.

Now how does the fed unwind that problem we are facing? Your guess is as good as mine. Rates likely would need to become 'affordable' again? I mean yes we could wait 20-30 years until all those loans are paid off, but that's a long ass time!

Historically rates are not that bad, my parents always talk about the horrible interest rates in the 80s. I just think its kind of a giant fuck you to the 20-somethings trying to buy a house, like I'm sitting here on my 3% rate, in my nice fancy house, but "No soup for you!"

26

Off Topic / Re: My son set fire to his bed last night . . .

« Last post by Metalcat on Today at 06:07:40 AM »

I get the reasoning that people are saying about deception and natural consequences, but I have a very different perspective.

This is not counselling advice, this is general knowledge. Do with it what you will.

A child's brain is NOT equipped to handle the reasoning of such a traumatic event. This kid almost killed his entire family by trying to read a book. There's absolutely NO WAY a child has enough knowledge and context to make any sense of that.

A child who experiences such an event is psychologically injured, acutely, and substantially injured and that should be treated with the same urgency as smoke inhalation.

This would be a difficult scare for an adult to process, it would be literally impossible for a child's brain to process.

When a child experiences an exceptionally terrifying circumstance that their poor little developing brain doesn't have the capacity to process into healthy life lessons, it should be treated as a medical urgency with swift, effective care.

We're talking about brain development here. This is extremely and urgently important to manage responsibly.

27

Investor Alley / Re: Is Tesla a good investment?

« Last post by AdrianC on Today at 06:03:21 AM »

I think it has been a toxic place for a while now. Layoffs will make morale worse.

I was interviewed for a role at Tesla a while back. Person interviewing me was doing similar as what I do but at Tesla and wanted to hire someone to help him. The guy was asking me how my work is done in a large organization like where I was at. I explained to him and mentioned we have a team employees working together to accomplish our work. He was clearly frustrated to hear that. It seemed to me he alone was to do entire teams worth of work, seemed overworked and exploited at Tesla..

I don't do very well with toxic bosses or environments. I knew right away that role was not for me

I recommend the Elon biography by Isaacson. It's a good read. Musk is incredibly demanding, impulsive, unpredictable and unfair. A flawed genius, no doubt.

Working at Tesla doesn't sound all that far off from my own experience when I first came to the USA. It was great for a young, single, hungry engineer, willing to put work first and go where they sent me at a moment's notice. Tesla could be like that, only with far better tech. It would be great experience. Yes, you might get fired so save like a fiend, which won't be too difficult because you'll have no time to spend money anyway.

I wouldn't do it now. I would advise my kid to try it, or Space X preferably.

28

Do it Yourself Discussion! / Re: Fixing up bike - easy questions

« Last post by nereo on Today at 05:53:27 AM »

My advice will be regarded as heresy amongst real cyclists.

I don't spend money on special bike lubes and just use WD-40 instead.

Burn them!  Witch!


/jk, but not really.

WD40 is a solvent, not a lubricant.  It's great to get a rusty chain moving again, and likely needed in this case.   After the WD40, please put any type of oil onto the chain, let it sit for a bit and wipe off the excess with a clean rag.  Bike chain lube, clean canola oil, clean motor oil, reused french fry grease, dirty motor oil, in that order of preference.   Well, don't put the dirty motor oil, it's likely carcinogenic.

I’ve always thought a regular oil was even worse because dirt sticks and binds up between moving parts.

I joined a bike service co-op in grad school and once made the mistake of asking what lube I should use on my chain. 20 minutes later they were still actively debating while I packed up and went home.

My approach: (almost) any lubricant is better than none and chains are relatively cheap, easy to replace and fairly durable. So I…. Clean the chain, dry the chain, apply whatever oil/lube is within reach and then wipe off all excess. Done in under five minutes.

In other words, I try not to overcomplicate

29

Welcome and General Discussion / Re: The "Money well spent" thread. NO INVESTMENTS ALLOWED.

« Last post by Morning Glory on Today at 05:48:30 AM »

In other news our eldest offspring totaled their car today.... Ugh! No injuries.Safety systems did their job. Hate it because it was an otherwise very good car.

Car is up on jackstands. We've removed most of the damaged parts. Front suspension will need to be rebuilt. Fortunately replacement parts are quite affordable on RockAuto. ~450 for a lower control arm for example. Fenders for ~$50. Some parts will need to be sourced used.

The car's chassis was not harmed thankfully. All just bolt on parts that bent and absorbed the crash forces. Can properly repair the car for under ~$1K.

Do you have a u-pull-it salvage yard nearby?  The one I go to sells lower control arms for $35.

And they come with a free pair of sunglasses!

30

Investor Alley / Re: Top is in

« Last post by techwiz on Today at 05:30:44 AM »

#9 is one I'm currently particularly well positioned to appreciate: "Small print leads to large risk."

Always read the small print. That is where the most important information is, it is normally hidden at the bottom of the page somewhere. 






The top is in!