LouisEly

The thing with housing is that while it only appreciates on average 2-3% per year, you capture the appreciation on borrowed money so the actual ROI is much higher. Say you bought a house years ago for $100K and put 20% down ($20K) and the house appreciates at an average of 2.5% per year. The first year it appreciates $2,500 ($100K x 2.5%) because it's 2.5% of the value, but you only invested $20K so the actual rate of return on your down payment is 12.5% ($2,500 divided by $20,000). On top of that, you deduct mortgage interest and property taxes on your tax returns and you net ~20-25% of what you pay in interest and taxes in income tax reductions, increasing the return to >12.5%. Now, that 2-3% appreciation per year is compounded. Let's say that $100K house has now doubled in value to $200k. It keeps appreciating at 2-3% per year, so now that 2.5% appreciation is $5,000 but your original down payment is still $20,000 so the rate of return on your down payment is now 25%. If you're in a hot location and it's appreciating at more like 4%/year... your rate of return is now 40%. You're correct in that maintenance and repairs needs to be factored in, reducing the returns. But you also have to factor in opportunity cost, in that if you were to rent that home your rent would have doubled over that time as well. Let's say rent on that $100K home was $750/mo, but since the value has doubled now rent might be $1,500/mo. You're "saving" $750/mo on rent now, or $9,000 per year, by locking in your housing payment, offsetting the maintenance expense. Where you lose in real estate is selling and giving up 5-6% of the value in real estate commissions. Years ago I ran something like this on a spreadsheet factoring in loan principal reduction/equity building, appreciation, income tax savings, and estimated maintenance/repairs and I think the net ROI on the down payment was ~14-15%/year. If I could lock in stock market returns at 14% per year I would take that in a heartbeat.

No, mortgages are compounded monthly - what you pay is the interest rate divided by 12 each month on the remaining balance, not the interest rate times the balance divided by 12. And HELOCs aren't a second mortgage - they leverage the equity in your home, so you can only take out a fraction of your home's appraised value. I'm a year into my refinance of ~$400K and a $25K HELOC, if applied to my mortgage balance, cuts almost $33K of interest payments off the top - I jump from month 13 to month 47 on the loan payment schedule. HELOCs have a 10-year draw period during which you only have to pay simple interest, which on the $25K is a little over $90/mo, then a 20-year payback period. I would need to pay that $90/mo for 360+ months to break even on the interest payments I save jumping from month 13 to month 47. Not only do I skip the interest payments, I jump forward to paying more towards the principal each month, faster increasing my equity. Now, with the HELOC over the 10-year draw period you pay whatever extra you are comfortable with (say, $400/mo) each month towards the HELOC balance and then in a couple of months you draw on the HELOC up to your limit again and pay an extra ~$1000 on your mortgage principal (which for me would knock another month+ of payments off of the mortgage). Rinse and repeat for 10 years and you'll knock about every fourth payment off of your schedule, skipping another 36 payments, then you have up to 20 years to pay back the HELOC balance ($25K at 5% interest over 10 years is $265/mo, so you can continue to pay an extra $135/mo towards the principal without increasing your total monthly payment towards the mortgage or pay the HELOC off in 6 years at $400/mo.) In my scenario, after 10 years you'll have knocked ~70 payments off of your loan. You can't do that paying that $400 towards the principal. You can also refi after 10 years, lump in and pay off the HELOC, and probably get a shorter term or lower payment for the remaining term because your balance will be so low.

Agree w/Nate above. If you buy a $500K house, put 20% down, and finance $400K at 4.5%, over 30 years you'll pay almost ~$330K in interest over the life of the loan. If you invest $400/mo over 360 months and earn 5% interest, you'll be sitting on a little over $330K, so about break even. However, if your mortgage is at 3.25% you'll only pay ~$230K in interest, but if you invest that $400/mo and earn 7% interest you'll be sitting on almost $500K. At 8% return, almost $600K. If you really, really want to pay down your mortgage there is a better way than making extra payments - get a HELOC, use the HELOC to buy down your mortgage principal, and then make your extra payments towards your HELOC, rinse and repeat. Replace compound interest with simple interest that is still tax deductible. There's software that will calculate it for you: The Shred Method

I think my parents bought their first house in the early 70's for ~$10,000. They stayed in it until 2009. Interest rates were high back then, but they refinanced along the way and by the 90's their housing payment was nothing compared to their income so they could start investing. That investing and minuscule house payment allowed them to buy a small lake house (2 very small BRs, couldn't have been more than 1000 sq ft) in the early/mid 2000s. The rise in property values along with the drop in interest rates has given many people who bought homes in the 70's and 80's an incredible amount of equity and ability to invest. There are many like them who can buy a new house in retirement because of the equity they've built and not have a big mortgage. That being said, my parent's financial advisor has been great about educating them to allocate their money to the highest interest rates and keeping a mortgage at 3% and putting their money in investments making 7-10% and use the yield from their investments to pay their refi mortgage. If people are financially savvy and secure, they should have a mortgage. For me, my rental properties will be paid off in 14 years, roughly when I will retire, and I'll sell those and use that to purchase my retirement home. They're worth almost $500k right now, so in retirement I should be able to buy the equivalent of a $500K home today and not have a mortgage (if I don't want one, depending on interest rates).

$3.2B in crypto-currency stolen in 2021, up >500% over 2020, 72% from defi platforms. I'd rather hold indirect in an ETF or OTC than directly hold currency.

It is so on-brand for 2021 to take Betty White from us on the last day of the year.

Had a Lozza Mozza pizza last week. It was on sale for $6.99 so I thought I'd give it a shot. Thought it was OK but nothing special. The sauce was good, could hardly taste the pepperoni, and the crust tasted like cardboard with a dusting of flour. Plenty of cheese, but I find mozzarella to be kind of bland. I'd rather have a Jacks and put half of a package of shredded gourmet cheddar cheese on it. If you haven't put mixed cheddar cheese on a pizza, it really adds flavor to it. $2-$2.50 for a package of Roundy's brand mixed sharp cheddar, so it only adds $1 or so to the cost of a Jacks. I did get a few Poco's pizzas for Christmas since my parents live in that area. Brat & cheese curd, summer sausage & cheese curd, and Door County cherry pulled pork. Looking forward to having one this weekend (I've already had the Door County cherry pulled pork). Feel free to cast a vote for which one I should have and I'll report back on it (probably will anyway).

Look at PFF (iShares Preferred Stock and Income Securities ETF). The yield is 4.68%. I've keep some of my cash reserves in that fund since 2014. It's consistently been between 34 and 39 a share over the last five years, currently trading just under 39, except for when the market bottomed in late March of last year when it dipped to 27.75 at its lowest. It's about as low-risk as you can get while getting more than 1% yield.

The 1980 US Olympic team was pretty exciting. Granted, the Russians were playing with essentially NHL players but I don't think you can convince me that not playing with NHL players made those medal games uninteresting.

That's why I went with an Amazon Fire Stick. Amazon is big enough where Google can't bully them around. The Amazon Fire Stick can go forward or backwards 15 seconds using the remote. Right now you can get one half price for $20 on Best Buy.

Yep. Cold oven @ 405. Pizza is ready about a minute after the oven dings that it's come to temperature. The thinnest of crispy layer on the bottom the way pizza is supposed to be. And get a package of shredded gourmet mixed cheddar cheese and put a handful or two on top of it before putting it in the oven. Jack's skimps on the cheese, but the gourmet cheddar on top fills the cheese gaps, melts nicely, and adds an excellent additional flavor to the pizza.

And the two underrated things about YouTube TV - unlimited library storage, and the ability to rearrange the channels to whatever order you like. You can move the channels around so that the 20-25 you watch most often are at the top and the crap you don't watch is at the bottom and you don't have to scroll through them.

Plus an additional $10/mo for unlimited program storage, whereas with YouTube TV you can add unlimited programs to your library. Otherwise DTVS only gives you 20 hours of storage. The only thing you can't do with YouTube TV is download shows to watch while offline (such as on an airplane) and sound is only in 2.1 surround, not 5.1 or 7.1.

Turbo, Cut the TV portion of Spectrum and just go with their internet service. It will probably cost you $75/mo or so, but then add on YouTube TV for $65/mo. With YouTube TV you get the local channels so you will still be able to watch all the Packers games (assuming you live in WI), and then add on MLB.TV if you want to watch a lot of Brewers games. Your total bill will be ~$140 before taxes/fees, but even with the additional MLB.TV subscription it sounds like that will be at least $60/mo less than what you are paying now. YTTV has a good selection of standard sports channels - ESPN/2/News/U, BTN, MLB, NFL, NBA, Golf Channel, FS1, FS2, CBS Sports Network, NBC Sports Network, ACC Network, SEC Network. MLB.TV might be the only thing you would need to add on if you don't currently have any movie channels. They let you try it free for a month, and right now they are charging $15 for the second month, so you can give it a two-month trial to see whether it works for you.

Buy an ETF. There's several Bitcoin or blockchain ETFs (which are mostly composed of companies that hold a lot of Bitcoin/crypto) that move with the price of the big cryptos.

Plenty of employers ghosting on applications and interviews. A couple of weeks ago I got an email rejection about a position I applied for last year. Sometimes, though, if you're in the second cut they hold you until someone is on board in case the person they want doesn't accept the offer. I know that hiring managers are busy and they try to screen for no more than the top 3, maybe 4, applicants. If you're #4 or #5, they might wait a while before informing you. Case studies are pretty much standard in my occupation at my level. They want to see how you think, how you solve problems, can you work with ambiguity and data. Most of the time when I've left a company it's because of the leadership and how I am treated than what I am doing (that, and them eliminating my position if not my entire department).

It's not specific to Cardano, it's that there is nothing to keep very intelligent people from making one and five years from now there will be a dozen more on the market and way more supply than demand. And if they don't figure out how to cancel it in the event of ransoms, they will soon be either banned or replaced.

This is one of the main reasons I don't invest in crypto - there is no protective moat. Anybody can make them. That's the one big difference with the gold comparison - gold has a big protective moat. You can't make it.

There aren't many of us calling for Norris to be DFA'd. Bickford was DFA'd because he was out of options and it was early in the season; they hoped to sneak him through. Norris is out of options as well.

Cubs just gutted their team, and the Brewers play at Wrigley 8/9-8/12. BF.net outing at Wrigley?

No, it's not correct. His birthday is 7/31/99 and he signed on 7/2/18, so he was only 18 when he signed. If a player signs when 18 or younger, they aren't eligible for the Rule 5 draft until after their 5th pro season which would be after the 2022 season.

Just getting caught up on the DVR over the last week. Only the Islanders could lose a game 7 to go to the SC Finals on a short-handed goal.

Also starring with Kotto in the movie Midnight Run, Charles Grodin passed away today. One of my favorite movies of the late 80's.

They said on CNBC today that this week lumber was down 7.5%, copper down 2%, and corn down 10.5%.

Bitcoin got hammered with Musks announcement (and the revelation of how energy inefficient bitcoin really is) and regarding inflation in materials pricing I'm hearing that many projects are being put on hold because of prices and labor shortage. Cramer also said today that copper futures have started to retreat so inflation could easily start to subside.