CheezWizHed

Stupid amount of cheese for the amount of crust. That is the point! The new crust sounds interesting though. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.

Go put your house money into it and let us know how it goes.

Yep. Ginger was sexy but far too high maintenance. I was a Mary Ann fan too. Even married my own Mary Ann (next-door farmer's daughter).

Yeah, I've seen those. There is a balance to life, which is one reason I stopped focusing on it so heavily - go live it instead. But investing early is ALWAYS good. Even if you have to start small. Each pay raise, I'd take part of it and increase my 401k contributions for my 529b contributions. With each tax refund, I'd pay off more debt (never had CC debt, but paid off vehicles that way).

I worked for Motorola as a software engineer in the late 90s and was getting stock options somewhere around my third year in the company. They used it to keep their best talent (not bragging, but only the top-rated engineers got them). So it isn't like that is new. What is FIRE? I used to by much bigger into investment; even being one of the first online trader accounts on eTrade. I read nearly everything Motley Fool put out (still a lot of good advice there). I did ok but realized how much time I was spending at doing it (enjoying it or not). So I stopped and simplified my approach: Mutual funds and index accounts, dollar-cost averaging, max out 401k matching, etc. have all done me very well. Someone mentioned working hard to get a 10% return but that is about what I've been getting without working at it at all. Now I need to start looking at switching gears being 8-14 years from retirement and start preparing for that switch. One thing I'd take advantage of right now (if you haven't) is to consider refinancing your home mortgage. For the first time in my life, I paid points on a loan to drive down my rate to 2.25%. My required monthly payment went down, but I'll plan to pay the same monthly amount. Thus, I'll pay off my loan 4.5 years earlier then my previous loan (saving myself about $75k). The refinance costs will pay back in 39 months, but I have zero plans on moving so that shouldn't be a problem. Step one to retirement is completed.

I'll add that both my parents were blue-collar workers that scraped to get by. They didn't spend money they couldn't afford and taught us to save money. I ended up with an engineering job, while my brother became a mechanic. He just retired at age 56 and is living comfortably. I mentioned that I'm on the same track right now. It isn't about how much you make... more about how you manage what you have.

The main problem is that kids DO learn finances from their parents (by walk at least) and no HS course is going to change that. For Christmas, this year, I got my kids this course: https://www.daveramsey.com/store/product/foundations-in-personal-finance-high-school-edition-for-self-study We always give them one gift that is Education focused. They weren't jumping up and down over this gift (like they did for the downhill ski passes and lessons), but sometimes parents have to parent and do what is good for their kids. The single biggest lesson I could drive into the skulls of people is to start saving money (even a small amount) EARLY. I started my 401k with my first job and put in the minimum to match my company. I just sat down to review how things are going (24 years later) and it is looking like I'll be able to retire when I'm 55 or 60 (which I'm actually a bit surprised). My financial goal that I hoped to hit at 65 should happen about 10 years earlier now. Compound interest and dollar cost averaging ROCK! I started 529b accounts for my kids' college education - and started them late when they were already 5-6 years old. Interest has over doubled my initial contributions and they will have 2-3 years of their college paid for without me contributing another cent. Now I'm kicking myself for not starting them at birth. But I'm still in a better situation then my friends that are shelling out $$ to pay directly for their kids' education.

I was just looking at my HSA investment account today, where I have a 5-10 year investment risk profile. So they put me in a mutual fund from Vanguard that has historically (over 10 years) gained 2 percent. Since they are Bonds, the risk is very minimal. This is one bond index fund. There are others to investigate: https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/profile/VBITX Hope that helps.

My favorite way to take in a game is listening to Uecker on the radio while I'm out doing something else. Now that I'm out of state, I often use the MLB app to stream the audio feed. Rarely do I watch a whole game on TV 1-9th innings. Often if I'm watching the game, I watch it late. The MLB app allows you to pick which half-inning you want to watch. I'll skip through to watch specific at-bats or innings pitched. And I'm not a millennial.

Well drat, my memory was bad. Looks like I'm getting 0.5% instead of 2-3%. But I don't have a ton of money there... I use it as my liquid savings account instead of the 0.001% you get from a bank, so I suppose I'm doing better anyway.

Let me double check when I get home. I know it was with DWS, but I don't remember the fund name. Hopefully, I linked the wrong spot and not overstating the return. I know it will fluctuate with the market, but doesn't ever lose value.

A year or two is too long to have that money sitting on the sidelines. Bitcoin or anything volatile? No. But there's plenty of "safe" stocks that will yield 2-3% in dividends, and if the stocks go up even a little you'll get a total return of 5-7%. Even if you're not comfortable with an individual stock, get an ETF that maximizes dividends. I basically keep my emergency funds in a money market that regularly get 2-3% for no risk. Unlike CDs, I can take out the money as needed. Check out: https://fundsus.dws.com/us/en-us/products/money-market-funds.html

Ok, time to stop and turn back to investing strategies.

A couple things to note: - COVID drove up inflation too. I'm not sure the exact percentage, but prices are visibly higher than pre-COVID (especially anything service related). - Corporations don't "own" the money in the stock market. That is money borrowed from people. - Far more than 1% of people have money in the stock market. Far more disturbing is the number of small businesses that closed while big businesses were allowed to operate.

I cut the cord probably 10 years ago now. At the time, satellite was about $120/month. I currently pay $60 for MLB TV (which is now free for T-Moble customers), $100 for NFL replay. I also have Prime, but technically the streaming came "free" after paying for other services - but if you wish another $130/year. Hulu is free for Sprint customers (T-mobile and Sprint just merged, hence why I paid for MLB TV last year). I will occasionally pay for a month of Sling to watch the NBA playoffs or something like that. So $1440/year satellite and around $270/year for other services (going off memory for the above numbers - but they should be close) and going down this year. Savings of over $1100. Another way we save money - I downloaded the Google Rewards App. I fill out a 2-3 question survey a couple times a week. Each survey gives me $0.10-$0.50 in my Google Play account. I think use that money to pay for rental movies on Google Play.

Living in MN, I'm only blacked out when the Brewers play the Twins, so it isn't that often. I've thought about a VPN, but good thing I didn't bother.

People in USA watching Chernobyl when it came out May 2019, "lol Russia, we could never bungle something THAT bad." I've not watched the show, but I did have a chance to ride a train 20 miles from Chernobyl when going from Kiev to Minsk back a couple years after the cold war ended (1993). It was interesting to see the Soviet mindset (Belarus and Russia were still pretty well linked) and perspective on the US. I remember the first time someone told me about "all the propaganda" going on in the US and I laughed and thought, "No, its only Russia that puts out propaganda." Right then and there the lightbulb went on. Every country has their own "spin" and we aren't nearly as good as we think we are.

Living in Chicago, and now LA, I have been able to watch the Brewers for free the last 2 years because I get a free MLB account through T-Mo. It's been awesome. I've paid ~$60/year for it the last few years. But now that Sprint merged with T-Mobile, I'll get it for free too.

The ironic thing is that it is cheaper to watch Brewers games outside of Wisconsin than inside. Dumb black-out rules!

We use Prime for movies more than TV series. They rotate movies fairly often and if you are looking for one specific, rentals for everything is available. And if you delay your shipments on occasion, you can bank electronic media $$ to pay for the rentals.

No. But since Prime gives you other extras (shipping, music, etc..), it is a good deal anyway.

I cut the cord years ago and haven't missed it either. We do watch TV every night, but not normally until later in the evening. I have Prime and Hulu (free from phone plan). I get an MLB and NFL replay subscriptions (about $200/year). We watch a few NBA games and normally add Sling for the playoffs, then drop it again. Plus, I have TIVO for OTA programs. My smart TVs also have other misc apps like TubiTV and Roku that has commercial driven free content. Thus, I still have way more than I need. More recently, I deleted all the games from my phone and started focusing on my guitar playing.

I almost made a joke about that. But for those congratulating me... thanks! And to Underachiever, I wish you and your internet connection a lifetime of happiness!

This seems like the most-abandoned thread of 2020! I just graduated with a master's degree in engineering management from Penn State after 2 long years! It feels great to have that behind me now. Please no, PSU jokes. I'm still a Badger at heart! UW just didn't have an online degree.