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S Phillips

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    • Publishing, the social security benefits of staying in the workforce until age 70 helps. I understand some jobs would be difficult to do as we get older though.

      Post: Social Security vs. Private Investment Accounts – RCC runs some numbers.

      Link to comment from February 3, 2025

    • But if more goods were mass produced more cheaply, it seems to me the supply of goods would be available without the demand increasing the price. On the other hand, if government just mailed everybody $1 million tomorrow then what you say would seem correct to me.

      Post: Social Security vs. Private Investment Accounts – RCC runs some numbers.

      Link to comment from February 3, 2025

    • Thanks for going through those calculations. I really appreciate that. I don’t think Social Security should go away, but the obvious answer your question is simply that we would all pay a Social Security tax, but it would be much lower-only enough to cover those beer keg type of accidents you mentioned. people without the beer keg accident would then have the return you described, all other the variables being equal (which, of course they wouldn’t be).

      Post: They’re Right, I’m Wrong, Sort Of

      Link to comment from February 3, 2025

    • Up votes for the socket and screwdriver set with lots of bits along with the battery operated screwdriver, which can also serve as a drill. also upvoted the painting labor. We’re repainting one room now, but we’ve also hired two different painters through the years, including most recently this summer. I don’t get up on the roof anymore like I did all the time 20 years ago. The biggest savings though is with Plumbing. Changing a faucet that has started to leak or shower valve can easily be $400 in my area. The parts tend to be free if you’re the original owner of certain brands. So if you can do it yourself, there’s no out-of-pocket cost at all. I work with two plumbing companies for the big stuff like an entire hot water heater which my house has two and so while they are here doing something that requires soldering copper pipe or that I don’t want to do I walk them around to get prices on anything else I need done Then either choose to hire them or DIY.

      Post: Necessary Skills

      Link to comment from February 3, 2025

    • Thanks for posting this.I’ve wondered the exact same thing. Looking forward to hearing what people have to say. I wonder sometimes why take a risk at all for 2% return?

      Post: Bond Index Funds or Something Else?

      Link to comment from January 28, 2025

    • I wonder where they went to school?

      Post: Limits of Power by Jonathan Clements

      Link to comment from January 21, 2025

    • Maybe when we open those monthly money statements, we feel like Giants at the top of a beanstalk… Looking down at the straw thatched roofs below…filled with folks who just don’t appreciate how good the economy has been?

      Post: Money Grows Up

      Link to comment from January 19, 2025

    • Thank you. This might be helpful too: https://moneywise.com/retirement/elderly-couple-spent-840k-moving-into-retirement-home-that-went-bankrupt

      Post: When the Retirement Community Goes Bankrupt

      Link to comment from January 19, 2025

    • Yeah! How much better can this economy get? Does anybody really think it was better under the last administration? If they don’t like this high GDP, low unemployment, and low inflation, well then - let them eat cake! I’m an a charitable independent with libertarian leanings and I don’t think government should have so much influence over the economy at all - spending other people’s money on people other than themselves no matter which party they are. They’re not going to consistently get good value or good quality. Good value and high-quality come from spending our own money on ourselves and those in our community and our world who we love. Edit: I apologize for being polemic above. Like a couple of other commenters have said, I come here to get away from politics. Anyone is welcome to turn a blind eye to the reality that most of us “earned” 20+ percent with our market investments last year without getting off the couch. On the other hand, the people who work in factories to make the things that we are using to communicate with each other right now probably didn’t get a 20% pay increase - and had to commute then work 40 or more hours a week to boot. They are the ones who defeated the current administration and that is what the original post Jonathan did is about to me, as well as how we might consider relaxing and staying the course. Had the recent inflation occurred over a longer period of time such as what occurred in the cost of university tuition after well-intentioned federal politicians created the Student Loan Marketing Association (SLMA) also known as “Sallie Mae“ in the early 70s, the result of the election might’ve been different, but such a sudden increase in prices was not overlooked by the majority of voters this time. You can acknowledge this reality or ignore it at your peril just like I had to acknowledge the reality that index funds were a better investment for me in the long run than my professionally managed mutual funds or ignore that at my peril. Somewhere in my library, I have a book titled something like “the dying of money“ or something like that. If I remember correctly, it was written in the early 1970s and says that inflation always shows up first in the stock market. Most of us here benefited from that inflation, but I beg you not to be disrespectful to the people who weren’t invested in the market and into are stuck with higher prices and stagnant wages.

      Post: Limits of Power by Jonathan Clements

      Link to comment from January 19, 2025

    • Since you brought up climate change, were you taught in school that there was an Ice Age and that the Earth warmed up gradually and naturally or for some unknown reason? I was taught that. I feel like “climate change“ always implies climate changes caused by humans the way the term is used nowadays and that the solution to it is for me to keep less of my humble dollars, instead giving them to President Trump or President Biden, or whoever is in government next to fix the problem. Is that the case? I don’t see this question addressed anywhere, but maybe I haven’t looked at the right locations?

      Post: The Twenty Billion Dollar Problem

      Link to comment from January 10, 2025

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