January Chat Thread: The year is dead, long live the year

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > January Chat Thread: The year is dead, long live the year

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Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

CommieGIR posted:

No, but Eddie Lampert didn't help. The guy is a huge Randite who got rich quick and then imagined himself a restructuring genius and, as well all discovered, his Mad Max Thunderdome management style loving sucks.

He's losing hand over fist and refuses the face the fact that the increased decline is almost entirely his fault. He could've literally done ANYTHING but what he did and Sears probably would've done way better. Hell, when he pushed to purchase Sears as controlling interest in K-Mart, K-Mart was already in decline while Target was re-imagining itself and is now doing okay.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2016/02/11/the-5-ways-ed-lampert-destroyed-sears/#23ad43c841de

I really don't mean anything by this, but:

whenever I read the chat thread Im either on my phone with no avatars or im on my work computer with no avatars per the settings.

because of this i dont usually pay attention to the name of the poster.

whenever im like "hey this sounds like something CommieGIR woulf say" i scroll up and 100% of the time it's CommieGIR

# ¿ Jan 3, 2017 00:19

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 05:23

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

CommieGIR posted:

Well, Congress just gutted the Congressional Ethics Board.

yep thats a CommieGIR post

# ¿ Jan 3, 2017 05:52

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

slurry_curry posted:

I guess. Just talked to them again and apparently the damage that happened to the front and rear bumper(screwed up clear bra on the front and scuffed up/dented rear bumper) happened since they have had it and won't change the price at all. They will fix the damaged clear bra, but I would have to pay for it, or else they would just remove the damaged parts but not everything. Apparently they also use body filler on bumpers to fix the waviness from impact and "all dealerships do this". Am I the crazy one for thinking that you NEVER use body filer on bumpers since with a slight tap it will fall off?

lmao run

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 02:27

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1svDq_o1zU

# ¿ Jan 8, 2017 19:53

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

kastein posted:

3 way and 4 way light switches are dumb simple. Use a multimeter to figure out which is the common terminal, or if it's broken completely, open it up and figure it out. 3ways are literally just an SPDT toggle, 4ways are a DPDT prewired to either run the two wires straight through, or cross them over internally.

There really needs to be a "home lighting for EEs" book and you need to write it because holy poo poo I used to be scared of them but hearing this and then looking at the below diagram has taken all the mystery out of them:

Like seriously why isn't all home wiring shown like this it's so loving easy to understand now.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2017 21:32

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

funny Star Wars parody posted:

Yeah and there is no early repayment penalty so I technically could have dumped the money into that instead, but my mortgage is a 3.25% rate with 3% APR and my student loans are 8%

Unless you and your wife's household income is enough to qualify for the alternative minimum tax, I would definitely use the money for investment instead of paying down your mortgage. With the mortgage interest tax deduction and 3.25% APR, you'll see way better returns. Obviously past performance /= future gains etc etc but index funds will put you in a waaaaay better position given a normal steady rise in the market, even if you only realize your mortgage interest of 3.25%/yr.

Worst case comedy option things go to poo poo and hyperinflation occurs, and you'll be able to pay your monthly mortgage bill by working for 30 minutes at your $1000/hr job since you're a skilled worker.

Mortgages own at low interest rates. Don't pay them off early.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 16:26

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

funny Star Wars parody posted:

eh idk, i'm not sure if that tax benefit is better than freeing up $1500/month to put into a mutual fund that will on average give me a 12% return. I should probably go see an accountant or financial adviser of some sort

lmao first off mutual funds aren't going to give you an average of 12% annually omfg. Maybe on an odd year in a bull market but long-term you'll see much lower, and fees will dig into that regardless.

second freeing up $1500/mo is only after you've taken money you already have and disappeared it. What I'm saying is if an investment performs at 3.25% (your mort interest) you're better off having the money in investments instead of paying off your mort because of the mort interest tax deduction. Since investments are gonna be better, on average, historically, long term, than 3.25% that's even more ammo going towards taking all that $$ and investing it instead of paying off the mort. (this is assuming you put the investments in tax-free vehicles like IRAs and/or 401ks. They have maximums per year but you're able to contribute to last year for another few months so you could max out two years worth like, today.)

If you get a financial advisor the absolute biggest thing you need to do to safeguard your money is get him to sign a piece of paper claiming a fiduciary duty to you. It's important that the term "fiduciary duty" be used. There are a LOT of "financial advisor" crooks out there looking for regular folks with windfalls they can fee the poo poo out of.

Adiabatic fucked around with this message at 17:11 on Jan 11, 2017

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 17:03

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

funny Star Wars parody posted:

I see i have a lot of reading to do

Please let me know if you have any questions. A financial advisor and CPA is a great idea and you should roll with that, but I want you to have ammo to first find the right one and second bring up questions for him/her to have to explain why it will/wont be in your best interest.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 17:12

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

bolind posted:

EDM in my ears, office nearly empty, juggling five interconnected commits up for review/test, things are flowing, I'm in the zone. gently caress I love my job.

This is my Friday every week. ABGT in the ears, code through the eyes. High5 loving job buddies

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 17:20

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

Seminal Flu posted:

Man watching Trump, I can't wait to see the very, very tremendous beautiful job he's going to do. It's going to be fantastic, big league.

Gonna keep my head down, do my job, make my resume as attractive as possible, and apply for the silver fern program if things get lovely.

I'm banking on "he's all talk and nothing incredibly horrible is actually gonna happen, this is exactly like holding your investments in a depression" but gently caress if I ain't got a backup plan.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 17:30

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:

I'm nowhere near TT's position financially (and won't be for a long time), but I'm genuinely curious how you find a good local advisor and CPA.

I'm extremely lucky in that my father has been a CPA since the mid 1970s, was partner for a long time in one of the largest firms in my hometown, then went solo, then joined up with another firm that one of his former partners works in, and is slowly winding his own personal involvement down (and selling his clients off to the partnership he's currently in - he has no desire to be partner again). I'm able to use him for advice so long as I'm in Texas. But I don't plan to remain in Texas, and I know he's very close to retirement (he turned 70 in December). He's very much tied up in my hometown and doesn't really talk to many people outside of there, aside from being a professional witness as a CVA.

tl;dr how do you find a good financial advisor and CPA? It doesn't seem like something you can just head over to Yelp for. Especially when you're in a metro area that makes up over a dozen counties and includes part of another state (DFW MSA is 20 counties and includes part of a county in Oklahoma). Also, what are fees like?

Disclaimer: This is totally and completely just my opinion. I am a random dude and don't manage any funds apart from my own.

Anti-sensationalism is a great trait for someone handling your money to have. Anyone who comes at you saying "I can outperform the index by X amount" can't back it up by fact. If they can, they got lucky for a short time (a short time in this case is 1 or 2 years) or they're doing something illegal/shady. Warren Buffet bet some awesome hedge fund manager $1MM he couldn't beat the market over something like 5 or 10 years. Dude had to pay Buffet. Also google Monkeys Beating Hedge Fund Managers At The Market.

Good financial advisors aren't going to have a way to beat the market in returns. Where they shine is finding different ways to keep fees and taxes from eating up your returns while competently managing risk through all different kinds of diversification. Feel free to ask them "what-if" questions on worst-case scenarios like long-term market depressions and bubbles and poo poo because if they don't have a good answer (a good answer can include "you'll have much more to worry about than money then") then you aren't diversified as much as you should be.

Fees can be a percentage, but I've personally found the best financial advisors charge a flat hourly fee instead of a percentage. I mean come on that's like de-facto fiduciary duty right there unless he rolled Chaotic Evil.

Random tangent: I (and BFC) personally love Vanguard as they're just a combo of bonds and index funds with super low fees (like 0.17%/yr) since God-King-Messiah Jack Bogle set Vanguard up so the investors completely own the fund. That being said, I personally have money in lower-return vehicles because DIVERSIFICATION.

Adiabatic fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Jan 11, 2017

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 17:57

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

IOwnCalculus posted:

I think diversifying into WJs and E30s is not going to result in much ROI

CONVERTIBLE AUTOMATIC E30S WILL OUTPERFORM THE INDEX JUST YOU WATCH

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 18:00

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

angryrobots posted:

I agree with that, if that's the situation. Definitely need to start saving for retirement asap.

(Edit: I thought TT was saying he could pay it in full or pretty quickly.)

He is. But if his tax bracket is somewhere around 25% his 3.25% mortgage is costing him a little less than 2.5% per year. If he took the money he would use to pay off the mortgage and instead invested it, any net returns over 2.5% is cash in his hand. Figure normalizing over a 30 year mortgage, index funds will shell out an average of 4-7% over 30 years. That doesnt sound like much but 1.5% (4%-2.5%) on 200k is $3,000 in the first year.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 19:43

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

Its also important to note that mortgages are amortized, so youre front-loaded on interest in the beginning. Most of your payment is interest in the beginning while most of it is principal in the end. If he paid it off now hed effectively have paid a much higher interest rate. This is also why you have to carefully consider what you've already paid before you refinance to a lower interest rate. You could be paying more in the long run.

Edit: Sally borrows 200k at 3.25% for 30 years. Her first year she pays $4,004.25 towards principle and pays a total of $6,971.52 in interest because lol amortization. She gets $1,742.88 back because of the mortgage interest tax deduction, so if she decided gently caress it im gonna pay off the remaining $195,995.75 that means she just paid $9,232.89 on $4,004.25 over the course of a year. She effectively took out a 1 year loan for $4k at 130% APR.

Adiabatic fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Jan 11, 2017

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 19:47

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

1500quidporsche posted:

I don't know the rules in the US but up here any sort of double payment is principal only.

Right Sally would be paying only principle on the remaining $196k as a one time overpayment, but that would have effectively meant $4k 1 year loan at 130% interest. See my edit above.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 20:08

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

funny Star Wars parody posted:

my dad just refinanced yesterday to go from 8.25 to 4.25, so if the rates have climbed by 1% since i got my mortgage in September, i can only imagine what it's going to look like in a year

also yes any extra payment i pay, at least on my mortgage, goes straight to the principal

Strictly talking total money spent, 8.25 to 4.25 was most likely a good call, depending on how far he was into his mortgage. However I implore people to use an amortization calculator to see exactly how much interest theyve paid already. The longer youre in a mortgage the less sense it makes to refinance.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 20:10

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

Seminal Flu posted:

Hard to make a sweeping argument like that, too many variables -- original/current interest rate, amount of principle, original length of original mortgage, time left on original mortgage, length of new mortgage, etc.

I closed on a refi on October 31, 15 years at 2.875%. Down a point from our previous refi, with the negotiated costs, it'll take us less than a year to pay the costs and from then on, it's saved money.

The next week, for some weird reason, interest rates shot up, so I think we got the lowest rate we'll see for a long time.

You can do it relatively easily with two amortization calculators open. Take the amount of principle left after X months and use that for the principle on the new interest rate. Total interest paid up to that point + total interest paid at the new interest rate on the new principle + refinance fees needs to be less than total interest paid on the entire amount at the old interest rate.

I just did it for 8.25 to 4.25 and the break even point is 174 months, or 14.5 years. Any longer and you'll be paying, strictly speaking in terms of total interest paid.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 20:36

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

1500quidporsche posted:

She took out a one year loan at $200k and paid the interest rate for that $200k for one year. That's not 130% interest.

~~Look up amortization schedules. You get front-loaded on interest.~~

Edit: I see what youre saying now and didnt mean to be curt in my response to it. My bad!

What I mean to say is if Sally has $196k chillin and decides to take out a $200k loan and then one year later decides to pay it off with the $196k she still has, in total interest paid she comes out the same as taking a $4k loan out at 130% interest.

Adiabatic fucked around with this message at 21:05 on Jan 11, 2017

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 20:37

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

rdb posted:

But what if I don't itemize my deductions because the standard deduction is higher? Not everyone pays enough interest on their mortgage to make it worthwhile.

Yeah that's also an issue and why you should look into a CPA and why I brought up alternative minimum tax and also why Im saying "generally" a lot.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 20:39

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

Yeah this is why CPAs exist so they can tell you to do X or not do X and you dont have to listen to Adiabatic sperg about amortization and diversification and index funds in the chat thread of a car forum.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 20:45

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:

I'll guarenttee, as an Accountant in much earlier life.....

Most financial advice from so called "professionals" is absolute crap. A lot of it is either a complete asspull from information that was valid 10 years ago OR - and this is where poo poo gets dangerous - it's advice that is to channel you into a scheme they get kickbacks for. This lead to a whooooole lot of people losing everything in the GFC if you don't remember - and it still continues on today and people lose their life savings as a result. Financial advice is one of the least regulated industries out there AND they are always coming up with new ways to hide kickbacks and lousy schemes. AAA rated? LOL so were sub primes after some repackaging!

You want to treat financial advice as if it is radioactive and protect yourself first. Want an example? Look up Great Southern Investments. Basically turned into a Ponzi scheme that took the savings of 10's of thousands. How about Gunns Plantations? Or how about Macquarie Investments 1? I could name more and the list of money lost was astonishing - and also the range of people who were financially literate that were pantsed by the 100 page dossier that hid exactly how bad the underlying securites actually were.

There is no such thing as independent, unbiased financial advice from a professional(*) (because the industry wont allow that kickback gravy train to be banned as it should be) and of course, amateur advice is basically the same put it all on black and hope.

Yes, you are hosed unless you can afford a (*) - (*) being a professional who truly ONLY has YOUR interests in mind and that's only because you pay them enough to make that happen. Have a guess how much you have to have to afford that?

In the late 80's I was into currency hedging on behalf of the company I worked for. I was very good at it and made a *lot* of profit but believe me, half the time it was an asspull. You would be shocked just how many times a hedge fund manager with 20 billion in the portfolio is literally doing asspulls and gets lucky. Those kids on Wall Street wired on cocaine and hookers? Most of the reason why they are edgy and wired as gently caress is that they know the 10 B they dropped on behalf of their clients is no more than a guess based on computer models that work on a range of assumptions that are hazy at best and outright illegal at worst.

It'll all come crashing down one day - it came drat close in the GFC and we are STILL feeling the effects of that one, when it does crash down and get exposed it'll make the Great Depression look mild and make Mad Max a reality.

I got bitten badly by the GFC and even with my level of cynical outlook on humanity was shocked just how rancid the Financial advice industry truly was and still is. And conservatives/Libertarians are doing their best to remove safeguards that existed from then, you think it's any better now?

Oh and if you have a home loan? Hit those repayments as hard as possible as early as possible. Excess payments always come off the principal and hence what you pay up front, you save in interest on the back end.

Theres a thing here in the U S of A called fiduciary duty thats a binding legal document for a financial advisor to only take steps that put your moneys best interests at heart. Mind you this wont stop the small fee skimming, but its a super important litmus test to keep the super bad ones at bay.

That being said there are definitely good people that go into the financial advisory field and only do good to their clients. I know dozens of them. I think you may just have a jaded perspective.

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 22:47

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

im meatpimp

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 23:14

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

Seminal Flu posted:

There are a couple phrases in that pair of sentences that should have "quotation marks" around them.

Its actually super goddamn serious if you get it in writing.

https://cyber.harvard.edu/trusting/unit5all.html

# ¿ Jan 11, 2017 23:17

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

I am genuinely impressed yall were able to arrive at your normal "the world is poo poo everything sucks" conclusion by means of the term "fiduciary duty". Seriously good job.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2017 01:02

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

Seminal Flu posted:

Wow, that's quite the exaggerated conclusion from three people simply disagreeing with your view.

Yeah no youre right my bad

# ¿ Jan 12, 2017 01:21

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

think i might pick up the ol gitbox. the wifes ladyfriend smashley left hers and im itchin for some 90s rock

# ¿ Jan 12, 2017 03:21

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

bolind posted:

Checking out some ABGT right now - just the kind of therapy my ears need. Thanks for the tip!

Absolutely. Got any good ones to recommend? I'll also listen to Heldeep Radio but OH has been getting a little too synthy 80's throwback for me lately.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2017 16:52

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

listening to abgt 213 and working a bunch

today is a good day

# ¿ Jan 13, 2017 18:19

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

Wrar posted:

Thanks for this, I've never heard of it before.

Above & Beyond owns and I love their sound. ABGT has been going on for a while so you've got about 450 hours of radio to listen to now

# ¿ Jan 13, 2017 19:35

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

I am way too far in the boonies. Theres hells angels and mongols here and theyre getting along...

# ¿ Jan 15, 2017 01:01

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

BraveUlysses posted:

I recommend How to put corn on your ignore list

why would he do this? corn has recommended way better books than you have.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2017 21:31

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

BraveUlysses posted:

You haven't tried my suggested book

im good. seems rather trivial and juvenile

# ¿ Jan 17, 2017 21:34

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

Enourmo posted:

what book would you recommend for a juvenile rage ape such as myself?

Godel, Escher, Bach is awesome.

so is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, if you're looking for something quicker.

They both go into the way we think (especially the enginerds in this chat) and both gave some really cool insight.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2017 21:42

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

i like my pizza like i like my life: garbage

# ¿ Jan 19, 2017 17:56

Adiabatic: Nov 18, 2007; What have you assholes done now?

CommieGIR posted:

Even if I wanted to finish my Physics degree at this point, it doesn't matter, most of the jobs I'd want are going to be slashed and overmanned.

The self-affirming completion of a huge goal may be worth it to you?

I like completing goals. It also becomes contagious to all facets of my life once I start pounding out goal after goal. The inverse is also true in my skull.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2017 18:43