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Had a sorta-BWM pop up recently. The US military is changing its pension system starting next year, and the majority of people already in are being offered the option to stay in the old system or take the new system, so there's been a lot of financials talk lately, which is good! But that's how I got this story. Background information: the military, like all Federal government jobs, allows you to contribute to the Thrift Savings Plan, which is our 401(k). Not mandatory, not everyone does, but cool if you do. Like a 401(k) it has a few funds to choose from; a bond index, an S&P500 index, a small cap fund, and and international fund. And a government bonds "pretty much risk free but beats inflation" fund for when you're like, fully-retired. One of the officers had a senior staff enlisted guy who came up to him after a financial talk. He'd been contributing for like 12-14 years to this TSP and never thought any more about it. Never even logged into the TSP website to check stuff, just made sure the deductions came out of his paycheck correctly. Guess which fund the TSP deposits your contributions to by default? If you said "the Government bond fund that has earned 2.63% annually over the past 10 years" you're right! Poor guy. He's for sure not the only one who's made this mistake, though.
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May 3, 2017 21:41
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This is a new one: http://jalopnik.com/the-bmw-addiction-that-completely-destroyed-this-man-s-1794882542 quote:According to Terrance, he stole $320,000 by issuing himself 125 extra paychecks. And he spent every penny of it on his BMWs.
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May 3, 2017 21:41
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Hey Overdesigned - is the 401k/TSP your only military retirement, or is there something more?
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May 3, 2017 22:02
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The TSP is the primary option unless you manage to stay in 20 years and collect your retirement pay. I'm not sure how that works. The TSP though is c-c-c-crazy good. The expense ratio is 0.038% and the funds are decent. I admit that my initial response when somebody tried to tell me to put money in something other than the G-Fund was, "I don't know enough about this so I'm not touching it," but I learned about investing and changed it all later. The most baller thing about the TSP is that if you have any amount of money in it, you can choose to roll over your 401(k) contributions from your civilian work into your TSP account when you move on. Honestly, that dude is still a step ahead of the game because trying to convince Marines to spend their money on something other than motorcycles, tattoos, and nicotine/alcohol products is loving difficult. Being in the military should be GWM, but existing in an endless debauchery culture is BWM. Hoodwinker fucked around with this message at 22:32 on May 3, 2017 |
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May 3, 2017 22:25
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Henrik Zetterberg posted:I think we all know the same guy, except my guy is the bitcoin guy. Like your guy, he's been all over AMD's nuts for the past year. I lol'ed at him yesterday for AMD's tumble, and this was his response: Well at least I hope the guy you are talking about is still young. I can understand people doing that when they're young, except for the overpriced truck that will no doubt involve a large high interest loan. overdesigned posted:Poor guy. He's for sure not the only one who's made this mistake, though. I've tried to talk to a friend of mine who is only 23 to put his retirement savings in something better than a 4% cash fund. At least the interest rate is ok and he's doing alright having over $6k at 23 but should be doing better. Hopefully you can talk a few people into better investments. Devian666 fucked around with this message at 23:23 on May 3, 2017 |
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May 3, 2017 23:17
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:They used to have Home Economics that included things like balancing a checkbook and whatnot. Here we had to take "economics" in highschool but that mostly focused on macroeconomics for the first few weeks and then stuff like "how to run babby's first business" which is totally worthless to 99% of students We also had to take "home economics" but that was just sneakily disguised sex ed / health class wrapped up in a name that the fundie parents wouldn't throw as much of a fit about I guess, there was absolutely nothing about finances in it, like a single day of class about how to cook and then a whoooole bunch of abstinence-only sex ed, watching lifetime original movies about how if you get teen pregnant you might as well just kill yourself, and good ol' fashioned slut shaming. Henrik Zetterberg posted:I think we all know the same guy, except my guy is the bitcoin guy. Like your guy, he's been all over AMD's nuts for the past year. I lol'ed at him yesterday for AMD's tumble, and this was his response: My guy is more into leasing sports cars and then getting $200 speeding tickets every two weeks than trucks but otherwise sounds the same. Also he's not a bitcoiner but don't worry there's a significantly more annoying bitcoiner at my office to make loving sure that everyone within earshot will hear about how wonderful bitcoins are and how you should buy bitcoins.
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May 4, 2017 00:31
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Bitcoins are actually looking solid lately, no major scams, price is skyrocketing, and the marketplaces are well equipped with supply and demand. Only thing that would really tank bitcoin is a mass legalization of drugs or some sort of crypto breakthrough.
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May 4, 2017 00:36
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baquerd posted:Bitcoins are actually looking solid lately, no major scams, price is skyrocketing, and the marketplaces are well equipped with supply and demand. Only thing that would really tank bitcoin is a mass legalization of drugs or some sort of crypto breakthrough. Source your quotes, please
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May 4, 2017 00:47
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Hot Dog Day #91 posted:Hey Overdesigned - is the 401k/TSP your only military retirement, or is there something more? I'm glad you asked! Like I said the system is changing, so you have the "Legacy High-3" and the new "Blended" system. Legacy High-3: After 20 years, you get a pension that's 50% of the average of your highest-three years of base pay. Also, health insurance for life. If you don't stay for 20 years, you get nothing. New Blended: After 20 years, you get a pension that's 40% of the average of your highest-three years of base pay. Also, still health insurance for life. You also get 5% match into the TSP. All matched funds are fully vested after 2 years of service (99% of people enlist for >2yrs so a non-issue) Anyone in either system is free to contribute as much or as little as they want to the TSP up to the annual 401(k) contribution limit. It has Roth-type and non-Roth variants, your choice. Hoodwinker posted:Honestly, that dude is still a step ahead of the game because trying to convince Marines to spend their money on something other than motorcycles, tattoos, and nicotine/alcohol products is loving difficult. This is true. He's not BWM but he could have been so much BetterWM.
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May 4, 2017 00:53
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overdesigned posted:Had a sorta-BWM pop up recently. The US military is changing its pension system starting next year, and the majority of people already in are being offered the option to stay in the old system or take the new system, so there's been a lot of financials talk lately, which is good! But that's how I got this story. My boss did exactly the same thing. Been in the gov probably 15ish years in total, stuck his money in the G fund because "someone told him to". His eyes bugged out when I showed him the numbers on the G compared to even the F. Don't think he intends to change it though.
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May 4, 2017 00:56
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YouTubers Say They Can't Make Money Covering Call of Duty: WWIIquote:Since March, YouTubers have watched their revenue plummet as advertisers bleed out of the platform. Some videos containing violence, real or fictional, are considered “inappropriate for advertising.” First-person shooter Call of Duty, a massively popular game on YouTube, is no walk in the park. So, the huge community that’s formed around it is getting hit by widespread demonetization. quote:PrestigeIsKey, a Call of Duty YouTuber with over a million subscribers, published a video on Sunday about how his channel is struggling with demonetization. “At first,” he said, “I thought this wouldn’t affect gamers because, obviously, video games aren’t real.” Throughout his seven years making CoD content on YouTube, he’d never had an issue until recently. Months ago, when the demonetization crisis was in full swing, his channel suffered enormously because it depicts fictional war. quote:Channels as big as PewDiePie and H3H3Productions say they’ve been making way less money in comparison to their earnings from earlier this year. quote:For YouTubers like ChaosXSilencer, who’s been making CoD videos for five years, rebranding his channel is out of the question: his fans come for the first-person shooters. Before he carved out a full-time job on YouTube, he ran a Papa Johns in Arkansas and, before now, he’d never had any financial problems making a living on YouTube. quote:CoD YouTubers feed their families on this money. It’s their trade. Call of Duty YouTuber 402THUNDER402 doesn’t pity his peers, though. (http://kotaku.com/youtubers-say-they-cant-make-money-covering-call-of-dut-1794884320)
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May 4, 2017 02:04
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I kind of want to have a conversation with a Youtube or Twitch star in the 20's or 30's and ask them what they assume their career trajectory is going to look like over the next 30 years. Are they just gambling that Call of Duty will persist for 30 years, Call of Duty Youtube channels will persist for 30 years, and their specific channel will persist with the same monetization and growth rate for 30 years?
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May 4, 2017 02:31
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After going through multiple rounds of the Amazon royalty decreases on their self-publishing platform and watching so many of my author buddies either have to go back to day jobs or straight up go bankrupt, I actually sympathize with the streamers getting their revenue slashed so hard by Google. Anything in digital distribution is a risky business when you rely on opaque revenue streams dictated by only one party, but seeing your dream job dry up overnight must seriously gut you.  quote:I kind of want to have a conversation with a Youtube or Twitch star in the 20's or 30's and ask them what they assume their career trajectory is going to look like over the next 30 years. I think the intended trajectory is "make hay while the sun shines" and eventually hit it big while stashing away as much as you can. CoD won't stay big forever, but the next big (whatever) will come along, whether it's on YouTube or another streaming service. If the streamers have any sense at all, I'd expect that they can see where trends are going in gaming and adjust accordingly. I guess the big risk is whether paid streaming exists as a valid revenue stream at all in the foreseeable future -- that's the part they have no control over and can't really react to apart from saving, producing as many videos as possible ASAP, and finding secondary (primary?) employment. Sundae fucked around with this message at 02:39 on May 4, 2017 |
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May 4, 2017 02:34
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That pension lady made me gag. Just reminded me of all those television scenes where they say "and he was just two weeks from retirement". Sounds like the pension offered to her was amazing. Made me wonder what some of the easiest to get/best benefits pensions are out there. My bet is the best pension offerings come from some of the worst with money states/municipalities. There has got to be some kind of inverse relationship with that.
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May 4, 2017 02:37
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baquerd posted:Bitcoins are actually looking solid lately, no major scams, price is skyrocketing, and the marketplaces are well equipped with supply and demand. Only thing that would really tank bitcoin is a mass legalization of drugs or some sort of crypto breakthrough. I hope this is a source your quotes thing or you're just super out of the loop but ever since China started cracking down on using it for money laundering the trade volume in the exchanges collapsed by literally 99%. Also one of the biggest exchanges in the world right now has stopped all cash withdrawals because banks don't want to deal with them anymore, there's a giant petty fight between people who want to fork to make bitcoin actually useful and people who don't, and the price, while high, is fluctuating wildly like it always does.
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May 4, 2017 02:48
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SweetSassyMolassy posted:That pension lady made me gag. Just reminded me of all those television scenes where they say "and he was just two weeks from retirement". A very popular strategy is to "double-dip" pensions by retiring from the military and get a job as a bailiff at a Court. The military has very accelerated vesting processes and many people join very young, so it is very possible to get your 20 years in, retire at 40, get a job as a bailiff, then retire at 60, and collect $6,000 a month. Additionally, almost every single state has a preferred hiring process for veterans and veterans are exempt anti-discrimination hiring rules that most states have, so you can actively choose them over someone else. Well run and rich counties and states are actually the places with the best pension plans. Montgomery County Maryland, Fairfax County Virginia, San Francisco, Delaware, Massachusetts, the Federal Government, and parts of New Jersey have the best run pensions. Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 03:00 on May 4, 2017 |
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May 4, 2017 02:51
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Hyrax Attack! posted:YouTubers Say They Can't Make Money Covering Call of Duty: WWII PewDiePie and H3H3 were both losing money already as tweens got bored with them, and PewDiePie in particular started freaking out and blaming the ~mainstream media~ for turning them against him (and later did that dumb nazi thing etc) so I'm not sure if they're particularly good barometers...
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May 4, 2017 02:51
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Edit: remembered new rules
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May 4, 2017 04:25
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baquerd posted:Edit: remembered new rules Technically I think you're still talking about yourself
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May 4, 2017 06:10
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:I kind of want to have a conversation with a Youtube or Twitch star in the 20's or 30's and ask them what they assume their career trajectory is going to look like over the next 30 years. I call it now, yes. It's been going for 14 years so far. EDIT: The "release a recycled game every six months" has proven successful so far, at least. Sic Semper Goon fucked around with this message at 06:25 on May 4, 2017 |
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May 4, 2017 06:21
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Sic Semper Goon posted:I call it now, yes. It's been going for 14 years so far. Call of Duty: Black Ops 9 - Northwest Indian War
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May 4, 2017 06:28
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GamingHyena posted:Call of Duty: Black Ops 9 - Northwest Indian War Call of Battlefield XXXIII: Brothers of Heroes.
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May 4, 2017 06:29
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Sic Semper Goon posted:Call of Battlefield XXXIII: Brothers of Heroes. Call of Duty: The Trump Battalions.
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May 4, 2017 06:38
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Sic Semper Goon posted:Call of Battlefield XXXIII: Brothers of Heroes. Brothers of Heroes brings a fresh take on the Modern Warfare franchise by introducing Ted MacTavish, Soap's younger underachieving brother. Marvel at the cutting edge graphics as you battle your way through a terse and uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinner in the MacTavish household. Players can truly affect their world by choosing responses to events such as "are you ever going to marry that nice girl, what was her name, Karen?" and "your brother is off protecting our country, and you still work at Best Buy. When are you going to get off your rear end and DO something with your life, son?" Citing recent events, some players have objected to the level, "no American" taking place in a busy airport when an overbooked flight requires you choose between taking an airline voucher or risk being involuntarily denied boarding. This level is now optional.
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May 4, 2017 06:59
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GamingHyena posted:Call of Duty: Black Ops 9 - Northwest Indian War CoD: The Kargil War would be pretty rad. Sneak in to India as a NLI Havildar. Patrol as the Indian captain Kalia who found the incursion. herd goats as a random local caught in the crossfire. gradually freeze to death.
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May 4, 2017 08:07
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GamingHyena posted:Brothers of Heroes brings a fresh take on the Modern Warfare franchise by introducing Ted MacTavish, Soap's younger underachieving brother. Marvel at the cutting edge graphics as you battle your way through a terse and uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinner in the MacTavish household. Players can truly affect their world by choosing responses to events such as "are you ever going to marry that nice girl, what was her name, Karen?" and "your brother is off protecting our country, and you still work at Best Buy. When are you going to get off your rear end and DO something with your life, son?" Press "E" to contemplate life decisions.
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May 4, 2017 08:19
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I find it amusing that Call of Duty 4 revamped a stale franchise by moving on from WWII, to Call of Duty going back to WWII a decade later in order to revamp a franchise that had gotten stale. However at this point Call of Duty is pretty much a video game equivalent of the James Bond Franchise, poo poo out a bunch of movies/games some good , some bad when the series gets stale just move it to a new setting instead of casting a new lead. So in other words Call of Duty is GWM by Activision-Blizzard. Jack2142 fucked around with this message at 08:29 on May 4, 2017 |
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May 4, 2017 08:27
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Industry secret -- nobody really knows what to pay an influencer but we all "know" that we need them. Attribution will get better in the future with some stuff that's emerging and people can use their experience to take a shot at coming up with numbers, but at this moment nobody really knows and influencers should be aggressively stashing cash knowing that this can't last forever because we're all way, way, way overpaying them. It's us. Awareness campaigns, we're BWM.
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May 4, 2017 09:10
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My favorite twitch streamer is hopefully his hiding money away underneath his mattress, because the money can't keep coming, but for the meantime I think he's making healthy 6 figures.
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May 4, 2017 12:37
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I have a hard time imagining guys like the Game Grumps or Markiplier having a hard time just pivoting into the entertainment industry at large (something both of them already seem to be doing) if youtube revenue dries out.
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May 4, 2017 13:41
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Hoodwinker posted:I have a hard time imagining guys like the Game Grumps or Markiplier having a hard time just pivoting into the entertainment industry at large (something both of them already seem to be doing) if youtube revenue dries out. The really big guys like them are already making low-millions so if they can't pivot to "early retirement" when youtube dries up it's their fault 
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May 4, 2017 14:00
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ate all the Oreos posted:The really big guys like them are already making low-millions so if they can't pivot to "early retirement" when youtube dries up it's their fault
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May 4, 2017 14:29
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My kid likes YouTube shows, specifically cute boys and there was a 'documentary' for something called MAGCON which is some kind of meet and greet people pay money to attend. But apparently the 'stars' don't actually make money. They even had one of the YouTubers leave because he wasn't making any money and then come back to the relief of everyone, but without any resolution on who was making all the money it's the producer I'm not even sure what these YouTube shows are. The documentary had them driving their dream cars, getting into drama, and jumping on trampolines. Also, opening fan mail and gifts with their mothers. It was the weirdest thing. I know they're practically kids and no kid thinks realistically about their future, but so many YouTube stars are going to be living out of their cars.
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May 4, 2017 15:10
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At least it will be their dream car.
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May 4, 2017 15:15
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It'll be the producer's car.
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May 4, 2017 15:16
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Krispy Kareem posted:My kid likes YouTube shows, specifically cute boys No I'm pretty sure you got it on the first try right there actually.
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May 4, 2017 15:32
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ate all the Oreos posted:No I'm pretty sure you got it on the first try right there actually. I tell you who's really hurting from the rise of YouTube, the old-school purveyors of cute boys, Disney and Nickelodeon. They spend millions on focus testing and casting and marketing, and their lab-grown star gets ignored while little girls swoon over, like, the "back at it again with the white vans" kid. ----------------
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May 4, 2017 16:29
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I loving hate the term " influencer" . It's some rear end in a top hat on the Internet playing video games.
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May 4, 2017 17:25
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Non Serviam posted:I loving hate the term " influencer" . It's some rear end in a top hat on the Internet playing video games. https://twitter.com/5hyyy/status/797607753346904064 The context here is that this company sponsors a bunch of streamers. Those stupid looking "racing" chairs are $300-500, and are worse in every way than an actual ergonomic chair from Steelcase or Herman Miller. This guy didn't actually have one so he photoshopped one on his stream 
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May 4, 2017 17:31
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canyoneer posted:https://twitter.com/5hyyy/status/797607753346904064 I'm guessing he got paid for it? I'm a lawyer for a fairly large apparel and footwear company and, let me assure you, a big chunk of marketing is now going to giving poo poo to YouTube and Instagram people. Ugh.
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May 4, 2017 17:39
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