What are you thinking about?

[ramssuperbowl99]

2 hours ago, twslhs20 said:

I have a little over 9K in my savings currently. Its what I was able to negotiate a signing bonus because I didn't want to dip into it for a down payment on a car.

I ideally I want a 4-5 year old hybrid around 30-50K miles but that's going to run me 18-28K. Its more than I want to spend. I a 14' outback with 245K miles on it for 8K but that feels like I'm inheriting a ton of problems.

I don't want to buy a car that just going to have the transmission or engine just drop out it the moment I sign the title.

Given your specific situation, where it's part of your job and your company has given you a good amount of money and is reimbursing your travel, I think spending more on a car is reasonable.

If you were in an office setting with a 10 mile commute, getting something with 100k miles or so would save you money, but in this case you're not just paying for reliability in a vacuum, you're paying for consistency and professionalism. Plus if it breaks down, odds are you aren't going to be anywhere near home, which is a massive PITA.

 

I think financing a car is reasonable, and then you could use the stipend money as it comes in to pay the car loan off early before then going into a roth IRA. You have until April 15th to contribute an IRA for this year, so depending on your income difference, if you could put anything down, etc. you may be able to do a bit of both.

[beekay414]

8 hours ago, BobbyPhil1781 said:

Whether it's true that people were controlling the robots or not is to be determined and honestly, not that big of a deal, and while this will make some here very unhappy it is an incredible feat and it looks like it's been done a hundred times. This was the first time ever though.

 

That's because SpaceX is the one entity that boots Elon from decisions and let's the actual engineers/smart people do the work. He doesn't have any real power within SpaceX at this point. It's awesome progress but it's not because of Leon.

[Heimdallr]

Saturn V is still cooler.

[THE DUKE]

My son's 8th grade football team beat their hated rival tonight and spoiled their undefeated season. Good times.

[Tugboat]

5 hours ago, THE DUKE said:

My son's 8th grade football team beat their hated rival tonight and spoiled their undefeated season. Good times.

 

That's the golden nectar.  The best times.

Where i grew up, our rivals at that point were like...well, there were 4 teams in the league. 🤣  So everyone was a rival.  But the other City team instead of the outskirts towns teams, that was the "cross town rival" and our absolutely *** team managed to do the same to derail their undefeated season one time and it was so sweet.  Only game we won that season iirc.

I remember having a pick 6 and idk how many TFLs or close and at least two sacks lol.  Probably the absolute pinnacle of my football career.  lol.

[Tugboat]

On 10/12/2024 at 5:13 PM, twslhs20 said:

My current car was a fleet car for my sales role. This new sales role will having me driving to Reno and Carson city on occasion (300-324 mi round trip). I'll be paid the federal rate for mileage. Just looking for any hybrids under 10K. They are 2013 or lower with 110-140K miles on them. I'm not sure I would trust that to be reliable.

Alternative track...

 

Ya'll checked out diesel vehicles in that price bracket?  They'll run a lot more miles typically, because the engines are built heavier and stronger.  And if most of what you need the car to do is highway cruising back and forth in the middle of the desert...Diesels are >>> Hybrids.  You'll get goofy *** MPG numbers.

 

Hybrids tend to be better for sorta "mixed phase" driving.  With that urban/suburban/exurban ring road split.  Pure, straight up highway cruising though...they're less beneficial.  Diesel is king there.  Though idk, you have to also look at what diesel goes for typically at the pumps where you are.  Here, it's usually at par with regular gasoline, sometimes even cheaper.

 

But despite all the scandal and controversy around like a VW TDi car...a lot of them will still legit net you like 50 MPG highway cruising.  Heck, there used to be some little mid-size diesel trucks (discontinued) that'd get you 40MPG+ in a pickup truck.

[Tugboat]

On 10/10/2024 at 7:22 AM, D82 said:

Look at the traffic congestion that results with a lot of these evacuations. I want to say a few years ago, there were evacuations from Galveston due to an incoming storm, and more people died being trapped on the highway in the heat than from the storm that came. 

Look at the backup at fuel pumps for people who need gas in their vehicles in order to evacuate. 

There so many legitimate reasons people stay behind. 

The fact is scientists and people in the know have been warning us for decades that these storms were only going to get worse and increase in frequency because of global warming. But rather than try and combat it, we have some in power that would rather ignore it because they're in bed with the oil companies. Rather than try and improve public transportation (which would drastically cut down on traffic congestion in these bigger cities), improving infrastructure to support the growing numbers of people living in these hurricane-prone areas, or honestly do any of the several things that could be done, they ignore it. But man...can they find money for weapons of war and mass destruction in a heartbeat. 

 

 

Good, reliable, diversified transit would fix so many problems...

 

I wonder why nobody considers it a legitimate option?  That seems weird...

 

Someone should look into that and figure out why...?

On 10/10/2024 at 8:48 AM, TVScout said:

Just build hurricane proof houses.

https://monolithicdome.com/eye-of-the-storm

The **** is this.  That kind of turtle engineering is definitely not even necessary here.

And it's definitely not efficient or even good looking.

On 10/4/2024 at 7:56 AM, MWil23 said:

For sure; if nothing else, I can stand before God with a clean conscience. There is a legitimate need for quality and affordable housing. And the landlord/tenant relationship is symbiotic.

My perspective: Please take good care of my property. Normal wear and tear will happen, so yes, each year I will patch holes, touch up paint, and clean it. I will also repair and pay for repairs that are out of your control. Stuff breaks, it happens, no problem. Just please let me know as soon as stuff happens, don't let small problems become big ones. Also, please understand that yes, I am going to make money off of you living here. That money in turn goes into infrastructure for the rental (We have ours fully furnished, including furniture like couches and dressers, beds and mattresses, dishes, appliances, coffee maker, etc....almost picture a long term AirBnb. In the past 4+ years, I have replaced the entire floor to the tune of $10K, added baseboard heating for ~$3K for their comfort, bought a new fridge/freezer and stove/range.) In return I need you to please pay me on time or communicate with me if stuff comes up. In 4+ years I have not charged nor will I ever charge a late fee unless it's absolutely egregious. I usually just ping a friendly reminder, followed up with ~2 days later a "checking on the status, are you okay and do you need anything" text separate from the group. I also have not raised rent in 4 years...and I'm weighing raising it $100 total a month next year vs. waiting until this group leaves and then raising it.

TBH, you can't ask for much more from a landlord. Control the controllable.

If they didn't, it should raise an eyebrow, barring them being out of state and unable to help, but even then, I always have a backup point of contact for these things, and would probably have brought in a professional plumber or something, unless the storm was bad enough to where everyone else was back-logged.

EXACTLY. It's interesting, because in our small town, there's a guy or two with the reputation of "slum lords". Run down places that are cheap, barely livable if even livable, and yeah, people probably pay a little more to live here in my place, but I also do NOT charge them utility bills, I cover  those. I even let them use my internet (you can setup a guest network and all of that stuff). I had one of their girlfriends crying to me and my wife one day when I came down to fix something roughly 10 minutes after getting a text that they had a toilet leaking (Sunday afternoon), and then we talked to her and she told us about her situation. Landlord drove up in a Porsche, didn't fix the backed up septic, told them not to flush more than x times a day, didn't fix the other restroom in a house full of 5 girls. She/her boyfriend asked us if we had another rental that they could live in short term and then the two of them could move into when they got married. It was eye opening for us about 4 years ago, just heartbreaking.

And as a landlord, that's about all I can ever ask for.  It's that Win/Win relationship. You absolutely can and should run a business the right way and can both provide a quality service/be a ministry to a tenant and make a profit.

 

The whole Landlord thing is definitely a weird give and take experience in a lot of cases.  There are way too many leaches who simply extract money and do not give a **** about their tenants.

The last place i moved out of, i got kind of lucky in that i ended up with some landlords who were really solid.  They were accessible and flexible.  Lived in a different city but were always willing to work around things and make arrangements when it was necessary.  Never had a problem with them at all.  But that *is* a two way street.  Issues came up, but they were available to sort them out.  I was always prompt on rent payments, and i was always in communication with them about various changes and happenings at the property.  I also helped save them probably a bunch of money by diagnosing problems when they happened...like a malfunction with the heating system, where they just had a plumber come out and fix the issue and it was exactly what i said it was.

 

Really drove things home for me when i left the place, and the guy seemed just genuinely surprised that i'd left the place cleaned out and clean top to bottom.  Apparently previous tenants had not done that.

 

Like...landlords are scum, profiting from the scratchings of everyone else.  Literally making money by just owning a thing and charging other people to use it.  Zero actual effort or skill or labour.  But i still can't really wrap my head around the idea of just being an ******* and having no respect for the place, or the people you're renting from.

 

 

Renting from private individual landlords has downsides though too.  Including..."we're retiring and going to sell the unit sometime in the next year".  Offering to sell it to me was nice enough, but lol...**** if i'd ever buy a unit in that building of ever escalating condo fees.  It's got some uncertainty to it.

[ramssuperbowl99]

2 hours ago, Tugboat said:

Like...landlords are scum, profiting from the scratchings of everyone else.

2 hours ago, Tugboat said:

Offering to sell it to me was nice enough, but lol...**** if i'd ever buy a unit in that building of ever escalating condo fees.

"you scum are all part of a massive conspiracy to steal money and contribute nothing"

"you want in, I'll cut you a deal?"

"lol no never what a terrible financial decision for me"

[naptownskinsfan]

5 hours ago, Tugboat said:

Alternative track...

 

Ya'll checked out diesel vehicles in that price bracket?  They'll run a lot more miles typically, because the engines are built heavier and stronger.  And if most of what you need the car to do is highway cruising back and forth in the middle of the desert...Diesels are >>> Hybrids.  You'll get goofy *** MPG numbers.

 

Hybrids tend to be better for sorta "mixed phase" driving.  With that urban/suburban/exurban ring road split.  Pure, straight up highway cruising though...they're less beneficial.  Diesel is king there.  Though idk, you have to also look at what diesel goes for typically at the pumps where you are.  Here, it's usually at par with regular gasoline, sometimes even cheaper.

 

But despite all the scandal and controversy around like a VW TDi car...a lot of them will still legit net you like 50 MPG highway cruising.  Heck, there used to be some little mid-size diesel trucks (discontinued) that'd get you 40MPG+ in a pickup truck.

Yeah that’s an option for him for sure.  Diesel around here is the same, maybe around 20-30 cents/gallon higher.  Just not sure I’d do a VW vehicle though.  

[TVScout]

6 hours ago, Tugboat said:

here

Where is here?

 

6 hours ago, Tugboat said:

not efficient

Define that word.

[minutemancl]

6 hours ago, Tugboat said:

Good, reliable, diversified transit would fix so many problems...

 

I wonder why nobody considers it a legitimate option?  That seems weird...

 

Someone should look into that and figure out why...?

Every time a tech bro announces they have 'revolutionized travel', it is a bus or a train. 

There's an upper crust of people in this country that won't ride public transit in any form because of the perceived, and honestly sometimes true, 'dirtiness' of it. We've also created such an insane car culture in this country and have so much infrastructure dedicated to them already that it would feel crazy to the general public to start taking that away.

What they should do is create luxury trains and busses on the same tracks as the existing ones that are crazy expensive to ride, and have the funds from those passengers fund the existing rails so they are free. Only half joking.

We are a relatively new country. Older countries have travel figured out; look at the rails in Japan. Obviously a much smaller country, but they are phenomenal. We can hope that maybe eventually we figure it out? I had hope during and right after COVID that we'd start to become less car-centric when they created and then left up those outdoor dining structures in spots that were previously parking spaces. I just saw the other week that they were starting to take them down in some cities and blocks though, which made me sad.

Quote

Like...landlords are scum, profiting from the scratchings of everyone else.  Literally making money by just owning a thing and charging other people to use it.  Zero actual effort or skill or labour.  But i still can't really wrap my head around the idea of just being an ******* and having no respect for the place, or the people you're renting from.

Preach.

[MWil23]

6 hours ago, Tugboat said:

Like...landlords are scum, profiting from the scratchings of everyone else.  Literally making money by just owning a thing and charging other people to use it.  Zero actual effort or skill or labour.  But i still can't really wrap my head around the idea of just being an ******* and having no respect for the place, or the people you're renting from.

Eh, depends on the landlord and tenant to be honest. For every scumbag landlord, and there are plenty, I’ll raise you tenants who don’t pay and trash places.

We just gave our group 6 months notice that we are taking a 3 month at minimum break from renting and my goals going forward are to not have to do it ever again within 2 years. Lots of constant maintenance and various other things to do and I’d rather not have to deal with it anymore and just live a normal life.

[minutemancl]

AI is making us dumber and ruining search engines. Google AI answer for the prompt 'jalen hurts career high passing yards game':

"Jalen Hurts, quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, has not yet thrown for a career-high number of passing yards in a game."

Cool, thanks. Makes sense.

[D82]

2 hours ago, minutemancl said:

AI is making us dumber and ruining search engines. Google AI answer for the prompt 'jalen hurts career high passing yards game':

"Jalen Hurts, quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, has not yet thrown for a career-high number of passing yards in a game."

Cool, thanks. Makes sense.

It has its uses, but the way so many places are utilizing it is not the best utilization of it.

[twslhs20]

Would you mess with a rebuilt title?. Everyone on Youtube is like run away.