SomethingMusic
No bio...
User ID: 181
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
Reo is partially right, but definitely needs some clarification:
Term Life insurance:
- Is generally cheap (think more $300 a year, not $1000) but gets more expensive as the policy approaches EoL.
- Is for covering unexpected premature death, but that's about it (basically get an amount that would cover your mortgage)
- 97% of the time expires without use
Whole Life + whole life variants
- More 'costly' in that a policy will be a more expensive monthly premium for less coverage
- Is permanent, meaning that it will pay the death benefit to your family upon end of your life
- Usually has a number of different riders and additions to be tailored to your needs
- Turns into an 'owned' asset which you can take out loans against
- There's a number of tax things as well
Annuity:
- Is an insurance for when you're alive
- Generally appreciates in value over time at a fixed rate and usually pays a guaranteed monthly payment starting at a certain period in your life.
- Money added to the annuity grows tax deferred until annuitization (the time when annuities pay out a fixed income)
- Can be tied to the market in various ways
- While it can be used as an inheritance vehicle, if you die during annuitization, the insurance company usually keeps the leftovers (this is an incredible oversimplification. there's a lot of different ways an annuity can be structured which change the payout structure).
- usually has a lot of fees, so be very careful about the annuity (though there is something called a 1035 exchange which allows you to replace an annuity to one that is a better offering).
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
I haven't gone to into the weeds of the trading process involved in direct indexing, but assuming the trading team who is managing the indexing portfolio is awake, direct indexing should have less of a slippage issue as it is directly buying assets in real time to S&P holding movements compared to etfs which frequently use option contracts to match the pricing of their targeted index. Since options have a set expiration date, it's much easier to front run expiring contracts compared to actively trading 500 individual stocks. Vanguards promotional material indicate that harvesting and rebalancing is daily, so I'm not sure how much this is possible to be front run the active management from general market noise.
The main 'slippage' effect that direct indexing has is from avoiding wash sales instead of being front run by another trader.
Considering all direct indexing funds require a fee-based advisory management and the lowest initial investment I see from any company is around 200k initial investment,
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
You can only write off 3k/year of capital losses from tax loss harvesting which would be a pittance for the Trump family. However, you can use tax loss harvesting to cancel out capital gains in another equity.
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
Without looking at the trades themselves, my immediate guess is direct indexing. Any hedge fund trade would be 'hidden' in that hedge funds manage the trades themselves and their investors invest capital into the hedgie, and in return receive a portion of the growth/dividends, so hedge trades wouldn't be listed as part of Trump's personal trades.
Other ideas - options spreads to help liquidate large non-qualified capital gains positions.
SomethingMusic
1mo ago
Bonds and bond funds are somewhat different. You're correct the growth is anemic in that share price in the 5 year growth is pretty much dead even, but your holdings are growing through a dividend of approximately 4.5%. This dividend is better than current money market rates which are hovering anywhere from 2-3.5% The bonds in your mutual fund also may have some income tax advantages that money markets do not have, as they are largely US treasuries.
Kahn academy might be a pretty decent overview but I haven't looked at the course myself:
SomethingMusic
5mo ago
Something I'm curious is how AI has been implemented to peoples professional workflows. My company has been implementing Ai in various places, but thanks to the level of human supervision and human-centric communication needed in my work process, I'm not convinced of significant human replacement for quite a while.
AI benefits:
-
Meeting transcriptions. Online meetings between two parties require each interaction to be recorded. Representative case notes are spotty at best, and the AI generally make significantly more complete and timely transcriptions freeing up a lot of time, and being more accurate than most human-written notes. Adoption of this tool has been spotty, but the people who are using are seeing significant benefit. Job replacement impact: 0, as no rep has someone to specifically write case notes. Benefit: significant.
-
Internal document searches. AI searches generally are better than our internal search engine in locating company documentation and resources. It is still hit or miss, but luckily the AI search provides the links it is citing, so I can go through the links to locate the specific policy or document I'm looking for. It's not consistent, but generally I use it before I use our internal search engine. Job replacement impact:0 Benefit: Medium
-
Email drafts: Great for rapid iteration of emails. They still need to be edited and reviewed, but they're very helpful if I'm having trouble finding the correct wording and I need to get something out quickly. Some people use it a lot, I use it only when I don't have a clear structure in mind. Job Replacement impact:0 Benefit: Limited to significant depending on user preference.
AI weaknesses
- Call center redirection: Recently my company switchboard from a command-based switchboard into a AI implemented switchboard. The idea is that AI is better at directing calls than the people calling in. My personal experience is that it directs me to the wrong department more often than not and the actual calling process is slower than the older process. I really don't like it: Replacement impact:0 Benefit: negative
In the various professional careers I've held, I still don't see a significant AI impact in that it's replacing workers or reducing the intellectual motivation of young professionals. I still hold on to the idea that AI will be and is unable to innovate because it doesn't and cannot push against the zeitgeist on the data it is trained on. If AI was around during the time of the Wright Brothers, would it think human flight was possible?
The main problem of AI is people trying to use it to do their thinking for them, when it is most effective at automating monotonous tasks and increasing productivity. Maybe it's because I don't use AI in my life the same way many adopters have, but I don't see any significant impact in my day to day even though it is coming more advanced.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
Its' been a while since I've read Atlas Shrugged, but I don't think this mimics Rand's writing style particularly well.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
I guess that's true, but moving efficiently in other sports still requires a lot more effort than in itg. Compare running efficiently vs stamina Stepmania players https://youtube.com/watch?v=mnI9GuKWp1k (sorry too lazy to hyperlink rn)
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
DDR is pretty bad for your knees. I love DDR, but one of the problems is DDR optimization is basically moving as little as possible to maximize accuracy and or/speed.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
While I agree experts tend to "motte" their public statements over the impact of any possible change from the status quo, I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what Trump is trying to accomplish. I'm okay with short term pain for longer term rewards, but I don't know what that reward is and what it would look like when we finally see it.
I'm glad I just bought everything for a computer upgrade for the next few years, though. Time to figure out what other assets and goods I should purchase before prices start waffling around.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
Definitely technological black holes. Youtube, TV, maybe vidya.
Remember that part of Lent is also doing something good. I might stretch my neck out and do food service at a local church, it depends on what time I have.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
I'm 8ish months in. You're gonna have good times and rough times. Being married is different from living together. Tiny things will matter and start fights for no reason. Tiny things that don't matter will be celebrated and become wonderful things you share with each other. Make sure your bed is comfortable for the two of you. Don't keep socre.
Other than that, Hydro and Roystugnr have it right.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
Why do we need UBI? If AI ends up being as cheap, efficient, and transformative as people want to claim, it should drive down the price of all goods to near 0.
I think what's more likely to happen is AI compute is going to be an effective currency replacement. Rather than using fiat dollars, it will be based off of the amount of AI runtime it takes to complete a task for the given runtime/ energy calculations of any given workload. Assuming AI can replace all jobs and produce a quality of life better than any human machination can contrive, then the human inputs for the production of goods and services should be 0.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
Time for Russia to go to the one place not corrupted by capitalism!
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
I would argue since 2025 is still a relatively new year, it can be safe to guess that 2020 is 4ish years away.
Either way time flies, though!
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
I'm voting a hard no, I would no longer read this forum anymore. I'm here because I know people are taking the time to write and post their personal opinions. I believe Reddit is increasingly 'dead internet' thanks to AI and astroturfed subreddits controlled by superusers utilizing AI tools. I really don't want this place to go in the same direction.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
I would say we'll only have Turbo DEI if anti-DEI has proven to be unsuccessful for 4 years. Same for oil and gas - if Trump's next 4 years are largely successful then what's the probability of a President Vance instead of president... probably Cortez with the way the Democrats are heading.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
I'm not sure if this was an IQ problem more than it was a labor shortage problem. Even someone motivated and with high IQ might have a problem doing the job of two, lesser IQ people.
Maybe AI can take over air traffic controller duties to help offset labor shortage, but so far I don't see that happening soon.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
Imagine the change to the GDP of Mississippi if we decided to move the entire federal government over there.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
On one hand I agree with you, but on the other hand when established practices are proven to be increasingly ineffective, breaking them to try something new can be an important tool for innovation and hopefully more effective governmental tools.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
I'm surprised no one has pointed out that Trump is putting on his best Javier Milei impression and trying to make as wide sweeping cancellations of government spending as possible. If he framed is as 'interest expense is a top 3 government expense and I'm trying to put it in the bottom quartile' he might have a bit more success than being relatively inscrutable, but we'll see how it pans out.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
I think 'move fast and break things' is something applied to Silicon Valley but is also something that should be applied to government as well. Bureaucracy slows things down so significantly, it's refreshing to see someone like Trump just go ahead and do it, damn the pearl clutching of teams of lawyers saying he shouldn't or can't.
SomethingMusic
1yr ago
I ended up looking around a bit and it looks like the community much prefers the standalone version. I remember playing this for a bit during the ps1 era and finding it only okay. I certainly find the pathing frustrating, but other than that it's pretty fun.
A good insurance agency shouldn't force you to make the distinction. You should get a guaranteed income in retirement with a fixed tax deferred growth for a set amount of time. There are many ways to structure an annuity that should prevent the "betting" angle of a fixed annuity. Generally, if the annuity runs out of money the annuity won't provide income beyond the principal+fixed growth of the annuity.
More options
Context Copy link