birb_cromble
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User ID: 3236
birb_cromble
4hr ago
One common friction point that keeps coming up in these threads is something that I can't clearly name, but seems to be the friction between one person's perceived optimal behavior and another person's risk tolerance. One person will say that they are doing something, and another person will comment that the first poster is Doing It Wrong because they believe there is a more optimal path that they could take. It's a very binary thing that seems common in the Internet in general. I think it comes from a benevolent place, but it seems like it can can people off from the topic entirely as it can educate them.
I've been thinking about that lately because of events in my personal life. My partner is a fairly responsible saver, but she's not really investing. She's in the upper half of her age group for net worth and doesn't have any debt, but I worry that inflation is going to eat those savings over the long term. I've gently tried to get her to consider moving some of that money into funds over the years, but for her, it's entirely too much risk. I've not really pushed on it because what she's doing is better than doing nothing, and nothing is her alternative right now.
For somebody who has that extreme level of risk aversion, what options are there that beat a HYSA? Browbeating her into equities isn't going to fly.
On a similar topic, are there "non optimal" things that you do financially, but you do them anyway?
- I pay ahead on my mortgage, even though the interest rate is "only" 3.75%.
- I hold some dividend stocks and funds, and even commit the cardinal sin of holding them in a taxable brokerage account.
- I don't use credit cards outside of the bare minimum necessary to keep them active.
In all three cases, it's entirely a psychological thing for me, and I recognize this. In the first two in particular, it's still better than not doing anything at all
birb_cromble
19hr ago
Real talk - I got my laws mixed up and thought you were suggesting I'd shit my pants so hard I took off like a rocket.
birb_cromble
1d ago
With how volatile the KOSPI has been relative to the trends I'm seeing, I'm not willing to be correct and lose my ass on margin because my timing was wrong. My risk appetite just isn't high enough for that.
For right now I'm writing down what I would do on paper. Once I have enough data over time, I'll find out if I would have made money or not. Everybody thinks they're a genius in a bull market, and I'd rather not find out the hard way that I'm on that list.
birb_cromble
1d ago
Avantis is a bunch of fund managers who originally worked with Dimensional Funds. They use a strategy for their value funds that is technically considered active, but it's not very hands-on at the human level. They define an algorithm that can quantify "value", then maintain fund holdings based on that algorithm. Their prospectuses go into more detail, but the biggest element seems to be free cash flow vs share price and shares outstanding. Obviously there's a lot of proprietary witchcraft involved, but I generally like the idea of investing in companies that make more money than their share price reflects. I'm a dinosaur like that. In the rare instances where I buy individual stocks, those are some of the same things I look for in a company.
birb_cromble
1d ago
"Don't buy the cast recording of Slam Frank, it omits crucial songs from the musical, and it feels like the Kickstarter to get it released and the fact that it costs $20 and isn't up on YouTube or Spotify are cynical ways to turn rage bait for a mediocre work into profit", then I suppose that's fair
As a fellow musical-enjoyer, this is actually really useful. Thanks.
birb_cromble
2d ago
Listen man, I'm not trying to be an asshole, but you're presenting a review of a work where you:
- Did not attend a performance
- Did not read a score of the song you didn't hear
- Relied on secondhand retellings of the song you did not hear
From that, you managed spill 655 words worth of ink about it to say it's disappointing. You're making an assumption that the stage performance ads no value over your partial recording, and you're making an assumption that the musical aspects of the final song don't shore up what you perceive to be lyrical shortfalls.
That's like claiming that a steak is bad because it felt gross when you touched it with your fingers. You might be right, but if you are it's probably not because of your methodology.
birb_cromble
2d ago
That tracks. I can destroy some Mexican food.
birb_cromble
2d ago
That's funny. I saw all the same things and my gut reaction was to run screaming in the opposite direction.
birb_cromble
2d ago
I'm not entirely sure about that. Maybe it's a cultural thing, but a lot of people I know tend to eat their way through vacations. Mexico seems to be the worst for that, for some reason.
birb_cromble
3d ago
Came back to a nice surprise: I've lost 5-7 pounds, which is about ~50% of all the weight I wanted to lose
That's a surprisingly common refrain I've heard from people who have gone to Europe for a few weeks. I wonder if there's something about the food, or if something about the culture causes people to be more active.
birb_cromble
3d ago
I've been watching the KOSPI events for a few months now, and I'm getting increasingly concerned about the concentration - something like three stocks make up over half the entire index. Those stocks are all heavily invested in semiconductors, and that's driving a lot of gains in the US markets as well.
Am I seeing ghosts there?
birb_cromble
3d ago
Spending is $3,091.81 less than the same day last year. The weather is still holding up the last big expense I have pending, which is frustrating for a couple of reasons.
I keep reminding myself even if I do end up behind where I was last year, it's not that bad. My expenses this year aren't discretionary like they were last year (mostly medical and home repairs), and even if they were, my personal savings rate is around 50% YTD if I go by the federal definition. Even if I don't hit my goal, I'm still seeing benefits.
birb_cromble
3d ago
I've hunted whitetail effectively with a .223 round in the past. A 77gr monolithic copper bullet, out of a 20" barrel, will do the job at ranges less than 150 yards.
If you try to do it with a standard 55gr round out of a 16" barrel, you're correct, but modern bullet construction can do a lot of work.
birb_cromble
3d ago
That's where I eventually landed. In a long term account I'm probably better off not getting fancy
birb_cromble
4d ago
I'm doing a long delayed cleanup of my Roth IRA and unloading some old, underperforming mutual funds that don't really serve a purpose in 2026.
If you had a pile of cash to throw into either VT or AVGV right now, which would you pick? I like the philosophy of AVGV, but it's still pretty new and Avantis hasn't been around nearly as long as Vanguard.
birb_cromble
5d ago
What do you consider as travel budget? Gas? Lodging? Food while driving? How do you separate them from other incidental expenses in the same category?
I'm struggling a bit with how to break down my fuel spending this year. It's significantly higher than last year. My father is recovering from chemotherapy, so I've been driving to visit a lot more, and I don't tag those trips separately. It's hard to tell which of my costs are coming from that (which is reasonable), and which are coming from me just driving around like an asshole (which I could reduce).
birb_cromble
6d ago
For the bot to post this thread, the mods would have to take it over, and I get the impression that they tolerate its existence more than endorse it.
birb_cromble
6d ago
I've looked at water softeners, but I've had a lot of people warn me that they'll obliterate older copper and cast iron pipes because the protective limescale will dissolve. Is there anything to that, or is it an old wives' tale?
birb_cromble
6d ago
I love beans, but I live in an area with incredibly hard water. So far the only option I've found is to use water from the store if I don't want leather-skinned beans. Baking soda works, but it messes with the flavor and texture.
Does anybody here have a better solution?
birb_cromble
6d ago
I've been learning about the double top formation recently just to try and understand it better. That said, it really doesn't have much bearing on my investment strategies, since I'm not trading individual stocks, or even really selling them.
birb_cromble
6d ago
I continue to find myself puzzled by the economic fallout from the current situation in the strait of Hormuz.
Gas and diesel prices have spiked in the last few months, but not as much as I would expect, given the current level of transit out of the middle east. I understand that multiple governments are tapping their strategic reserves to mitigate the shock, but strategic reserves are a finite resource that must be refilled at a future date. An acquaintance in the industry has suggested to me that October is going to be an interesting time for diesel, and I don't understand why that possible future isn't priced in more.
What am I missing here?
birb_cromble
7d ago
My extended family has a lifted pickup that we all sort of pass around. I think it's in my cousin's name. Literally the only thing we use it for is to go up on the Land. Other than a few bike trails that I've cut, it's completely unimproved. It wasn't lifted until the stream washed out - at that point it was either a build a bridge, lift the truck, or add a snorkel.
The use case for something like that is very small, and the brand new lifted trucks confuse the hell out of me.
birb_cromble
10d ago
Thank you for actually taking time to elaborate on the ambiguity there. I thought I was nuts the first time I read it.
birb_cromble
10d ago
Spending is $3,033.98 lower than the same day last year. The weather continues to delay the expensive home repair.
Years ago HR demanded that I decorate my cubicle as well. I papered the entire thing with printouts of the most egregious bug reports in our system along with our most embarrassing sections of code. The diktat was rescinded soon after.
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