One year ago today: January 12, 2023, he got the jab.
Five years ago today: January 12, 2019, the see-saw renovation.
Nine years ago today: January 12, 2015, meet-ups now bore me.
Random years ago today: January 12, 2001, 81₵.
What’s this? The World Economic Forum (WEF) has this morning suddenly removed all web pages about its members and authors? Poon has canceled another rally duo to “bad weather”. It’s definitely bad here today. I looked into that claim that a Ukrainian T-62 variant (a 1960s tank) took out a Russian tank at over six miles. Turns out it may have been a T-72 or T-80, and it may not have been a tank shell. Rather a guided tube-launched missle that was guided to the target by a nearby drone. I find Eastern European statistics suspect without any outside clues.
That T-62 was a thorny development from the start. I was a kid when they began upgrading them with reactive armor and heard the rumors how the autoloader liked to tear off nearby arms of the crew. If memory serves, the Russians left behind several thousand of these tanks in the Ukraine at the end of the Empire. While Kiev upgraded them with American money, hundreds of them have been knocked out by infantry missiles, which they seem especially vulnerable to from the sides.
Grabbing yet another coffee, I went over the changes made to the budget to adjust for the situation, and the CD administration has proven a problem. The private bank I use has no provision to renew them on-line and the default is they roll over at the new interest rate. That interest rate is a chunk of the problem, it is rarely optimal. There is no on-line source of this info, you must go into the branch and make a manual choice, the most expensive way of doing that business. Even if you write them a clear letter of instructions, they still want ou to contact them by e-mail to go over the instructions.
To me, it seems simple. When the CD matures, put the full amount back into my account UNLESS there is another offering at 4 months or less with an interest rate that meets or exceeds the original. In other words, if you can’t pay more than before, gimme my money back. I’m keen on watching trends and I see two that, if you’ve been reading this blog more than ten years, are recently appearing everywhere. First is the $10,000 in an emergency account. After years of being told it was too much to tie up, suddenly dozens of sources are saying it is just enough. Really now? The other curious figure is $300,000. It’s now rearing up everywhere as the base amount you’ll need for retirement.
That is the traditional figure from my early days of the amount needed to “emulate” a million dollars. It is one complicated explanation, but I derived it originally as what you needed to give yourself a “ten dollar an hour raise”. You won’t see this becuase it stems from the hand-written era of this blog. I put hundreds of hours over years to arrive at that figure, which I can give you the quick explanation. One works around 2,000 hours per years, so if you could invest enough to make a $20,000 return, you “add” that on to your hourly wage and you make more than your “boss”, as it were in those days. This also explains why I never got excited or tempted by company offers the way the rest of the crew fell for them.
Ah, but you would recognize the unifying factor, the long-range annual return of 7%. The keen voice from the background says, but on $300k, that’s only $2100 per year which is only $1750 per month. Yes, but he forgets I had a union job and worked a 37.5 hour work week. Give him time, he’ll figure out there are no discrepancies in the way I calculated where I am today. Yes, I did lose all my investments from the heart attacks, but I did not lose the knowledge of how to rebound. I’ve never resorted to credit . Warning, the fact that I’m investng at all again should not be taken as restored faith in a system that took everything I had before they would help.
TMOR (to my overseas readers), I remind you that from the outside, the American welfare system is misleading. That is almost intentional when it comes to the taxpayers, who often think there is some kind of safety net established for them in times of trouble. They find out the hard way that you must liquidate everything before you qualify for most government assistance, and even themy may go to court for that. You are not allowed more than $2,000 in the bank or you could get cut off.
Of course, there are ways around it, but they are expensive for the working class, who already know there are lots of things keeping you from getting ahead. I mean, did your parents set up a trust account for you at birth? Mine did not, and by the time I got one myself, the paperwork alone was $1,800. More than I’d made investing in the previous three years. Don’t tell me that not a disincentive.
Before I go work outside, let me throw a current statistic at you. I’ve made Caltier public and by the end of 2024, the target is $30,000 in equity. In perspective of the above, that means a $1 per hour raise. It seems tiny, but the entire amount is slated for re-investment, and I know enough working-class people to claim not one of them is capable of investing a full dollar of their income every hour on the hour. The monthly return by January 1, 2025 should be $175, but this is subject to another of my “emulations”. I top that off to bring each monthly increase to either $200, $300, or $500, knowing very few people manage that in the long run. You see, I don’t have to outrun the bear. As each month passes, it gets easier to reach the goal.
Wait, there is one more thing. Although it was never properly taught and part of the reason it took me a while to figure it, this was the principle behind Social Security. Sure, I realize now that most people where not even taught enough to begin to do the thinking, but you were supposed to have your house and car paid for, plus some savings, and Social Security was to be the icing on the cake. It was never meant to be your retirement fund. Average Social Security is around $5.70 per hour. That is why you need investments that can bring that up to the current “living wage” of around $11.50 per hour. Now you know too much.
[Author’s note: it should not be imagined the formula that panned out was some clear-headed endeavor with one solid path to the end. I knew as little as anyone, all I did was pay more attention to what did not work. It was hugely trial and error and the realization that, in the end, I had no idea what I was up against. It took ten years after I graduated to learn to even figure out what all that “interest rate” stuff meant.
Fact is, I knew by age 25 I was not going to make it, that I was not one of the lucky ones. That left me few options. The last one I wanted was to sign a mortgage and spend my life at a lumber mill paying it off. It was the highest paying job I could find, and no, the mill was not full of other poor but educated men in the same predicament. You only think you know what it is like to have 60 drop-out co-workers. I could have stayed with any of the jobs and wound up better off financially but it there is one thing that set me apart, it’s that I knew better than to sell out like that. Sorry, the world is full of old cuss-types who didn’t know when to quit.]
Pexcho’s American Dime Museum.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
We have a date with one of my favortie ladies, JZ’s step-sister, Alaine, the doggie volunteer lady. All on the up & up for any naughty-minded out there, she is a family friend for nearly 25 years. No time set yet, but in the early part of next month. She’s the lady who emcees the pet blessing ceremonies. I also need to confirm for myself that she’s okay because, like JZ, she won’t say if it isn’t and will not ask for help or accept it when offered. It seems to be a trait in who becomes friends with me.
I didn’t want or plan this window to be here, but I needed to prove I could install such a thing to spec. Thus I had a lot of fun with this project. The structure still has to be sealed up against summer heat and winter rain, but the hard part is done. I think it looks very “workshop”. The rafters are still uncovered until I find a deal on sheathing. The parts that matter are high and dry. Taking a quick inventory of scrap lumber, I have enough to experiment on making “shingle” siding.
By that I mean shingles that are not tapered. I don’t have the tools or know-how for that. Note the full 18” overhang on the eaves. I learned, keep the summer sun off the side of the building if you want to get anything done there. The trade off is hurricane winds don’t get along with large eaves, so these are triple-attached. They are notched, not bird-mouthed, metal strapped, and fastened with 3-1/2” screws through each joint. The openings straddling the window are slated to contain storage hooks. I never have enough of those.
Late in the day news arrives that Texas has used the National Guard to seal off Eagle Pass, which is quickly progressing to a showdown. The Bidenistas, who insist there is no crisis, are screaming that the Federal Border people cannot do their jobs or “process” illegal immigrants safely. Oddly it is these Border people who are breaking the Federal law which the National Guard is enforcing. Biden has to move fast, but it would not be a wise move to declare a national emergency over a nothing town in Texas that has a libtard council. Most estimates say 20 million illegas have already crossed the border.
I side with America, and say that Mexico and other countries allowing the illegals through should be severly punished. Get ready, this could be the start, as the regime cannot allow this situation to succeed, but their only option is to issue conflicting orders. With rumors the military is disgusted by what Biden has done, I say they cannot be sure which set would be obeyed. Will a new leader arise from this? More likely old ones will be jailed. Stay tuned.
ADDENDUM
Malaysia Flight 370, the one that disappeared completely? I did not know that four of the passengers were co-owners of a semi-conductor patent. Not even a trace of wreckage was ever found. This means the sole owner of the patent becomes Jacob Rothschild. Move along, nothing to see here.
As predicted, Disney lost over a billion in 2023, serves them right. I listened to old music on a radio feed. Did you know one of the original tunes that got me interested in bass was a weird Canadian band, the Poppy Family. Billed as psychadelic, they were pretty tame. It was actually a cover, since they did not have a bass player, I found the line energetic. It was called “I Thought Of You Again”, a tune that to me is otherwise meaningless.
Nor did I like the Poppy Family because, get this, Susan Jacks was married. To this day, I don’t like married women who take up a slot that could be filled by a single and available female, it’s just a “Taylor Swift” thing I’ve had since day one. It has nothing to do with availability, I like my women entertainers to be single. I think Jacks died in a Canadian hospital a couple years ago.
