One year ago today: January 6, 2025, more porridge, more coffee.
Five years ago today: January 6, 2021, the Beat Buddy fails.
Nine years ago today: January 6, 2017, yardwork & me.
Random years ago today: January 6, 2014, learning to hate Google.
PBS has finally folded, that’s a good morning. When Trump removed their funding for being left-wingers, they made a yuge deal how only 15% of their funding “came from tax dollars”. They lied. Does this mean NPR is the only source left for political comedy? If you are reading this, I am probably on the road to Miami again. As usual, this leaves me at the mercy of the Pinecrest library with their staff of soi-bois and pug-ugly feminists. Imagine that, some freak with purple hair and a snot-ring telling you what you can look at.
Cruel? Yes, Agt. M is not given any instructions on how to divide the loot. The only established fund is his eldest, now in school, taking music lessons, and fascinated by science projects, imagine that. That means the parental dilemma of one child having something the others do not. I know this situation all too well. If it works right, it will force the creation of a meritocracy, where it becomes winner-take-all. And that is too cruel for most parents, but sadly, it is the only correct choice because there will never be enough to go around.
At it’s best, it forces the parents to create and maintain their own system to make some attempt at equalization. But they will, if wise, always know that equal is not fair. It’s a barrier people who remain poor never manage to cross. Now the nonsensical part. This doubles the silver holdings, the first two ounces cost around $26 in 2010, these new pieces should pass $80 this morning, it was $79.78 by 8:00AM you can see. So how is that accounted for? Suppose it goes to $100? What is the tax treatment?
Well, first off, unless the government pulls another 1933, the transaction is private and not taxed at all—but the authorities retain that option, so keep a low profile. You know, like the Kennedys. There are a number of ways one would be to average the costs, which creates an accounting nightmare, the other is to use the historical cost and value the 4 ounces at $104. If sold, that is a capital gain of ($400 - $104) $296. Ah, but the sharp guy says, hold on, that price increase did not occur on my time. It was already worth $80 when I acquired it and thus the taxable gain is only (4 x $20) $80. Both are correct and legal, but there has to be a catch.
There is and it is once you file a tax return with such a transaction, the IRS will never allow you to change back. I will let you determine how that can hurt you, I told you, investment is a different ball of wax, of which “saving up” is just the initial hurdle.
Wait, it isn’t over yet. What if the prices go down? If you sell at a lower price, you can write off that loss against other gains, which makes timing an important factor. Yes, you can carry the loss forward to a year when you have gains, but the same rule applies—once you commit, you can never change the method (although I have heard of exceptions, don’t get your hopes up).
You may recall Biden’s plan to tax your house on unrealized capital gains? Be very afraid. That means if your house went up in value (on paper), say, $50,000 this year, that becomes taxable even though you did not sell the house. You could still be hit with a 20% tax so you’ll have to cough up $10,000 in cash. Yet, I know homeowners who still vote Democrat.
And there is one more rule about dividing the money between siblings. It is known in accounting/economics as a constraint. If you even conspire to divide the money equally, none of your kids (including the one with the highest marks) will have enough to finish college. Conspire means you took the easy way out, which is never a good idea in the long run.
New Year’s in Copenhagen.
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Here is one of the worst photos I’ve taken, where I wanted to show the different size of the two spice box models. See where I’m pointing? Good because I can barely see it. The box on top is one board-thickness narrower than the box on the bottom. Both designs have their plus points. The smaller box looks better as part of a set, but the bottom box holds “handfuls” of things better, like nails, parts, and small hand tools. The are equally easy to build.
There’s no denying, JZ has had a stroke and tried to hide it. The floor of my KIA is a couple inches higher than his truck and he really struggled with it. He is slow to get treatment. I would not want to hear him incapacitated, since despite or differing demeanors, he is the one person I ever met in Miami that always has at least some knowledge of what you are talking about. Most have at best a tv-depth grasp on anything. JZ never pretends to know things he doesn't. I've had other Florida people lecture me on things like Venezuela because they heard it on TV.
We talked for a couple hours and six women walked in. They took one look, sizing up the men, they turned around and walked out. Can’t blame them. JZ doesn’t know it but we were spending vacuum tube money. We left around 10:30PM. It was evident by then there were not going to be even any women to look at. We stopped for a package of his favorite lime-flavored taco chips and I picked up a 12-pack of Yueng-Ling.
I hate to say so, but JZ may be partly paralyzed. But we got some preliminary plans for him to get out of the condo for a few days. The idea is he visits Harbor Heights, which is just over an hour’s drive from here. As always, he at first hated the idea of Tarpon Springs until having time to mull over the idea on his own. I want the guy to meet a nice gal and that is never going to happen in a shit-hole like Miami.
Other things he can remember wrong is that the Reb is not French. I do not regularly run out of gas. I do not turn of my water heater overnight to save money. I also do not know where there are any boxing matches or boxingrings. Some boxer got arrested recently and it took then minutes to explain to JZ I was not the one who knows about it. I do not consider boxing a sport and think people who do are sadistic. But I wonder who the heck he’s confusing me with.
If he can get to Punta, it is a short drive to Tarpon. We talked late about the options, and one thing he does not have to be worried about is the land. I could not buy without the land but if he found the right rental, he could lease it for six months. He’s worried about crime but that’s why he should find a 55+ unit. They are everywhere. I played enough community centers with Dave Parson to know he’ll meet a far nicer lady that even exists in Miami-Dade these days. Plus, unlike me, he has no aversion to Canadian women.
The lot rental is always the stumbling block, they can raise the rent so high you cannot sell your home or afford to stay. The lot rentals are over $600 per month. I notice the site that used to list the rents at each trailer part has disappered.
ADDENDUM
Yuge, by the way, is not a typo. It is a standing joke around here on the stupidity of a generation. Some dolt in the twenty-teens began posting about Trump’s “yuge” numbers. The joke was not the typo, but that the poster did not even suspect an error, much less hit his spell-checker button. Yet, the votes of such people count just as much as yours.
