Didn't really know where to post this story link....is it about a vehicle (deuce and a half)...is it what things he used in a shtf scenario? Is it what to watch out for?

I guess all of the above....so I thought it fit under "knowledge"....but feel free to move it if there's a better place. It's a story about one guys journey to help a friend and more during Katrina. Interesting read with just what you would expect from the good in people and the bad.

http://lonestar-mvpa.org/events/2005/05_katrina.htm

Wow what a great movie (alarming and scary as heck but great!  :o ). Dinesh D'Souza does a really great job. And so much of the footage is almost real time with current events. The theater was about 1/4 to 1/3 full which for here in MA is probably pretty good.

I think what was most powerful was the lengths at which he went to show that it has been the Dems all along who were the racists and how they have lied to change their message to claim they were in favor of civil rights etc. Very interesting stuff. I definitely recommend it.

So what's everyone's take on the Brexit vote today? Very interesting that England has said "pi** off" to the EU. I think this is a sign of people waking up to the idea that bureaucrats with a globalist view have put all of us at risk due to the immigration nonsense that is occurring. And while London just elected a Muslim mayor the rest of England said "enough is enough". I think this parallels very closely what is happening here in the US with Trump and his stand on immigration. Very interesting and I think will open a lot of eyes that this is not a purely US "phenomenon". Ultimately England has far more to fear from terrorists due to their location and the completely open immigration that the EU laws allowed (not to mention the fact that they have allowed themselves to be disarmed). Their vote is (to me) saying "yeah free trade and all is good, but if we're not safe then the he** with all your ideas".

As an aside I like that Trump is in Scotland right now. I would love to hear him come out and say he has met with UK leaders who are of the same mindset and they are working on a trade plan and other countries who share the concerns about unfettered immigration are welcome to be part of it. It would blunt the people decrying him as a pure isolationist and the fears of what that could mean for the US economy. We shall see but clearly his presence is Scotland is not by "chance". 

Curious your views/perspectives?

I want to thank you guys for the prayers for my Dad. He passed peacefully on Tuesday night at about 630. He did it on his terms, was in the home he loved and with his family. While certainly sad, we are also very grateful that his passing ends his suffering and will ultimately be easier for my Mom who has withered under the strain of providing him care over the past few years. I am at peace and happy that he is with his parents and his sister who all pre-deceased him.

My wife remarked that Hospice is a much more natural process where he got to stay at home cared for by family instead of being in an antiseptic hospital with blinking lights, alarms and strangers. I will spread some of his ashes in a stream in northern Maine where he loved to fish.

His service will be a celebration of his life and all that he did. He loved the outdoors, he loved to garden, he loved opera, WWII history (he could tell you every battle and how and why it turned out the way it did and also how it affected other aspects of the War). He was a Russian interpreter during Korea and got to do some very fun things, and some not so fun things that he would still not disclose right to his death. He was a complex man.

Thanks for the support you all provided. It may not seem like much as forums are not the same as face to face but know that I and my family appreciate it.   

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there."

The little boy then understood how powerful his words were. He looked up at his father and said "I hope you can forgive me father for the holes I put in you."

"Of course I can," said the father.

It's not always anger, it is your actions in general. There are no "fresh starts" in life. There is no new beginning. Forgiveness comes easy for many people but the scars of the past, they never go away. Watch what you do today, because sometimes the price isn't worth the reward.

Just watched this last night. Very good movie about a prisoner exchange between the US and Russia (U2 pilot Gary Powers for a Soviet spy). Tom Hanks does a good job and as usual for Spielberg, very good depiction of what was going on at the time. Our youngest watched it with us and I found not only was the movie really good from a story perspective but the history lesson was great too. I remember reading that for our kids (mine anyway who were all born in 1993 and later) that for them even the first Gulf War is "ancient history". So for them to see what was going on during the height of the Cold War is very powerful. I also loved seeing how a (somewhat) ordinary citizen can do extraordinary things. Very cool movie if you have a chance to catch it.

 

So this is a show on MavTV. I don't have that channel but can watch it on demand. Kind of an interesting show. The guy operates a CNC shop in CA. He is all about making American and building America. He also has a pretty interesting background having fallen pretty hard in life, learning computers in prison and then working his way up from a $9/HR machine operator. (At least if his background is accurate). He also seems to have found God in the process which he is not shy about stating on the show (how refreshing is that?). He also is big on helping others.

I watched an episode last night where he helps a relative who just started a machine shop making ar receivers get started. He also goes to a juvie facility to talk to the kids and tell them his story. He can be a bit over the top at times but I get the sense his passion is real. Worth checking out if you have some time. As with anything ymmv. :)

Here's a link to the shows website:
http://www.mavtv.com/shows/titan

Ok so I am kind of "that guy" in my neighborhood, as in I really don't care what my neighbors think. I get the paper in my skivvies, I do work some times until all hours of the night. I burn everything in my fire pit. I just really don't care what the neighbors think. Now that makes my wife nuts some times but I really can't see living my life to someone else's expectations.

Anywho...I am also the one that yells at kids when they are being frigging idiots. I have those little reflective fiberglass stakes to mark the edge of the lawn for the plow. Well today Nica is barking up a storm, I take a look, there's about 6 kids (12-13 yrs old or so) walking down the sidewalk. I bring Nica in and I don't know why but I just watch them. They stop near the edge of my property line and they're just talking, loomed like deciding where to go. Well one of them starts playing with one of the snowplow stakes. I keep watching...they start to leave and he just walks off with the stake. So I went out on the back steps and yell "Hey!! Want to give me my stake back?" He does immediately but I started thinking who the hell do these kids think they are? I had one trash a resin chair on the pond last year, smashed it all up, so I brought the pieces to his house and gave them to his Mom. His Mom was of course mortified and she bought me two new ones but it's just so frustrating to see these little maggots running around doing stuff without ever experiencing the back of someone's hand- literally or figuratively.

I honestly don't know which is worse- the kids who are unsocialized idiots, or the parents AND neighbors who don't correct their stupid behavior. I know one begat the other but we are raising a bunch of absolute bleep-heads for kids as a society.

Rant off. :)

So I hear a fair amount from clients who want to talk about investing in a socially responsible manner. And I have a few answers for them when we discuss it. I think some of this sort of parallels some of the discussions that have taken place here about whether charities are efficient with their donations versus spending a lot of the donations on big overhead etc. It also ties into what I think we as Christians and pro-gun owners should do by supporting gun friendly or Christian businesses, albeit from a slightly different perspective.

And for these comments I will cite mutual funds as its the way most people invest. Morningstar and other entities will categorize "socially responsible" funds that can be sorted, researched, etc. But the difficulty in that broad category is that every fund has a slightly different bent on it and every portfolio manager has a slightly different approach. And some times those differences can mean a world of difference to you as an investor. So some serious due diligence is warranted. But I also have an alternative view that I will propose at the end.

So first is the "category". Morningstar defines "socially conscious" funds as:

Any fund that invests according to non-economic guidelines. Such funds may make investments based on such issues as environmental responsibility, human rights, or religious views. A socially conscious fund may take a pro-active stance by selectively investing in, for example, environmentally-friendly companies, or firms with good employee relations. This group also includes funds that avoid investing in companies involved in promoting alcohol, tobacco, or gambling, or in the defense industry.

 
The problem with this broad a category is that what one fund company views as a "bad" company from any of these perspectives, another manager might see as "good". This leads to problems when comparing the performance of various funds and how well a manager has performed and whether he or she is worthy of managing your money.

I remember a discussion I had with a portfolio manager a number of years ago. He was vehemently against American Express because he said they send credit card offers to recent college graduates, enticing them to borrow money. Now one of his largest holdings was VISA. I said "Isn't it a bit hypocritical to say Amex is bad when they require paying off the card every month but VISA, which is one of your largest holdings, entices those same students to take on debt but likes it when the debt rises by allowing the young kids to pay a "minimum amount"? Which does more harm to the kids? Amex who requires the kid pay it all off every month or VISA which allows a $5,000 bill to grow to $10,000 or more through egregious (usury?) interest rates?" He just kind of sputtered and never had an answer I felt was okay. But my point here is that some will invest in a fund and some of the holdings of that manager may be very much at odds with how you feel.

Another one that came up one time was a fund that invested using Islam as its tenet. I was doing a search for the investment committee of a big client that was/is EXTREMELY socially conscious (think of really good ice cream... ::)). Anyway one of the best performers during the time period we were looking at was an Islamic based fund that invested based on Sharia Law. (Now keep in mind that this was in the mid to late 1990's so long before a lot of people who don't pay attention were familiar with Sharia Law...heck a lot of people NOW don't know what Sharia Law is all about but even fewer did back then). At first they were discussing the performance and then focused on the Islamic aspect. They thought that was fine and that it might be viewed as being very tolerant of them. Then I asked them if they thought there might be a problem with how Islam treats women? I had printed out some news stories and some other stuff that I had discussing Muslim practices against women. They quickly decided that it would not be a good fund to include in their lineup! ha. But my larger point is that the "net" cast around funds like this can catch a lot of funds, not all of which you may feel are in keeping with your belief system. And that ultimately can cause some difficulties for selecting a fund based on a performance/returns evaluation.

So you may be asking with all these reasons NOT to invest in this fund or that fund, what should I do? I think there are two roads an investor can go down. One is certainly to do some research and if you find a manager that you agree with and trust then you can invest with them. But here is another way to do it that may be easier to fulfill and you may find it helpful. Invest PURELY for return. Invest simply to maximize your profits. Any time a fund is investing for (as Morningstar puts it) "non economic guidelines" then they are (at least potentially) accepting lesser returns to make some larger point about their investments. I say spin that around and invest for maximum growth, then realize you can give more money to the charities that you support with the additional gains you have received. I have taken it further in discussions on this topic over the years- once when I was discussing the performance differential with a client they lamented how much money the tobacco and oil companies were making (this was in MA after all... ::)). I suggested they could invest in those companies and then if they felt that strongly about it take the earnings they made and donate them to anti-smoking or green energy causes. At the end of the day they decided to invest solely for return and whether they did or did not donate more to charities I have no idea. (I suspect I know the answer to that one too....). But my point is this can be done from a Christian or pro-gun supporting way as well....invest to maximize returns and use your earnings to support charities and entities that support the causes you believe in. That in my mind is JUST as beneficial (if not more so) than investing in some "SO CALLED" socially responsible fund. I think many times (not all mind you, but at least for many of the people I have spoken with about this topic) they often are investing in socially responsible funds simply to pat themselves on the back and be able to say they are at cocktail parties.

Anyhoo....YMMV.  :) 

So whenever we have a ham I get a hankering for pea soup later. Today I am making some with the hambone we had from a Christmas party. Its simple as heck and tastes SOOOO good on a cold day (not that its cold here today - mid 30's- but is a good winter food  ::)).

I first trim the ham bone of any ham left on it and dice that ham up. Because I will be adding the bone itself to the soup for cooking I try to trim as much fat as I can from the ham meat I have trimmed. In a pot I add a bag of split peas...the ones I used today were Goya but I just grab whatever ones I see. I usually have 2 or 3 bags in the house at any one time. I mince an onion, a few garlic cloves, dice some carrots. Salt & pepper. I dump it all in the pot including the ham pieces and the ham bone. Some times I may add some chicken bullion or chicken stock. I fill it with water then on the stove. I bring it to a boil once and then turn it down to simmer.  I will check it every so often and give it all a stir and taste adding salt and pepper as needed but that's basically it. As the peas break down it thickens and thickens to the point where it is very heavy thick soup. Served with a slice of fresh made bread topped with butter and its darn near perfect!   

Plus the leftovers freeze well. I save it in small tupperwares so I can grab one out of the freezer and have a bowl or two any time I want.

So this sort of ties into my thread about Obama...when my wife says "all is lost" I remind her of the number of cases that are making their way through the court system to push back against Obama's Executive Orders etc. I just saw this article from Drudge and it highlights some very important cases that are scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court. While I wont make any predictions as to the outcome given their decision on Obamacare I do think they bear watching to see if the nation will be tipped back a bit toward freedom or continue its slide toward socialism....

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/3913384-supreme-court-decide-politically-charged-cases-2016

Abortion- two regulations in TX are being looked at- One measure requires clinics to use only doctors with admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. A second requires abortion facilities to match the standards of an outpatient surgical center. These two measures would (according to the article- I don't know if that's accurate or not) shut down 3/4 of the Abortion clinics in TX.

Affirmative Action- This would prevent schools and universities from accepting students based solely on race or ethnicity.

Union Fees/Dues- This would eliminate the requirement that all public employees pay union dues in over 20 states.

Voting Districts- Currently congressional districts are drawn to cover "equal numbers of people". The challenge to this being considered is to change it to "equal numbers of eligible voters". The current version uses "all people" including children, immigrants,  prisoners etc.

Contraception- This is a group of challenges (all rolled into one case) arguing that the Obamacare requirement for contraception is still too onerous from a religious freedom perspective.

Immigration- This is the result of Obama's executive action stopping the deportation of illegals. Rulings in TX and the 5th Circuit in New Orleans stopped his action but Obama's attorney's are appealing.

It should make for some interesting news especially in light of the election. 

I was not sure if I should put this here or in the Firearms section but I do have a rant with this so put it here....

Here's the story....

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/12/22/virginia-to-end-recognizing-concealed-carry-gun-permits-from-25-states.html

So VA, which previously had reciprocity for CCP holders from:

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming

will no longer honor permits from those states. In addition, it means that VA CCP holders will not be able to use those permits in Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wyoming because those states require a reciprocity agreement to allow permit holders from the other state.

From the article: "John Whitbeck, chairman of the Virginia Republican Party, said Herring's announcement was further proof that Democrats have "declared war on the Second Amendment."

I totally agree with that. In a time when we have seen ample evidence that armed citizens CAN make a difference (Clackamass Mall, Appalachian State Law School) and that death and destruction that comes from Gun Free Zones where the LACK OF armed citizens played into the total body count, anything that further restricts citizens ability to protect themselves is very very dangerous.

Anyway....more political BS from the left placing more and more of us in danger. Of course I already live in a dangerous state (MA) so this is not new to me, sad to say....

How many of us bake bread? Yes it can take more time and depending on what you make can be a pita (kneading etc.). But it can be so much healthier and cheaper (some of the prices are insane for flour and yeast!!).

I am making my "grandmother's" oatmeal bread recipe tonight. Giving a loaf to my parents and one for us. I grew up thinking her bread was the beat I had ever had. Fresh baked bread....butter...mmmm....heaven. but this is what she made for sandwich bread as well (she never bought bread). Well I learned her recipe is simply the recipe from King Arthur flour oatmeal bread recipe. (So much for old family recipe's! Ha!). But it IS delicious.

I also have a really good no knead ciabatta recipe I will post up (I'm on my phone and can't grab it right now). But I'm curious how many bake bread and what recipes you use. I will say we use a bread machine some times too which is certainly ly easier! We usually just let it make the dough then transfer the dough to a regular bread pan to cook as the loaf comes out more "normal".

Anyway....I didn't see a "bread thread" so thought I would start one. I'll add the oatmeal bread recipe and the ciabatta one later.

So this is kind of a two part thread....gas prices in my neck of the woods are now under $2 for regular unleaded and diesel is $2.25. As MA is usually pretty expensive I am curious what you guys are seeing?

Also I wanted to plug an app that I use (I have nothing to do with it other than I find it helpful). Its called "Gas Buddy". It lists stations in an area and their price (you can set the search for regular unleaded, mid grade, high octane or diesel). Its always frustrating to fill up and then a mile down the road see gas $0.03 cheaper. I don't always use it as I know the station near me that is pretty consistently the best but I like it for when I am driving some place I haven't been for a while or find myself needing a fill up in an unfamiliar location. You can use the "location" function on your phone and they will show you all the ones near you or you can simply search by a zip code, an address etc. (As much as I like some of the features of my Android phone I hate some of Google's snooping so rarely have the location function on....but I digress).

Anyway....just wanted to pass that along.
 

I am posting this here as it seems the most reasonable place. Today is out local "Chain of Lights" celebration which our Church participates in. Trolleys drive throughout the town bringing people to businesses, schools, churches where all sorts of crafts and goods are sold. Our Church has a TON of goods from a variety of charities that we support.

I ran the traffic detail for parking, herding the cars that wanted to go in every possible direction possible (herding cats comes to mind!), directing trolleys, helping folks with the elevator etc. Worked with a bunch of nice guys and we talked football, ISIS, politics and other stuff from 9:30 to 4:00. The majority of the time was with two guys i knew but not super well. So nice to see/learn there are other sheepdogs out there.

Then after that we had the Christmas Tree lighting on the town common with the HS band (my daughter plays in it) playing ALL (and I mean ALL) Christmas carols. So refreshing to have a tree lighting and Christmas carols on the town common.

Great weather and really great turnout at all functions. Just so refreshing to have a day like today. Not all of Massachusetts is bat-sh*t crazy.  :) So when you normal folks carve the east coast off the real America know there's some of us here that warrant saving! Ha. Blessings to all.

A machine to bring any equipment you need anywhere in the Tucky....ha!

I'm guessing it goes a little slower than your regional jets....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3326046/Lockheed-s-airship-gets-green-light-approves-massive-hybrid-vehicle-launch-2018.html

This is about 20 minutes from me.... >:(

Of course the FBI won't say what weapons were stolen but we shouldn't assume it's tied to terrorism... ::)

http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/30522507/worcester-us-army-reserve-broken-into

So this is just a story but it was a fun little trip just the same. Some years ago I was working in CO roofing houses. One of my roomates (3 of us all lived together and worked roofing) had a little Subaru Sambar van. This was a pretty cool novelty of a vehicle with suicide doors and nothing, I mean nothing at all in front of your feet/legs than the sheet tin it was made out of. I forget the year but it was a 60's or early 70's model. It had something like 13" tires. The easy part was that once we had a flat and I could just tip the van by hand onto the other two wheels while he changed the flat. Road worthy? Just BARELY!

Here's what it looked like (this one is not his but found the pic searching), his was white but same basic vehicle:



Now this thing had a little lawnmower engine or something powering it so take the aerodynamic shape of a refrigerator box, put the COG up high (any time a person was in it), put it on little tiny tires and give it no power. Perfect right?  ::)

Anyway....this vehicle was down in the Arkansas River Valley of CO (east of Pueblo)....problem was we were up in Greeley which is north central, about 200 miles away. But no worries we want this thing for running around town, going to work sites, its a cool machine to tool around in, as long as you are in town. So we take a ride down south. My roommate is going to leave his pickup there for a couple of weeks and we will go back and get it later. So we first go through it and get it fired up. I think "going through it" meant making sure the hamster wheel had grease. But it fired up, we filled it up and headed off.

Now the route from that part of CO to Greeley goes straight north on a state road. CO 71. It runs north up to Limon where you can pick up I-70. This is through rural eastern CO. To say there is not much out there is an understatement. but no worries. We had food, we had water, we may have had a beer or two in case we got stranded. But we weren't drinking cause we really didn't know how long it would take. This thing does maybe 45 mph down a hill, off a cliff, with a tail wind. Anything else and you're hard pressed to get it above 35. So we head out at about 8 PM or so with the summer sun setting. 

Now given that I don't think this thing has a suspension, a rough county road does what a rough county road will do....shakes you to death. Add to that the wind sweeping across the prairie hitting that sail of a side, we were being pushed this way and that way.....well we were pushed mostly right as the wind was from the west. Finally after about 2 hours we hit Punkin Center (yeah that's its name...no lie). It's simply a crossroads of two state roads. Its built up now looking at it on Google Earth but at the time there was only a small gas station on the northwest corner. Well we wheeled in there about 10:00 (uh oh....lessee...54 miles....2 hours....we have 150 miles to go.....Houston we have a problem! ha!). It was lit only with a streetlight as it closes at dark I think  ::). In the gravel parking lot was a semi with the driver checking his load. We come wheeling in, engine racing, gravel flying (think dukes of hazard on a ride on mower  :o) The driver stopped what he was doing to see what the he** was pulling in near him. I opened the door and yelled to him "Hey! How far is it to Montana?!" He almost fell over he was laughing so hard. Well we did what we had to (get rid of some liquid waste that had been shaken out of us by the road), fired back up, waved to the trucker and wheeled back out in a cloud of dust.

Well by this time we realized we had done some serious miscalculations....we knew at the rate we were going Greeley was going to be a good 6 hours more. But hell...no problem...we'll get there about sun-up.  ::) So we bounce rattle and shake for another 30 miles or so when we get to the real fun....the interstate. Now you've all seen those videos of guys who lost their licenses driving down the road on their lawnmowers. That's pretty much what we have here, except we're on the interstate. Fortunately with the rocket ship like speed we were travelling meant we got to the interstate at about 11:30PM or so. So very little traffic. Which was a good darn thing because between the wind blowing in our face, the wind from semi's passing us blowing us to the ditch, we were doing about 30 mph in the breakdown lane with the flashers on. Several times I asked my buddy if I should get out and push when we hit a hill. I am glad no cops were around they would have shot us and left us for dead for being on a highway with that thing.  ???

Fortunately we were only on the Interstate for about an hour as it was 53 miles.....wait a minute....in my dreams! It was 2 hours of misery....hoping the semi's could see our flashers....hoping we wouldn't get blown into their path by the wind and hoping we wouldn't get blown into the ditch when the blast of air hit us as they passed us. But we made it....got to another county road and got the heck off the darn highway! And by then we were almost home free....about 70 more miles of county roads.

We pulled into Greeley at 4AM. A neighbor was just getting up for work and came out to see our new toy. We both looked like we had been rode hard and put up wet. He said "where the heck have you guys been?" We told him we had been on the road since 8PM the night before. He just laughed and went to work. I will say that first beer we opened tasted mighty good. But we had our van. Strapped a ladder on it and threw on some signs we were GTG. It got us business I will say that! ha.

So that's my story....but I was darn glad I didn't have to take it BACK to southern CO.  ;D 

Not sure if there are any NFL fans here or not but I am glad to see the season starting. Who do you like? How will your team do this year?

I am a Pats fan and enjoyed last night. Perfect start to the season for them....a win where it counts but also plenty for Belichik to work on with the team. On both sides of the ball. I felt bad for the Steelers somewhat....they are/will be better than what they showed last night. But hey....it's all about how teams play in November and December.

I am not sure if this is in the right section but geothermal has some real appeal to me for a variety of reasons. One is no more oil/fuel bills as it runs on electricity, but is far more efficient than electric heat. I am thinking that it would work well for a bug-out site quite well as that lower operating cost would be a good thing in a SHTF scenario. From what I can find online it seems like systems cost (full systems) between $10K and $25K depending on size, available land for the heating/cooling tubes, etc. But if you're adding that cost to an existing build/renovation it is not that much....and given the savings potential it would pay for itself pretty quick.  Just curious if anyone has some "real world" experience with them?

I'm not sure if this should go here or in the financial section but I'm curious what experiences everyone has had insuring an expedition vehicle or highly modified vehicle? I'm thinking of Square D and how much Don has invested in it....it would suck if he got t-boned by some meth head (in more ways than one!) And the insurance company said "okay here ya go....here's your check for a 25 yo truck with 170K miles"!! >:(

So just wondering how it went for other folks and what experiences you had good or bad. And while I cited SD I'm sure it would be the same for any old muscle car etc. Is it simply getting a specific appraisal and insuring to that?  ???

Here's what I like about Trump. And I am not saying I would vote for him no matter what but he's got a lot going for him in my mind.

1. He's not a politician. Clearly. Ha! So he's not someone who has contributed to the problem we have seen in Washington. I tend to like Governors more than Senators and Reps for President because they at least have had to come up with a budget and make tough choices about where to spend money. Reps and Senators don't have to do that.

2. I like that he has made illegal immigration a front burner issue.  Get off the amnesty BULL*BLEEP*. If you are here illegally you need to leave. Ann Coulter has done a GREAT job articulating the harm these a-holes have wrought on our society beyond the cost of their welfare benefits. He's the only one saying build a wall (oh and get Mexico to pay for it!!) and make them leave.

3. He is an America first person. None of this "Cant we get along with the world" nonsense. He sees a world where America is #1 and everyone else is trying to catch up, and I like that. Plus I think he would play very different with terrorists here and around the world than Obama has (foreign combatants? What? In civil courts? WTF???)

4. He is also a dirty SOB. The ability to win in RE deals in NY and around the world is a benefit. I think Mitt Romney is as nice a person and smart, all the business sense anyone could ever hope for and would have made a GREAT President. but when Obama led with his chin about Benghazi in the debates and Mitt didn't knock his frigging block off I was like "uh-oh". Democrats have shown they will do and say ANYTHING to stay in power (Remember Dirty Harry Reid's comments about Mitt not paying his taxes?! WTF? And after the election he freely admitted it was a lie.). Republicans need a candidate that will play just as dirty and won't take ANY BS from the left out of fear of offending someone. I think Trump will do that and has the tough people around him to make it work. I know politics is dirty, but I will put money on NY RE development too as being a dirty game. Trump speaks so freely I get worried he will put his foot in his mouth but the John McCain thing didn't cause any long term problems and he actually came out with a pretty reasonable explanation of it. (I still think McCain is a hero for what happened in Viet Nam and the Hanoi Hilton but agree he has don't diddly on veteran issues since becoming a Senator).

Anyway....that's my sense. will he be the candidate? Who knows. A lot yet too take place but he seems to be doing all the right things.

Now it also looks more and more like Biden will be getting in and potentially with the fake indian from MA (Elizabeth Warren). (And trust me if that's who he picks I will have  LOT more to say about HER!!!! Yeesh! But I think Hillary is in real trouble and Obama letting the FBI go after the email servers is a sign (I think) he wants Biden (he can control Biden not Hillary). And I would LOVE to see a Biden Trump debate. I think Trump would eat his lunch.

So I am curious about how others see him? I realize there are other really good candidates and I would like to hear folks thoughts on them as well. I put the rest of the field in order of preference as probably - Scott Walker (has made tough decisions and won some tough fights already), Carly Fiorina (business background non-politician), Ben Carson (LOVE his ideas but a little light on the charisma/powerful personality factor), Bush (not strong enough and I think the country wants a fresh face), Rubio/Cruz (okay but don't stand out enough for me right now), everyone else....never mind. Ha.

 

 

So in my work I get a lot of questions about when people should retire etc. I have developed a series of things to think about that I thought might be helpful to pass along. I apologize in advance for the length of this post but wanted to throw it all down. If your nt interested feel free to hit back. No worries!  :) The reality is everyone is different, has different needs, goals and resources but hopefully this may help some people who are in the "I'm going to retire in the next few years" mode but aren't sure what questions to ask or how to determine the best way to do it. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone may have if it raises them.

So what usually happens is I get a call from someone who is fed up and says "I've had it....for the $75K a year (or whatever the number is) they can go pound sand! I'm retiring." And my typical response is "Before you do anything lets go through the math and see what the impact of retiring today is (versus a year from now....2 years from now etc.).

So in this example the guy is 65 and makes $75K a year. He has $500,000 in a 401(k) but no other pension benefit. The company provides a 50% match on contributions to the 401(k) up to 6% of salary. If he stops work now he gets $1,650 a month in SS benefits. (SS will increase your benefits from 7-9% per year from your FRA (Full Retirement Age) up to Age 70 and will decrease them for every year BEFORE your FRA down to age 62- so there is a lot of leverage in when you start to take SS Benefits). For this I assume the 401(k) earns 6.5% per year.

So in my example if the guy retires at the end of the year he will have gotten:

A salary of $75,000. If he contributes the 6% to the 401(k) to get the maximum match he will have contributed $4,500 and the match will add $2,250 to it. With the 6.5% growth his 401(k) balance will be $539,688 at the end of the year. And he will be eligible for the $1,650 per month in SS benefits. So the work for the 1 year provided a total increase to his household of $114,688 ($75K plus the increase in the 401(k) of $39,688) (This is the "simple" math- yes its a little more complicated because some of the growth in the 401(k) is his contribution, but you get the point). And at that point if he retired and used his 401(k) to provide an annuity plus social security he would have annual income of (approximately) $57,266 ($37,466 from the 401(k) plus the monthly SS benefit of $1,650 a month ($19,800 per year).

So now lets see if he works one more year, still contributes to the 401(k), etc.. Hopefully he will get a 3% raise (I know...may or may not be true). But if he does here is what it looks like at the end of one more year of work:
Salary was $77,250. Now the balance of the 401(k) is $582,172. So for that additional year he received $119,734. most times that is where I will ask the question- "okay, you wont stay for $75K...will you stay for $119.7K? If they gave you an almost $45K raise would you work another year? Because that's what you got...you just gave it to yourself." Now when we look at the "income side" as before he can get annual income of $62,944 per year ($41,560 from the 401(k) plus the new SS Benefit of (approximately) $1,782 per month for an additional $21,384 per year. So now his expected income in retirement has grown by $5,600 per year or 10%.

But hey, maybe this guy is young....he still sort of enjoys the work. He's healthy and keeps working until age 70. by then here's what he would have gotten:
Salary is now $86,945 per year. the 401(k) has now grown to a value of $784,018. His annual income when he does start taking it would be $93,000 per year ($64K from the 401(k) and $29K from SS). This represents an increase in annual income in retirement of $35,900 per year versus what he would have gotten at age 65, or a 62% increase.

Now I realize not everyone is willing to stay on at a job they are unhappy with for 5 more years. But the point is that the leverage created by working another year (or 2 or 3) etc. is dramatic. 401(k) (and IRA's etc.) are like making a snow man....when you start pushing the snowball the snow that is collected is very small....but as time goes on the snowball grows and it keeps picking up more and more snow. By the time you are contemplating retirement, your "snowball" (account balance(s)) are the largest they have ever been (presumably) so anything you can do to NOT start taking that money will have a huge impact year over year. Even working part time for a couple of years can help- just by NOT taking money out of your 401(k)/IRA.

Obviously there may be asset allocation decisions you need to make to reign in your risk profile as you get closer to that retirement and that is appropriate but keep in mind that with life expectancy for men age 65 at about 87, even when you retire you are still a long term investor so should have some money in stocks to ward off the impacts of inflation. Everyone needs to determine what that amount is so I am not saying have it all in stocks by ANY stretch, that would not be smart. But for most people, your cost of living will double while you are retired (with inflation of 3.5% per year). So while the $57K may seem like a decent annual amount at age 65, it will be (effectively) $34K at age 80. And the other problem is that by then there is nothing you can do. While its easy to stay on and work another year (or more) at age 65, by the time you hit 80, odds are you are done working even if you want to go back.

Sorry for the long post. But hopefully this may give some folks some ideas as you get closer to "that day". I'm happy to answer any questions anyone may have.   
       

A friend of my 19 yo son passed away tonight in a boating accident. They played hockey together and he was a really great happy go lucky kid. What compounds this tragedy is that his older brother died 5 years ago playing varsity football. Now their parents have to go through the unimaginable hell of burying another son. Please pray for them and their family. They are a family of amazing grace and strength and faith. Lord knows they need it more now.