Social Security Contingencies (Part 2)

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Although I’m not a financial advisor, we do serve up an interesting mix of ideas for dealing with Social Security benefit reductions should they come along.  Say, there’s a pretty safe bet, huh?

 Naturally, the fear porn industry is already offering projections.  But they are wildly premature.

On the other hand, some of the basic lifestyle choices that we’ve made over the last 20-years have really started to pay off big in terms of low cost of living and minimal operating costs.

So today we have that kind of Ben Franklin (ledger) discussion and kick around a lot of ways you can improve your cash position and lighten up on future expenses while the world hangs together.

After the ChartPack and some of the juicier headlines, of course.

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93 thoughts on “Social Security Contingencies (Part 2)”

  1. “Was this why Kamala Harris was hinting to buy Christmas presents while you can? For now, Harris is on our “thanks for leaking the future a bit” to those of us with “ears to hear.”

    I have had retail store managers telling me that since april.. many stores are already putting up xmas decorations.. I actually have bought those that I plan on giving gifts to theirs..

  2. as the chart on average costs..
    food is right on per month….. if your living in a modest one bedroom rent is close.. if your living in a home.. well it depends on location.. the payment is right but is missing the extra for taxes.. if your living in a city that won’t pay for a parking spot to live in your car..
    auto insurance is good for one vehicle.. but if you have two your screwed..auto payment is forty percent low.. Health insurance I spit coffee out my nose.. LOL LOL LOL that wasn’t very nice but a good joke of a figure.. even in a big company and your at the ten percent at the top level that would be the weekly rate for family or individual rate.. we pay many times that rate just for one.. depends if you have ever gone to see a doctor.. phone costs are ok.. cable well it was good you didn’t show that one.. our cable costs are almost two and a half times what the one car insurance rate it now and going up thirty percent.. ( I know it isn’t a necessity..) electric gas and water sewer wasn’t on that list.. or garbage,clothing home maintenance etc etc..
    See but that is the kind of creative accounting that salemen use.. see you working at burger king are the king.. well.. not really you didn’t figure in the cost of a whopper.. LOL

    • On Health insurance…the policy that the wife can get for limited health or catastrophic only .. is ten times that estimated insurance cost for two and limited to the maximum of three visits per year and they don’t pay until you have paid the 7500.00 deductible..LOL At this point they won’t renew a prescription she has until she makes another office visit.. and she has to wait until the first of the year before it will be covered. LOL LOL its all skewed to the top ten percent of the population..

      • https://youtu.be/R3ZJKN_5M44
        like rent..utilities.. taxes lol lol great plan… no car insurance or cable..dump your trash in the neighbors garbage cans or the local gas stations LOL LOL use the toilet at the employers and carry bag so you can grab a roll or two of tp LOL LOL LOL… that is why the soda driver had to use his fingers a couple winters ago LOLd don’t have car insurance.. you can cut your costs way down to live on fifteen dollars an hour income ratio LOL just chop the fluff out LOL

      • One of the waitresses I know says that a local emergency care center has an unadvertised special for locals with no insurance. You have to wait until things slow down, but they let you see a doctor for $20, and the visit is tailored to working poor. I’m betting there are more places like that scattered around. If all you need is one script, that might be a way to get it. Paying for the script is a different issue.

      • “Loob, Employers must pay a penalty if decent health insurance is not offered,”

        Hmm..I wished that was true LOL LOL LOL maybe in your state.. in our state very few employers offer medical to employees and no longer carry anything at all for part time employees.Most of them just offer it to the very top tier of employees and the rest go without. that is also how they get away without paying for vacation time etc..( bigger companies actually use the excuse that you could get food stamps as a benefit.. the one that said that to me.. I said you do realize that isn’t a benefit LOL) .
        My wifes employer can’t afford to give any wage increases or offer any insurance.. he isn’t making a dime right now..The only thing that is keeping him moving is the velocity of money.. or .. Kiting the business.. he keeps the one business moving from the money flowing from another.. He just doesn’t realize that is what is happening.. he has a truck load of cash moving back and forth.. luckily for the wife.. See from not looking at the books and being fairly good at juggling and budgets.. I can tell all of his budget is set up as one rather than splitting the books into the proper categories.. ( George actually pointed it out in the govt. forms showing the increases in the country) its all grouped.. so even though you have an exec.. he makes a million a year.. and a second in command that makes a half million.. add those figures to the figures of those making eight dollars an hour and they are instantly propelled higher in income and they eliminate catagories that way it always looks rosy in SanFran.. its the same here.. I made a similar mistake delivering newspapers.. they paid a dime a paper.. the cost was actually twelve cents.. it took six months to discover that.. then I felt so stupid for not noticing it right away.. so here they hire ten percent as full time.. the rest are semi full time or part time.. that way they can save vacation money.. at the end I was giving away eighty hours of vacation time to someone that got sick.. if you get sick they loose their job and are out the door. His wife was a long time nurse.. she got cancer and was out the door.. they took his farm his rental home and his business to pay for her treatments..He came to us homeless.. most of my wifes income goes just for insurance.. and there isn’t any dental in that either.. catastophic only.
        Its like that for the vast majority of those working wage hours.. well lets face it a good many don’t carry it then the money charged for them is put on the expenses of those that do have insurance and the ddoctors clinic rental…the answer is simple.. tthough Open the borders one drug in canada cost fifteen dollars and thirty dollars for name brand is what several thousand here in the states.. my seizure drugs are well over a thousand percent cheaper there..Let insurance companies compete.. a policy sold in NYC should be available in Galviston tex. Lloydds of london sells policies cheaper than you can get here as well.. make is so that there isn’t any price gouging.. everyone pays the same for the same product. sell them suppliments.. oh accident insurance, plastic surgery addition, cancer, etc.. they won’t do that though..

        https://www.cc.com/video/cbbn22/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-third-world-health-care-knoxville-tennessee-edition
        .Medical is my pet peeve

      • ” Open the borders one drug in canada cost fifteen dollars and thirty dollars for name brand is what several thousand here in the states.. my seizure drugs are well over a thousand percent cheaper there”

        Trump’s prescription plan was to make it so the pharmcos couldn’t price-gouge and had to sell to domestic druggists at the same pricepoint as they did foreign, and subsequently pricematch our drugs’ retail cost to the lowest price which could be found in any other country, remember?

        The USA had $35 insulin for the last couple months of Trump’s Presidency, then the price went back into the $350 range right after Creepy Joe took office.

        This is one of the illustrations I use to “spell it out” when I talk to some anarcho-socialist wannabee, into whom the subtleties don’t sink, when I tell them “We have the government we deserve.”

  3. Ethics! That’s really the problem isn’t it…the lack thereof, anyway. Chasing ethics violations in DC is like handing out speeding tickets at the Indy 500.

    Government employees are required to take annual ethics training. For those of us that are entrusted with managing and spending the public’s tax money it’s serious business. I do my damnedest to use my nearly two decades in private industry to make sure the public gets what it pays for and doesn’t pay too much.

    However, it appears that once one gets inside the beltway ethics goes out the window. Obviously, government employees aren’t supposed to accept expensive gifts (bribes), etc, but another thing we are not supposed to do is give the APPEARANCE of any impropriety. That’s a no-no. I would suggest that our politician in question has had no ethics training because it appears that she was completely clueless about what her appearance implied.

    For financial futuring, I never thought that we would end up in a potential situation that we’re facing now. There’s a distinct possibility that I might be out of a job soon. I feel like I woke up one day and no longer have a country. I spent over 3 decades working for this country…honestly and ETHICALLY…and now my worth as a human boils down to whether or not I’m willing to undergo forced medical procedures.

    I can live on next to nothing. I know because I was dirt poor for a long time. However, I don’t want my wife to live like that and, honestly, I don’t want to go back there. We don’t have an extravagant piece of property or live beyond our means, but I’m also not in a position to lose my income or retire early. I’ve been thinking through what my next moves could potentially be. I’ve considered selling our house, greatly downsizing and possibly living in an RV. Maybe owning only one vehicle. Not ideal, but you gotta’ do what you gotta’ do.

    Of course, we may have bigger problems than that…job or no job. It may get to the point of not being able to find food…not buy it…find it!

    If anyone is looking for a professional geologist with nearly 30 years of environmental and leadership experience, I might be back on the market soon.

    • Sounds like you are basically willing to quit to not have to get the vaccine. I appreciate the stand, but I think you have not fully done your risk / reward tally. There are several hundred million people by now vaccinated, so short term impacts are well known. Is it 0 risk, no, but nothing in life is 0 risk. But so far it is very low risk. So it sounds like you are giving up your long term career for something that has a very low downside risk, and some decent upside benefits. I appreciate more then many taking a principled stand, just this particular one does not seem the hill to die on. Most days you probably take a drive, which entails a higher risk of injury then this vaccine. Don’t put your self into an ideological box. Talk to your doctor and listen to their advice before giving up your career that you seem to really like.

      • I can assess risk quite well. The problem here is that, contrary to popular belief, little to nothing is known about the long term outcomes of this vaccine. The proper testing hasn’t been done. I plan to live a long time and taking unproven medical experiments for a disease that is almost 100% survivable is not a good way to make that happen.

        So far, the vaccine isn’t working the way it was advertised. It was supposed to give you back your ‘freedom’ by making you immune, but now you’re staring down the barrel of regular booster shots, masks, etc. How long will that last? They’ve redefined the definition of vaccine from something that gives you immunity to a disease to something that doesn’t. If the vaccine worked you wouldn’t need protected from the unvaccinated. It wouldn’t matter if you were the only person on the planet who had taken it. You would have immunity. That’s the exact opposite of what you’re being told. You’re also not being told about how many people have been killed and injured by these products. The only immunity the vaccine conveys is to the government and the pharma manufacturers.

        What most people don’t consider is that we’ve never been able to vaccinate against this type of virus. Colds, HIV, etc cannot be vaccinated against because the vaccinations drive the viruses to mutate, which is what we have now. Anytime that has been attempted the testing stopped in animals because it killed most or all of the test subjects never making it to human trials. Now things have changed? I’m dubious. I suspect we have a pandemic of the vaccinated. We’ll find out in a few months.

        What we do know is that pharmaceutical companies and governments have a long criminal history of maiming and killing people. Do you know which company paid the largest criminal fine in history? Pfizer…to the tune of $2.3 billion dollars.

        Trust them if you want, but I’m prepared to take a chance on not being permanently maimed.

        Give me liberty or give me 0.2% chance of death!

      • MAJ13- Get the Covid antibody test before you make a move. You may have grounds to request a waiver if you have natural immunity.

      • Talk to your doctor? They don’t know anything – that’s why we are in this ridiculous situation. People die everyday from the vaxx – the government hides the numbers just has it has everything else about covid. And the people that I know who have had the vaxx were VERY ill for several days – so you know that their bodies have become spiked protein factories. I have had many vaccines in the military and none have kept me in bed for 3 days like one of my colleagues who received the J&J shot. People who have had the vaxx should not assume they are out of the woods.

    • “Government employees are required to take annual ethics training.”

      Lol lol lol lol ..now that has to be athe joke of the century to watch those..
      I sometimes wonder if anyone at all ever realized theres more ethics violations and human trafficking events in areas with more govt organizations. Lol lol

      • Before ethics training was a thing, every member of Congress (from Reagan to Bush43) had been required to read Cleon Skousen’s “The 5000 Year Leap.”

        http://learntheconstitution.com/five-thousand-year-leap.html

        Unfortunately, Skousen was a Mormon, and dared to say the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were based in “Natural Law, which is God’s Law,” so eventually enough atheists took offense to have it stricken from the reading list and replaced with secular ethics training.

        In the 1980s and ’90s, when the dickheads in Congress broke a rule or acted inappropriately, at least they knew they were doing so…

    • I work for a government contractor that is enforcing the vaccine mandate, and I’m already looking for another job that won’t require shots or weekly testing on my own time and at my own expense. A corporate email recently bragged 80%+ of employees having received the shot, so I’m expecting a bunch of job openings in a few years. Until then, I’ll find something else. Friends say I do a good job of brewing beer, so maybe some bootleg beer sales to pay the bills. My wife’s gonna be upset at having all those five gallon buckets sitting in the living room.

      • Sorry to hear about your plight. All of our contractors are in the same boat.

        Now that’s a good idea with the beer. I brew a little myself and I really like the whole process. I think I could really love a career with a brewery or a distillery.

      • It’s always been highly suggested in the Health field and after forty years working there.. I can tell you that you can refuse it.. but then you are quietly sent along your journey of life.. No one has said that they will give the booster here.. but they will .. heck they are already talking about this years flu vax coming..

  4. If you are not planning ahead for retirement healthcare costs, read Medicare, in your 30’s at the latest to bend you over just when the time comes for you need to start using it you have already lost. Sadly that is an overwhelming portion of our population.

    My astute financial advisor made a comment regarding social security several years back during one of our reviews that any attempts to take away or reduce social security would be revolutionary. I have to agree.

    • We will have no choice but to reduce SS. There is only an maximum amount our kids will accept to be stolen from them to give to others, before they drop out of the rat race. The government is what now 25T$ in the red and growing exponentially each year. The retirees are a powerful voting block, so they will keep voting to keep or increase their benefits which will just make the youth paying the bills more and more rebellious. We already have far more job openings then workers. One reason, it makes no sense to work (on the books), and then have a significant part your earnings taken and given to other citizens, leaving the workers with less to live on. Right now I think funds are taken from 3 tax paying citizens to pay for 1 retiree. That ratio is dropping each year as baby boomers retire and later generations have less children. This program was born a ponzi scheme and like every other ponzi scheme only the people in it early come out ahead.

      • “We will have no choice but to reduce SS. There is only an maximum amount our kids will accept to be stolen from them to give to others”

        Seriously Joe..I think they will just end it.. Not reduce it. Let family and industry pay for retirement funds..If I had had a say in how it was saved just my portion of what I paid in I would have a bank number of around fifty million just with what I paid in.. not my employers portion.. .The only reason we still have it is They are still using the money taken from employees paychecks to fund congressional spending and the only reason it is in the hole is because Congress spent it on endless wars and bail out the to big to faIL Banks and industries…. just look at the national budget.. only a fraction of the yearly budget goes to us or the country.. the rest is sent someplace else . But when it ends.. Then all the federally funded jobs and projects will be flatlined.. think the two week democratic shut down and paradise partying with lobbyists was something.. just wait..

  5. G,

    Timely info/suggestions regards low budget thinking for reducing harsh effects of the plandemic reset.
    These guys/girls/et’s really screwed the pooch on timing this thing – sad attempts to overlay a New Control System (s) on the currently evolving NRG buffeting the solar system. We are “rising up” nrg wise, freqing-out as it were, they hope to meet us with and accept their new fangled prison reforms & programs.

    They are circumventing & shunting USA pop into a alt reality…ehhh something like a artificial dimension..where magical airliners fly into skyscrapers, pulverizing steel I-beams and liquefying granite underneath…bbbblue beam tech made it look so real.

    You know the artificial dimension where you are told that Ure govment is running 135% DEBT to GDP.
    – But the GDP is not Production, actually Consumption…current GDP stats are 100% made up BULLSHIT.

    You are familiar with new reality/dimension I describe?

    Like our govmint that Acts/Treats the TRUTH as a THREAT – They feed the peeps Fear, Anger and Lies = History 101.

    The Real Deal – when critical parts are on “indefinite back order” , the machine grinds to a halt. This is our US Economy today..

    You know like a treasury dept & federal reserve central bank that tells the peeps, with a straight face, that the Standing Repo facility is Not QE.

    Hahahahahah Taper my greasey white ass!

    Can Never happen – Trapped in a FIAT Nightmare..https://youtu.be/j4-1VyLbZjk

    No worries Cargil- smoked turkey sandwich – cause down in the swamp, DC, you can get all the “smoked” turkey U want.

    They have been serving the Peloser Sandwich for years.

    This tasty concoction of moldy rye bread, over ripe stinky swiss cheese, mealy tomatoes, brown lettuce and ratturd-whip spread – can be had at the congressional cafeteria for $12.50 w/congressional discount – without discount, $125.00..which is pretty reasonable for the DC area…where Ure tax dollars are alwayz hard at work.
    Congressional cafe does have low fat alternatives such as the Biden Fried Groper Sandwich – aint nothing in it really – just 2 pieces of very stale, dried up dog shit – which the mainstream media tells us is a “gourmands delight”.

  6. Got to worry about Christmas junk. Buy, buy, buy right to the last drop. LOL Cyber Monday is coming.

    Remember at the beginning of the panny, two years ago, nobody had a $500.00 emergency fund. Good to see that’s fixed.

    Don’t forget the food lines too. People better be buying hams and canned goods this year. When someone asks me to open a bedroom if they don’t have a stash of food I’ll tell them keep it moving, no room at THIS inn.

  8. “drug dealers don’t move”

    I was Ghetto-ing it looking at flats. I did offer 46K to one guy for his 2-family. The house is a disaster and the upstairs flat is vacant. He said his house was worth at least twice my offer.

    Overlooking the cat piss soaked floors the topper was a hole in the front door. I asked if it was a bullet hole and the response without missing a beat was “yes”. I asked when it happened “about two weeks ago”.

    Even if I overlooked the lead paint on all the trim there’s lead in a book shelf. And the bullet hole was just about even to where the peep-hole is on a door. A head shot.

    I can’t overlook no stadnards and had to leave.

  9. On cars…The best car value…at least now while there is a chip shortage is Tesla. My friend, who works in bio-tech just sold his 3 year old Tesla Model 3 long range with 45,000 miles on it for $55,000. He paid $56,000 cash. Given that he has zero gas, oil, maintenance smog testing etc charges…he made money. He Took that money and bought the new Model S. Because he works in bio-tech, he is an essential worker and charges his car for free at his office. Most office complexes have charging stations here.

    I too own my Tesla long range Model 3 out right and have 51,000 miles on it and am about to trade it in for the Model Y fully loaded and will break even. I am an essential worker (real estate qualifies) as well and charge for free at my office. What car out there outside of a limited edition classic car can maintain value like that and cost nothing but the cost of new tires every once in a while?

      • Sorry to throw water on the Tesla inferno, but did anyone catch Manitoba Hydro’s news release yesterday? The provincial power utility will not be exporting hydroelectric power this winter because lake reservoir levels have not yet fully recovered from recent cyclical drought conditions. They want to keep the lights and warmth on for Manitobans.

        Ideally the powers-that-be at USA grids intending to charge those Teslas, and run home ac’s, etc., will be on the job already to fill in the 800Mw or so inventory gap.

    • TNSTAAFL…

      Just because you aren’t paying, doesn’t mean it’s free.
      Just because you aren’t maintaining, doesn’t mean maintenance won’t happen, and be breathtakingly expensive when it does.
      Your Tesla is not “maintaining value.” It is “retaining resale value,” which it will do until the 3rd 18650 in its battery pack dies. At that time, its second owner is going to drop $13k on a battery pack (~$9k for a rebuilt) and be less-than-thrilled with his(her) purchase. The third owner is going to junk the car, because he’s not only going to have the battery pack go south, he’s also going to have to buy a new motor, and the two together will cost more than the car’s book value.

      …And a round-trip to Klamath Falls is a day-trip for me, but a week-long drive for you.

    • Many cars retained their value like that the past 3 years, with the crazy rise of used car prices. I know several people that sold their tacoma and other toyota SUV for more then they paid for it new. That is a nice retained value though. Not sure that is a lack of enough new Tesla to satisfy a demand and/or a lack of other BEV options similar to Tesla. But I think crowing about maint. less then 3 years and 50K miles is premature? I believe the only maint on my accords and civic at that mileage was 5 oil changes that I do myself, so something like 100$, maybe CVT lubricant of 80$, again myself. None have needed to return to the dealer for any issue. My 2013 accord I bought used for 16K$ and my 2014 Civic I paid 20K new, my 2012 accord cost 19500 new. So I have three reliable efficient auto for about the cost of your 1 auto. And a site note if you had no maintenance you are likely not following Tesla recommendations for brake fluid testing and brake lubrication. – https://www.tesla.com/support/car-maintenance. BEV use up tires quicker, nature of heavy auto. I did have to change the windshield in my 2012 accord and was 300$ A model3 windshield is +1000$, though many people do pay a bit more for insurance to cover the glass. You could have bought a Camry, put the difference in cost into Telsa stock and been way, way ahead in your purchase value. We often forget the opportunity costs of investing what you don’t spend. I don’t turn over my cars often and expect by buying reliable brands/models I will get well over 200K and 12-15 years of trouble free performance. With BEV, if the battery has an issue after the 8 year warranty it almost makes the auto disposable, though that might get better if we get more 3rd party repair services for BEV. If you replace autos so quickly as you mention this would never be a concern for you, except for the sales/property taxes. https://insideevs.com/news/520820/hoovie-tesla-models-broken-battery/
      I am happy though that we still have options to buy the kinds of autos that suit our needs. Options for consumers is a very good thing, though each day the government intends to remove some of those options.

      • Tell me about it! We’ve been looking for a Jeep Wrangler and a Ford Ranger Edge for a decent price for almost a year now and the one thing that shines through is the Kelly Blue Book price recommendations mean exactly nothing! These two vehicles are almost double the asking price for private sales and the auto dealers are no help either.

      • 210 – 400 miles, on a wind-less day at STP and 40% (or less) relative humidity, and depending upon speed. Conventional wisdom says wind resistance begins to be a factor in MPG (MPC) at 47mph. Tesla’s *.docs state it becomes a factor at 38mph for their cars. At a steady 22-32mph and with granny-driving, any model Tesla “Long Range” may be expected to get north of 350MPC. In the real world and at steady (cruise-controlled) highway speed, 185-240 miles (@STP and 40% on a calm day) depending on model. Subtract 40% on a cold day or 15% on a hot day…

  10. “Evergrande: Panic in the Wings

    A few things become clear – as they have in past crises like this: First is that what’s involved is “only” $305 billion. That’s a lot of money, but it’s considered unlikely China would intervene with a bailout.

    The second thing that can happen is a real estate crash in China. Problem is that if real estate crashes in China, then the prospect of a Global Depression strengthens.”
    __ __ __ __ __

    Before you take Evergrande lightly, I suggest reading up on China Huarong Asset Management Co:

    “Inside Huarong Bailout That Rocked China’s Financial Elite”

    “The numbers circulating through official Beijing were even worse than feared. This was looking like one of the biggest single money-losers in modern Chinese history. But who, if anyone, would be willing to clean up the mess at China Huarong Asset Management Co., the nation’s teetering “bad bank?”

    …Despite everything, it looks like Huarong is getting its rescue. Beijing isn’t ready to see a state-owned enterprise as big and connected as this one go down — to let Huarong become, in effect, a Lehman Brothers of China.

    …Huarong got bailed out. Other, less-well-connected companies may not be so lucky. Of particular concern is the property giant China Evergrande Group, now perhaps the country’s single biggest financial worry.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-30/inside-the-huarong-bailout-that-rocked-china-s-financial-elite

    The Huarong rescue was announced on Aug. 18, shortly after Huarong’s CEO was taken out and shot. Huarong was less than 110 billion Yuan in the red. Evergrande is over 2 trillion Yuan upside down. The CCP is gonna need a couple cartons of cigs for this bailout…

    • Maybe they let Evergrande go because world markets are exposed to it’s debt and this starts the slide – If Lehman affected the world why wouldn’t Evergrande?????

      • Since COVID was a bio weapon assume Evergrande is a financial weapon.

        The new coin of the realm will be based on the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI).

        All China has to do is stop supporting the old guard.

  11. “ Debt-Free Homes are Still Best”

    Saw the article on best places for retirement… I live in the north Denver suburbs in a rural part of the county. Bought 2 acres 20 years ago, and have a lot of equity in my home… but not enough cash to pay off the mortgage (about $130k).

    Living through 5 airlines, 911 and a couple of bankruptcies approved by sympathetic courts… I’ve lived well below my means, and I’ve invested in preparation items… and growing food in my greenhouse.

    Thinking of a Reverse Mortgage… no extra taken out… just pay of the present mortgage… I figure $8000/year for taxes and insurance. Then the usual utilities and 1 car payment/ month.

    Any Negative problems I should know/ask about a reverse mortgage? Not looking for investment advice… just wondering anyone’s experience using the product, especially if you had a negative impact. Not completely sold on using this approach, but thought I should check it out.

    • Home Equity Loan might be a better option – as you do not give up control of Property/Mortgage. Banks can and will in times of stress demand balloon payment of loan balance..

    • Definitely check it out, and then run far and fast!

      The two valid ways of owning a house – fully paid or fully indebted, give you different freedoms. Fully indebted and you own the lender, fully paid and you can do a lot more things, including skipping insurance if you’re so inclined, or tailoring it to your needs rather than what they require you to have. You might even use alternative energy or utilities if you’re so inclined.

      Having a house half owned is the worst of both worlds. You’re servant to the lender and their rules, and you can’t cut and run. The same situation is true for having a ‘reverse mortgage”, with the additional problems of terrible terms! My daughter works for a financial institution and I get to hear some of the gruesome details. My best thought – and it’s worth only the cost of this post – is to get rid of your mortgage as much as you can – possibly refi it if the numbers make sense, but plan to get it paid within five years. If you’re going to have a mortgage, have it owned by a trusted relative or offspring that might inherit it anyway. Mortgages are good for the banks, or they would never offer them. I’ve found that living with as few “monthly payments” as possible is very freeing for the mind. The “reverse mortgage” is simply giving up your equity on poor terms for the privilege of having to meet their conditions to keep getting the money. That usually includes insurance, property upkeep, occupancy, etc.

    • Run like your hair is on fire away from reverse mortgages. I will never be able to recover the losses my mom took on from hers. Without a word to anyone, she signed on with the company Magnum PI represented and ended up with less than 40% of her home’s appraised value after the inspections and fees. 20 years later at 93 it is highly unlikely we will be able to liquidate her property and be able to pay off this mortgage.

      A line of credit would e a much safer bet.

      • All I can tell you is in the retirement community where I live, there must be at minimum 5-10 vacant houses growing nothing but weeds and tied up in some sorta reverse mortgage. They’re hazards for the HOA because no one knows who the actual owner is at this point since ownership is tied up in litigation, and therefore the properties aren’t maintained.

    • If you are out of debt, stay that way if at all possible. The debt is a burden that eats at you continuously. Have you looked for less expensive property? Selling and buy down is an option if you have significant equity you can recover.
      Personally I have land, but my home is small and energy efficient. The garage is larger than the living space. Taxes on ag land here are low. I have paired down recurring expenses mercilessly. I am working well below my peak earning in a lower stress environment just to keep the benefits going, and provide cash flow. Live cheap and try to keep a cash flow going, again, if at all possible.

  12. Contingencies and financial planning – Seems to me that a couple real world possibilities have not been covered, or even mentioned.
    What if: China does make it’s move to retake Taiwan. The repercussions, fall-out and possible WW3 pretty much changes the world.
    What if: The Stock Markets take a dive and we drop head first into a depression. How deep and how long it lasts – ‘and’ how far down the rabbit hole society drops pretty much changes this country and possibly the world. As supply chains disappear two-thirds of the population will suddenly have bare grocery stores and no fuel. What are a couple hundred million city-dwellers gonna do ?
    Most people I talk to believe that one or both scenarios are indeed going to happen and soon. What is your financial planning now ? Planning ahead for retirement health care costs? What hospital is even going to be operating., much less insurance corporations?
    Talk about what could happen to Social Security by 2035? Do you honestly believe that this country will survive without a devastating economic collapse until 2035? I don’t. What does that do to your contingency planning and cost-cutting measures ?
    I find it fascinating that so many believe that China, or a Depression is on the menu for our immediate future.., yet I don’t hear very many discussing what they are going to do., how they will survive.., what their “Contingencies” are for such a scenario., for their and their family’s future. [ Urban Survival.., right?]
    Not trying to be a defeatist., or messenger of Doom & Gloom. Just a disabled vet mouthing off and wondering out-loud. It just seems to me that cost-cutting and life-style changes are going to happen., whether you plan for them, or not. Planning for what happens ‘after’ they are ‘forced’ upon you., to me, that is where our heads/thoughts should be. [ How many bricks of 46gr subsonic 22 ammo do I ‘really’ need? ]
    .., and I still haven’t figured out how to make toilet paper at home !! [ A continuous supply of locally grown source material – plants – is the problem. A task I was charged with by the misses – “Since you’re so smart.” Seems I am not smart enough.., yet.]
    Oh, well. Back at it. Need to install the new grow lights for the green house that arrived yesterday.., Winter vegetable garden. If my math is correct I should be just fine in the added electrical demand to make it through ’til next October Fest / canning season.
    .., or – is this all in my head and none of it is going to happen ?

  13. “And it couldn’t happen to a louder lefty: AOC gets ethics complaint for accepting free Met Gala tickets. Not that ethics matter in D.C….”

    Lessee, $30,000 for the ticket – donated to her, and probably $50,000 for the bumper sti er, I mean “dress,” also donated to her… What’s the problem?

    AOC went from “All Out Crazy” to “All Over Crazy” and let slip the fact she’s a poor little rich girl (which the media, except for Tucker Carlson, again ignored.) Frankly it amazes me that a commie would wear a dress which foist communist propaganda, to a celebrity ball which no prole on the planet could afford to attend, nor would be welcome if they did, and none of the useful idiot kiddies picked up on it or see the utter societal disconnect…

  14. “It has been pretty clear to us for a long while that the U.S. Fed will make a real solid effort to navigate an extremely narrow economic range between hyperinflation (the Weimar Germany case, 1922) and the disinflationary (deflation) case worked out in the USA through the 1930s.”

    The FED has done a marvelous job, since Greenspan learned to juggle, back in the late ’80s.

    I give them serious kudos.

    I also caution that every day we don’t utterly and totally crash, is one more day on which the spring [which is our economy] is wound a little tighter. This is the same caution I’ve made since March of 2000, when we should have collapsed into the “Greater Depression.” Every day that goes by, is going to make the pending crash more severe, and more painful.

    • ohh yeah . out the side baby . the cliff gets higher as we steadily rise on incline .. they deserve everything they get

  15. “See the thing is – with leftover pizza – it’s one of those leftovers that gets shoved aside until…a week to 10-days later…you don’t know if it’s good, or not. So it gets tossed.”

    Really, George? You went to kollege. Everybody knows the room temperature shelf life of pizza is [nearly, but less than] 24hrs and the refrigerated shelf-life is 48hrs. I used to toss 3-day pizza. Now I buy (or occasionally make) smaller pizzas…

    • A great way to determine if leftover pizza is past its time is if you think that piece of green stuff does not turn out to be a piece of green pepper.

    • Just returned across the island from a Costco warehouse trip. Cheap roast chickens, $5 ea. Pizza $10. Several are portioned out and thrown into the freezer. Nothing like fresh frozen Pizza from the microwave!

  16. I never have leftovers! I realize that if I prepare anything at all, I’ll eat it all, so I make sure as to never prepare much ever! When I’ve been given leftovers when visiting with family, they generally last less than 24 hours.

    • Cheap, microwaveable, freezer containers… especially when I make an extra-good pot of chili or batch of beef & noodles. I’ll eat on a pot of chili for two days and the kids will generally stop in for a bowl. That leaves 3-4 bowls to freeze. If it sucks (which is rare, but has happened twice in 25 years) the leftovers go to compost.

      –Makes it so I can have a microwave meal, a month later…

  17. George? And a fire extinguisher? What does that even mean? A handful of Tesla’s very suspiciously caught fire and it’s a problem? You do know that 166.7 gas cars catch fire each day don’t you ? 20 years from now, after Tesla has taken over the car industry, there won’t be 167 Tesla’s in totality that catch fire in that time. It’s kind of impossible unless someone wants to physically torch it with another incendiary device.

    Case in point… recently, there a story that two people in Berkeley were trapped in a burning Car. And, the National headline suggested it was the Tesla that caught fire first . You have to read the story to find out it was actually a Ford Fiesta that burst into flames after being rear ended by a Tesla. You have to read even further to discover the Tesla driver apparently suffered a debilitating medical issue which precipitated the collision with the Fiesta. The passengers in the Fiesta were seriously hurt or killed. The passengers in the Tesla largely escaped without injury. The focus of the story should be on Ford building a car that explodes in a rear-end collision and the safety of the Tesla, not that a Tesla was involved in a fatal collision.

    As far as the battery pack. It will not go south. Bi weekly-over the air Software changes that Tesla does for free have actually increased the range of my battery from 310 miles on a full charge to 330 miles on a full charge. That’s after 3 years and over 50,000 miles. And as far as the demand fir Tesla’s that someone mentioned…you do know that Telsa is the number one selling automobile in it’s class regardless of electric or gas powered. They are completely backlogged with orders and in two years WILL become the number one selling brand of car in all classes. I kind of have some inside scoop on that. Don’t ever count out the genius of Elon Musk.

  18. Are you guys watching this bullsheet about an alliance between US Australia and Uk? What the Fark is this ? Some bullsheet about nuclear submarines and war . Biden Boris and yobbo Morrison all live . Biden couldn’t even remember name at beginning. Fark this off the planet

    • Yup. You guys are getting a fleet of nuclear subs, to scare the Chinese out of Sydney Harbour. Biden stumbled over Boris’ name — thought he was going to forget it, too.

  19. Comrades,

    Prior to being voted out of office a few years back, Canada’s federal government of the time changed the age eligibility for unreduced federal Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefit payments from age 65 to age 67 as a means of reducing stress on the system. The regime that followed reinstated the age 65 threshold but with a twist.

    The original single tier CPP contribution rate of 9.9% of pensionable earnings split evenly between worker and employee is moving towards a three tier system kind of like income tax. From 2019 earnings past a roughly $50,000 base have an extra 2% CPP tax. Then from 2024 or so a third tax tier of 8% will be added. So at that point according to my addition, if there aren’t further amendments, Canadian federal pension taxes could be at 19.9% of top dollar pensionable income split evenly between worker and employer. The rate will have effectively doubled in a 5 year span. Haven’t heard a peep from the masses, so far. Popcorn, anyone?

    Another little twist of plot is in the death benefit fine print. I think private pension plans pay out unredeemed paid contributions to the estate. However, with CPP, expiring gets the estate a flat payout of $2500 – that’s it, that’s all. The rest of any residual paid contributions goes into the big melting pot possibly reflecting a better than 95% tax rate for the average working pleb. It’s quite the business model.

  20. Here’s a possible Underground Railroad rhyme. The second link is the Gmap of the street. The houses are nice enough but 41 people and her family. Greed got her.

    Woman charged with operating a ‘stash house’ after 41 immigrants found in her home

    “Eagle Pass Police officers went to her home on Lindburgh Circle in Lewis Farms Estates after receiving reports of suspicious subjects wearing dark clothing running through the alley near the home. The officers found 41 undocumented immigrants inside, who were all detained. The woman’s four children were also found inside the home, telling officers that their mother, 35-year-old Geovanna Cossette Ordaz, had left them there.”

    https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/woman-charged-with-operating-a-stash-house-after-41-immigrants-found-in-her-home

    https://goo.gl/maps/KgfJDCqZ5He613917

  21. To all who gave sage advice on how the reverse mortgage works… Thanks!!!

    Good to hear the horror stories from both a financial employee, and from a customer perspective.

    For now, I’ll just keep increasing the monthly payment with the extra going to principle.

    • Lets go –
      solid plan – try paying Ure monthly Interest charge on the mortgage a month ahead of time. This is the 1/2 time mortgage payment plan – prepaying monthly interest charge 1 month ahead of time.
      Obviously you will need the amortization schedule for Ure mortgage to know exact amount of each months Interest portion of Ure mortgage payment.
      Congratulations on “sticking it to the man” – half timing a mortgage is one of best and easiest ways to get ahead of the evil “moneyfunders”- and thereby getting ahead !

  22. yous all on the 4th reich !!!!!!! ozzies are . they love fixed stock market and plenty of jabbin . never give a convict freedom i say

  23. Megyn is someone who is finally asking the right questions. But, looking at it all across the board, it begs the question “WHY?”. The hospitals are just going for the money but WHY is there a push for everyone to get jabbed multiple times when the virus is so far from being lethal it would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact people are being killed for money IN the hospitals? WHY would inexpensive medications that work better than The Jab be banned and black balled in as many places as possible in countries as advanced as the U.S. and others?? If you can’t see this as a population reduction gambit you’ll never be able to see the World as it truly is.

    False Facts of COVID Hospitalizations, with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya | The Megyn Kelly Show
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXUtWkE4a6c

    Megyn Kelly is joined by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, to discuss the overstatements on the number of people that are hospitalized because of COVID and the false facts on how sick people are.

    • This was posted on FB this morning. Tell me that this Covid thing isn’t a population reduction program!! Besides Ivermectin and HCQ Monoclonal Antibodies have proven to be an effective therapeutic against the virus. Now Bribem has limited the number of doses that can come to Texas. This is from a Texas judge in Montgomery County. I’ve wondered why the M-A administration had been discontinued here in our town.

      https://www.facebook.com/countyjudgekeough/posts/391370835891604

      While we were preparing for our emergency response to Hurricane Nicholas yesterday, I received some news that not only disappointed me but to be brutally honest it infuriated me.

      For over a month Montgomery County has been hosting a regional monoclonal antibodies infusion center. Successfully doing over 2,000 infusions. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated patients have received infusions at this facility. All of our patients to my knowledge have successfully gone on to beat COVID without complications or the need for hospitalization.

      All of this came to a halt yesterday. As of yesterday the Biden Administration is metering how many doses of Regeneron are sent to Texas and thus limiting how many are sent to the Montgomery County location. Telling Texas to reduce its use of the therapeutic treatment that has literally been saving lives and reducing hospitalizations.

      Now I’d like to think this is because of a supply issue and it will be temporary at best. But it’s not. The manufacturer has confirmed supplies are ample but due to the Defense Production Act, the White House and it’s agencies are the only entities who can purchase and distribute this treatment.

      So less than a week after the president tells us his patience is wearing thin and he is mandating vaccines to millions of Americans his administration limits and all but removes a non-controversial and highly successful treatment from our war chest of combating this virus.

      I have repeatedly said that I am pro vaccine choice and support your individual rights to determine whether the vaccine is right for you. I believe the unconstitutional mandate will be struck down in federal court but while we wait for those cases to make their way through the system we can’t just stop treating people vaccinated or not with a proven therapeutic. Mr. Biden has gone from dangling the proverbial carrot, with his so called national strategy to combat the virus, to throwing out the carrot and favoring the stick instead.

      I will not stand for this and no one in Montgomery County or Texas for that matter should either. I will be reaching out to our federal congressional delegation in the coming days to seek their help at reversing this deadly position in favor of keeping every tool in the war chest available for use for every citizen not just the presidentially favored vaccinated ones.

  24. Comrades,

    Twitter a flutter from the nation named The Savior harkens a Millennial Generation arrival. Descended of Palestinian Christians from the Holy Land; inventor, physicist, industrialist, convert to Islam whose sometimes democratic, right-wing offspring occupies The Palace. El Presidente, Nayib Bukele, in a nation of 7.5 million souls, trumpets pronouncements to his 2.5 million strong Twitter flock. Accept bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador; do not protest against it like vandals in the streets repeat the tweets.

    Comrades! This not Rome. Rome is not falling.

    Listen to El Presidente! Repel the barbarian ideals.

    Fortress America: Break down these walls and open your gates. Allow the children from The Saviour’s lands to enter and spread the word of Papá de Layla.

    Inshallah.

  25. I still cannot quite believe how fortunate I was when I retired (prematurely) five years back. I have literally checked all the boxes George mentioned for home ownership. Cashed out the retirement funds and got a small ranch on the Volcano for $97K. Private water system, CATV w/internet on the front pole. Police, Fire, Ambulance is four miles up the road. Home is now worth about $250K, but I cannot ever sell. Oh, yeah… property taxes for ‘senior homestead’ is $200/year. Car & truck paid for.
    I got such a deal on the home during some volanic duress in the area. But I have studied the geology of the volcano for years and knew the risks of my particular location. As a result, I survived the massive 6.9 earthquake and eruption of 2018 completely unscathed. (Thank You, Madame Pele!) And every tree on my 1/3 acre grows something edible.

    Now the mainlanders are coming in droves, buying anything and everything for sale in Hawaii for outlandish prices. Glad I had 40 years of residence experience here. I would never be able to afford it now.

    Delta Covid numbers seem to have peaked in Hawaii, although still high. And now people are starting to realize that the Jab doesn’t convey ‘immunity’ and seems to be festering new variants. Those of us who isolated and remained UnVaxxed will be proven right in the long run.

      • good on yah mate . i went to hawaii in 83 for honeymoon . wife and i say it was so good . would love to go back . obviously never . stayed at the prince kuhio on waikiki . yep memories thats all this rigged sheet facist world gives us now . well done hank

  26. The Political Alchemy Called Modern Monetary Theory

    https://mises.org/wire/political-alchemy-called-modern-monetary-theory

    Proponents adamantly claim that it is both new and a theory of economics. To make it appear this way, they dress the ideas in unusual-sounding jargon and use rhetorical tricks. For example, instead of presenting actual arguments or responding to direct questions, they present a circular flow of deepities. To top it off, they, at least in my humble experience, usually lack fundamental economic literacy. This can make rebutting their nonsensical claims a challenge and, as a result, debates with this crowd typically go nowhere.

    Interesting…

  28. Victims Demand Justice After FBI Ignored Nassar’s Serial Abuse, Sexual Assault

    “After the FBI spent months doing nothing to stop serial pedophile Larry Nassar, USA Gymnastics athletes issued scathing rebukes of the bureau’s inaction as they testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday morning.”

    https://thefederalist.com/2021/09/15/victims-demand-justice-after-fbi-ignored-nassars-serial-abuse-sexual-assault/

    The FBI was too busy trying to cook up a charge against Donald Trump to worry about a weasel in the hen house of USAG, or the hundred or so girls he molested between the USgymn elites and the Michigan State women and Lansing-area children – while the FBI were all investigating Trump’s nonexistent “Russian collusion.”

  30. New Study Finds Mask Mandate Failed to Reduce COVID Deaths, Hospitalizations, or Cases

    A new study published in the The Southern Medical Journal (SMJ) found that a county-wide mask order in Bexar County, Texas, did not lead to a reduction in COVID-19 hospitalization rates or deaths.

    The study, which was peer reviewed, analyzed data before and after mandates were imposed at both the state level (July 3, 2020) and in Bexar County (July 5, 2020), Texas’s fourth largest county.

    https://thefreethoughtproject.com/study-mask-mandate-reduction-covid/

  31. Australia to get nuclear submarines in new deal with US, UK, sending potential message to China

    WASHINGTON – The United States is forming a security partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom that will allow them to share defense technology in a move that could be seen as sending a message to an aggressive China.

    All three leaders stressed that the new submarines will be powered by nuclear reactors but will not be equipped with nuclear weapons.

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/09/15/national-security-u-s-australia-u-k-form-security-partnership/8349082002/

    Riiight. China and Australia have been at loggerheads for years, and China has not been shy about throwing its nuclear weight around when trying to intimidate the Aussies. As I would bet the Japanese are fast-tracking a nuclear weapons program, I would also assume either we, or the Brits, will arm these boats with at least a limited nuclear arsenal.

    BTW, Creepy Joe could not remember the Aussie PM, Scott Morrison’s name…

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