My favorite comment:

Curled Latin American horse tail is the BEST kind of curled horse tail! Let the other mattress companies cut corners and use cheaper Canadian or Australian horse tail, some of which is UNCURLED, or worse, given a bad perm. If you want the real thing you gotta go to THESE guys!

So now apparently the Russian gas company Gazprom is offering to bail out cypress banks in exchange for gas exploration rights in Cypress.  And conveniently leave all that Russian money untouched by the EU.  http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/report-russian-company-offers-bailout-cyprus-exchange-ga...

Personally, days like today make me thankful for being diversified and not overweight in any one asset (including cash or gold). The one thing it does make me think about changing, however, is my exposure to credit risk. Watching the government rewrite the finance rules on the fly is a good reminder...

I also have USAA and have been very pleased with their service.  Several years ago a drunk driver hit our car parked in front of our house (luckily we weren't in it) and totaled it.  One call to USAA, and we had a rental car that afternoon.  A appraiser checked out the damage within a day or two, pr...

I've also spent a bit of time and energy the last few years researching and planning for early "retirement".  For me, it's not so much about wanting to abandon all work, but about simplifying my life to the point where I have the financial flexibility to prioritize rewarding work over a tr...

It's all about the timing. Lacking the ability to see the future, an active investor will always make changes a day late and a dollar short. I understand the fear of losing money. But my own experience is that chasing the hot money is ultimately irrational and eventually ends painfully.  Now I may b...

Thanks for starting this thread, rickb.  Great summary on TLT.  When you put it that succinctly, it really makes one question just how risk tolerant they are.  Truthfully, I've been back and forth on the convenience/risk argument for TLT for a while now, and have argued both sides.  But the more I e...

clacy wrote: It's quite a statement about the US electorate that someone as dumb as Maxine Waters can be elected.

Reminds me of Rep. Frank Johnson expressing concern that Guam will tip over and capsize because of overpopulation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7m6aewquco

For PP cash in a retirement account I can definitely see the appeal of a simple STT ladder, especially with an auto roll feature like at Fidelity.  If you won't be touching that money for a long time, you don't really care about letting each bill/bond take a year or two to reach maturity.

I used to think that I wanted to be a manager. But as I got older, tried it a bit, and talked to friends who were promoted I quickly realized its not for me. For me, engineering is an interesting challenge but with a high burnout rate. The constant sprinting from deadline to deadline just isn't sust...

RuralEngineer wrote: Salazar said: "That's why we have call boxes, that's why we have safe zones, that's why we have the whistles."!

I can finally sleep better knowing that rape is prohibited in specific zones. 

The state governments are just looking for a new revenue source This. The states just want money.  California will be able to collect sales tax from a mom & pop hardware store in Iowa if they add an online cart, even if those taxes don't benefit the company in any way (roads, infrasturcture, et...

To put the cherry on top of this whole fiasco, it now looks like some or all of the people who helped lead the police to Dorner may not get paid any reward money due to a loophole in the language of the reward notices. Specifically, Dorner was never "apprehended": Ah...  So perhaps the gu...

Discussing the PP with others lately, I've come to appreciate just how much psychology affects investing satisfaction.  No matter what facts you can present to support the PP performance, if an individual has any inclination whatsoever that they have the ability or inside info to predict market baha...

The amount of police arrogance and ineptitude displayed in this whole incident is astounding.  In a situation where they should be heroes, somehow they succeeded in making a mass murderer come across as more collected and in control than the police "protecting" us.    Acting clearly out of...

I think everyone needs to keep global warming in mind.  In another 10-20 years, these already hot, desert areas will get even hotter. Meh.  Global warming (natural or manmade) happens over very long timescales.  Even the IPCC acknowledges in its most recent draft report in December that global temp...

I can understand government intervention in situations of clear animal cruelty. Like where the cats are dying of malnutrition or someone is "raising" (more like strategically neglecting) pitbulls for fighting purposes.  Cases of neighborhood "blight" are a bit of a gray area, whe...

BTW - if cost is no object, San Diego has the most perfect weather in the US, IMO. Warm and sunny year round with few storms. You would still have to deal with CA politics, but on a local level my impression is that SD is less liberal than the other major CA cities. The large military presence affec...

Tuscon and Austin are very Liberal parts of otherwise Conservative/Free states. I recently moved to Austin from San Francisco (born and raised in Dallas).  It's true that Austin is liberal in general.  But it's no California by a long shot (it's still part of Texas after all), and actually one of t...

What part of China are you living in? I've travelled to China pretty extensively for work. I agree that the major metropolitan cities feel very safe in general - people are more likely to approach you with a smile to practice their English than they are to appear threatening in any way. But get out ...

Interesting that the 60/40 split is so sacrosanct that they'd recommend leverage on the bonds rather than just changing the percentage to get the balance they want.

I'd post more, but I'm busy gathering all my money and rushing to the pet store.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/ja ... ck-picking

Sigh.

Whose deep pockets can we empty next for the "public good"?

(After my 60% legal fees, of course.).

I think most of what you're missing is live sports, which is admittedly a tough nut to crack. An OTA antenna will get you all of the live sports on the network channels you'd like in beautiful HD. In addition, you can stream all of the major sports on web-connected devices (for a fee) - Sunday Tick...

I reject the concept that working has to be slave labor.  Both of you guys are smart enough that if you put your focus  and efforts into finding a way to make money, doing what you love (or at least doing something that creates an automated cash flow system-- like a web business) you could be free ...