
Larry T. Spider
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Posts posted by Larry T. Spider
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I’m all for metro/commuter rail as well as high speed that connects cities. My main objection is based on a lack of trust. Many countries get these things built quickly and they are marvels of engineering. In Austin we collect the money through taxes and have almost nothing to show for it.
It’s been difficult to get an answer on where the money is going for the expanded metro rail in Austin. You know the one that was advertised as 386 new lines that’s down to 1 new one starting in 2045?
How is it possible that other countries pull this off routinely and we can’t?
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Making good progress on the financial goals this year. Commission hit today with 12% already taken out for 401k so on my way to maxing that out for the year. Wife’s IRA is funded.
Next up is my roth, which I will need to backdoor for the first time. Am I on the right track with this? Create a traditional IRA in fidelity, fund it with 7k, transfer it to my existing fidelity roth.
Anything I need to do on TurboTax next year when filing?
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Update:
1. They do it over the phone, the person I talked to was completely wrong. They called and changed it to the sale price. Crisis averted.
2. Note to self: buy on the Kansas side of KC.
3. Time to buy another house? 🤔
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Market up. Shrug.
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34 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:
Seven years ago you probably didn’t count on a huge influx of conservative California republicans seeking political likemindedness, or the shift right for that increasing Hispanic demographic
Yep. Mainly the shift in Hispanic men. Turbo fucks all the calculations if it’s permanent. Could easily change once Trump is out. A lot of the blue collar machismo guys like Trumps bravado but wouldn’t give two shits about a guy like Vance.
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10 hours ago, Texas Jeff said:
A quick note on the power of the gerrymander...
Here's how Texas voted in the last few elections:- 2024 Presidential election: Trump 56.2%, Harris 42.5%, Others 1.3%
- 2022 Gubernatorial election: Abbott 54.8%, O'Rourke 43.9%, Others 1.3%
- 2020 Presidential election: Trump 52.1%, Biden 46.5%, Others 1.4%
- 2018 Gubernatorial election: Abbott 55.8%, Valdez 42.5%, Others 1.7%
The current US House delegation from Texas has 38 members: 25 Republicans and 13 Democrats. Republicans have 65% of the seats.
If Republicans pick up 5 more seats, Republicans will control 78% of the seats in a state where they poll between 52-56% of the population.
If the Texas delegation mirrored the statewide results, Texas would have 20-21 Republicans and 17-18 Democrats. They would have five fewer Republicans than they do now.
I’ve been saying for years that the Dems will win this state back by winning statewide elections first. There is no other way. If they start to break this gerrymandered map, republicans will just create a new one. It’s whack-a-mole.
About 7 years ago I did some in-depth demographic/election research and pegged 2028 as when dems would be capable of pulling this off. Increasing Hispanic population combined with burbs turning blue would do the trick.
I don’t give Dems much of a shot before 2128 now. Caveat is that nobody knows what a post-Trump political landscape looks like.
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4 minutes ago, Captainant said:
100% tariff on imported chips - which is to say literally every cutting edge process semiconductor
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/trump-says-us-will-levy-100-tariff-some-chip-imports-2025-08-06/
That's gonna leave a mark considering NVDA alone makes up almost 10% of the entire stock market value, and every AI darling is about to see their COGS go up significantly. There are some foundries on US soil to partially mitigate the tariff tax but they aren't producing the quantity or quality of the TSMC native foundries
Guessing the market will take a fat dump tomorrow on this news.
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On 7/30/2025 at 10:21 PM, Larry T. Spider said:
Didn’t know this thread existed until now. Bought my first rental in Kansas City as the price to rent ratios are decent. Much better than Austin. It’s been about 10 months and I haven’t had any complaints. Management company is ok, tenant pays on time, very minor repairs, and the rent covers the mortgage plus a little.
Then comes the county. I get a letter threatening me with 180 days of jail time if I don’t fill out a pile of paperwork (by hand, nothing online) and send the health department a money order for $42. Waste of half a day.
Now I’m dealing with the tax appraisal. Bought it for 185k with an appraisal at 189k. They came in at 300k. LOL. Nothing in this neighborhood has EVER sold for close to that.
I filed an appeal for an online hearing. They confirmed in person. Now I’m emailing a black hole because they won’t talk on the phone. I’ll never buy anything else in that county regardless of how good of a deal it is.
Ok, update on the property tax situation. I explained my situation via email and got a response that said “you mean over the phone”. That was the entire email.
After multiple emails and calls to confirm they will be calling me I got somebody on the line today that said the only way they will do anything other than in person is if you have a disability. My hearing is at 10:30 tomorrow morning. Fun.
Im trying to get in touch with a property tax protestors guy my realtor knows but I would consider it a long shot on this short of notice and I will probably get stuck with the increased taxes this year.
I know it’s pointless, but is there a way to file a formal complaint against the Jackson County Board of Equalization? They have been non-responsive, rude when you actually talk to somebody, and delayed pertinent information to the point that I likely cant have a representative at the hearing.
All of this nonsense because they valued a house I just bought for 185k at 302k.
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On 7/31/2025 at 10:17 AM, Iceman said:
Aunt & Uncle and all of their kids my age were/ are in the rental business in Denver metro. They did that shit in a serious way for a living and now mostly for continual income. They use a property manager that is legit 3rd party, not within their immediate circle. There was a time when one of the cousin's wife ran the rental piece, but went through a nasty divorce and they tried to see if it would stay professional. It did not.
I've heard enough of their stories to believe the cost of a prop manager is worth it.How well off are they from the business? I’ve seen people with a lot of properties that basically scratch out a middle class life. I know a guy in Arkansas with about 150 and he seems to be doing pretty damn well.
I’m sure it’s like any other business where some are savvy and successful and others are not.
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Didn’t know this thread existed until now. Bought my first rental in Kansas City as the price to rent ratios are decent. Much better than Austin. It’s been about 10 months and I haven’t had any complaints. Management company is ok, tenant pays on time, very minor repairs, and the rent covers the mortgage plus a little.
Then comes the county. I get a letter threatening me with 180 days of jail time if I don’t fill out a pile of paperwork (by hand, nothing online) and send the health department a money order for $42. Waste of half a day.
Now I’m dealing with the tax appraisal. Bought it for 185k with an appraisal at 189k. They came in at 300k. LOL. Nothing in this neighborhood has EVER sold for close to that.
I filed an appeal for an online hearing. They confirmed in person. Now I’m emailing a black hole because they won’t talk on the phone. I’ll never buy anything else in that county regardless of how good of a deal it is.
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My right wing friends texted that it was blackrock/palestine related so we can probably rule that out.
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21 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:
Those far exurbs are still rurals at heart
Wannabe rurals. Work office jobs but still want to dress country and drive big trucks at 90 mph on a toll road straight into the city center from as far out as possible.
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Going to be a long countdown….but it will be relevant again at some point. Droughts, floods, and not much in between.
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Let the water wasting commence!
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2 minutes ago, Message Board User said:
I keep telling the bums that no more than 3 can piss at the same time or this is what will happen.
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1 minute ago, ZB'Tejas said:
Nothing formal but several have mentioned it. On one hand Mystic had the biggest loss of life so there are questions. But it’s also the first camp on the river and immediately past the dam so if it did break it would have had the biggest impact.Really trying to avoid wading into the blame game but a dam breaking changes the scenario some, at least in my mind.
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Are there any formal reports that the damn near mystic broke?
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- Popular Post
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I’m sure it won’t make a difference but I hope this changes how people react to officials putting weather related precautions in place, especially in central Texas. Schools superintendents get bitched out every time they cancel school and it doesn’t turn out to be a massive weather event.
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2 hours ago, Superhero said:
My financial goal for 2025 was to hit $4M in liquid assets. If the market stays static from here until the end of the year, we should be cruising past that number by the early fall.
Looking towards the end of 2025:
- Increase my 401K contribution % to absolutely, positively make sure I reach the $31K. I probably don't need to, but getting there faster never hurts.
- Stop renovating the damn house. In the past 4 years, we've redone the kitchen, replaced the windows, and renovated the upstairs baths. Everything looks great, but it'll be great to stop writing checks as well.
- I need to set up auto transfers from savings to my brokerage account so it doesn't just sit there in cash. After our bonuses last month, we have a pile that's being lazy and needs be put to work.
The plan is still to keep working until my boy finishes college. With any luck, we should be in the 8-digit range by then.
Number 2 hits close to home. In the last couple of years we’ve done exterior painting, remodeled two bathrooms, kitchen, windows, upgraded the sprinkler system, and a new roof but insurance paid most of that. Part of this is because we deferred a lot of projects when I wasn’t making as much and now we can afford them.
We need to paint the interior of the house then probably be done. It will be great to throw all that extra money in the market.
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15 minutes ago, GJ Winne said:
Build the damn statue.
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51 minutes ago, StassneyHorn said:
Happy Paycheck Monday to all who celebrate. We are at the halfway point through the year. Where are you on your goals? Did they change?
Have not began to plan my summer vacation but will have 2+ weeks to blow through soon, thinking the sargassum/seaweed in Mexico should taper off by September, but will take any feedback.Still just chugging along dollar cost averaging 2-3k into index funds once a month. Commission season starts in about a month so that will be fun.
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10 minutes ago, thunderlounge said:
Tell them you decline the resort fee. They can’t force it on you, by Nevada law, allegedly.
I tell them “just send that resort fee to my host.”
I’m not that concerned about it because my company is paying and I’ll probably use the gym. Just saying a $56/night fee for a pool that closes at 5 pm is shitty. Google AI is saying that’s standard so I guess they can get away with it.
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Going to answer my own question and post it in case there are other people looking for the same thing. Work travel has packed on the pounds so now I have to be careful.
True food kitchen - Caesars
Roku Sushi - Caesars
The Halal Guys - Venetian
Canyon Ranch - Venetian (lunch only)
Does the pool really close at 5 pm each day? If so that is a huge kick in the dick considering the resort fees.
2021 - Is inflation finally back in the conversation?
in Business and Markets
Posted
So now there is talk that the US would have to pay back all the tariffs that have been collected with money we don’t have. That doesn’t sound great for inflation.
However, my guess is that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of Trump because cloak room. Is there a way for the ruling to be that Trump can’t unilaterally decide tariffs moving forward but we don’t have to come up with 500 billion dollars to pay back?