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Larry T. Spider

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Posts posted by Larry T. Spider

  1. 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:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. Been to Vegas a million time to party and gamble. Going M-F next week for work and staying at Caesar’s as that’s where the conference is. Not my first choice after staying there last year and feeling like the place needs a massive refresh.

    Anybody try to eat decently healthy while in Vegas? I usually don’t so recs in or near Caesar’s would be appreciated. I don’t want to send the company into bankruptcy with my expense report so value (relatively speaking) is also appreciated.

    Anybody done the pool there? Won’t be available until later in the day but hoping to snag a free chair and take a break from losing money in the later afternoons.

  6. For me it’s similar to how former servers usually tip well at restaurants. When I was a teacher, I drove uber two days a week. That was Fridays after work and Sundays after lesson planning. It was hard to live in Austin on 55k and have any kind of financial goals. I don’t have kids but try to take care of the teachers I know now that I make more.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  7. We use Chase Sapphire Preferred which has a $95 fee but has been well worth it. The signup bonus plus our normal spending quickly got us 2 round trip tickets to Spain with only a little additional money from us. 

    Using multiple cards and getting the bonus should be easy for one person as long as they are with different companies.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  8. 34 minutes ago, cactusflinthead said:

    “Texas must enact a regulatory framework that protects public safety, aligns with federal law, has a fully funded enforcement structure and can take effect without delay,” Abbott said.

    In a statement explaining his veto, Abbott argued that SB 3 would not have survived “valid constitutional challenges,” and that the bill’s total ban “puts federal and state law on a collision course,” noting that the 2018 federal Farm Bill legalized hemp products.

    “Allowing Senate Bill 3 to become law — knowing that it faces a lengthy battle that will render it dead on arrival in court — would hinder rather than help us solve the public safety issues this bill seeks to contain,” Abbott said. “The current market is dangerously under-regulated, and children are paying the price. If Senate Bill 3 is swiftly enjoined by a court, our children will be no safer than if no law was passed, and the problems will only grow."

    https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/state/texas-thc-ban-delta-8-9-vetoed-greg-abbott-special-session/287-cca31320-9394-470e-8e69-04477de760e6

     

    You could make most of those same arguments against the 10 commandments law but here we are….

    • Hook 'Em 5
    • Like 2
  9. 1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

    Dividend income isn't free money. I'd rather just invest in solid index funds and withdraw my 5% a year. Funds that just chase ever increasing dividend payouts generally underperform index funds.  

    I think the biggest hurdle is selling shares vs keeping your current shares and cashing in the dividends.

  10. 4 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    There's some of that, sure.  But see the Civil Rights protest photos above.  Those were dirty N-words getting beaten, attacked, and firehosed.  And the white allies among them were dirty N-lovers.

    Yet....it resonated.  Slowly, just by causing some initial discomfort.  But it builds.

    Sure, the gal in the clerical collar is just a dirty lib, to their lizard brain....at first, when they are trying to rationalize it.  But it's also...a person who looks like them, in a clerical collar.  Not being violent, yet being hosed or hit with pepper spray.  It sticks in the brain, and won't go away.

    Make the evil bastards commit their atrocities in daylight, for all the world to see.  The Nazis knew that was a problem.  It's why they didn't just round up jews and slaughter them in the street where they found them.  That would have been too much, and might have turned public sympathy against them.  Ship them off, kill them by the trainload behind walls, hidden from view.  Nope, you gotta make the Nazis go nazi in broad daylight, where everyone can see them.  That's how you win.

    I completely agree, but I don’t think that’s what we are going to get. Trump is going to stoke the flames with the military followed by pictures of cars/building burned by brown people. 

    Trump thinks he can prove himself right on illegals being lawless thugs and some are going to play right into it. Wouldn’t surprise me if there are some right wing provocateurs mixed in to kick off the action.

    People with half a brain will know that these were mostly peaceful protests needlessly escalated by a power hungry orange menace. But the other 75% of our idiocracy will just see dirty minorities burning stuff and fighting cops.

    The African Americans of the civil rights movement gave us a blueprint but we rarely follow it. Amazing how they were able to organize and stick to a plan even without the ability to communicate online.

  11. I’m all for people waving the Mexican flag if that is their home country or their heritage. Hell, maybe it’s not and you just want to show support for people that are being caught up in all this BS.

    But realize the optics are going to be bad. The American idiocy needs simple messaging with as little nuance as possible. It’s confusing when people that don’t want to be departed to Mexico are waving Mexican flags in the face of cops. You become a much more sympathetic figure if you’re waving an American flag signaling that you are hoping for a better life here. We all know that the tatted up guy waving a Mexican flag in the face of a cop is going to play right into the disinformation playbook of the right.

    On a completely separate note, where was this energy during the election? The left love to squabble over minor policy differences while a wannabe dictator gets elected. Then they fill the streets all pissed off.

    Win. Elections.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  12. 38 minutes ago, troph said:

    All water except for sprinklers and pool. But garden / plant watering and all home uses are cistern. We were shocked to find out how much water pools use. Wow. 

    Is it just from the initial fill up or ongoing refills? Never owned a pool.

  13. On 3/20/2025 at 3:28 PM, Larry T. Spider said:

    I made a similar post a while back but have some more concrete numbers to work with now that my wife got a raise. We are early 40s DINKs that have a household income about 3.5x higher than 5 years ago but basically the same expenses. 

    This is leaving us with about 5k a month to figure out how to invest. This is after tax advantaged accounts maxed, a healthy emergency fund, and enough to pay for the next car in cash. I also have 15 years paid into TRS, which will pay me about 2k/month when I’m in my late 60s.

    These are the options I see but would love others opinions:

    1. Brokerage account - dollar cost averaging. Don’t have much in this account because we weren’t making enough to fund anything beyond retirement accounts until very recently. I was a poor teacher for 10 years and my wife wasn’t making much.

    2. Pay extra towards current rental property. Owe 130k at 7%. Somewhat recent purchase. House pays for itself plus a little currently.

    3. Save for another rental. Currently have about 35k put away for that.

    4. Pay extra on our own mortgage. Owe 130k at around 3%. House is probably worth 600k.

    5. Hookers and blow.

    Additional info. I’m in sales and get a few commission checks a year. Anywhere from 10k to 100k, but usually on the lower end of that range. Need to start planning for that as well. 

    Update on this. Have the wife’s IRA fully funded, my roth backdoored, and the 401k set to max out before the end of the year.

    Mostly going with the brokerage account for now and dropping in 2-3k a month. Still paying a little extra on the rental mortgage and setting a small amount aside for the next rental. But getting more dollar cost averaged into the market seems more important than anything else right now. Feel like I’m playing catch up from not making a lot for so many years.

    Commission season starts in 2 months. That should let me up the DCA amount to 5k a month for the foreseeable future. I still think it will take a few years of maxing IRAs, the 401k and dumping money into the brokerage to feel caught up.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  14. Buchanan went up about a foot. Thought it might get more based on where the rain was falling. It is doing better than Travis at 57% full.

    Canyon lake didn’t go up at all. Sitting at 45% full. 

    We are still in desperate need of rain in the right places. It’s June now, so maybe next year.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  15. 4 minutes ago, Mdhorn said:

    Universities, national parks, education and hospitals are getting hit no matter where you are. 

    One major roadblock for leaving the country, say with a US bank account, SS, or as my wife has—retirement for career teaching, is simply that the govt could just pull the plug on any of it. Contracts mean nothing now. And if you live overseas, what’s to prevent the government from stating they no longer view expats as Americans, since they no longer participate regularly in the American economy? America first isn’t going to care much for expats. 

    And the rest of the world is tied to its neighbors politics since they share borders. The world is a quagmire. 

    I do think this is a legit concern, especially if more left leaning people retire outside of the US. Whatever iteration of MAGAs are in charge at the time could make SS more solvent and claim the money should go to people who will spend it in the US to boost the economy. 

    Two birds, one stone. Of course, liberal tears is the real goal but they have to dog whistle that part.

    • Hook 'Em 4
  16. I wanted to make a separate post to ask a question about the perceptions of different posters. I’m in Texas where we get the double whammy of MAGA at the federal level and the likes of Abbot, Paxton, and Patrick at the state level. 

    Do the left leaning posters currently living in blue states feel the same sense of demoralization about the future of the US?

  17. Look at countries that have had shit hit the fan in the last 100 years. What commonalities exist between the people that were able to get out before it got bad.

    1. Money. Probably the most important aspect as it makes picking up, moving, and having funds to live off of possible.

    2. Foresight. If things get bad we will have a lot of people looking to leave at the same time. Also, we have a lot of people with money. Restrictions will certainly get tighter and we have already seen that in some popular destinations. Jumping before the masses would help greatly. 

    3. Political connections. Always helps to have somebody greasing the wheels in your favor. I don’t think it’s particularly necessary if you have a lot of 1 and 2.

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