genwin

How has it done over 10 years? And that's with mega gov't help.

Yes, a diversified investment portfolio could perform like that in the past, when the gov't wasn't minimizing interest rates. Nowadays only with much greater risk of loss of principal.

Agreed on never. I recommend house debt, where there isn't enough cash and there's no obvious bubble, only because houses are almost sure to appreciate given inevitable population growth.

Yep. In the US, if we could get a viable 3rd party we could maybe get campaign finance reform. Until then there is no chance of it.

You're describing instant run-off voting.

> the government is corrupt, incompetent and beholden to interest groups

Which in turn is because of the 2-party oligopoly. Instant run-off voting, to give 3rd parties a viable chance of winning, is part of the solution.

You had luck on your side though. Not everyone does.

But nowadays the only way your investment income will pay for your expenses is if you were rich to start with, or you take the risk of losing a big percentage of your money to earn more than 3% interest.

With bank interest rates at < 1%, having $2 million in the bank earns < $20K/yr. He must be rich or ultra frugal.

Current biggest reason is likely that mortgage interest rates are being minimized by gov't so that banks can unload the houses they're holding at higher prices. When house prices rise, rents tend to as well.

> I customarily travel with private insurance ... The insurance company denied reimbursement for elective medical treatment. Direct quote: You could have elected to leave it in your eye.

Sounds like your private insurance will never pay a claim. "You could have elected to die."

$300 is amazingly low, especially for a big city. For 2 stitches I got a bill for $1500.

Seems people tend to conflate the price of admission with desirability. There are plenty of reasons why rents can rise much faster than inflation, other than desirability increasing.

Good analysis. Big difference is in the middle-tier city you're buying the house at say $1K / month mortgage, rather than renting. And your house is 2000 sq. ft. with a yard and garage, instead of a 1 bedroom apartment. Less disposable income but your standard of living is subjectively higher.

I was offered $150K for an SFO job a long time ago, but didn't consider it because at the time a 3-bedroom house next to a freeway was $900K. Now that house would be north of $2 million.

I stopped short of mentioning that. It's harder for them to get into Vancouver now, with a change in immigration law there. I think the ones who would've picked Vancouver now tend to settle on Seattle, willing to pay the same $million in cash for a house.

Geez. Hard to believe that SFO experience trumps making $70K/yr in a middle-tier city, living in your own house and paying less for its mortgage.

If you plan to stay in Bellevue long term, buy as soon as possible. The Seattle area's population is growing rapidly (mostly immigration it seems) and the cranes aren't keeping up.

And be sure to get a big raise every year, to cover your 25% annual rent increase.

Do coders (like at Twitter) typically make over $200K/yr? Or do they just eat ramen every day?

I like this thinking! Like dropping a beach ball into a swimming pool.

They're terrorists, because someone in authority thought so, and that's all it takes nowadays. No way will they be allowed in the U.S. except delivered in handcuffs to a long solitary confinement.

Your life would be crap in a hurry if you couldn't depend on laws being enforceable.

> Wu recalls that one of his 20-something co-workers became the mistress of a wealthy, middle-aged man. "One day she quit the job. The man was a public servant, working for a government agency."

At first, sounds like she was fooled. Then it makes sense.

But no one in the article demanded to be employed.

State law trumps this. It's not stealing to expect a company to adhere to the law in terms of employment and pay.

I suggest you buy that next house now. That $185K could become $300K in a hurry. House prices in my area are up by about 50% in 2 years and accelerating. This is partly due to hedge funds buying up houses to rent them out. They'll likely be a big player in every major city eventually.

Boulder's not cheap. There I saw an ordinary split-level house for sale at $1.5 million. 10 miles away, closer to Denver, the same house could be $300K.

Good points. The lifestyle I'd want for my kids would be more resources available per kid (whether they use them or not) and less effort expended to attain a resource, not the current situation where there are ever less resources that are ever more expensive in today's dollars to attain.

For example if they want wild salmon for dinner I'd like the rivers to be teeming with salmon, like they used to, and for a salmon to always cost $1 in today's dollars, instead of $15 a pound today and $30 a decade from now and so on.

And yes I'd like everything to be recyclable and recycled to the maximum extent, whatever is needed to keep the good life sustainable until the Sun becomes a red giant.

> And the US population isn't fast growing, its projected to reach 438 million by 2050.

That's fast growing to me.

> Would you rather be counted amount the attrition?

Do I have a choice?