@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

When my dad retired from the US AirForce I guess you could say he screwed himself. You retire with full benefits at 20 years. you get no bonus for working more than 20 years, other than if you are making more money after 20, then you retire at the whatever that pay was. He retired at 25 years. I suppose the argument could be that he could have retired 5 years earlier making the same or even more than he was in the service, AND receiving his military retirement pay.

Yeah, he more or less worked for free for five years, I would guess.

Why do you say that? I'll give you that he worked for only 50% because military retirement is 50% pay. He was able to take major advantage of the situation though.. those 5 years were spend running the skeet range on base for like 15 hours a week at full pay. The rest of the time he worked off base at another job. So for him, he earned half is old pay for 15 hour instead of 40 in a super easy job on the range. lol

I have had a HVAC guy tell me the expensive ones cause too much resistance on the blower motor and can cause your system to wear out early. Buy the cheap ones and replace them often.

@coliver said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@hobbit666 said:

Man this is all confusing to me 🙂 thank GB for the NHS

Yes, that's one of the biggest issues... that it is confusing. The average American has to maintain a level of insurance expertise that is completely out of scope with their knowledge, experience and expertise in other areas.

That seems to be purposeful. So that insurance and providers can double bill or otherwise extort as much money as they can.

No doubt there. And so that people will give up and just pay more rather than figuring out how to be affordable.

@scottalanmiller said:

@Kelly said:

@JaredBusch said:

@Kelly said:

HSAs are good for anyone that has medical expenses. They lower your tax burden right off, and can be used for a wide range of expenses that might not seem to fit the category, e.g. chiropractic care, dentists, contacts, etc. It might not be useful for everyone to contribute the maximum allowable to it, but I think there can be value for just about anyone.

But for many that benefit is outweighed by the time spent managing your expense to setup the HSA and make claims against it.

Our bank gave us a debit card that charges against the HSA. All we have to do is save our receipts for taxes.

I've seen that done, that's a very nice process.

I agree, I'm lucky, unlike Kelly, I spend way less than the HSA allowed deposits, I have nearly two years of deductibles ready to go... plus I can use HSA for things like glasses, lasik and dental as well.

@Dashrender said:

@JaredBusch said:

@travisdh1 said:

@Dashrender said:

@JaredBusch said:

My tax rate (counting healthcare) is something like 35% when I looked at my last paystub for 2015. Refund this will be about $3k because I forgot to change the amounts last fall like I generally do once I have paid in enough to cover my taxes.

That's weird - why would you pay in early? In fact, why not do the opposite, short them as much as possible, bank the cash and send them a check?

It's the world's worst savings plan! I've known people who used taxes like a savings account before, not such a great way to go about things. Personally I've got it to the point where it's as close to zero at tax time as possible (normally $40 or so either way.)

Because I forgot to adjust my W4 amounts last year. I normally do that about September once I have a solid grip on my expected tax for the year. I have long aimed for a ~$100 owe/refund amount.

If it wasn't for possible penalties, I'd pay zero all year and just write a check every year on April 15, get the interest myself.

Since April 15 is my birthday, feel free to write me a check too.

Actually I have no idea how the feds got tipped off.

For me, he said one price, then when my co-worker got there he raised the price $100.

Scammy if nothing else.

@Jason said:

@nadnerB said:

WTH did I just watch?

Where have you been?

Many places.

@nadnerB said:

And there is the cat photo... he's walking along the fence...

I could go for a few drinks myself right now...

Just WWSD for me.

What would SAM do?

@Minion-Queen said:

@coliver said:

We were living in Syracuse at the time... but I was only 2 years old.

Rub it in dude....

I was but a foetus. 😉

@Dashrender said:

@MattSpeller For me it's about just making everything online encrypted.

Hide the important things in the noise. Right now the use of encryption is more of a flashing red light to those looking that someone has something to hide. OK that's over stating it, there are plenty of sites that use encryption, but I'd rather the sea just be nothing but.

To me, it is not even that.

It is hide everything in transit.

What I post is highly public for multiple reason. Not the least of which is the use of my name.

But when I am posting I want the expectation of knowing that no one in between me and the site I am posting on has the ability to scrape anything plain text out of the packets in transit.

That is hilarious. He should be playing ARMA with that attitude 🙂

@RojoLoco So tempted to change my avatar...

0_1456528640385_upload-db1531cb-542f-408f-838c-a9312b313f90

Keeper of the LAN? A bard who is able to tell the flavorful history of the LAN and why it is so broken now.

Congrats @Mike-Davis !!

It's reversed, otherwise not bad.

😉

Every show in atlanta, large or small, is expensive, and is had definitely gone up substantially in the past 5 years. And it's such a huge PITA to get to any of the larger venues that I don't even bother. The mid level venues here have the best shows, but they are getting a little spendy. There is a Jimi Hendrix tribute show coming up, with an amazing lineup (Billy Cox, Buddy Miles, Zakk Wylde, Dweezil Zappa, etc), and tickets are up around $90 if you want to be anywhere near the stage. I blame 3rd party ticket sellers and promoters... greedy bastards.