patrick.net

I'm assuming the 1% to 2% of customers who exceed the cap aren't single family homes with 6500 sq ft lots. Well, at least I hope not! Is it a small number of people with very large properties and enormous gardens that also haven't figured out how to declare themselves a farm? Or many a large complex where the complex is the customer and 1000 residents all piggyback on that?

Another box to check for the Midwest. We'll never have water issues besides quality with radium being highly present. Occasionally we get put in an alternating day schedule for watering during summer so as not to tax the water tower in our small town, but that's infrastructure related and not the actual water supply. Our town isn't expanding, so there's no point in over building the tower or adding more wells.

I don't know how CA will ever get any better. Somehow we can build 40 story buildings in Miami swamps in a hurricane zone, but cannot figure out a better way to desalinate Ocean water and less resource intensive.

Which reminds me. When excavating the new house I think I'm going to drop in a massive rain collection tank. We have a high water table here and it should help keep the basement dry collecting the roof run off along with the pool collecting water. I think I might go with a 2k gallon buried tank. Not a prepper by any means, but if the tank was maxed out I'd have a solid amount of easy to filter fresh water. Also save on the water bill if I need to top off the pool or water the lawn/garden. First years will be landscape intensive.

Good luck out there in CA though. I couldn't imagine some of the crap you guys have gone through over the years with water. It's a basic need and part of what taxes should be going to supply. Otherwise what good is government? IL it's more about bribes and kickbacks for government work that's the problem.

WookieMan says

I don't know how CA will ever get any better. Somehow we can build 40 story buildings in Miami swamps in a hurricane zone, but cannot figure out a better way to desalinate Ocean water and less resource intensive.

LET ME EXPLAIN THE PROBLEM!

It's SUPER energy intensive to remove salt from water. Basically, you create high pressure water in an RO machine in a plant, and all that water is being moved around at SEA LEVEL and has to be at pressure to produce the water. Once it's potable water, it has to be pumped around UP somewhere for storage.

California has spent years getting rid of power plants. It's just crazy here. They are trying to drive the car off the cliff in my opinion.

Obligatory:

I would argue that in the first and the second scenario the right choice is to do nothing. Let Fate decide. There is no obvious answer wherein nobody dies and no harm will have been committed by the observer. So the correct choice would be to take no action and thus minimize the moral/psychological harm to the observer. If five men or one man die, people still die. But with no intervention, at least you as the observer won’t have to feel guilty about it. You weren’t the one who set this problem in motion or broke the trolley or tied the men to the tracks. It isn’t your obligation to solve it.

richwicks says

I assume you're joking, but motion is relative.

I am not joking, and the Oreo cookie has always spit with the center filling stuck to one side of the cookie. Even though the recipe and the manufacturing process has changed over the years. And oh btw Oreo isn't the only creme filled sandwich cookie that does this. Sometimes half of the center filling lifts up in one corner where the cookie first separated.
I would go buy a pack and experiment, but industrial cookies have gotten so disgusting and inedible I wont bring myself to pay over $5.00 for something that I can care a less about.

They have fucked with the amount of recipe ingredients while still needing the same amount of anti coagulators, lubricants, and other industrial ingredients, to allow the industrial ooze to flow through the Snack making machine, until pretty much all store bought cookies taste like a vat of Lithium grease.

Zak says

This already occurs in cars without AI. Mechanical failures.. gas pedals get stuck, tires blow out.. Manufacturers get sued all the time for their products killing people.

IT ALREADY HAPPENS!

Are you saying it is going to happen more frequently ?

Yes, absolutely I am. I are a enginerd. These are AI trained systems. We can train a neural network to work with a bunch of scenarios, but when presented with entirely new input, it's not predictable.

There's a group of people that just work on defeating the AIs of cars, I don't know if it's research or just for fun or what - but they got a car to drive off a road by just putting some reflectors in the road starting from the center, and moving to the ditch. I think they got a car to malfunction when it encountered a blank white billboard in the early days.

More and more and more and more data will be collected until 99.99999% of the scenarios are handled, but I don't think we're that close yet.

WookieMan says

I think I'm going to drop in a massive rain collection tank.

This is what most folks in CA need one going forward to be sustainable.

Less than 10% of California's water is used for basic urban and suburban homes and irrigation. So when the Commies in California start rationing water to us plebes and forcing our lawns to die, they aren't putting a dent into the problem.

50% of the water is considered "Environmental" which is basically allowed to run through our rivers out to the ocean.

The rest of the water is used for Agriculture. Even though California grows a big chunk of the world's food, Agriculture is only 2% of the State's overall GDP. If we want to get serious, we need to force more water conservation on agriculture and pay a few pennies more for our produce.

The average person in California spends very little for water. My daily water bill is less than a coffee at Starbucks for a family of 5 and irrigating my lawns 3 times a week. People in wetter states in the Northeast pay much more for their water to support the older pipe and treatment plant infrastructure.

We have the technology and the means to fix this problem (desalination) - but it will increase our cost of water a bit.

socal2 says

Even though California grows a big chunk of the world's food, Agriculture is only 2% of the State's overall GDP. If we want to get serious, we need to force more water conservation on agriculture and pay a few pennies more for our produce.

Farmers work on a shoestring budget. It's commodity production. If lettuce potatoes cost $0.02 more, they eat that cost - the price is determined on a commodity market.

They can't just increase the cost. What will happen is farmers will go out of business, and their production will end.

Is is pretty amazing. Why can't everyone do this? Al_Sharpton_for_President, LLC now announces that you have $800,000 in an account. No, we don't have the $800,000 ourselves, why?

richwicks says

Farmers work on a shoestring budget. It's commodity production. If lettuce potatoes cost $0.02 more, they eat that cost - the price is determined on a commodity market.

They can't just increase the cost. What will happen is farmers will go out of business, and their production will end.

Maybe farmers in California should have invested in more water conservation technology and irrigation over the years instead of just opening a sluice gate with flood irrigation and putting a foot of water on their fields............because water cost next to nothing for them due to 100 year old water contracts?

I am not a big fan of letting my yard burn up so California farmers can sell almonds to China.

There is a cap... people's ability to pay.

I'm at 6. I thought I was almost at 7, but the stock market slapped some reality into me lately.

Speaking of level 7, do people use a financial advisor? How does one go about finding such an advisor? I've been going it alone, which is educational/rewarding, but probably foolhardy.

It's not too hard to get to 6 if you start investing early.
The compounding effect applies to mutual funds, and is amazing.
I'm constantly telling younger people that $500/month will be a million dollars someday (30+ years).
Nobody wants to wait or come up with the dough usually.
I might be between 6-7 but I don't have enough for a yacht or helicopter or etc. Maybe we can call that level 8.
Incidentally, the 4% rule can be broken with a portion of your financial assets (not all) if you buy an immediate fixed income annuity when you're a geezer.
That's because they 1. pay more than 4% 2. never stop until you or your wife ("second to die") are dead.
I'm considering marrying a girl someday, she should be 49 or 50.
I have to live 10 years, then when I'm dead and she's 60 she can collect my social security (10 years married required).
I'm so pissed about the taxes I pay I want to get some back from the grave.
She's not going to kill me off because she's not collecting unless we complete 10 years of marriage.

The 10th anniversary will be interesting, lol.

SunnyvaleCA says

Speaking of level 7, do people use a financial advisor? How does one go about finding such an advisor? I've been going it alone, which is educational/rewarding, but probably foolhardy.

@SunnyvaleCA I worked at Schwab's investment advisor service branch (just on the tech side) for a few years, and I do not recommend that you ever get a financial advisor.

They will generally want 1% of your assets per year no matter how they do with your money.

You would do much better just buying index funds, or even better, the specific stocks that make up the indexes.

Patrick says

I do not recommend that you ever get a financial advisor.

I guess I'm doing it correctly then!

I think it’s easier to save for retirement then to figure out what you’re going to do when you get there.

I’m getting really close, but have no idea what I’d do if I quit. Probably will just keep working and give less fucks.

SunnyvaleCA ,
You can hire a financial planning guy if you pay by the hour. (“Fee only”)

I told my father once he was paying 1% of his net worth to a Morgan Stanley guy.
Of course he was incredulous.

Invest for capital appreciation with mutual funds over a long time.
Tax deferred SEP-IRA, 401k or tax free (Roth, HSA) better.
Believe me you will hate taxes later; my taxable accounts cost me $$$ in 2021.
Another good investment is Vanguard Tax Managed Capital Appreciation.

pudil says

I think it’s easier to save for retirement then to figure out what you’re going to do when you get there.

I’m getting really close, but have no idea what I’d do if I quit. Probably will just keep working and give less fucks.

@pudil You may have some life project you want to accomplish then.

I would like to find all the descendants of all my known ancestors and meet the ones that are alive. And to record the relationships in books so everyone knows who is who. That's my project, and I'm really enjoying it, especially when I find new relatives who are friendly (not all are).

@patrick when someone ask for censorship!

2 yrs worth of expenses in cash? Insane. Especially now.

RWSGFY says

2 yrs worth of expenses in cash? Insane. Especially now.

Reminds me of Suze Orman, who got $20,000 from a person she never named (probably her lawyer older brother) in 1980 at the age of 19. Who never had any kids, who became a financial advisor and then sued for sex discrimination, winning a 6 figure award in the 1980s, and then going on to a lucrative career giving financial advice.

Only people like that can say with a straight face "Two years of expenses in cash".

SunnyvaleCA says

Speaking of level 7, do people use a financial advisor? How does one go about finding such an advisor? I've been going it alone, which is educational/rewarding, but probably foolhardy.

You don't need a financial advisor. Most of them are annuity/mutual fund salesmen in disguise.

Save 10-15% of your income as early as possible and buy equities or real estate, preferrably a mix of both. Buy Broad Index ETFs if you don't want to play the market. Don't put ALL your investment money in your own industry and definitely not only the company you work for, because if the industry or company gets pranged (think Enron) you'll have a double whammy of losing your job while your investments tank simultaneously.

Realizing that housing is 30% of expenditure, so the fastest way to save a large percentage of income is to buy the CHEAPEST dwelling you can that is remotely convenient to multiple potential employment sources and not next door to a trap house is priority one.

Not buying the dream suburban shack your wife wants, but the smallest, lowest maintenance apartment you can tolerate in terms of distance and space and paying it off ASAP. In fact it's best not to get married or have a live in girlfriend to avoid that pressure.

Assuming you're male, you're under no time pressure to reproduce.

Imagine if you didn't pay rent or mortgage, just $500/month in combined condo fees and taxes to live in a small apartment or house (Yes, this is not possible in SFBA but is in most of the US Metro Areas esp. in the South), how much money you can save on a modest tax home net income. Buying a cheap condo is literally job #1. Not getting married until 40 (if ever) is job #2. You can spend thousands on hobbies and fun and eat well and still sock away 5 figures a year with a modest job of any kind, and retire at 55 quite comfortably.

My net worth is 1.8 million and I live frugally yet I still feel like I'm only a 5.5 I plan to keep working my 'career' job for at least 7 more years.

When I first started reading patnet I was only an 80,000aire. I'll probably get to 6.

Rin says

I'm PatNet's anti-Covid crusader.

Didn't you have to get vaxxed for work?

Onvacation says

Rin says

I'm PatNet's anti-Covid crusader.

Didn't you have to get vaxxed for work?

And it was beaten up to a pulp

https://patrick.net/post/1343648/2022-02-12-rin-and-the-vaccine-part-deux

Level 8 - immunity from murder, pedophilia, fraud, slander.

FJB says

When I first started reading patnet

How long ago was that?

Re: Financial advisers, etc.

I’m attaching a picture of the article that I showed my father after we transferred all of his stuff to Vanguard from a Morgan Stanley guy.

Note she correctly has money in Vanguard mutual funds.
Unfortunately she is skimming 1% of her clients’ net worth; nice work if you can get it.

She charges a 1% fee and the minimum investment is $1 million, so she makes $10 grand from each “client.”

The problem with 2yrs of expenses is most people are n ramp when it comes to their expenses and lifestyle.

Bigger house, more kids, more toys, inflation, etc

RWSGFY says

2 yrs worth of expenses in cash? Insane. Especially now.

Exactly, if you’re living correctly, 3-6 months emergency fund for expenses MAX. By that I mean you’ve paid off your debts, and are paying off your house or it is paid off.

I’m don’t have a month of cash.

Why bother?

I do have about a month of expenses deposited every month into my bank however.

Guys, what do you mean by ... 'cash'?

Right now, my dividend payouts earn cash, every business quarter. And for now, I only re-invest that from Rio Tinto, Altria, & British-American tobacco, ala DRIP, because much of the rest of the dividend equity players are overpriced.

So thus, in terms of 'cash' as in checking account, I don't need more than 3-6 months of expenses, because I'm earning that amount of cash, every business quarter.

So compare 'free' money vs a checking account at less than 1% makes no sense.

9. Caligulan excess, hot and cold running hookers and cocaine, Satanic world conquest, Babylonian loan sharking to victimize the plebs, plans for psychopathic bloodline political dominance, Swiss citizenship.

I think I'm almost there. Just a few hundred years more of saving.

Ceffer says

Swiss citizenship

Hoeing is legal in Switzerland.

Rin says

Ceffer says

Swiss citizenship

Hoeing is legal in Switzerland.

Let's face it, dating is a form of prostitution. Try going out with a girl, and on your first 3 dates, go for a nice walk, then hiking, then split the check at a nice place. See how far you get with that.