pollardsvision

I'm not worried about Amazon's taxes. I do, however, wonder why 300,000 social clubs in this country (more commonly known as "churches") are exempt from income and property taxes.

I wouldn't know, but would've loved to have found out. My wife had a brain injury 14 years ago, in our mid 20's. Having children would've been theoretically possible, but has never appeared to be a wise decision for us. She could help some, but she needs a lot of help with things too. I just don't think I have enough time and resources to make it work. She would've been such a wonderful mother. I try not to think about what was lost 14 years ago, but that one is always tough to swallow. I have no idea what's right, but I think this is what we're supposed to do (well, not do) given the circumstances. That choice was never easy, but gets harder with every passing year. Seeing so many people have children without much thought put into it makes me a pretty angry.

Looking for some very basic advice, as I'm just getting started on retirement savings. Got a Roth and an individual account set-up, with auto monthly transfers to the Roth (with plans to dump in any extra I can). The individual account mainly as a place to park cash in investments instead of sitting in checking, but that I can get out of if need be. I'm 39 with very little saved (nearly nothing by FBG standards). Just equity in the business and the house as assets. So, taking a 20+ year approach with everything (probably more like 30. I'm a working hump). Right now, I'm just mainly focused on ETF's and mutual funds, and basically all of those focused on small cap growth funds. Once I feel more comfortable with those and have more invested, I was planning on focusing towards REIT's. Does that sound like a reasonable approach? Any other basic things I should be looking at?

Anything called an "outdoor kitchen" sounds like a good excuse to burn money, nttawwt. For perfect outdoor cooking, all you ever "need" is some Weber Kettles, cover/protecting from the weather, refrigeration close by for beer (or coolers), a place to sit, and maybe a bluetooth speaker. Oh, and a good place to whizz. If you're going inside to whizz, then I'm not sure what the point of moving everything else outside even was.

My daily driver is still an '01 Toyota Echo with 300K miles that I bought new. I wouldn't say I have brand loyalty, as I've only owned 4 vehicles in my 23 years of driving (and 2 of the other 3 were/are a complementary beater van and truck to the Echo). But when it's time to move on from the Echo or if I ever get anything new or newish, I have a hard time imagining I'll consider anything besides a Toyota.

He didn't say that. Just what I gathered from a 5 minute trip on the Google machine (from 2013).

We don't have a Costco, so I use Sam's. I had no idea that Costco eliminated self-checkout. That would drive me insane, personally, but as a business practice, I dig it. Costco said human cashiers are more efficient. In my observations of people at Sam's trying to manage self-checkout, I could buy that. I've wondered, at times, if Sam's should reserve the self-checkout only for those that have been certified to use it (I'd be happy to teach the course).

I almost crossed the line, but then I remembered the title of this thread.

They do, but it's generally worth it. In all the times I've had tree work done, the added cost to get rid of it is usually only about 5-10% and some just go ahead and include it in the cost without offering the option to not haul it off. If there's a large price difference, I'd check out a new tree guy/service. Especially if it's a hardwood. Any good tree guy is going to have plenty of ways to sell it. It's part of their business.

This is the most curious part, and where the "process crimes" crowd stops short. The "process crimes" guys are sort of right, in that, generally, what these dudes are lying about don't seem like a big deal. Had they told the truth about about these meetings, they likely wouldn't have gotten in much trouble. So, the million dollar question is, why are so many guys telling lies that will put them in prison when telling the truth would've likely meant no punishment? The most sensible answer to that is they are trying to cover-up a much more damning lie and protect someone fairly powerful.

You have more faith in the public than I do. Not a big deal, and I have no clue how much it'll hurt. But I do believe the rules are still different for women.

Still learning more about Harris, and she sounds awesome. Of all the Dem hopefuls, either Harris or O'Rourke would be be my pick, I think. But I'm not going to lie though, I do have concerns about whether or not America will vote for a black woman from SF. Please don't hate me. It's 2019, and this shouldn't be an issue. I deeply hope it's not an issue, but the last 2 years don't inspire much confidence. I've been very wrong before (I texted a buddy in 2007 saying there was no way in hell that the America would vote for a black man named Barack Obama, and that was before I knew what his middle name was). The 2020 Dem candidate is going to need to, among other things, connect with rural Midwestern voters. Obama did, but he might've been a once in a lifetime candidate and was also a Midwestern candidate. It was exciting to see the success of so many female candidates in the mid-terms. But I still have concerns that that last glass ceiling might be even tougher than it would seem. The absolute vitriol towards HRC was so shocking to me, with so little to substantiate it, that it feels like there must be more there. Rural voters and a brilliant woman? Seems like a tough nut to crack. Doable, of course, but it seems it would take just the right personality to connect with them. From what I've seen, Harris is extremely likable, but the hill to climb from simply being from California is a massive one. I hate myself for even bringing this up, and I hope it's not a valid concern. But it feels like it could be.

I'm talking about the Executive Membership rewards, not the credit card.

Strolling through my FB feed, I can see that, at least with the hard-core Trumpers, he's done a good job of convincing them that this is all on the Dems. Not that this is surprising, but it's pretty impressive, really. It's like a game of how much baloney one man can make 30% of the population believe (well, not just one man, he's got some help).

Why don't you use a flatbed? I've never tried two carts, but I pile up a flatbed with about 50 items every week and it's super convenient. And it would allow you to skip the smart ### cashier. Pile that flatbed strategically with all the bar codes accessible without having to move anything to scan with a wand, and roll through self-checkout. The entire checkout process, from scanning membership card to payment and receipt printing can be done in under 20 seconds. And that's pretty exciting that Costco caps the yearly CB at $1000. We only have a Sam's and they cap it at $500.