BeamerBikes

I personally want to leave Chicagoland in February. February is THE WORST. I had hoped this winter would be the year to spend it in Key West. Sadly, those prices have climbed super high. Who knows maybe FTL, Gulf Shores, Galveston...

Any hints on best ways to stretch the heating bill while minimizing the lack of comfort encouraged. I have likewise heard using a humidifier will help make the indoors feel warmer.

This may change, but I'm viewing I bonds as my new inflation hedge/place to park emergency funds for the next couple years. Eventually plan to build up a sizeable war chest for rainy day - oh crap, then rotate some of the 0% fixed bonds into higher fixed rates as the penalties age out. That plan may change in a few years, but for now, it's better than a CD and I'm viewing these as the last resort funds. As long as you can tolerate locking it away for the first 12 months, it's not a bad option for nearline funds. As for taxable income, if I have to cash them, tax should be the least of my concerns in the near term.

You may have not noticed the increase in Natural Gas prices. They doubled just after the heating season wound down. My typical $70 November bill has increased to $160!!! Definitely plan on keeping an eye on the thermostat this winter and using spot heat for the home office rather than the whole house. Layer up and put on the electric blanket. Ouch in Chicago! **** No politics!!! ****

I suspect Balance Transfer offers are going to get even more expensive. Gone are the 2% transfer fee days. 5% typical fee now. I suspect a nominal interest rate to return for shorter months too. I'd evaluate the balance transfer fee as part of the offer. I've had pretty good discipline on parking a balance on a transfer offer, and then making regular payments to pay it off by the end of the promotional period. While also NEVER using that card for anything else since comingling balance transfer and new purchases is a recipe for $$$ in unclear interest rate structures. I'm finding I need to teach similar rules to my sister for financial literacy.

Opening a thread on folks best practices around handling credit cards. I'm re-evaluating my annual rewards card landscape. I was loyal to United for years then switched to Southwest for their reward program fairness. Now I'm considering would it better to go the route of a single high priced annual fee like an AMEX Platinum versus carrying multiple travel cards - CapitalOne, Airline, Hotel cards.

Agreed! Bumping my now resolved issue off the main page

Issey also makes a sport and night version of it. I loved international travel for the duty free shops having such a wide selection of colognes to test out and buy.

Confirmed

This is Medicare fraud I can get behind... literally!

I tried to carefully caveat it. Specifically as long as you are able to take the time and have the capacity to be your own advocate. You can put in the work to make Medicare Advantage deliver as promised. My experience came from managing complex medical condition with skilled nursing care involved that didn't always coordinate well with private insurance. It yielded surprise bills and fights for not getting preauthorized when it was scheduled outside of my control. When I compared the even playing field of Medicare and all providers knowing what would get paid for versus what's private pay with certainty, it took a significant administrative burden off me. Kaiser as I understand it has the Western US pretty universally covered. In the Chicagoland market, there was variability at play with long standing traditional Medicare providers not being in the Advantage networks. Plus dementia care meant on boarding new providers held risk for knocking the dementia demons loose. All that adds up for me to be sour on continuing the private insurer "benefit" versus universal coverage under a single national plan as traditional Medicare is. Again, it's my experience for my situation. I found private insurance via Medicare Advantage to be way too much hassles versus everyone takes Medicare. The cost savings didnt make sense for me. Why change to save money I'll end up burning through that money spending time fighting and paying bills. My situation had a lot more provider services week to week so administration was key.

My experience from 2005 to 2017 as the long term caregiver and financial power of attorney for my mom with multiple providers. 2 years preMedicare - Absolutely HATED private employer provider group health care from BlueCross "good" benefits. Pre-auth/in vs out of network/rules In Medicare, opted for traditional A/B with pension provided supplemental including Drug benefit. It became easier. Less uncertainty and overhead what was covered and how much. Dental and Vision were out of pocket and needed to be planned for. One enrollment cycle Pension Plan switched everyone to Medicare Advantage. Promised nothing would change. Could continue to see old providers. WRONG. At home care went out of network. Quickly and forcibly had them change us back to traditional Medicare. Advised the nice lady in benefits transfer out of this department for this year. She was about to hear a crap load more complaints from others. I subsequently decided in the later years to go with the Cadillac of Supplement Plans that took care of 100% of the 20% copay. It was worth the additional premium to only worry about the initial deductible in the beginning of the year and never process another bill for $5.87 or whatever chump change billshit. Medicare Advantage may be great for low health care needs, but once you or your loved one needs more regular advanced care. Switch to Traditional Medicare and big ass supplement plan to simplify the administration. With Traditional Medicare - All you need to ask. Do they take Medicare or not? If yes, everyone knows the rules and what's covered. I only had one provider refuse Medicare.

Anyone else getting icons not rendering while in dark mode? Switch to light mode and they come back. Just started today. On an android/chrome browser.

Having come of age in the mid 90s, there are some memorable ones for me. Red Joop - I could take it or leave it, but had a few bfs that loved it. Blue Joop aka NightFlight and Cool Water - I'll sometime wear it to remember someone from my past. Eternity - holy crap if anyone ever wants to remember why no smoking in bars is a good thing? That scent was so strong it could still cut through 4 hours of a smoky bar. Wear it today - definitely a little bit will do.

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble.... (song just popped in my head)

Twitter may not be going anywhere, but advertisers are leaving. Users are starting to look elsewhere. Engagement numbers are up, but a trainwreck brings a crowd. Financially, I find it hard to see how it will find its way back to a $44 Billion valuation. Leaving politics aside and definitely out of this discussion. I'm finding the Mastodon fediverse a different experience than Twitter. Some learning curve with the new platform for sure. Folks are rebuilding some networks. There's definitely more content moderation occuring depending on instance joined. This may not be sustainable in the long term. At least one of infosec folks has resecurrected a forum site. Imagine that. Company of Men. Ha! Forum sites being used in the 2020s.

I'm not going to argue shit here... If it puts your mind at ease, your own doctor says might as well, and/or it's offered locally, get the shot. OR If you have doubts in the science/stats, don't get the shot right now. Either way, live your life and be kind to one another. 24hr later after 2nd intradermal shot. I have a US quarter sized red mark, and a slightly sore neck gland (could be unrelated)

Got the 2nd dose intradermal this afternoon - no reaction so far. Finished out the regimen. If it's overkill so be it, it puts my mind at ease with one less concern. My primary doc also gay agreed might as well finish it out.

As of 5pm Eastern today, a whole mess of them decided to say peace out Elon give me my 3 months of severance and good luck with your soon to be dead bird. The alternative was signing up to go "extreme hardcore", which sounds like you're going to get worked to death. Also, if you aren't cutting it, you might not get even the 3 months as a consolation prize for choosing "extreme hardcore". I agree. There's no shame in taking a spot on a lifeboat. Better to get in the lifeboat while you still have the energy/will to swim if need be. Rather than try to save a sinking ship you have no ownership stake left in.

An unexpectedly high number of the remaining 50% decided that 3 months of severance was better than whatever "extreme hardcore" meant for work life balance. Smart money is on Twitter experiencing major outages by this weekend when the World Cup piles on their infrastructure. Also reports of Twitter "leadership" locking everyone out of the office for fear of sabotage. Offices are closed until Nov 21. Also if you are an exceptional employee, you may be allowed to work remote. I'm assuming exceptional employee includes anyone left. Everything is fine over there.

I moved over my Twitter presence for cybersecurity stuff over to Mastodon because I've joined the club that Twitter will prolly implode badly in the coming months. 50% Layoff and the remaining have to sign a "hardcore" pledge by tomorrow. Outages are going to be inevitable at this point with that much brain drain.

"Many people are saying... Believe me" hahaha let's keep the politics out of this thread. It has its own forum. Its a finance forum and the topic is recession advice for those, who haven't gone through any significant downturn. Another identifier - when they suddenly cancel all company travel around specific dates. Meaning they don't want to potentially strand someone away from home if they are about to turn off the company credit card.

I was in my early 20s and spent more than half of 2002 unemployed. Then in 2007 - 2010, I waited it out doing caregiving by choice. My advice 1) Don't assume you're safe ever. 2) Build an Emergency fund AND evaluate all spending before you NEED to cut back. 3) if the office plants go missing, banker boxes show up in the hallways, budgets get hard frozen for even small things, those are signs somethings coming. 4) Getting laid off in the first wave has its perks. Sticking around to continue your job AND the folks who just got canned for the same pay is a bad deal. You don't have to go down with the ship either. 5) if the company doesn't pull out of it, the retention and severance packages likely will get worst! 6) Living through Termination Tuesday's and Fuck You Fridays is soul crushing. Yes, companies will gradually and regularly shed staff on the way down the drain. Watching Survivor is better than being a contestant.

Saw this in a tweet "Tech workers who didn't live through the dot com crash, you have no idea what's coming. Prepare yourselves." Opening up this up - what's some concrete advice you'd give your younger self to "prepare yourself"?

Colon Blow Skit referenced above Colon Blow on SNL