mmmmm...beer

Intital observations after being gone awhile. I really forgot about how out of hand this tipping culture in the States has become. Anyone who hands you something apparently deserves extra compensation. It's like a horrible late night law commercial. "Have you ever had to hand something to someone? You may be entitled to compensation!" I guess I'm spoiled by Japan. You don't tip. Tipping in Japan is generally considered rude and is not expected. This is because Japanese service culture emphasizes "omotenashi", which means hospitality and ensuring customers are well taken care of, without the expectation of additional compensation. Japanese culture emphasizes harmony, humility, and mutual respect. Offering a tip can unintentionally disrupt that balance. Fast food prices went off the rails! $17.20 for two softshell tacos, some OLES, and a pop?! Food portions are restaurants are huge. Both my daughter and I could no even come close to finishing the food. Aaand... last but not least, my 16 year old daughter said, "Why is everyone so fat? Most of the girls I see my age are HUGE?!" Anyway... weathers nice. It was getting humid as fuh in Japan. We'll be here in Minnesota/North Dakota until the second week in July. Then drive down and visit the boy in the Space Force in Colorado Springs. Then out to say hello to my Mah in Washington State. Most likely driving back in Minneapolis through ID MT, and ND to fly back out to Tokyo sometime at the beginning of August. It is good to be home and be understood/understand everything. You start too feel too damned stranger in a strange land after awhile.

Yeah I've noticed. Its the freaking middle of June and chilly.

Sapporo... but I pretty much quit drinking last year. Just meh... no bang for the buck. Catch a little buzz and feel like hot garbage for days.

Thanks Bro... how come Gypsy isn't fixing our site?

You bring zero positive to this place. All you are is a negative space. It's not wonder you all sit here jerking each other off over and over. What focking pathetic existence you must lead. You are ignored.

Annnd your a negative fock. So... go away.

Japan is still cool. We've been all over the island, and still lots of stuff to see. Honestly the food is meh... once you get past the ramen/sushi stage, it's just a lot of fish and rice. Same same all around. I will say I really like how they do sweets/desserts here. Much less sweet, but just sweet enough you know? And really... I haven't found a bad cup of coffee here. They really took to the coffee scene and aren't afraid of strong coffee. Coming from the pacific NW coffee scene we didn't know what to expect. Really pleasantly surprised. We went to Thailand for the Christmas week. That was a lot of fun. Stuck around Bangkok and just did day trips out to the sites. I will say, Bangkok is like Vegas's older seedier brother. That place is wild. Sooooooo many silver haired dudes walking around with 18 year old Thai's... I would say chicks but I dunno. Hahaha... definitely the main destination for "passport bros" it seems. We want to go to Bali, Singapore, or the Philippines next for a long vacation. We can take military hops over to South Korea and may do so over one of these long weekends. Wife and daughter dig K-dramas on netflix so I'm sure there's something to do with that over there. Anyway... got my first interim retirement check last month, so that alleviated a ton of stress wondering if I was going to have to wait 6 months to a year to get paid like some folks have. I've also gotten access to my TSP (.gov 401k) and have started drawing from there as well. Not really any bills here so just living the dream really. I may stop taking that TSP, as I don't know that I really need it. Though... that's the switch I need to turn off in my head right? What did I save all this for if not to eventually use it? I guess that's one of the big things with retirees, being able to switch from save mode, to spend mode. Anyway... living life. How you folks been?

And... can we do what was proposed and everyone agreed too? You drop only the amount of players you have picks for. IE you only have 3 draft picks, you only need to drop 27.

When do we vote on these?

Wait... I thought this was my line?

Man yesterday looked great for awhile. Looked again after the market closed... boooo.... Retirement account is down quite a bit, but I'm just going to ride through this one. I've focked up trying to time the bottom before.

Sounds like it went as well as it could Jerry. Glad you updated.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-appoints-tulsi-gabbard-director-national-intelligence-fearless-spirit Wait... didn't the Biden State put her on the domestic terrorist watch list? https://spectrumlocalnews.com/hi/hawaii/news/2024/08/14/gabbard-claims-political-retribution-by-harris

Whatever rule change we have to make that stops the focking fiasco of not being able to pick up anyone going into the playoffs/championship game I'm in. That was focking stupid.

Yeah... since 2021... would have been awfully hard. Unless he was into crypto or something.

Hello shadow. Good to see your still a miserable fock.

Now all you need is the other 34 for some diversification! Essentially if you watch some of the videos, you sacrifice some of the big big gains to make between 9-11%, that doesn't give a sh!t what the market is doing. So... really much much less volatility.

Been watching a bunch of videos and reading some articles about dividend investing, as opposed to chasing all equites. Really interesting. I essentially stole this guys portfolio and did the same percentages in my Roth IRA. Right now estimated to have a dividend of about $1140 a month, but as I'm only 50 I have almost 10 years until I can touch it anyway. So using the calculators, if I just re-invest all the monthly dividends, it could be something crazy like $4500 a month in dividends when I'm eligible to draw it in 9.5 years. The really appealing part, is the estimates they give on the dividends are pretty accurate, and aren't necessarily driven at how the market is doing. I'm stoked at the lesser volatility. We've had a really great run the last two years of +52% in the market. That rides gotta end soon with a pullback. Just would be nice to miss that and have some almost guaranteed returns during that time period. https://armchairinsider.beehiiv.com/ Anyway... I'm definitely not a guru when it comes to dividend targeting, but it's cool to read about and delve into.

Hahah.. first time back in this sh!thole in months. Saw something that caught my eye. I don't recall posting how rich, in a non-rich more mediocre way, I am. Man you got jelly in your old age son.

Here's the guys youtube page where he discusses his reasons and others at length ie income investing vs growth investing: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxU4PhPfJEBgaeYT1rMhvCg Interesting video I dug that sort of gives the basis:

https://beehiiv-publication-files.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/downloadables/c295bd6e-2531-4991-864a-d3fed725cce9/3a929d19-eff4-4229-9def-13e760fd2327/Armchair Insider Portfolio%2C Jan 21%2C 2025 - Snowball Holdings.csv.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAQCMHTQSERNC675WH%2F20250204%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20250204T054828Z&X-Amz-Expires=604800&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=868d5d3dd855e4f72039a520d47c3905046319c639d6e59174e997b7e280a0a8

Yeah don't do them unless you really know wtf you are doing, and then be prepared to lose money. Hahaha... I tried it a few years ago and got my @ss handed to me. Though I have some friends that do it, I just don't trust I know what I'm doing enough.

One of my rich buddies swears by his taxed brokerage account being where it's at. He's always throwing out some tidbits we sponge off of. Good dude...

We've been kicking at around. So many foreigners this last year, Japan is cracking down and making us pay now it seems. Honestly I've been a smidge apprehensive to do it as since taking the moderna shot my blood pressure has been whacky. That's all I'd need is to get somewhere up on Fuji and stroke out. Hahaha....

Yes.. x5. So 5 nights in Bangkok. Haha... all the stories about lady boys are true. They are pretty celebrated in that culture and everywhere. It's not a taboo thing at all. Go to the mall... big drag/lady boy Christmas show. It was like... uhhhhhh.... okay. NO... I didn't sample!