A few years ago back I was unaware of the bonus withholding guidance from the IRS (companies can withhold a flat 22%) and ended up with a very large tax bill. In subsequent years I’ve started sending an estimated quarterly tax payment during bonus season.
Weekly question: What was your biggest financial mistake over the last few years and how did you react?
There’s not a whole lot to it, it starts with finding a good doctor and practice which isn’t unique to concierge. Beyond that you pay an annual fee per person, around me that’s in the $2-3k range. That fee is out of pocket and outside insurance: this fee doesn’t cover specialists, surgery, etc. In exchange for the fee you typically get more attention and appointments on demand. The downside is that the cost is on top of insurance and you could argue its buying into or supporting a two tiered healthcare system, where the benefits you’re getting are because you’re pricing out people who can’t afford to do the same.
I clicked thinking the treadmill video would be adorable and left thinking it’d make good motion capture for a horror game.
I’ve been looking into this quite a bit lately. The realistic option is to use an ACA plan, but man the plans are rough compared to my employer provided insurance based on any metric: premium, oop max, out of network coverage, you name it. That all sucks but mostly comes down to budgeting. What I’m actually worried more about is how narrow the networks are for the average plans in my county, the average plan has something like a 14% provider participation rate which is abysmal.
What I’m most likely going to do is lean into concierge medicine for primary care and then couple it with whatever ACA plan makes the most sense.
My gut response is that everyone understands that the models aren’t sentient and hallucination is short hand for the false information that llms inevitably and apparently inescapably produce. But taking a step back you’re probably right, for anyone who doesn’t understand the technology it’s a very anthropomorphic term which adds to the veneer of sentience.
The thing I find amusing here is the direct quoting of Gemini’s analysis of its interactions as if it is actually able to give real insight into its behaviors, as well as the assertion that there’s a simple fix to the hallucination problem which, sycophantic or otherwise, is a perennial problem.
I read it more as no one is safe, not even people ostensibly from the in-group.
What’s been your favorite recent exotic trip? Asking in the spirit of vicarious travel as, aside from work, I haven’t traveled internationally for the last five years or so. And by some strange coincidence my oldest kid is five.
hope more people coming from Reddit
I’ve been hoping that since the third party apps got shutdown and came here a few years ago, but it’s still a pretty small place to support niche topics like FIRE, you lose sight of that on a place like Reddit that’s so large.
re:spending — I can relate to the willing to pay a premium for some things, has that translated into higher spending for you?
We went from DINKs renting a place cheaply from family to SI2K owning a home. Spending is up at least 50%.
Question of the week: How has your spending changed over the last decade?
I predict the administration will take this feedback and examine ways to… just kidding, there will be deranged posts, threats, and some kind of ham handed attempt to take over or disband the CBO.
Not a super helpful response, but honestly I’d be glad they only opened it. At our old condo people repeatedly broke into my wife’s car by smashing the window to steal random shit worth nothing, especially compared to the cost of replacing the window.
Ah what could have been, the Blagojefleet.
I’ll put up and answer my own question as well. We’re a month out from bonus season at work, I won’t know for sure until then but early indicators are that I’ll finally beat out 2021 as my top earning year.
Change wise I’ve been spending more time getting across what health care will look like after retirement, as is I can’t see myself doing my current job for more than another year or two. The first observation is that market place plans are vastly worse than my employer plan, perhaps not shocking. There is a single PPO plan left in my county’s marketplace but it costs a pretty penny. Semi-related I’ve realized that due to the way bonuses and deferred compensation work at my employer, I’ll have a tail of income for three years after quitting. More money is great of course, but I’m realizing it’ll leave us unable to control our MAGI which likely precludes any ACA credits.
Exciting at least that you’re only a few years out, how are you feeling with markets at continued all time highs and the high CAPE ratios?
I did this for a bit before, I’ll try and get it going again, asking a weekly question to get more engagement in the community.
What was your most recent financial change or accomplishment?
I’m sure the Gates named helped, but AI anything has venture capitalists punching the Fry meme. It feels very similar to the dot com era bubble in a macro sense, except without a large number jobs being created.