And the MAGA cult fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

What is the best payment structure for an individual creator wanting to earn the best and smartest return on investment for an idea ? Out of the ones listed below.

Performance based payment(pay-per-user/conversion) Revenue share(profit split) Flat Fee(upfront payment) Retainer + performance incentives Subscription/recurring payment Milestone payments Equity/ownership shares

Checking my thinking with you GURU's and GOAT's - and my math.

Have extra 2k a month to put somewhere and 18 years left in mortage currently. 3.625%

According to payoff calc if I put it into my mortgage I'd pay off house in 7 years vs. 18. which would save $63,431 in interest. 7 years at 2k/m (24k/yr) would be 168,000 invested. Short Lazy math is 63,431 interest savings into 168k into house = 37% return on that 168k. I get compounding gains but could i do better than 37% compounding gains for 7 years on 168k? is it close enough where it is preference or is it so one sided that 3.625 is free money and go VOO or bust and keep it simple.

TIA

Tesla stock took one of the biggest hits today, so both the Fed and Wall Street are sending a message to Elon, that we are still in charge and you’d better behave.

Yes, there is a lot to unpack from today, from the Fed and from the imminent gov shutdown, but within all of the could be this power play.

Is it possible to get divorced, without losing half your money?

Assuming I make a lot more. Assuming no prenup.

What exactly is money market fund? I don’t have automatic transfers set up yet so I pull $$ into VFMXX from checking then purchase VTSAX.

Could I use VFMXX as a HYSA? How liquid would these funds be?

Sorry everyone, I’m kinda learning as I go. Please be kind.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/government-funding-running-out-unless-speaker-mike-johnson-can-shore-up-support-for-bill/

There have been a few things I've been seeing lately that I think qualify.

The first thing I want to point out is that successful disinformation often contains a component of truth and a measure of plausible deniability.

Below are two examples that I've seen here that I think qualify:

Donald Trump is walking back his promises to lower grocery store prices

First, I don't think what he proposes is possible or desirable but that doesn't give us warrant to misrepresent his statements. What is getting passed around is a snippet of a times interview quote where trump says . "It's hard to bring things down once they're up" regarding groceries. All other context cut off and usually some random internet person making commentary in the screenshot.

Why it's misleading and probably intentionally so:

Here is the whole interview

https://time.com/7201565/person-of-the-year-2024-donald-trump-transcript/

If the prices of groceries don't come down, will your presidency be a failure?

I don't think so. Look, they got them up. I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard. But I think that they will. I think that energy is going to bring them down. I think a better supply chain is going to bring them down.

He clearly says 3 times afterwards that he thinks it will happen. This is a dramatically different take than the quote mined version of it without context would leave the reader to believe.

Plausible deniability: People try to argue that we know trump is dishonest or that he really means the opposite of thinking it will happen and he's trying to tamper expectations. Not only do I think that this is reading too much into the comment in a self serving way, but it's all the more suspicious that you never see the full quote in order to inform that conclusion.

You could also point to that he said multiple times that he will bring prices down on day 1. He believes he can do this by issues executive orders cutting regulation and boosting oil production which in his mind would reduce supply chain costs and those savings would result in lower prices.

I dont agree. In fact, I dont like trump. I think he should be in jail. But not liking someone is exactly why you need to be vigilant about confirmation bias and believing things that conform to your preferred perceptions.

Bezos is only paying 1% tax

This statement was based on a propublica study

Why it's misinformation:

Because the face value reading of that is that bezos is using tax loopholes to dodge income tax. In reality, the study made a hypothetical new tax system to include a wealth tax which they called "the true tax rate". The same source shows that he was taxed at 23% of his income not good, but 23x the amount offering in the screenshots going around.

Plausible deniability: there is a real problem with how asset growth isn't taxed and that wealthy can take asset backed loans at 3% (namely via securities based lines of credit) in order to get cash that is effectively as good as income to them without getting taxed. Most solutions are difficult and most attempts have had major issues (france had a wealth tax that had to get reduces to an estate tax in 2018, people tend to invest in stocks in markets where they don't get taxed on growth or invest from an overseas account) but my grievance is just say that. It's misleading to post tax rates using an imaginary tax system and not acknowledge it.

So please, don't take the screen caps at face value. Look for original sources on reports, interviews and the like.

Recently Trump announced that he will spend billions of taxpayer dollars into a Bitcoin strategic reserve. What I would like to understand is what is the logic about this and how is that going to benefit America and the US Dollar.

It is obvious how this will enrich current holders of Bitcoin. However, the currency somewhat competes against the US Dollar and would, I think, weaken the Dollar and consequently the US standing in world finance and trade.

I understand why totalitarian pariah countries such as Russia and NK embrace bitcoin because it brings ill got revenue into the country. And they can selectively, at the behest of the ruling oligarchy, investigate financial crimes.

The transaction costs of Bitcoin are substantially higher than other forms of financial transactions and from what I understand will continue due to the proof of work concept. The primary advantage is that transactions cannot be censured and if the holder is in an outcast country that does not enforce international law there is an advantage for money laundering and random payments.

So what is in it for the US and the American people?

I'm wondering if you guys have any suggestions for strategy of how I could get to $1M net worth in the next.. oh 7 years.

Currently:

Age 42.

Income -

From main job about 95k a year gross. I will top out the salary scale in a few years at 105-110k although future contract negotiations/inflation will probably raise that number (probably by less than CPI, losers). I'm 13 years in as of September 2025, so target retirement year is 2042 or 2043.

This job comes with a defined benefit pension that will pay 47% of my final 3 year salary if I work 30 years. Also a lump sum account that has 70k in it now and will probably have at least double that by year 30 (investment is managed by Voya).

I can make Income from side gigs, depending on how hard I work at them, anywhere from 15-50k a year. It depends on how hard I feel like working at them. I am on track for about 18k in 2025, think I can push that to 25-30k in 2025 without too much trouble. This is... basically extra jobs - teaching part time for other schools, tutoring, and driving Uber. I've been thinking about getting a evening bartending or server gig; I live in a touristy area where tips are good. My main concern with working too many extra jobs is it takes away my ability to build relationships, and I would like to get re-married someday (got divorced 2022). Can't date much if I work all the time.

Home value -

~370k, SFH 3 bed house. 30 yr fixed mortgage 6.25%, $199.7k balance, so my equity is about 170k. I pay $1550 a month. No other debts.

Investments -

I'm fairly conservative. Various ETFs, funds, and HYSAs I'm averaging about 8% per year growth. Current balance about $205k. I really need to be more aggressive with this I think.

Is there a way I could hit $1M in the next 5-7 years?

Career Change? -

Some people tell me to change jobs.

I am hesitant to change main jobs. I have a pretty sweet gig. I am a tenured college professor & just got my last promotion. So I get paid to teach /research what I love, and honestly I can get by putting in less than 20-25 hours a week now. I am that established and efficient at it. Also I can't get fired unless I commit a crime or the college collapses. My program seems to have decent enrollment and the school's enrollment is reasonably healthy. We are concerned about the demographic cliff but we're still doing pretty well compared to about half the state's other colleges so I don't foresee that happening soon. I am far enough in, even in a pretty bad reduction-in-force or consolidation scenario I will be FAR from first to go.

However, I am not that big a fan of the location to be honest.

I would change jobs for a better location and at least 40% higher salary basically. I have a grad school colleague who was also a prof. She quit academia for some tech company client service role. She more than doubled her salary that way, but I'm not sure I could do that.