cute fuzzy bunny
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I'm sorry, did I insult you? Purely an error on my behalf or a case of mistaken identity, to be sure.
Let me give you a great example of what I maintain a very good level of concern about.
An ER'ed guy who based on where he lives and his lifestyle has a personal rate of inflation running in the 6% range when CPI-U shows about 3%. Reads a bunch of stuff on this here ER forum and decides that, at the age of 52, the advice to buy investments that give him a "real" return of 2% and would help his portfolio run extend to 40 years or more...that thats good enough.
Except dang it, the "real" return was 3%+2%, not his 6%+2%. He then enjoys his 80's and 90's scavenging scraps of pizza cheese from discarded boxes out of dumpsters from behind the building where he used to work.
Not everybody reading this crap is an expert. Nor are they loaded up enough with cash to be able to afford sub standard returns from asset classes that might not be paying enough for someone just cutting along the fine edge and perhaps living in an area that costs too much or enjoying a lifestyle that their "real" investments might not be keeping up with.
So I think while spinning our yarns it pays to give all of the good advice that applies to everyone.
Seems that your advice, several times repeated, is to take the number you're fed and just run with it. Given that my personal rate of inflation is a good bit higher than the CPI-U, that wouldnt be my advice.
So what exactly are you doing with all your free time that a little introspection regarding lifestyles, locale and cost of living is prohibitive and not worth the expenditure? Seems we find plenty of time to pick on specific investments, extra quarter percent deals on CD's and money markets, how to slice and dice our portfolio's to smooth out volatility and improve returns by a percent or two by cutting expenses.
But **** that stuff about your cost of living being over or understated by a few percentage points or more?
We need an emoticon that fully expressed the thought "BWAAAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA".
Let me give you a great example of what I maintain a very good level of concern about.
An ER'ed guy who based on where he lives and his lifestyle has a personal rate of inflation running in the 6% range when CPI-U shows about 3%. Reads a bunch of stuff on this here ER forum and decides that, at the age of 52, the advice to buy investments that give him a "real" return of 2% and would help his portfolio run extend to 40 years or more...that thats good enough.
Except dang it, the "real" return was 3%+2%, not his 6%+2%. He then enjoys his 80's and 90's scavenging scraps of pizza cheese from discarded boxes out of dumpsters from behind the building where he used to work.
Not everybody reading this crap is an expert. Nor are they loaded up enough with cash to be able to afford sub standard returns from asset classes that might not be paying enough for someone just cutting along the fine edge and perhaps living in an area that costs too much or enjoying a lifestyle that their "real" investments might not be keeping up with.
So I think while spinning our yarns it pays to give all of the good advice that applies to everyone.
Seems that your advice, several times repeated, is to take the number you're fed and just run with it. Given that my personal rate of inflation is a good bit higher than the CPI-U, that wouldnt be my advice.
So what exactly are you doing with all your free time that a little introspection regarding lifestyles, locale and cost of living is prohibitive and not worth the expenditure? Seems we find plenty of time to pick on specific investments, extra quarter percent deals on CD's and money markets, how to slice and dice our portfolio's to smooth out volatility and improve returns by a percent or two by cutting expenses.
But **** that stuff about your cost of living being over or understated by a few percentage points or more?
We need an emoticon that fully expressed the thought "BWAAAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA".