Viewing profile — hardcandy

Modern day Silicon Valley is built on somewhat of a gold rush mentality. Why do you think people move out here and put up with much of the locally curated insanity? Because they th…

I just priced out a (non ACA) catastrophic insurance policy with roughly the same deductible as my ACA plan. It came in at $75/mo versus the low $300/mo for what I pay for my ACA p…

The ACA provided over $2 billion in startup funds for about three dozen non-profit health care co-ops (new insurance companies) who were meant to provide competition, increased cho…

I've been self-employed for about a decade. Prior to ACA I had catastrophic insurance with IIRC about a $10k deductible for 25% of the ACA cost. But I was a healthy, non smoking ma…

As a self-employed developer I have an ACA plan and I can tell you first-hand it feels like a total fraud. I pay $300/month but also have a $6k deductible, which means the plan doe…

Hasn't IQ been proven to be not just partly, but mostly genetic? Barring exposure to outright toxic environmental conditions.

Don't give up hope unless you're really quite sure there is none to be had. My freshman college roommate was the most stereotypical shy, hover-parented, second generation Indian im…

One of the happiest days of my life was when I finally migrated 100+ personal domains away from GoDaddy over to Namecheap and was able to close my GoDaddy account forever.

This applies to people who can and do continue to work. You just need an SSI status that isn't likely to be resolved within X period of time. I believe depression and anxiety disor…

You're missing the forest for the trees. What are ''the true costs of school''? Someone who loves to teach sitting in a classroom teaching. It can be dirt cheap or it can be very e…

I think he meant a loan secured by property that the kids would otherwise expect to inherit free and clear.

There is a growing theory that the majority of working middle class retirees will reverse mortgage their homes in retirement in order to supplement their cost of living (and pay in…

Either laundered foreign money continues to flow into the country and the bubble sustains itself, or the spigot is closed and there is a correction.

The only thing the Chinese respect is constant execution. You have to out execute them every day and constantly beat them in the market, in order to achieve a position of strength …

''you dropped 150 grand on a fuckin' education you could have got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library!''

There's another issue created when companies issue debt in order to fund share repurchases. It may seem to make financial sense rates are so low but it's created a huge amount of a…

From my friends in Australia (academic economists) I hear that China's impact on housing now exceeds the impact on any other sector. Australia has effectively become mainland China…

Australia is being fueled by huge external stimulus from China, which won't last forever. It's not the best example to use. Some of the mature European democracies provide much mor…

This tends to invite geographical arbitrage (not necessarily a bad outcome). As indicated in the article, some firefighters enjoy the high salaries coupled with a (likely) very low…

Keep in mind neither tech nor entertainment was ever California's main industry. It is and always has been real estate. Money from real estate flows down stream into MANY pockets.

If you want to understand the impact that the 'war on drugs' has had on inner cities check out Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon ( http://fave.co/1p8kUh6 ) - a…

Las Vegas is an awesome option for remote workers who want to be close to SV. It's a short, <$100 flight to SFO or OAK. No state income taxes. Fantastic weather (dry desert heat wi…

I know of 3 SD4/principal engineers at Amazon who are making $1m/year. I believe there are only about 150-200 engineers at this level in the entire company, so it's obviously a har…

I don't know what you define as rich but if you can pull down $300k/year, keep your cost of living low, and save in a disciplined way, you will definitely retire with many millions…

Since I am under 30 y/o I never really understood what AIDS meant to the generation that dealt with it head on. To me it was background noise of red ribbons, charity walks, and cel…