Decimal fractions of a percent are low fee. Vanguard is mostly, if not completely, low fee.

I joined https://www.bogleheads.org/ which was also when I started learning about mutual funds

Bogle started the first index fund family (Vanguard), so there is an index fund bias with many there, but the forum has very knowledgeable people. (Full disclosure, I am busy, and use indexing myself, but not in Vanguard.)

You have managed to hit the best all-around choices on your first try.

The large difference is to learn to have the discipline to ride out the ups and downs of investing. In a recession, it is a gut punch to see your hard-earned investments drop. The losing segment says the whole market is rigged, screw this and lock in their losses by selling. When the market improves, highs are being clocked, these same are likely to forget their previous folly and buy in again. It is investing that is controlled by emotions, and is a buy high, sell low outcome. Mastering your emotions in investing is the key to investing. Many people give 1/4th of their money to brokers so that they will be reminded of the previous paragraph, when they need it most.

We are financially independent thanks to indexing, and using emotions in a constructive way. We also have been through a few ups and downturns, making money in each cycle, by riding it out, and asset allocation.

Follow your plan and ride things out, and you will likely be a multi-millionaire. It is not overnight, though.

My realization, now, was that they did. I was too clueless on picking up cues to realize it.

,25/,5 x 100/100 = 25/50 = 1/2

Why was that hard?

100/100 = 1, because any number divided by itself is 1.

And any number multiplied by 1 is still that number.

TBH, I moved the decimal over 2 places on the numerator and denominator and simplified 25/50 to 1/2 because It is easier to do in my head. Some of the other paths are too complicated when I am going to sleep.

My spouse and I are registered to donate our bodies to a medical college. If we can advance medicine in even a small way, it is still a move to better life and health.

Meat bags

Putin is as far as one can get from Mandela.

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I have followed ‘news’ from Russian outlets such as RT and Sputnik, being recast as Right wing talking points within hours. This is not just recent, it has been going on for years. Hamilton68 documents examples. The parallels of this propaganda being sown to the lies dispensed to Ukraine to sow dissention is obvious. It is a cheap warfare, and it works. Tucker was and is in the trade of packaging Russian propaganda as news. He should be labeled as such. Carlson was discredited and fired by Fox. Spreading lies, admitting to doing so on archived tapes, and iirc, sexual harassment was in his part of the discovery on Fox’s $780M settlement. In short, Tucker Carlson is on record for knowingly spreading lies, for personal monetary benefit. This is more of the same. I hope every person watches Carlson, knowing that Carlson reports what enriches him, not truth. Carlson has a transparent agenda. The unanswered question is who pays Carlson. That will be obvious by who’s boots that Carlson’s reports shine.

Write a note to let that person know how valuable and wonderful a person that they are. Using specific examples is good. This isn’t the time for vague platitudes. I would tie any gift in with how much they have done for others, and how deserving they are.

“Here. Hold my beer” Has started several Darwin awards.

Pretty soon, Trump can take a sabbatical. He can take some time to right a book. “My $truggles” has a certain ring to it. /$

Reuters, AP, NYT, WP, and to a small extent, Ground News. I filter for high factuality. My viewing is rated as slightly skewing left, but this is caused by so many Right sources are not credible sources. Known lies are not worth my time. My biggest gripe about Ground news is that to be balanced, I must waste time on sources that are not credible. Sadly, I can listen to RT or certain USA Right leaning politicians after a little time, and hear the same news.

I forgot FP Foreign Policy and the Economist.

Which equals 29^2 x .01 => ((28 x 30) +1) X .01
=> (840 + 1) x .01 => 8.41

28 x 30 is an easy mental calculation, as is adding 1, as is moving the decimal place over 2 places. I am teaching this to 4th graders, in two weeks. % to decimal is next week. They can square 2-digit numbers in their heads, already.

The paths of power have many blocks. If I were from Tuberville’s state, I would be looking at how retaliation against Tuberville affects my state. Remember when Christie blocked a highway to a neighboring state, with a pretend maintenance? Oopsie, it was his underlings that did it.

/$

I buy copies of books that I have read, and are worth buying. More likely, I will buy an e-book copy of a book worth buying. E-Books are preferable because I can carry my library with me. But, there are the books with exquisite photos, graphs or diagrams that need the full experience. I lost a large book library in a natural disaster, over a decade ago. I won’t get caught that way again.

Edit add: I seldom read fiction. I jam too fascinated of science, architecture, gardening, programming and math. Fiction doesn’t reach me the same way. I currently am stuck in a morass of predictable-plot fiction that feels formulaic, and have not found a book that is worth reading for quite a while.

Reminds me of boxed software, too. You check the compatibility, the features that included one must-have new feature. Buy it and discover what vaporware is. It started me on the ethics of pirating, finding out if it actually works, and then, and only then, buying a real copy. I donate to developers on Linux, now.

And Bandcamp.

It sounds harder than it was. Our furnace was on its last leg, huge, loud, and inefficient. We made sure that our replacement could handle a heavier load that a HEPA filter would add when we bought it. The second HEPA air exchange filter was an off the shelf unit, put in the room that our immunosuppressed relative worked from. We have allergies, (not serious, but uncomfortable at certain seasons) so the HEPA upgrade seemed to just make sense. Because the new furnace was smaller, making room for a thicker filter was easy. It was an easy swap. Our heating bills went down, so the payback is relatively short.

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We provided home-schooling for two and had an immune suppressed person at our home. I added a HEPA air exchange filtration system and upgraded our furnace/AC for a second HEPA filter in our home. Now, the children are back in school, and their dad is back to the office. We are teaching at school, but remain Covid free. We had our most recent shot on Thursday. We know of more infected people this year in our circle this past two months, than the entire time before, so we are hoping for the best.