"These people didn't pay for a dime of the resources we have"

Look up the term "sweat equity" and get back to us.

And remind us ... who gets the overpayments into the Social Security system???

It's also quite valuable after the mortgage is paid off. TI is a lot cheaper than PITI.

" It's only a gain if you sell it. Until then it's a tax liability."

You're joking, right?

Equity in homes is often used as collateral for loan qualifications. The most common example is a HELOC.

"Somebody's pants are on fire..."

Gee, d'you think it's the folks who lie to us daily?

"Moreover, Schiltz linked the subpoenas to what he called "the Trump administration's well-established history of using criminal investigations to retaliate against and pressure the President's political and personal adversaries."

Notice how the folks who screeched about Biden's weaponization of the DOJ (without ever finding any) are SILENT on this blatant weaponization of the DOJ?

"Its always fascinating to read how the DEBT is only one parties fault."

Pick up a history book, ffs. One party unilaterally chose to reset America's fiscal sights from Surplusville to Debtsylvania.

"From homeless, destitute, penniless, no assets but the shirt on my back to made a difference because nobody else was going to do it for me."

Growing up, I heard that line again and again. My dad was the manager of an industrial canning manufacturer, which he left to become a realtor. The latter is self-employed.

He taught me how he had to put away money regularly, because nobody else was going to do it for him. It was excellent advice, especially for a kid who ended up making most of his money by being self-employed. At 29, I started saving. At 31, I became an aggressive saver. When I met the bride a decade later, I talked her into becoming an aggressive saver as well. When we paid off the house (13 yrs early), we doubled our twice-monthly savings.

Because of all that, she got to retire a little early, and I chose to work an extra 6 years, simply because I wanted to. That allowed us to take money out of taxable IRAs at a very low rate, and stuff it into our Roth IRAs. Now we'll bring in more money after taxes in retirement than we used to. take home when we both worked.

SAVING is the key. Starting young is the trick. Coverting to Roths when it's the cheapest is for the savviest.

"But rent, housing in general, and other expenses of exploded in cost for these kids"

And wages didn't keep up. That leads to an eventual breaking point, says Math.

"This source says it's only 58%,"

For you, maybe.

I graduated very early in the fourth quarter of the last millennium.

"the environment is much harder today. But the advice stays the same."

There's a Dickens passage...I know I bastardize the quote, but the concept is:

Twenty pounds annual income, 19 pounds annual expenditure...bliss. Twenty pounds annual income, 21 pounds annual expenditure...misery.

I tell seminar students it's the truest line about finances I've ever known: Live beneath your means.

Good eats ...
www.dartagnan.com

Agreed!

The bride started sourcing from them during Covid. Now, it's our go-to for duck, Berkshire pork chops, and lamb. It's completely ruined me for restaurant duck.

Expensive, but worth it. And scads less than we'd pay at a restaurant for that taste.

"Kids need to learn to live within their means"

When I graduated college, I had educational debt representing six months of income in my degree's profession. Today's students graduate with 2-3 years worth of debt. That's a huge foundational difference. Combine that with wage growth that hasn't kept up with cost growth for decades, and folks get more and more squeezed.

That said, I have a saying/barometer: If you have tats, but no IRAs, you're doing it wrong.

"IPO's are always rigged to benefit the insiders of the companies and wall street."

Yep.

I liken it to six-man poker, with the other five folks in one room showing each other their hands.

"The original Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine was never reformulated"

I stand corrected.

The guidelines were simply updated, until it was phased out.

My larger point stands: other than the rare proven cases, folks didn't die because of the vaccine,

"Possible Risk"

The SAERS site tracked deaths actually linked to the Covid shot. All they found was the original Johnson & Johnson shot, which was then reformulated.

SAERS went out of their way to explicitly state NO OTHER deaths were specifically linked to the vaccines, and stated readers should definitely not confuse correlation with causation.

"Why doesn't Trump do that instead of the ACA?"

Two weeks....

"admit that ACA made all healthcare go up astronomically."

The ACA lowered the trajectory of increases. Especially when you start at implementation, rather than passage. See that spike between the two??? THAT was the real world.

""she survived breast cancer." is a high-risk pool."

Not under the ACA.

Thanks for underscoring its value.

"I was looking for all that increase Danforth was frothing about ... maybe he can tell us were (sic) that was ..."

From AI Overview:
Medical inflation during the 1990s and 2000s saw distinct shifts as the healthcare sector transitioned from the heavy use of HMOs in the early 90s to steep premium and cost surges by the end of the 2000s.

Frankly, I was on the front lines during the "steep premium and cost surges" part.

(emphasis mine)

"Doing nothing would've been better."

Total nonsense.

The decade before the ACA, inflation was 31%, while medical inflation was 131%, more than four times the inflation rate. The trajectory was scaring heath insurance committees and Trustees to death. I know: I served on the committee (and eventually as a Trustee) and we were scared schitttless.

We were also on the cusp of giant swaths of Americans being tossed into high-risk pools due to pre-existing conditions.

The year before the ACA, my wife's best pal and her husband got tossed into a high-risk pool after she survived breast cancer. He'd lost his corporate insurance when he had to take so much time to care for her. Their rate was $5000 a month, when the COBRA rate was ~$500/mo.

"Doing nothing" would've been disastrous. And cowardly.

"Then why didn't Obama do that instead of ACA?"

Because it wouldn't have passed.

ACA barely passed; Single Payer would've added a dozen new groups against it, including every high-earning professional who got a higher quality plan through work.

Plans like M4A fall in the 70th-80th percentile. That's a lot of folks who would be asked to take lower quality healthcare.

For the same price, of course!

"he also gets a sense of power by his ability to hurt people "

Don't forget being VERY afraid of powerful women, especially ones who dare to ask questions.

"It makes sense to criticize him for doing it in the first place, but not for backtracking on it."

It also makes sense to point out he wouldn't've had to backtrack if he hadn't been an idiot in the first place.

See: Attacking Iran without realizing they'd close the Strait of Hormuz.

" so he can park it in his presidential library"

Don't kid yourself: it's about the nine-figure tax deduction for the "donation".

"less than the general population which is around 5-20%."

At one time???