Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

I don't make anything, just selling off an old figure I had. I should try facebook more often, but I hate haggling lol.

Don't haggle. Just figure out how much you want THEN add S&H as a separate fee.


So you want $60ish, charge $80 + 20 S&H. I have NO idea of Ebay's fees.

INB4....

Got my base form prime for TVR missions today. I guess that'll let me advance up to Duke Alloces's decision? idk. I've seen the warning prompt several times now for continuing TVR.

More importantly, Malignance Tights look really good in my style lock and now I can't decide between them and Adaman breeches. doki doki

Got examined a bunch in Domain Invasion today... I guess cause I got the final kill. I've gotten it before, but it's never yielded being examined a bunch.

Also realized Vyre can do DI, so I can get extra rewards. I guess maybe I could blitz my Dumakulem alt (named before the ring came out back in the day) the rest of the way to doing DI...

(Ahem...) IT'S A TRAP!!

Next thing you know, you'll be bringing a full 18-person alliance of alts to DI every day to dump points on those sweet, profitable Wyrm Ash.

The Italians brought out their Big Boat for the first time in 2023, recommissioning her for the 2024 Campaign in Cagliari, Sardinia. She got a solid 1st sail of her 2nd life in, and while I still don't understand how a team sponsored by Fashion Mogul Prada can end up with a hull design like this...hey I'm no expert^^



Meanwhile back in Barcelona, NYYC and the American team brought out Patriot, their AC75, for some foil model testing in the combination heavy winds/flat seas...she's fast as hell just like in 2020, the question as always with The American teams is whether with time they can control all that speed or have a repeat of the disaster in Auckland.



And on the literal other side of the world, The Kiwis are back in Auckland doing more testing on their AC40s rather than moving to the Big Boats just yet. They retired their 2020 champion Te Rehutai a few months back, opting to use her as a training and testing platform only before she is moved to a museum as an America's Cup Winner in 2024.

They might not be in an AC75 yet, but I'll never stop fearing them^^

While we still have AC40 (the smaller boats) Regattas in Jeddha and Barcelona before the official Cup starts, its great to see the real boats that will compete back out there screaming and singing across the globe (yes, in any footage of the AC75 big boats sailing, you can hear the rigging "sing" like harp strings)

They want to stand out visually. I am not sure that this is the best way to do that but there is no doubt that they do stand out visually.

100% ^^

However, I expected beautiful clean lines and subdued fashion from a name like Prada, but without question the goal is to be seen more than anything ;)

They probably are the 2nd best Challenger right now (behind The Americans), with The Swiss making fast growth and chasing. Outside of the Brits and French, its going to be one hell of a Cup.

Wow EMS machines really do work if you don't buy junk.
Combining EMS and weightlifting I have hit new levels of sore and muscle activation.

Do you even lift, bro?

Uses subdued and Prada in the same sentence.

Like most men he has never read one issue of Vogue.

I only just now realized where Negan's avatar comes from, and it's because of a meme birthday cake that I saw online today.




EDIT: Speaking of milestones (birthday cake), Chanti's only one post away from a cool milestone herself~

inB4 now that Jessi has discovered Negan's secret, he switches to Hans Moleman.

anyone excited for this? jeezE lol

If your rent went up, then something happened in the market to cause supply to evaporate. Real estate demand in NYC has been going down the past couple of years, lots of economic refugees been fleeing the city for better locations elsewhere.

Rental prices are always a balance of supply vs demand, how many units are available to be rented vs how many people want to rent those units. If there are more renters then units, then the prices go up until only it matches the number of renters who can afford it. If there are more units then renters, prices go down to match. Same thing with buying homes, units on market vs interested buyers. For rental there is a floor, but that's based on cash on cash return and some interesting math.

Source: I invest heavily into real estate as a secondary passive income source. This is basic stuff we gotta learn to be remotely successful doing that.

And yes get the heck out of the urban hellholes that are most US cities. They are so poorly run that only the really poor and ultra rich can afford to live there and only the ultra rich can afford a good life.

Saevel, In NYC large scale landlords warehouse or hoard enpty apartments. There are articles, search if you like.

Its about artificially reducing supply and I don't understand how it works financially unless those empty units are a tax loss.

I wouldn't have noticed!!! Thanks!

Tons of retail space empty and for sale yet every apartment taken up and in demand. There is def market manipulation going on post pandemic.

That's one of those myths that gets passed around, they aren't doing that because that's how you go out of business. Empty units are very bad thing and I'll explain why.

Nobody, and I mean nobody buys investment property with cash, that would be monumentally stupid. Instead you use a conforming loan with 20% down payment and the property as the security. The goal is at least 10% of that down payment as a return every year. A $250K unit would require a $50K down payment and $5K per year or $417 per month profit. Anything under that means it's not worth keeping as an investment and needs to be sold ASAP and have the money invested elsewhere. Some people are willing to take a 8% return in a bad market, with the goal of selling it off later, so $334 per month.

Now the expenses, these are incurred whether the unit is occupied or not. First is that mortgage payment you took out, that payment will include the interest payment, principle, property tax and insurance. Then there is the maintenance fee, which is the amount paid to whomever is maintaining the unit, unless your doing it yourself. The rent floor will be those above costs + the return on the investment.

Now we need to pay taxes on those returns, Uncle Sam wants his pound of flesh. Thankfully we can deduct the non-principle expenses along with depreciation against the revenue from the unit to reduce tax liability. If the unit is empty, we have no revenue to take those deductions against but still have to pay property taxes and lose out on the depreciation reduction since it doesn't carry over to the next year. These rules apply regardless of the size, because the largest expense is that loan payment.

Seriously, empty units are terrible for anyone owning real estate, like almost worst case scenario. Nobody is going to keep a bunch of units empty on purpose, that is a very large amount of money being thrown away. There is going to be a reason, especially if it's a large building. Large multi-unit apartment buildings run into redevelopment issues where the owner needs to do structural work, and by law the building needs to be empty for them to do that. If the construction gets delayed or backed up due to say, a pandemic in a place that requires vaccine passports, then it might sit empty for a few months to a year. It's really bad for the owner but not much they can do.

No, seriously no.

Commercial real estate and residential real estate are handled completely differently. I have my hands in both and while commercial can have higher margins, it usually has a ~20% vacancy rate though that's the average. If that location goes through an economic downturn, the vacancy rate shoots up to 30~40%. Residential on the other hand usually has lower rates of return, but 5~6% vacancy rates is pretty standard.

Turning commercially zoned real estate into residential zoned real estate is a nightmare and requires permission from the urban or county board of supervisors. It's cheaper and easier to just build new, though that also requires permission from those same people. The attitudes of those boards vary wildly from area to area. Most areas of a particular political slant, that really demonize gentrification, are very adverse to development, since raising supply would cause existing home values to grow slower and that pisses off voters.

"Protecting home values" is diametrically opposed to "lowering housing costs".

Close, just three issues^^ And their men's line is famously full of clean lines and strong solids, not patterns that make me wonder "if I stare at it long enough, will I see a Schooner?"

Generally this noise is the computer doing updates in background.

Could as well just be some malfunctioning process that people says to let it disabled.

Matter of fact, while i had quite a lot of it (not specifically related to FFXI though), with Win11 i feel like it was a long time since i noticed that noise.

This is making a bold assumption on how everyone else invest using personal preference, lol.

I know someone irl who doesn't invest like that at all. He buys his property with cash because he is filthy rich so he can afford it without a loan.

He doesn't use loan because he has very low risk tolerance personality wise. "Stupid" or not he is happy with his loan-less life so he made that choice.

He also doesn't care to use property rent to generate cash flow because he has other ways to generate massive cash flow, so he would rather spend his precious time on that.

Essentially he bought the property, kept it empty, and sold it after 5 years for +75% gain. He bought a lot of properties too. which was exactly what Draylo and Chanti described but different from Saev's choice.

Whether this strategy is "stupid" or not does not matter. What matters is that people who made such choice do exist irl.

Dang, is so hot here that I need to stay 24h naked under a vent

trade you some heat for some cold? freezing in here.

Well damn. The... 8th Maze Runner book came out 4 days ago.

Had no idea.

This works differently for people in middle/upper-middle class than it does for people that are really wealthy or have acquired a lot of assets (even under a loan). Worrying about taking loans out is more of a middle class problem/fear than it is for people who are very wealthy.

Taking out loans against assets you have cash for is spending other peoples money, which is a good thing. If you buy correctly, then you will make more of a return off the house than you will pay in interest. If you have cash on hand, using that cash to further invest in other resources that offer a 10%+ return is going to stretch this even further. You can, to some extent, also take loans out against other properties/assets you have, which is how a lot of mega wealthy people acquire a lot of assets.

If you are doing this without enough cash to survive on then it can create a house of cards, but once you reach amount of wealth, it's a more efficient/effective way of ensuring you get returns on those resources. I wouldn't go as far as to call paying cash for things stupid, but it's not the most effective way of leveraging your resources. If someone is wealthy enough to do that, power to them I guess, but it's not the way most people in that situation do this.

Curbed on apartment warehousing:

https://www.curbed.com/2023/07/landlords-bluffing-vacant-apartments-warehousing-nyc.html


Please note that these are only rent stablized apartments.

'Warehousing': Why New York City landlords don't list all their empty apartments
Fox 5 NY

When it comes to investment, not everyone will utilize the "theoretically the most effective way", because everyone has different risk tolerance, cultural background, personality, personal goals etc, hence they make different decisions.

Using a loan is, in theory, a more effective way. But if someone has a low risk tolerance due to personality, education or financial situation(reason doesn't matter), who can't fall asleep with a loan and lose health as a result, then this is a bad strategy for them, because health > money.

Likewise someone who struggle to save enough retirement money may also have a different investment strategy from people who is rich enough that don't care about making more money that much.

An average person may invest in real estate with the goal to increase their money as much as possible so they can retire early, so they may use a loan to increase their resources.

A really rich person that doesn't care about becoming Trump level mega rich may buy properties because they want to diversify their assets, not because they need more money to retire. so "theoretically the most effective way" to use money doesn't matter because using resources at the absolute fullest with a risk for even more money is not their goal.

My point is, people often try to argue that "their way is the best way" in an investment discussion without considering each indiviual's situation and personal goal. The most preferred way for one person may not be the best for another person. Using terms like "nobody" or "stupid" is a bold assumption, it suggested that everyone is the same or they should do the same.


I know a few people who is rich enough to own multiple vacation homes and never need to work, but none of them attempt use loans to increase their assets so much so they can be Trump level mega rich.

Maybe, just maybe, once one person reached certain wealth level and able to live comfortably until they die, using a loan to make even more money and become the next Trump is not a popular choice /shrug. (I am just guessing here)


I am aware that Saev's way is a very popular way among middle class people. But he said "nobody do that" or "that's stupid" not something like "my strategy is a more common way from what Ive seen", that is why I said something. :p