From CNN:
Gen Z and Millennials are scrimping. Boomers? Living it up
Baby Boomers are living it up, splurging on cruises and restaurants. Younger Americans are struggling just to keep up.
Bank of America internal data shows a “significant gap” in spending has opened recently between older and younger generations.
While Baby Boomers and even Traditionalists (born 1928-1945) are ramping up spending, Gen X, Gen Z and Millennials are cutting back as they grapple with high housing costs and looming student debt payments.
“It’s fairly unusual,” David Tinsley, senior economist at the Bank of America Institute, told CNN in a phone interview.
Overall, household spending dipped 0.2% year-over-year in May, according to the bank’s card data — but the generational breakdown showed a more varied picture.
Spending increased by 5.3% for Traditionalists and 2.2% for Baby Boomers. In contrast, spending fell by about 1.5% for younger generations.
If not for the aggressive spending by Boomers, Tinsley said, overall consumer spending would have been even more negative.
Damned you Moderna and Pfizer,
Your goody touchou behavior derailed nature’s rebalancing act.
Good thing I heard from some relative fan of orange that the jewish laser people along with the chinese and the space alien are cooking up another virus that will take out anyone named Karen, Billy Bob, Bully Joe and lime Boomer stuff.
From CNBC:
Inflation report Tuesday will be critical for the direction of Fed policy
Inflation data from May will show that the price increases that have been bedeviling consumers for the past two years are slowing down.
The question, though, will be whether that deceleration will be enough to convince Federal Reserve officials that they can stop raising interest rates and let the U.S. economy breathe on its own for a while.
The consumer price index, set to be released Tuesday at 8:30 a.m ET, is expected to show that all-items inflation increased just 0.1% last month, equating to a 4% annual rate, according to the Dow Jones consensus estimate. Excluding the volatile food and energy components, CPI is forecast to rise 0.4% and 5.3%, respectively.
Those kinds of numbers could encourage policymakers that inflation is headed in the right direction, after it peaked above 9% in June 2022.
“The most encouraging thing is the year-over-year growth rates are going to come down pretty sharply,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “The headline number is going to feel good, it’s going to be encouraging, showing inflation is moving in the right direction. More fundamentally, I think inflation is moving in the right direction.”
Finally got my clients offer accepted at a reasonable 24% over asking price. You’re welcome neighbors, see you on the market in 30-45 days with a new high comp in the neighborhood.
Baby Boomers are living it up, splurging on cruises and restaurants. Younger Americans are struggling just to keep up.
Someone get some edible crayons and green hair dye for the youngsters. Oh, and some gummies, too. It’s not their fault the Boomers are stealing everything.
This house is a mess. I had to go see it as an open house this past weekend. It’s got one full bath where the tub has rust “sores” in the bottom of it aside from decades of grime. Time ate through the enamel. Their are two other half baths that are so small, you can’t turn around in them. The area in the picture where the washer and dryer are located is 10 shades dingier than the spruced up picture. It’s dungeonesque and has the fragrant aroma of mold. The whole basement does. Nothing’s done and nothing about it has any character at all. It’s not enough that the house is a boring old shell, it needs a total redo. Oh, the slop sink by the washer and dryer drains into a 5-gallon bucket with a pump because the sewer line is below grade. This mess can be yours for $650,000.
https://www.trulia.com/p/nj/hillsdale/77-washington-ave-hillsdale-nj-07642–2006682967
Checked this one out, too. Don’t let the kids out of your sight, they’ll surely be squashed like a squirrel by the 18 wheeler rumbling down the hill at 45 MPH. It’s a very busy road. The house is livable, I suppose. It seems to be fairly well-kept. Meh. Considering what’s available, one may need to settle. At 585K list and 117K down payment, your monthly PITI is “only” $4,000. It’s the price you pay for prestige…. and a double yellow-lined road.
https://www.trulia.com/p/nj/hillsdale/293-piermont-ave-hillsdale-nj-07642–1006745270
Fast
That house is depressing. Was that the basement or the front door with the exposed pipes right by the door?
Ed,
Bit of disconnect between 8:49 and 8:56. You personally would not buy these high priced stink boxes but millennials (who I don’t find much different than other gens) are not working hard enough to afford them?
Forget it, he’s rolling.
Question about Volvo yesterday. My thoughts.
Below average dependability per JD Power. Clunky controls for infotainment. Expensive. There are many other more attractive cars with 5 star safety ratings now. Owned by Chinese automaker now. Plans to be BEV only by 2030. Not a lot of distribution.
Volvo was always a niche brand, and that niche has been squeezed by the ubiquity of SUVs and more widely available advanced safety, where they aren’t even leading anymore, objectively.
This is what happens when someone who never actually made a pizza tries to start up a tech-based pizza company.
Any kid that worked in a pizza joint knows that you can destroy the pie just trying to put it in, or take it out, of the oven. One wrong move with that peel, and half the pizza is going to slide off. Large pie extra sauce extra cheese – good f*&cking luck.
https://gizmodo.com/zume-softbank-ai-pizza-delivery-stellar-pizza-1850529465
Who actually needed this nonsense anyway. What’s the difference between a par cooked pie heated up en-route and one you just finish in your own oven?
Polestar would be my pick over volvo, polestar 3 is a nice looking suv. Sportier that the volvo twin. But if you are looking smaller the ex30 is nice for the price, China ev invasion is starting.
The newest spy shots of the facelifted Tesla Model 3 look fantastic. Far sportier and aggressive – looks very sharp.
The X30 is indeed nice for the price, but I believe it’s Hyundai Kona sized.
$500 full refundable deposit required, coming fall 23, but purchase price is open ended and subject to dealer bs.
womp. womp.
Was that the basement or the front door with the exposed pipes right by the door?
It’s the basement door. Does it matter? Gut the whole house. It’s 250K over-priced. The youngsters are fucked. If I was looking for my 1st house at this time, I’d be suicidal looking at these dumps. It was bad enough years ago but today? A horror show.
By the way, the house on Piermont has one zone cooling. It was warm and muggy Sunday; as soon as you walked upstairs, the temperature was 20 degrees warmer. Each bedroom had a floor vent, I had to put my hand directly on top of each of them to see if any air was coming out. I could exhale with more force. Put a few 90 degree days together and that upstairs is an oven. Drop the price 100K and we’ll think about it.
Grim PizzaHQ in Woodland Park uses robots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvCZFsyFTV4
Again, a bit disconnected. First you say it’s $250K over, and then end the next post with drop by $100K and we’ll think about it.
A $100K discount isn’t going to make that home any more enjoyable to live in.
Bit of disconnect between 8:49 and 8:56. You personally would not buy these high priced stink boxes but millennials (who I don’t find much different than other gens) are not working hard enough to afford them?
Let me clarify: 1) Boomers are wh0res and slut.s, we admit it. 2) Millennials need to work two jobs, each spouse, in order to have a shot. Forget trips, forget extras, forget your weekends… work, eat, sleep, repeat. I never thought I’d say rent something but hell would freeze over before I’d pay for someone else’s luxury lifestyle. With that said, if anyone is brave enough to want my house, take your Lexapro and Xanax before you sign the contract, it’s gonna cost ya.
Again, a bit disconnected. First you say it’s $250K over, and then end the next post with drop by $100K and we’ll think about it.
The House on Washington Avenue is 250K over, the one on Piermont is 100K over. Pay attention! ;)
Ed,
At this point I have given up any rationality on housing and stock markets. I can only see the job market and where are the high paying white collar jobs to continue this upward insanity? Seriously it is f-ing dead for all but the lowest scamming garbage jobs. Think 60/hr in NYC is going to cover these house costs? That is in tech field too. Do we all have to add AI expertise to get a hit? Completely absurd but stock market trends (NVIDIA hubris) is taken over job market. Two years ago it was Blockchain and crypto. When do we get back to reality here instead of hopping on next overpriced hot product.
I visited this one, too. Old carpets upstairs covering really crooked floors, two bedrooms the size of modern bathrooms with closets big enough for three shirts and a pair of slacks, a front room in the entry that’s useless and technically, in a flood zone but the stream is way deep behind the property. The basement had a cast iron sewer line running a foot off the ground, blocking the entry to a utility room. You had to step over it. Originally asking 719k (ugh), now at 695K… a real bargain. $140,000 down and the PITI would be $4,700 per month. Take two shots of tequila and sign here please.
https://www.trulia.com/p/nj/westwood/38-maple-ave-westwood-nj-07675–2006754356
Bystander,
When do we get back to reality here instead of hopping on next overpriced hot product.
This is reality. Making a score is the new model for success. Do something outrageous using a s0cial media platform and hope that you hook enough m0rons to generate income.
All AI, every minute, every day. It’s all consuming for me at this moment.
Spending time at the exec levels, and in the trenches on the dev side.
The hype is real, the potential for automation is absurd, it’s good, really good, and getting better every second. Anyone that thinks they can pick a winner is fooling themselves, the only common thread is that the level of cloud compute consumption is astronomical. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are going to be the winners here.
There is huge focus on lean and mean model development, hyper targeted scenarios (not generalist large models) – so that AI applications can run on-device (think tablet, mobile, etc).
I’ve coded more python in the last month than I have in the last 10 years.
Want some more reality, behold:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT81X3rUD/
Eddie,
Not an insult or mocking you, so don’t take it that way. Maybe you have a reason I don’t know about.
But no way on my day off would I waste the time going to open houses I wasn’t planning to buy. Or looking at cars when I didn’t need one.
I do thank you for the entertainment/sad reality that your labor provides, however.
Bystander; I have given up trying to make any sense out of it. Either it somehow keeps going, or it all collapses. Now there is a chatter that the impending recession is not going to happen, and or we have already come through the recession, take your pick. Meanwhile, many old timers don’t understand why the young people are angry, or simply don’t care. I don’t blame them.
Phoenix,
I haven’t visited an open house in years. It was to gage where I’m at with my house and to see if things are as bad as they seem. They are. It was scientific analysis. And besides, I need to entertain you guys. ;)
I would only buy a Volvo if it was manufactured in the 80s. Not only did they look awesome with all that glass and boxiness, but they had like 10 MPH steel bumpers on them that could be used like a bull dozer. My friend, the State Police officer had a sign fetish in high school. We used to go out at night and drive into sign posts to knock them down and we would throw them into the car. Later he would unbolt them and dispose of the poles in the woods. It wouldn’t even leave a mark on the bumper. I’m pretty sure it was a 240. You still see plenty of them on the road. Back then, Volvo’s were reliable and indestructible. Nowadays, they both look silly and are unreliable. Kind of like the Cadillac Escalade that has that stupid traditional Caddy front. It just doesn’t work.
I’m pretty sold on the Mazda CX90. Gone risk the turbo. We won’t drive it to hard, so hopefully she holds up. First year models are always odd. They are either lemons or unbelievably reliable.
Boomer is flush with cash from all of the gifts they received, but would rather use a 20 ft ladder and some bricks to replace a chimney cap rather than pay someone a hundred and fifty bucks to do it.
All while being on blood thinners.
Cheap fucc could have lived to see his grandchildren.
Greed is a disease.
Eddie,
TY for your hard work. Haha.
In other news,
When I called the beginning of the big headfake rally, a few of you said I was suffering from FOMO. I split the middle. I left my 401K at 70/30 and my taxable at 50/50. Good thing too. Now to watch for the cracks.
I really think there is something to the differences in spending patterns between the millenials and the generations prior. It’s called house richness. Those who have built massive equity in their homes (people are staying put longer than ever too) are paper rich and are spending like it propping some things up.
$17 large pie? Nah. There are still decent pizza joints around here offering 2 large pies for $20 in these parts. The going rate for a large pie is about $14 now, not on special.
“grim says:
June 13, 2023 at 9:52 am
This is what happens when someone who never actually made a pizza tries to start up a tech-based pizza company.”
And yet high worth people invested in it. How do people so clueless get that type of money to toss onto ideas most likely doomed from conception. ? or do they not eat pizza?
anyone ever been to blaze pizza? One opened this year in our area. Its actually good for a chain. They make the individual pies you can get their signature or build your own. Kind of like chipotle except after you walk along following your pie it goes in a pizza oven before you get it.
Ex Ex sharing the wit and wisdom of a “Bengali Bolshevik” found on Chinese-owned Tik Tok?
I thought that’s more FabMax’s style.
Grim,
I trust that the tech POCs and AI consultancy gigs are probably hopping. A friend works for Lord Abbott and he said investment side is all AI consumed. I get it but there is no possible way that the expertise exists to support all corp America wanting AI now at once. We have dozens of initiatives that need support as well. You can’t pulling our solution architects out and let rest fall apart. I am seeing this now.
I also spent 3 hours last night at Fleming’s chatting with Paul Dottino, Pat Flaherty, Kevin Booth and the NY Giant’s Strength Trainer Jerry. Pro athletes and their coaches have really unique perspectives on things. Thought they are all paid like business execs, their blue collar upbringings and hard work are what got them there. So very different than conversing with other mid managers.
Lib,
Most engines are turbos these days, it’s the only way to meet fleet emissions/efficiency standards in a cost-effective way.
I’ve had two car engines I really liked a lot over the past 30 years. My first new car, an Acura Integra GS-R, I think it was a 1994 model, with a VTEC 16 valve 1.8l 4cylinder with 5 speed stick that would go to 8,100 rpm and HP peaked at 170 at 7,600rpm. Fun to drive, but you had to work the stick to keep it in the performance band and have it scream like a race car. Fine for someone in their 20s like I was then.
My current NJ “beater” is a 2014 A6 with the supercharged V6, also a great engine. But the opposite of the GS-R, it has loads of easy torque right from the low end of the RPM range, makes it really easy to merge into the highway where of course NJ drivers don’t make a space for you, so just have to accelerate to merge in ahead of them, and doesn’t make a ton of noise doing so.
Eddie – What’s mind numbing is that the only houses with monthly payments which we are comfortable taking on (HHI ~300K) are similar to the shit shacks you’re link to. Prices don’t matter when others are willing to take on mortgages which are 50% of their monthly dual income.
Buying a shit shack from a secretary and a firefighter for the better part of a million dollars just doesn’t seem like winning.
Lib – The going rate for a large medium ish pie in the Fort Lee/Edgewater area is $22. Slices are $4.00-5.00.
So last week I joined the ranks of the great tech layoff. Nothing personal, the whole group, my boss and his boss.
I have to take a moment to thank Governor Phil for the WARN amendment he signed in April. The mandatory severance the company has to pay is sweet.
I need some advice from the board.
Where is a good place to roll a 401K? Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab?
The firm payed my phone for the last 20 years so I need to get something myself. I’m going to buy a refurbished iPhone from Amazon, anyone any experience with Mint Mobile? The family is on a Verizon plan that I’m not thrilled with.
So I’m in no rush to find something. I registered for the AWS summit at Javits in July if anyone is going and wants to meet for a GTG. I plan to spend the summer retraining into Azure, GCP and AI.
“Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are going to be the winners here.”
Another gift to the future youth from the BOOmers, might as well prescribe your children inhalers full of asbestos.
Fab,
Sorry to hear.
As far as phones, try Visible. I can refer you if you want, it’s a Verizon reseller, 25.00 per month unlimited talk and text.
Slightly deprioritized but I don’t really notice it. It has been bulletproof for me.
No store, all done online.
Fabius,
Sorry to hear it. You’ll be back up and running in no time. A new environment is always good.
What an a ho lll.
Blames Republicans. Please, your party has caused it’s share of problems as well. You are equally to blame.
Can’t stand the “good cop, bad cop” routine.
‘It’s a disgrace’: Gavin Newsom admits California’s homeless situation is out of control but blames Republicans despite being in power for four years – during which time vagrancy has risen 13 percent
Looks like that plane entered the coffin corner.
San Fran’s dying downtown is dealt another blow as Westfield stops making mortgage payments on $550M loan for massive mall – blaming crime for falling sales and Nordstrom closure
Westfield is handing the mall back to its lender, which will appoint a receiver
Sorry Fab…that really sucks. Anyone in tech should be waiting for shoe to drop. I am waiting myself. The investment is not there. Cutting tech is easiest area. He have been in hiring freeze since Jan. I apply for 6 targeted roles a week. Absolutely no response on any application. Whatever is happening in white collar America is not good for 90% of workers.
Lib,
$17 pie? My bro paid $21. It has reached lunatic level yet I never see a restaurant go out of business by me. Same crap restaurants open for 20-30 years. Two new big pizza joints opened in my town, Sally’s and Rikos. There is no end to spending in sight. Makes no sense
11:37 sucks man .
11:19 I take that as a compliment. Reagan was a putz.
Sorry to hear that Fab, sounds like you had a good run. Good luck on the retraining.
Fab Max,
I say Vanguard, they have the highest paying safe money market fund as sweep. But roll tax deferred into SEP-IRA or get a Tax ID number and do their individual 401k and if any Roth put in Roth IRA.
The reason for SEP or i401k vs rollover IRA is that if you have any gig/1099 income in the future you can put some in there and deduct it. If you are going to do Vanguard. Their website is somewhat confusing with terminology so start from the small business plan.
The other big thing is to plan for health insurance with continuing COBRA or buy up An ACA plan. If you got kids over 18/ under 26 under your plan. Compare COBRA vs stand alone plans for you/spouse and theirs as over 18.
Bystander – could wage compression, more specifically being on the wrong end of it, be the answer to the observation of no end to spending in sight.
Not in on my radar but the new lexus gx is a huge improvemnt over the outgoing model. Have high hopes for the next 4runner which hasn’t chaged in 13 years.
Fab, Loss of job is a qualifying event as far as ACA enrollment goes. You need not wait until the window opens in 4Q to enroll.
I rode COBRA for 1+ years and I just got off an ACA plan. The ACA plan is almost always significantly cheaper, and needlessly demonized imo. We enjoyed good coverage at reasonable prices. Keep in mind marketplace plans vs non marketplace plans and high deductible plans as come tax time one some of these can be deducted.
Boomer,
That is a great explanation. Manual labor/retail getting paid $12 three years ago and now getting $25 feel like a golden goose sat on them. They got 100% wage increase. Basic white collar roles that pay 100k and now getting 106k after BS 2% raises are feeling under assault. I think there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest most got small bumps and many no bump at all. I also think part of story is that benefit costs jumped, commuting costs are down so businesses basically feel like employees got a wage increase by not absorbing those costs last few years.
Right around mid covid, I was seriously considering acquiring a small business whose largest input cost was manual/retail labor. I shelved that plan in light of the fierce and protracted bidding war for this labor force.
Unless one is surgical with their approach to employment, wage compression will inevitably happen. I just think inflation is compounding the problem (not a problem?).
BIL with no specific pedigree grabbed a 150K analyst position at some large mega co @ 27yo. 1099.
Fab: Sorry to hear that.
Is the wage compression we’re seeing really just a return to the 1970s and earlier?
Perhaps increases on the low end, and overall compression, is really what we need to make the US more competitive.
Does wage compression make America great again?
FAB, GL above gives proper advice. TD is being absorbed by Schwab. So it’s really which interface of those three you are most comfortable with. Though I would stay away from Fidelity as I find a bit of their stuff crooked.
Smart to research what exists for AI. Seems like a bullshit to me still, but in Grim I trust.
Boomer,
1099 has been tougher to find. I would say nearly all contract jobs have moved to W2 only. There was big crackdown on 1099 usage as employers falsely used it for roles that required employees to be onsite at client, 5 days a week,9 to 6. It was never meant for that type of position. Still, it is great for him. Write off expenses and load up SEP. Honestly 72/he is great at that age but I was making that at age 30, 20 years ago. The real problem is that companies now try to pay 70 even when roles require 15 years exp. If your BIL had to pay housing, healthcare , dental commute, time off and child costs for a family of 4 then he will be underwater quickly. That is truth for thousands of workers. I was paid $115 hr on 1099 about 12 years ago. Best pay of my life. I almost never see $100/hr now yet skill and experience requirements go up and up
We are in 1995 of the dot com craze. Not many understand it, but the one’s that do, know this is changing everything.
“Smart to research what exists for AI. Seems like a bullshit to me still, but in Grim I trust.”
Want to know expensive? Try going out for ice cream now.
Smart to research what exists for AI. Seems like a bullshit to me still, but in Grim I trust.
Fuck no, this new breed of large language models, and the collective brainpower being invested into this technology, is materially transformative. This is not knowledge gleaned from analysts or news flow. This is based on working on real-world use cases, hands-on.
Literally moving at the speed of light. What was a challenging problem two weeks ago, is already solved. When you look at some of the challenges being raised, one by one these are being picked off. You now have real-time rankings of large language model performance, and all of the bragging rights associated with that.
I can’t say who wins in this, I can’t tell you where to bet to make a fortune, but what I know is this is wholesale more transformative to many industries than anything else that’s come before it. It will be painfully disruptive; this is for sure.
Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of hype, and there are easily hundreds of “me-too” companies hell bent on capitalizing on the trend. Disregard the hype around these companies, they are going to be shaken out quickly. But don’t disregard the space because of these, that’s a huge mistake.
Disruptive tech. Going to destroy the old pillars of our economy and create new ones. Major disruption is upon us. Don’t be caught holding the old companies that will not survive.
“I can’t say who wins in this, I can’t tell you where to bet to make a fortune, but what I know is this is wholesale more transformative to many industries than anything else that’s come before it. It will be painfully disruptive; this is for sure.
Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of hype, and there are easily hundreds of “me-too” companies hell bent on capitalizing on the trend. Disregard the hype around these companies, they are going to be shaken out quickly. But don’t disregard the space because of these, that’s a huge mistake.”
Fab
Sorry to hear that.
Last night we had the worst hail storm we’ve been through. We were getting baseball sized hail. It was so loud I was expecting some to crash through the roof. And the cars were in the driveway since we had been rearranging stuff stored in the garage, but they got off dent free. We are getting another hail storm this afternoon, but don’t know how large the hail will be. This will be the fourth day in a week with hail.
No dufus, you did not live through it. I started my career is 1997 and 45 year old boomers were completely confounded by internet, MS Excel or Access etc. You were a genius if could do a pivot table. Magic. Lotus to Outlook conversion? You make up own rate. Network guys were paid like gifs. There was absolutely no IT structure or governance at all. There was no outsourcing. It was free for all. Now, you have group of CIOs, CTOs, high capacity networks and global outsourcing. It is all in India. The sales side might be here but the work is all India. There is no work boom in US like 1995
Like gods I meant
Bystander,
Imagine what is going to happen now. Why do you think I have been screaming to invest in disruptive tech the past 3 years? Why do you think I picked DNA? This is a cutting edge company with a ceo that understands and sees the future. As I have said over and over the past 3 years, start investing in the coming new economy…it will be nothing like the past.
I think biotech sector will become a powerhouse and a leader in our economy. Hence, why I went hard investing in one company that I think will benefit the most…DNA. They are the one stop tool shop for a sector that is going to go ballistic with growth next 10-20 years.
You don’t have to do DNA, but please go try to find a piece of that growing pie in some company tied to it.
Fab,
Hope you’re re-employed soon.
On 401k rollovers, I think all of those you mentioned are fine. I used Fidelity a long time ago, never had a problem, haven’t paid fees. But Vanguard probably has more low cost investment options, index funds and such.
You bastards leave Hunter’s name out of your mouf..!!!!
Grim, is not proprietary data key to realizing the most financial gain from AI longer term?
LLM is great for ‘retail’, but from a corporate value added perspective that net is so wide (most data is irrelevant to their business) and a lot of it is garbage or at least unverifiable…
How about this…
Why not BAC as an AI play? Shouldn’t a captive (for lack of a better word) internal AI model refine credit parameters and flags to some crazy X-sigma? For example, slicing and running all their historical data to pull the most minute but not obviously highly predictive indicators of default? Macy’s, Whole Food, Verizon customer stops shopping there and moves to Target, Aldi, and an MVNO? Job loss, illness, divorce?
Why not have the GSIBs all pool their historical credit card data and mutually draw upon it? Even better proprietary base…
Damn, wish I were twenty years younger…
So seriously, Grim, will the companies that have deepest proprietary data sets on their businesses be best positioned to capture the highest value from AI?
Inquiring portfolios want to know….
Left,
Agree. The data is where I see the potential as well. Meta, Google (of course), Apple and the like?
Too broad IMO Lib….that’s consumer, retail. Toys.
I’m more interested in the thesis of how corporations can supercharge their operations (or sell the results to third parties).
Cerner, formerly public, now part of ORCL…sees likely 30% of the nation’s highly specifically coded medical procedures flow their servers. Imagine what a captive AI model could do with their proprietary data…Preserve patient confidentiality – it’s all pooled anyway – they could resell it three times over…in hundreds of different slices. Hell, in bespoke slices per customer requests…
Am I getting warm Grim?
On a much lower level of tech I can tell you with a high degree of confidence that current systems similar to described above discovered the lead issue in Flint. Existing software picked up bubbles of diagnoses regularly occurring that should have been 100 year flood events….
AI separating Fairy Tales from Facts.
The problem I have with all the excitement over #AI is no one really knows what they are actually getting excited about. They are in love with the concept, but they lack any real applications where #AI becomes investable. Personally, I have a few. They are Full Self Driving vehicles, Cybersecurity, and Drug Discovery. These are applications where #AI is working today. Not some novel Chat GTP which still gets half the facts wrong.
Robotic cars and factories will drive #AI today. The first name that all investor flock to is $TSLA. I get its the top name in the space, but it also priced for perfect and then some based on the cult like following it has. There are many names you can play off self driving cars that doesn’t require you to pay 5x what a company should really be worth. All you are waiting there is something to go wrong so it blows up in your face.
The other space is #Techbio. This is one place I have been promoting for a while now in the face of massive skepticism. This is one place where #AI, #automation and #ML can be used to drive down the high cost of drug discovery while improving the rate of success. This one of the many places I have focused on for my #AI plays.
The other place is using #AI in #cybersecurity to do threat detection. This is one place where technology and #AI can be used to find and track threats.
Yes #AI is a very hot theme right now. Everyone is now jumping on the bandwagon. It is bound to be the mother of all bubbles as the hype escalates as investors look to find places to play this theme. Its going to be a huge theme, but a good investor can avoid chasing hype and actually focus on tangible investment ideas.
Tech bio is the play for me with AI.
The bug out property we all need:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT81qv8uP/
“The entire industry,” says the director Steven Soderbergh, who has been navigating structural changes in Hollywood since 1989’s Sex, Lies, and Videotape, “has moved from a world of Newtonian economics into a world of quantum economics, where two things that seem to be in opposition can be true at the same time: You can have a massive hit on your platform, but it’s not actually doing anything to increase your platform’s revenue. It’s absolutely conceivable that the streaming subscription model is the crypto of the entertainment business.”
Like cryptocurrency, which has created massive on-paper fortunes built atop 1 + 1 = 3 arithmetic, streaming TV has always seemed too good to be true but seduced a lot of smart people anyway. Over the past decade, Hollywood completely reorganized itself around the digital model, as once-mighty networks and studios turned themselves into apps and abandoned reliable income streams hoping larger ones would materialize. They tripled their output, overpaid Oscar winners to debase themselves in miniseries, and hired all of your friends to work in writers’ rooms. Viewers across every niche and taste cluster were inundated with more bespoke programming than they could ever realistically consume.
We knew it couldn’t last, and it didn’t. Amid much lip service to fiscal responsibility, streamers have signaled plans to make fewer shows — a dramatic shift considering that the number of original scripted series had exploded from 210 in 2009 to 599 in 2022. We’ll still have enough to watch, at least for a while; billions will still be spent, and Ted Sarandos alone claims to have enough Netflix content stockpiled to last through the strike and beyond.
But for a certain type of viewer — imagine someone in her 30s or 40s who has never in her adult life had to worry about where her next critically acclaimed dramedy would come from — something already feels like it’s ending. Peak TV, as one of the industry’s most powerful tastemakers wearily puts it, “was a brief but intense mania that led to too much television.”
Hopefully they embrace quality over quantity.
*DISNEY DELAYS ‘AVENGERS,’ ‘STAR WARS,’ AND ‘AVATAR’ FILMS
*DISNEY UPDATES FILM RELEASE SCHEDULE, INCLUDES MAJOR DELAYS
INCLUDES MAJOR DELAYS
Because the Writers are on STRIKE!
Thanks everyone for the thoughts and advice. I am on Mrs. Fabs Insurance so I don’t have to worry about Cobra.
GF thanks for the advice, one small question on the SEP or i401K. If I end up on a W2 and run no income through the company, can I still go that route as long as the EIN is in place.
I went to Hackensack, registered a Mark, set up the email and the banking, just have to set up hosting for the Website.
Yea, because the model is broken. No way are streamers that are losing all that money, signing up to pay writers more.
Check out that full article with the NYer that I shared. Peak TV…comparing it to the money pissed away on bs crypto.
Fabs, good luck brother.
Fabs
Pretty sure you can only put your profits/pretax income into self employed 401k. I think is 21 or 27k depending on your age plus another 20% of your profits above that minus self employed tax
Fab,
If you get a job great. If you earn no income from any self employment or business activities those accounts stay as is with rollover money.
If you do earn income you can put up to 20% of income from the employer side if you treat yourself as a business or 25% if you treat yourself as employee in both SEP & i401k. I401k just allows you to also do the employee contribution side and Vanguard allows this contribution to be tax deferred or Roth.
Good Luck,
Big Thanks, that was the answer I needed.
Fab
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/10/individual-401k-sole-proprietor.asp