60+ year old thread.

Afternoon all:

Good luck with that Mike, I've often heard it said that there are no sacred cows during a downturn in the market, during the 2008 downturn, many people were looking at their financial advisors with less than favorable opinions, then when the market went the other way, they were happy again. Yea, it stinks to watch assets take a plunge, can only hope that down the road any paper losses turn into gains when/if the market corrects back the other way.
I often wondered how smart those financial advisors are, seems like if they were really on the ball they would be long when the market is going up, and then bail and short stocks when the market is trending down, there's money to be made both ways!
I would tell you to have patience Mike, but I know what your answer would be, "I DON'T NEED NO DARN PATIENCE, I NEED MONEY" !!!!

 

2nd generation have a factory plug interval at 30k. The ones I removed when I got it certainly proved to last a lot longer!

 

Yeh, there will be countless of unknown status changes in that time span

 

, and these mandatory are now our "consumers' choices"

 

Yup ,I hate the Grateful Dead

 

Yeah, I get that. Back in the dino days I started wondering if all the recommendations were accurate. I mean, it was "common knowledge" that a car was used up at a hundred thousand miles... but I was buying them and running them hard, even racing them, and they did fine. We'd start a car up that hadn't been running for ten years or more and drive it away after buying it for 20 bucks or so. My first four cars, a '54 Olds, '57 Olds, '49 Plymouth convertible, and a '61 Caddy convertible cost me $20, $30, $25, and $40. They all ran fine after a tune up and adjusting the carb. Later I was the guy everyone came to when they needed their progressive linkage tuned on their tri-power/six pack GTOs.

I've worked at dealerships and parts stores and watched carefully. Some of the "wore out" core engines we got went into circle track cars and won consistently.

So I've always been interested in testing recommended intervals. I've run belts that were advised to be replaced at 15K... and only changed that belt just before I sold the car, only because I was selling the car... at almost 100K. I've run plugs for 200K miles. I've never changed oil except at intervals listed in the owner's manual and don't worry at all if I can't get to it significantly later.

Over the years I see some people have great luck with cars... and others that have terrible luck with cars. This is what I've come to believe. The people that have bad luck are either abusive drivers, or they over maintain their cars usually not doing the work themselves, or they don't maintain a car at all.

I see people selling cars and proud of the reams of paperwork they've saved showing all the parts that have been replaced... and I've seen cars with lots of miles that have never been touched. The people selling cars with lots of parts replaced seem to think their rigs are worth more because they have so many "new" parts... and yet I avoid those cars and buy the one that's running fine and has never had a wrench on it.

Right now I'm running vehicles with branded titles. I've rebuilt two Tacos that were totaled for damage that I fixed in my driveway for less than four hundred bucks and a couple of days in labor. They will run just as well and just as far as any unbranded title vehicle on the road. It's crazy that we are paying insurance rates on stuff that gets totaled for minor damage.

Point being... we've all been raised in a society that sells us fear to make someone money. I see a LOT of money being wasted on cars that are running fine.

 

GE products quality have changed since it's now a Chinese own company. It sure seems to be trending in selling products' visual rather than its durability

 

So much excitement!



And over so soon!

 

, the thing is I can't say for sure my time would out endure the time needed to be patient.

 

That's my problem also!
I'm almost 100% cash right now and chomping at the bit to get back in the market, but from everything they are predicting and the Feds. jacking up rates I think I will wait and see, could be a rough downturn coming, or maybe not!
Like everyone else, right now we're between a rock and a hard place, either sit on cash and lose your butt to inflation, or invest and lose your butt in a possible market correction and then hope it comes back far enough to make up the paper losses which could turn into real losses down the road.

 

Same here a few years ago

lol

 

What do you think about I-Bonds? They're paying 6.89% and I don't see anything that will beat that. And you can always cash them in and just lose any interest for that year if you find something more attractive. Are they worth buying?

 

I thought about them also, but I believe there is an amount limit on them, might be OK just to buy what you are allowed to. One thing I like about the market is that I can jump in and out at will, the computer makes it easy and there are no fees involved.

There are stocks that yield that, just somewhat more risky, I have been compiling a list of them to consider when/if I decide to jump back in.
RIO, VZ, SCCO, MPW, TX, BHP, SUN, BCE, EPD, EPR, MO, VALE, DLX, CWH, VOD, NS, and WU, there are others that would hit that % if the market does correct. I DON'T CURRENTLY OWN ANY OF THOSE I LISTED, just window shopping!
Also if I buy for the Roth IRA account, the dividend will be the full amount since it's nontaxable, but if I buy for the regular account it drops the yield due to having to pay taxes on it, even then there's qualified and non-qualified dividends that are taxed at different rates.

 

Yes, there is a limit of 10K per year for each purchaser, so 20K for a couple. Better than sitting on cash that isn't making anything at all, imo.

 

My recommended spark plugs are copper which are the best performing (not long life) next to silver used in race cars. Copper ones are designed to last 30K miles. I've replaced mine every 30K miles and it's a simple process. They come out easy and I use an in/lbs wrench to put them back in. I can't say I notice any performance difference. As long as a spark in generated each and every power stroke, there isn't a noticeable difference. Now in my old 3.4 4Runner they have a "wasted" spark which fires after the exhaust stroke. This is because it only has 3 coils on the passenger side with a wire going over to the driver's side. That plug has 2 grounding electrodes so that it will always pick the one of least resistance. It's still recommended to change out at 30K because they are copper. Iridium or platinum plugs have more resistance and therefore their ignition systems are tuned for a bit more voltage. I've seen so many misfiring problems with those plugs in vehicles designed for copper. Not always but often.

 

I agree in that on this site so many mess with modifying their trucks by adding non-stock parts. Go for it if that what you like to do. For me, I HATE things that break. Lifting a truck stresses all kinds of suspension and drive-line parts. I maintain mine so it won't break as much. About the only thing I've done extra is replace (not flush) the drive-line oils every 50K miles instead of 100K. I grease the drive shaft zerks every oil change. I also wash it a few times a week. Even with the salt they dump on the roads, I have little surface at all. I would like a new truck but not because it's worn out. I just want some of the newer creature comforts.

 

Think about this for a second...do you think it would work anywhere near as well?! (If at all?)

 

Before I sold the ranch my brother convinced me to use an accountant he used to prepare my taxes... after years of using Turbotax. The lady had a lot of high income clients and a great reputation. She billed me $800 and I about dropped my teeth. I went and bought a Turbotax to see what the difference would be in what I paid and the difference was $15. I honestly don't remember which was the higher final figure, the $800 accountant or the fifty dollar Turbotax... but I do know that I called the lady and told her she was nuts if she thought I'd pay her that amount for something I could do myself in a couple of hours. She was insulted but I never heard anything from her.

I've used Turbotax, H&R Block, and last year I used something from the irs.gov website and as far as I'm concerned they've been no problem.

 

Just what we need here in California more rain and snow. Coming in tomorrow is another atmospheric River dumping a deluge of rain and more snow in the mountains. Rain in the Central Valley and lower areas is forecast for the next 10 days. Snow in the Sierra’s. Oh and some extreme high winds are coming in with the rain tomorrow too. There will be numerous uprooted trees , power outages and some flooding. Some ski resorts have so much snow they plan to remain open until June sometime. Dodge Ridge ski resort as of today has received 613 inches (over 51 feet) of snow. Even I who likes inclement weather have about had enough. Oh well guess I’ll be doing more reading, watching movies and hanging out in the garage finding projects to do.

 

Good for you! Go for it! I currently have a 2016 Minnie Winnie. I'm interested in the new Ford Transit off road version that comes ready to convert the interior to a full camp van.