Sam's Club Black Friday 4K TV Deals

[RolloTheGreat]

Fair enough, moderated my own post and deleted it.

Thought you were jumping on GStan's dime store psychoanalysis bandwagon. My apologies.

[RolloTheGreat]

I'd love to know how.  I didn't encourage SB to get a 4K TV and I certainly didn't encourage him to get an RCA or compare it to HiSense.  IIRC I tried to steer him away from the TV he bought.

Put up or shut up!

I don't think we need to revisit the old threads where SB talks about the brown hockey ice on the wonderful HiSense tv you recommended, or your lengthy arguments about how buying a HiSense for $500 is about as good as buying some brand's mid range and other brand's high end.

I don't really care if you want to deny this now, not worth my time to dig it up.

[RolloTheGreat]

Fair enough, moderated my own post and deleted it.

Thought you were jumping on GStan's dime store psychoanalysis bandwagon. My apologies.

You just don't like you psychoanalysis of you because of how close to home it hits.

And I didn't need a uni degree in psychology out out-psych you either!  

Could be you're just embarrassing yourself again.

Not everyone who buys a lot a stuff is "compensating for a small penis", the amount of stuff people buy probably correlates pretty strongly with their disposable income as well, Gmund Freud?

Of course there's the whole other issue of the number of times you apparently think about my penis, as evidenced by you posting your theories about it.

Want to know how often I think about other guy's cock of my own accord? 0.0

Don't really care, don't think about it. Seems to be on your mind though.

People with uni degrees don't put forth theories like "compensating for small cock" when someone buys an expensive car in my experience.

[SickBeast]

Just to clear the air a bit here, I have absolutely no regrets about my Hisense TV purchase. I got a good deal on it and it was a good screen for gaming overall. It was not perfect by any means, however I would absolutely buy another Hisense TV. Hisense actually makes much better TVs compared to RCA and by extension Haier which also sells my same TV model and a lot of people are having similar issues with the colors. I 100% appreciate Greg's honest advice regarding Hisense and he helped me find a nice and cheap gaming monitor. An LG or a Samsung would have cost me double what I paid for that TV and by no means would they have been worth it at that price (over $1000CAD for a 55" 1080p TV). I was able to sell the Hisense TV for pretty close to what I paid for it. That TV was by no means a bad purchase.

The RCA TV is also fine when you consider the fact that I paid only $478CAD for it taxes in. It's absolutely great as an HTPC monitor and hockey and baseball look quite good on it. The yellows look a bit too dark on it; that's the one flaw. Considering what I paid it's still a good deal. However I find the "yellow" issue annoying to the point that it's motivating me to save up for a better TV in about a year. I'm sure I will be able to get $200-300 for this TV on the used market when I'm ready to upgrade. Not a big cost and not a serious mistake considering what I paid for it.

Rollo please stop trolling Greg when all he has ever done is be helpful. He has every right to his opinion. Actually it's your opinion regarding Hisense that makes no sense at all. You have never owned one and you're posting a ton of misinformation about the brand, probably as an excuse to troll Greg as you always do.

[SickBeast]

Ugh I'm not a socialist leech!

[RolloTheGreat]

People who post that they want to retire early with a million in the bank generally don't fritter away their disposable income on unnecessary purchases, rather they bank or invest the money in order to achieve their stated goal of having a million in the bank at retirement (which isn't a lot of money if you live another 30 years which would put you in your early 80's if you are in your early 50's now, presuming you are going to live off the million and not be a socialist leech drawing a govt pension).

Unsure of how you guys do it there, but here everyone pays in 12.4% of their income up to the cap of $118500/year to the Social Security system. The worker pays 6.2% of their gross, their employer pays 6.2% of your gross.

When you retire, you get a percentage of your income that maxes out at $2600 mo..

I suppose you could call it socialism, but in my mind a working couple who paid in $25,000 a year for decades certainly deserves to get their $50,0000 a year back when they retire. The only reason it works is most people die.

[RolloTheGreat]

Hmmm, he answered politely, so I will in kind.

Perhaps GStan has mellowed.

[SickBeast]

Ugh I'm not a socialist leech!

I never said you were.  I was talking to Trollo, in Trollo terms.

1 million over 30 years is 33,000 odd.  The trucks he likes to drive cost more than that, so once he retires everytime he gets another one he squanders a years worth of his nest egg.

Well when I'm 57 I will be getting a government pension! So are you saying now that if Rollo had a government pension, he would be a "socialist leech", whereas I am not, simply because I'm just such a nice guy? Thanks I think.

[SickBeast]

I find it interesting that in both the USA and Australia it sounds as though you guys have superior government pensions for everyone. Here in Canada you get about $1092.50CAD per month, and that is the *maximum*. You guys are doing way better. $1092.50CAD is *not* enough to live on. At all. Thankfully I have my own pension that is vastly superior to that. We also get $570/month from old age security but even with that added, it is not enough for most people.

I think the government here is working to improve Canada pension. We will see. As of right now it's brutally bad.

[SickBeast]

Trollo would call himself a socialist leech since people like him would be taxed unnecessarily in his opinion to support him when he could be out flipping burgers or doing webcam porn to support himself instead of sitting back and taking a govt handout.

Haven't you been paying attention to what he says?!

You have a point, actually.

[RolloTheGreat]

You get a pension on a sliding scale here, plus super, currently the employer contributes an amount equivalent to 9% of your pay packet and you do likewise (but can pay in more if you like).

This is progress.

So it's basically the same, you just pay more in.

If a person makes $100K there, how much would they get in government pension a year after paying in $18K a year?

[RolloTheGreat]

Ugh I'm not a socialist leech!

I never said you were.  I was talking to Trollo, in Trollo terms.

1 million over 30 years is 33,000 odd.  The trucks he likes to drive cost more than that, so once he retires everytime he gets another one he squanders a years worth of his nest egg.

Not much on the finance though.

Do you think that every time I buy a truck I start from scratch, no equity?

So if my $40K truck is worth $20K after 4 years and I buy another $40K truck every four, what is my truck cost?

$20K every four years, or $5K a year.

If my wife and I are making over $50K in the social security, and have your $33k a year from the million, do you think we will still be able to eat? Of course, a person doesn't have to buy a new car every four years. The street locomotives will last 10 years pretty easily.

[SickBeast]

At what age will you be able to retire, Rollo?

[RolloTheGreat]

20K after 4 years is pretty optimistic.  Cars depreciate faster than that, especially american cars built by GM.

Even so finding $15K to $20K on a fixed income is a challenge as you age and while the truck might possibly make it to 10 years would your ego? (knowing you I'd say not).

Like I said, not much for finance. 2012 truck without as many options as mine, 68K miles (17k/year)-$18K average trade in value, $20K sale price to private party. (and that's in "good" condition, very good or excellent would be more)

http://www.kbb.com/gmc/sierra-1500-exten...ition=good

LOL on the finding $15-20K being tough on a fixed income. WTF? You spend the $20K, live on $78K a year in our hypothetical example. With your house paid for, no kid expenses, it's not hard to do?

I could live on that now, with housing expenses if I had to. (wouldn't want to, but I could)

[RolloTheGreat]

At what age will you be able to retire, Rollo?

I'll probably work full time until I'm 60, then half time until I'm 65. (Which I wouldn't call retiring early personally, more easing into retirement)

[RolloTheGreat]

Well, we can only go on what you have posted in the past which was that you would retire early on most likely with a million in the bank.

That was my plan, but my work situation took a turn for the (much) better.

I'll have the million even if the market under performs.

In any case, you lose 7% of your social security every year you claim it before 67:

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/on-r...rity-early

You also can't go on Medicare until 65:

https://www.medicareinteractive.org/get-...m-under-65

I would have lived my life in a much different fashion if retiring at 55 was my goal.

No comment on being wrong about the value of trucks I see?

[RolloTheGreat]

That Medicare thing is a big deal here, the system is set up to keep you working unless you are very wealthy.

For example, my wife is in her mid 40s. She's around 20 years out on Medicare. If we both retire before 65 we have to pay over $20K a year for our family health insurance.

The minimum no penalty withdrawal age for 401Ks is 55, and IRAs is 59 1/2.

And of course the penalty on Social Security, but even more than that, you can't collect at all until you're 62. So if you start collecting at 62 you cut your benefits 30%, which is a big deal as for most people Social Security is the foundation of their retirement.

Buying trucks is pretty insignificant when you're looking at coming up with $70-80K a year cash after taxes, plus $25K a year for a family health plan. And even though we have Obamacare this year, if you've got $70-$80K a year after taxes, you aren't getting it. You basically have to be destitute poor.

When I was talking about "retiring early" I was talking about retiring at 60 (seven before my full social security) and basically living off my retirement account, wife's income/insurance until collecting at 65.

What has changed is my job got a lot less stressful, now I plan to work those 5 years half time. It just makes more economic sense.

[SickBeast]

Wow $20k a year for health insurance. I'm thankful that we don't have to deal with those expenses here. How many retired people can come up with that? That's just crazy IMO.

[RolloTheGreat]

Wow $20k a year for health insurance. I'm thankful that we don't have to deal with those expenses here. How many retired people can come up with that? That's just crazy IMO.

The only people who retire early here are:

1. Very wealthy
2. Living off someone else
3. Have pensions and healthcare after X years of service.

#3 getting very rare, and it's not totally rare for the people that had it to find themselves broke when the pension funds collapse. That kind of lifelong care became unaffordable for companies as life got longer.

[SickBeast]

Pensions are increasingly rare up here as well. I am extremely lucky.

[RolloTheGreat]

Pensions are increasingly rare up here as well. I am extremely lucky.

Another part of my retirement plan change was with the nicer job, I felt comfortable enough working longer to buy another house. (and borrow more cash)

I would have had my house paid off sooner, but like the new house a lot more and it serves our needs much better. Rollo Jr gets his own floor with big bedroom, full bath, office, rec room, pantry/fridge. He's breaking away, will work better when he comes home from college in the summer as well.

[SickBeast]

We have thought about buying a more expensive house as well, however like you it would mean it would take 5 more years to pay off the mortgage. So we would have to sell the house when we retire. As it stands right now my house will be paid off one year after I retire. And I can probably make up the one year difference by making some extra payments over the years. We still might move though. We will see. They say that a mortgage is a good debt. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. And honestly just retire when you are ready. I'm sure you will come out ok either way so long as you are willing to cut back your spending.

[RolloTheGreat]

We have thought about buying a more expensive house as well, however like you it would mean it would take 5 more years to pay off the mortgage. So we would have to sell the house when we retire. As it stands right now my house will be paid off one year after I retire. And I can probably make up the one year difference by making some extra payments over the years. We still might move though. We will see. They say that a mortgage is a good debt. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. And honestly just retire when you are ready. I'm sure you will come out ok either way so long as you are willing to cut back your spending.

I'm not worried about it, just planning for it so I have enough cash to live on. Anyway you cut it, it's going to be less than I'm used to. On the other hand, my needs are pretty simple. I plan to move to a condo on a lake so I can divide my time between that water and my cabin.

[SickBeast]

We have thought about buying a more expensive house as well, however like you it would mean it would take 5 more years to pay off the mortgage. So we would have to sell the house when we retire. As it stands right now my house will be paid off one year after I retire. And I can probably make up the one year difference by making some extra payments over the years. We still might move though. We will see. They say that a mortgage is a good debt. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. And honestly just retire when you are ready. I'm sure you will come out ok either way so long as you are willing to cut back your spending.

I'm not worried about it, just planning for it so I have enough cash to live on. Anyway you cut it, it's going to be less than I'm used to. On the other hand, my needs are pretty simple. I plan to move to a condo on a lake so I can divide my time between that water and my cabin.

That sounds like a good plan. My own plan personally is to sell my house when I retire and then buy a cottage to live in during the summer, and then a winter condo of some sort somewhere warm like Florida or California. I would like to become a "snowbird" when I retire. I have lots of time to think about it. The nice thing is that real estate is dirt cheap in a lot of the warm places in the USA. A lot of Canadians bought up properties in Arizona when the market crashed a few years ago.

My pension is quite good and I should be able to retire nicely at a relatively young age. I do have some concerns, though. I'm not convinced that my pension will remain intact in its current form for when I retire. We will see. At the end of the day the government can do pretty much anything it wants. Did you hear about Act 10 in Wisconsin? What a disaster for the teachers there, I feel really sorry for them.

[RolloTheGreat]

 I'm not convinced that my pension will remain intact in its current form for when I retire.  We will see.  At the end of the day the government can do pretty much anything it wants.  Did you hear about Act 10 in Wisconsin?  What a disaster for the teachers there, I feel really sorry for them.

Everyone in the state heard about Act 10! It was government chaos here for a while. Democrat congresspeople left the state to avoid being called to vote on it.

I don't know what to think about it. Around that time, a couple of our neighboring states (IL and MI) were in the process of going broke.

http://watchdog.org/256593/act-10-scott-...taxpayers/

Act 10 has undoubtedly saved the tax payers money, but I feel for anyone that loses a big chunk of their income to a pay cut.

[SickBeast]

 I'm not convinced that my pension will remain intact in its current form for when I retire.  We will see.  At the end of the day the government can do pretty much anything it wants.  Did you hear about Act 10 in Wisconsin?  What a disaster for the teachers there, I feel really sorry for them.

Everyone in the state heard about Act 10! It was government chaos here for a while. Democrat congresspeople left the state to avoid being called to vote on it.

I don't know what to think about it. Around that time, a couple of our neighboring states (IL and MI) were in the process of going broke.

http://watchdog.org/256593/act-10-scott-...taxpayers/

Act 10 has undoubtedly saved the tax payers money, but I feel for anyone that loses a big chunk of their income to a pay cut.

Wow all that chaos to save only $1 billion per year. They screwed over the entire public sector and all the teachers just to save that much. It's going to put your education system into chaos. $1 billion per year is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things for a state government.

There has got to be a better way to handle these things.

[RolloTheGreat]

Wow all that chaos to save only $1 billion per year.  They screwed over the entire public sector and all the teachers just to save that much.  It's going to put your education system into chaos.  $1 billion per year is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things for a state government.

There has got to be a better way to handle these things.

We're just one of 50 states down here. $1b is 1/15th of our annual education budget. (so it's not insignificant)

https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_state_...d_finances

The state is already in debt, so the only other way to "handle things" is raise taxes.

Our taxes are already 5th highest in the nation:

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/total_taxes/

See the problem Walker was faced with?

Like I said, I'm not a fan of pay cuts, especially for educators. I vote for every education referendum even though it will cost me. I get the predicament the state is in as well though.

[SickBeast]

Wow all that chaos to save only $1 billion per year.  They screwed over the entire public sector and all the teachers just to save that much.  It's going to put your education system into chaos.  $1 billion per year is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things for a state government.

There has got to be a better way to handle these things.

We're just one of 50 states down here. $1b is 1/15th of our annual education budget. (so it's not insignificant)

https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_state_...d_finances

The state is already in debt, so the only other way to "handle things" is raise taxes.

Our taxes are already 5th highest in the nation:

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/total_taxes/

See the problem Walker was faced with?

Like I said, I'm not a fan of pay cuts, especially for educators. I vote for every education referendum even though it will cost me. I get the predicament the state is in as well though.

Well the thing that I don't understand is how all these "crises" keep on coming up and then they just slash and burn the teacher's contracts to try and balance their budget. They have done similar things to the teachers up here in Canada in more than one province, albeit nothing quite as bad as Act 10. Teachers salaries are very steady and our contracts tend to give us a cost of living wage increase if we are lucky. I don't think balancing the budget should be placed solely on our backs; that just isn't fair.

I can totally understand making cuts when times are bad and the government is going broke, however what they did in Wisconsin is deplorable. From what I read, they cut all the teachers salaries down to $42,000USD/year, even all the teachers that were at the top of the salary grid. Then they introduced "merit pay" so that only teachers selected by the school principals could make more than that. Imagine you're a teacher making $70-80,000 and then all of a sudden your pay gets cut in half. That's just brutal. And it happened to thousands and thousands of teachers all in one fell swoop.

Also, who in their right mind is going to go through all that education just to make $42,000USD in the end? You guys are really watering down the quality of your education system. It's really going to take away from the quality of the education in Wisconsin.

Did they do this to the entire public sector in Wisconsin or was it just the teachers?

[RolloTheGreat]

Wow all that chaos to save only $1 billion per year.  They screwed over the entire public sector and all the teachers just to save that much.  It's going to put your education system into chaos.  $1 billion per year is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things for a state government.

There has got to be a better way to handle these things.

We're just one of 50 states down here. $1b is 1/15th of our annual education budget. (so it's not insignificant)

https://ballotpedia.org/Wisconsin_state_...d_finances

The state is already in debt, so the only other way to "handle things" is raise taxes.

Our taxes are already 5th highest in the nation:

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/total_taxes/

See the problem Walker was faced with?

Like I said, I'm not a fan of pay cuts, especially for educators. I vote for every education referendum even though it will cost me. I get the predicament the state is in as well though.

Well the thing that I don't understand is how all these "crises" keep on coming up and then they just slash and burn the teacher's contracts to try and balance their budget.  They have done similar things to the teachers up here in Canada in more than one province, albeit nothing quite as bad as Act 10.  Teachers salaries are very steady and our contracts tend to give us a cost of living wage increase if we are lucky.  I don't think balancing the budget should be placed solely on our backs; that just isn't fair.

I can totally understand making cuts when times are bad and the government is going broke, however what they did in Wisconsin is deplorable.  From what I read, they cut all the teachers salaries down to $42,000USD/year, even all the teachers that were at the top of the salary grid.  Then they introduced "merit pay" so that only teachers selected by the school principals could make more than that.  Imagine you're a teacher making $70-80,000 and then all of a sudden your pay gets cut in half.  That's just brutal.  And it happened to thousands and thousands of teachers all in one fell swoop.

Also, who in their right mind is going to go through all that education just to make $42,000USD in the end?  You guys are really watering down the quality of your education system.  It's really going to take away from the quality of the education in Wisconsin.

Did they do this to the entire public sector in Wisconsin or was it just the teachers?

AFAIK no salaries were cut, people had to start paying a small percentage of their health insurance, and a small part of their retirement. (sort of like the rest of us do?)

This is in effect a cut in pay.

Teachers in the US don 't make "$70-$80K" until they've been around a long time, or get masters or admin jobs.

Average teacher salary in WI is $53K and $55K in the US, with another $22K in benefits:

http://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/i.../16986245/

They were enraged because if you're making a little over $1000/week straight salary, losing $100 is a big deal. Amounts to a 10% pay cut.

[RolloTheGreat]

BTW- "$80,000" is more than 82% of people in the US make.

If all the teachers were making $80K, they'd have no problem filling the jobs.

https://dqydj.com/income-percentile-calculator/

[SickBeast]

Interesting. What I read was that they all got their salaries cut to $42,000, across the board.

Teachers are seriously underpaid in the USA and also in certain parts of Canada. In general, however, teachers do better here in Canada. However our public education system is also of a much higher quality overall.

[RolloTheGreat]

Interesting.  What I read was that they all got their salaries cut to $42,000, across the board.

Teachers are seriously underpaid in the USA and also in certain parts of Canada.  In general, however, teachers do better here in Canada.  However our public education system is also of a much higher quality overall.

Gosh, you're a teacher..and you think teachers should make a lot of money?!

Wouldn't have guessed that one!

More seriously, it's part of your socialism and higher taxes, different philosophy of government.

No clue on your primary schools, but your Universities are not exactly world leaders.

[RolloTheGreat]

Perhaps another piece of the puzzle:

 I only paid $336CAD for this phone plus tax which works out to only $248USD.  To get a high end handset from a good brand like LG is an amazing deal IMO.

Ah. So money there is worth a lot less because things cost a lot more?

I just did a currency converter and $53,000 salary USD equals $71,600 Canadian dollars.

Looks like we pay our teachers about the same?

I ran the $80000 you thought our teachers make for the heck of it, would be $108,000 up there.

[SickBeast]

Perhaps another piece of the puzzle:

 I only paid $336CAD for this phone plus tax which works out to only $248USD.  To get a high end handset from a good brand like LG is an amazing deal IMO.

Ah. So money there is worth a lot less because things cost a lot more?

I just did a currency converter and $53,000 salary USD equals $71,600 Canadian dollars.

Looks like we pay our teachers about the same?

I ran the $80000 you thought our teachers make for the heck of it, would be $108,000 up there.

I'm not so sure that factoring the currency makes a whole lot of sense. The Canadian dollar is down quite a bit right now, however it wasn't very long ago that the two currencies were at par.

You do have a bit of a point, though, at least considering the current value of the two currencies. How much do people with a post graduate university degree make down there, though? Up here people with that much education earn at least $60-80,000CAD if not more.

Once the price of oil comes back up, which it inevitably will, the Canadian dollar is going to shoot back up to where it was before. We will also see a boost from the Keystone XL pipeline that Trump wants to allow, plus I don't foresee him really giving us a hard time in terms of our trading relationship. I think he is going to go after Mexico.

[RolloTheGreat]

In your case, you might even be better off making $53K here than $80K there.

Your salary would be above the $71K Canadian money now, but you could have bought your house here for half what you pair or less.

And I just looked at the exchange rate for the last 10 years, and a lot of the last ten years Canadian dollars are in the 70s-80s% of a US dollar.

When you combine that with the higher taxes there, you might come out the same or ahead making far less here.

I think in many ways our systems are very equal and yours just pays higher to cover the costs of socialism.

It's like I tell the people here that want a $15 minimum wage:

All this would do is make $15 worth the current $7.25 if employment levels went up. Prices would rise to cover the higher wages and in response to the greater cash flow, other wages would ripple up as people who made $15/hr for skilled work rightly complained about making the same as the McDonalds crew.

[SickBeast]

I doubt I would be better off there. I would be shocked actually. Houses cost more here but they are an investment. IMO it's better to make more money and pay more for your house rather than making less money am paying less. I also have a feeling that my pension is much better than what I would have down there. I am happy here. I will probably live in the USA part time when I retire, though.

[RolloTheGreat]

I doubt I would be better off there. I would be shocked actually. Houses cost more here but they are an investment. IMO it's better to make more money and pay more for your house rather than making less money am paying less. I also have a feeling that my pension is much better than what I would have down there. I am happy here. I will probably live in the USA part time when I retire, though.

Abandon Canada and emigrate to Wisconsin SickBeast.

Our winters are much shorter and our summers much longer!

What you don't spend on housing you can spend on investments, vehicles, and toys.

[SickBeast]

I am happy here.

Family is very important to my wife and I, and our entire families live here.