New York March NYC Meet-Up

Bob,
I got one of those plastic 35mm rokinons for the sony on your recommendation. It is the only AF lens I own at the moment. It weighs about half as much as the adapters I use for the manual lenses I use on the sony. I've never loved the sony's, but I know what I can and can't do with it. Recently I've been using it for video, which is great.
 
The CVS on 96th and Lex has bare shelves. It is evident that the hoarding already has begun. "Maggie" reports that the nearby supermarkets are not depleted yet.

Somehow I discovered how conservative the numbers were when I figured out my retirement. Somehow I discovered I have more money than I expected. The big problem is that the Government wants to tax me badly as punishment for being a CF and for hoarding.

At my hospital the froze the pension to save money and cut costs, the upper crust of management had their salaries cut by 25%, and so far there have been no layoffs.

With this second wave I can expect a high probability that staff will get laid off, and since I'm part of research I'm kind of a liability/expense they could do without.

So from 66 years 8 months, to age 65 now to retire, but there could be a surprise layoff that suddenly could change things for me.

Money is not a problem, and in fact this might mean paying less taxes, but somehow I would have to bridge health insurance till I'm 65 and eligible for MediCare.

So building out my garage, basement and darkroom could happen in a quicker time frame. If my income drops suddenly, it becomes an opportunity to pay less in taxes and a time to build out infrastructure.

Anyways, don't worry, I'm ready for any surprise. In Q2 next year I will get the real number for my pension and I'll consult with my financial analyst to crunch the numbers for the best tax strategy.

Getting laid off could be a good opportunity, and they might be doing me a favor in fact. Let's see what "divine intervention" remains ahead.

Cal
 
BTW I waited on a line for 2 1/2 hours to vote on Saturday. I arrived at 9:30, voting opened at 10:00 AM, and the line literally went around the block.

Everyone wore masks.

Cal
 
No hoarding happening down here in Philly, in spite of the city's potential to be far more violent than most places in the country. It's really calm here and I don't even hear any paranoia within the client community at work.

Phil Forrest
 
Something has has to happen today to meet a deadline to meet our Friday target closing date.

BRUTAL.

Most of my stuff is packed.

I'm down to 138 pounds, so technically I'm no longer a Welterweight, I'm a "Super Flyweight." I was always kinda skinny and lanky, but over the pandemic cooking in and going more towards vegetable proteins made me loose 15 pounds, even without working out.

I'm kinda the size I was when I was racing bicycles in my thirties. My blood pressure has adjusted much lower with the weight loss. I had though my approaching 120/80 was aging and lack of exercise due to the lockdown, but I'm getting 100/60 and a resting pulse in the low 50's with the weight loss. Seems like when I get on a bike and get more fit those numbers will drop again into my racing range even lower.

Right now the fall colors are near peaking in Peekskill our real estate agent reports. I can imagine how pretty our nested neighborhood and our house looks.

Seems like I discovered money I didn't know I had. The painful part is paying taxes on it. I have been researching and number crunching, but in Q2 2021 I'll get a statement involving my pension payout. At that time I consult with my financial analyst to determine the best way to collect and shelter money.

Also I will plan on the possible contingencies of retiring at 64 instead of the downwardly revised age of 65 from 66 years 8 months. Somehow I have to account for medical insurance for a year. Know that in January I'll be 63.

I wonder since I'm so close to retirement if I might get offered a package to leave early. I would hope that they might pay for healthcare to create a bridge of sorts until I can apply for Medicare at age 65.

At work things are really-really slow. My hospital since my boss How-Weird retired has ordered from a third party vendor nuclides that I use to create. Our office assistant contacted me about data about usage for some high level meeting last year, but it appears they are setting things up to claim they don't have a need, although I did perform backup for a nuclide when the other newer cyclotron was down for one week.

Seems apparent that they are likely planning to downsize, and if they do, especially if there is another lock-down, then they have data that my cyclotron and me are no longer needed.

Because of my age and seniority getting a payout incentive and a year's worth of health insurance is not out of the question. The perfect timing of all this would be by January 2022 for me.

So am I a delusional artist? Am I a lazy-slacker? Am I possibly both, or am I mighty clever?

Anyways my intuition says that things are pointing that way, and then all my projects up in Peekskill will happen pronto.

About 15 years ago right before Thanksgiving we moved into a historic, meaning run down in this case, landmarked row house in Long Island City that was in Court Square. The 7 Train ran right in front of the house and pretty much the scene was very much a timeless Edward Hooper painting crossed with a scene from the film "The Blues Brother" where John Bulushi asks Dan Ackroid, "How many times does that train go past?" and Dan Ackroids says either "What train?" or "So many trains that you no longer hear them."

So sadly we had Thanksgiving dinner at the Court Square Dinner.

"Maggie" looked out onto the main road and pointed to a video store, "Look there is a video store," and then I mentioned, "It's not the kind of video store that you are thinking."

Porn anyone?

So we kinda have a tradition of moving in the late fall going on here. When we moved into East Harlem it too was in the fall.

Cal
 
A takeaway for me from the Pandemic has been a buildup of self-reliance, with a focus on health, and a change in the relationships of public and private space.

I don't really mind the social isolation perhaps because deep down I am not only a strong independent individual, but also a bit of a loner.

My eating habits have changed. To avoid Covid-15 I actually started eating better and cleaner. The weight loss is mostly credited to intermittent fasting where I shortened my eating envelope from 11-12 hours to 7-8 hours because I deem the gym in my building not to be safe.

One reason to bike is then I can eat, eat and eat. In a ways biking is like an eating disorder where I eat vast quantities of food so I can burn all those mucho calories.

The idea to buy a house is a move that readies me for retirement, and I learned that it is easier to buy a home and get a mortgage when employed. Kinda funny how all the wealth "Maggie" accumulated got discounted. Not what I had thought.

What mattered and helped the most were credit scores. Maggie's income varies, and even though it is more than my salary it was discounted.

So lots of thinking went into what we would need to be happy-happy for decades, and what I would do with the many decades of life left.

It was a dream come true when Maggie suggested buying in Peekskill: it was to be close to her daughter and grand daughter who lives in the neighboring town for her; but for me it was to return to being the "Bike Bum" that I use to be where I lived like a surfer to surf, except through biking.

I am sure that my eating clean will get expanded though organic gardening in my Back-Backyard (40x100). I will have two separate work spaces: a basement; and a garage/studio. Also know that there are a few organic farms nearby, so I could jump on my bike and get a free range organically grown chicken or steak locally.

So I likely will be occupying much of my time pursuing art, at a level of when I was in art school, meaning full time, and in a manner of playing with little concern for monetary gain because it won't be needed.

I chose a life of saving to plan for this very future that is presently unfolding. Divine intervention happened again. I figure some money I will have in a Health Spending Account that is taxed differed could pay for the health insurance I would need at age 64 to retire early. This money is already set aside.

So it might come down to only working another year two months and perhaps a week or two before full blown retirement. Lots of home improvement projects: a kitchen; a bath; a deck; a Pergola; changing and expanding the garage roof; building out a "Conservatory; building out a darkroom; and building out a soundproof studio for my tube stereo, guitars and bass's.

Don't forget the expansive gardens and probable monster lap pool. (Don't tell Maggie.)

Not so sure I'll be going into the city that often with biking, eating, cooking, guitar and photography allowing me to hunker down at home.

A recent report suggests that antibodies fade away like the antibodies for the common cold, which is also a Corona Virus. This translates into the possibility that herd immunity might never be possible.

I might become a recluse.

Interesting how this Wall Street Journal feature framed out the next 4 years. Basically it will take till 2022 for the Pandemic to wind down, and then there will be about a two year period of transition evolving into a new normal that is different from the one we knew.

And if history repeats itself like what happened after the 1918 Pandemic is that there will be a decade like the roaring 20's where excesses abound and people celebrate in a drastic way surviving and escaping the death of the earlier pandemic.

Augie
 
Calzone said:
And if history repeats itself like what happened after the 1918 Pandemic is that there will be a decade like the roaring 20's where excesses abound and people celebrate in a drastic way surviving and escaping the death of the earlier pandemic.
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Hopefully the two decades which followed the "roaring twenties" will not repeat themselves. The main thing that led to that decade was the intentionally drawn out war that ended just after the pandemic began. There was a period of "enlightenment" for some, thinking that such a conflict could never be fought again. The problem was that the "roaring twenties" were only roaring for those with money. When the Great Depression hit, the folks who lived in dire poverty had bad, low paying jobs, then they didn't have any job and continued to live in poverty, many to the point of starvation. The "roaring twenties" is a myth written into the collective consciousness by Fitzgerald and those who had the capital to write history. Most folks didn't get to see any of it, and though they got by, they were not living from party to party as much of our historical narrative would have us all think.

Phil Forrest
 
Phil_F_NM said:
Hopefully the two decades which followed the "roaring twenties" will not repeat themselves. The main thing that led to that decade was the intentionally drawn out war that ended just after the pandemic began. There was a period of "enlightenment" for some, thinking that such a conflict could never be fought again. The problem was that the "roaring twenties" were only roaring for those with money. When the Great Depression hit, the folks who lived in dire poverty had bad, low paying jobs, then they didn't have any job and continued to live in poverty, many to the point of starvation. The "roaring twenties" is a myth written into the collective consciousness by Fitzgerald and those who had the capital to write history. Most folks didn't get to see any of it, and though they got by, they were not living from party to party as much of our historical narrative would have us all think.

Phil Forrest
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Phil what you say is true. The Roaring Twenties was also known as the time of the "Robber Barons" when wealth was highly concentrated and disparity of wealth was vast.

You are correct that life was glamorized, while many/most suffered.

They say history really does not repeat: it rhymes.

If you look at economic history, there are just too many similarities, and it does appear that history is kinda repeating itself in a 100 year cycle. The excesses are getting worse, the concentration of wealth can be compared to "Dowton Abbey" and also the era of the Robber Barons.

Clearly there is a tale of two different groups: the haves; and the have nots. Even during the pandemic there is a divide of who is most likely to contract Covid and die. This is about class struggle...

There is a term used by an analyst that sends me a newsletter: The Protected Class. Many say this is the 1%, but I think it extends to the top 20%.

The top 20% have generous incomes that allows saving (hoarding) and the possibility of changing class.

I'm not saying that it is not possible to escape poverty, but what I'm saying from the experience of having known poverty and depravity that the top 20% presents a tipping point of sorts that compounds opportunities and opens doors that 80% are mostly closed out of or have to deal with limitations.

So the difference between the top 20% and the top 10% is more than a quadratic jump, and by the time you get to the top 1% the difference is even more drastic.

I would also say that it took me a long time to overcome my disadvantages. I would also say I was unbelievably lucky, but it was only about 13 years ago in 2007 that I hit a tipping point of sorts where my life really changed from one of struggle to one of comfort.

Anyways this rant is to explain that I know both sides of the story that is becoming history. It is a tale of two different societies, two different cities, two different classes, two different...

Cal
 
There are other parallels from the 1920s to the present. First, the decade began with a very sharp, nasty recession (almost a depression) that didn't lift for a few years. Some industries, such as agriculture, never really recovered in proportion to the rest of the country. Second, underinvestment in national infrastructure began to show its limitations, such as the lack of flood control measures leading to the preventable devastation of the Mississippi flood of 1927. Third is rapid technological changes, most notably in automobiles and communications. The auto industry was exploding, creating the modern car commuter suburbs, car travel vacations, paved ("improved") roads, etc. The auto industry also was beginning to consolidate, with 1925 as the last year the independents (not Ford-GM-Chrysler) in aggregate made money. Communications were undergoing rapid changes as well, with the widespread adoption of radio, sound movies and electronic recording. There was a counter-reaction of rapid change in the form of racism and nationalism: membership in the KKK peaked in 1925, the immigration act of 1924 effectively shut down almost all immigration from southern and eastern Europe, and the nation turned its back on world affairs (expect where there was a direct economic interest of US companies.) Urbanization continued to expand (in the 1920 census the urban population exceeded rural for the first time) and with it the material demands for urban life (such as appliances) purchased largely on a vast expansion of credit (called "buying on time" in that era.) Product distribution also changed with the growth of chain stores, which had vastly greater buying power than local merchants. Sears opened its first retail store in 1925, and within a decade sold more merchandise at retail than mail order. Business consolidations increased, in spite of anti-trust concerns. By the end of the decade the economy had grown, and most had recovered from the recession ten years earlier, but it was a fragile recovery, uneven, untenable, and artificially buoyed by a loose money policy at the Fed.
 
Out to Lunch said:
My two cents: in these uncertain times, it is better to lock into a retirement package sooner than later. Cheers, OtL
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OTL,

I am finding this to be true.

I'll be 63 in two months (January) and originally I had planned to retire 66 years 8 months to maximize my pension, then the pension freeze was announced (will take effect 2021), so the pension incentive to work disappeared and my new retirement age that made sense got lowered to 65.

A 12% match that replaces my pension benefit is not worth hanging around, and pretty much won't make a difference in my quality of life. Not worth my life exposing myself to the stress of commuting, the crime and social unrest, and Covid.

The wealthy say, "No one ever got rich by paying taxes." I crunched numbers to figure out the lowest taxes and lowest Medicare Part "B" premiums, and it seems my best case suggests I should retire in January 2022 when I turn 64.

I end up keeping more money. So pretty much I will retire at age 64 in about 14 months. Happy-Happy.

I learned a lot about financial planning and tax laws. There are all these income thresholds that can tip you into a 65% tax bracket on an additional $5K of income.

Of course I did this on my own, but even though I'm a mighty clever guy, I will be consulting with a professional financial planner to avoid any costly mistake.

The next 14 months should go quickly. I have 5 weeks vacation in my vacation bank, I get a month's vacation, and there are 12 paid holidays. I expect many 3 or 4 day workweeks over these 14 months.

Also know that I believe I'm being set up to be possibly being offered a "package" to retire early. A lot depends on the next wave of Covid in NYC.

Earlier this year I basically got paid leave for about 3 months during the NYC lockdown, but I came to work one day a week to check E-mail and to keep my Cyclotron operational by doing some maintenance.

There was a meeting at a very high level, and our office assistant collected a lot of data about usage, expenses, and billing from me for the high level meeting. Know that there is another newer cyclotron on the "Main Campus" and really my machine is basically only a backup, is redundant, and really is not needed.

No one got laid off, but now there is a hiring freeze, the upper-upper management took 25% pay-cuts, and employees that were grandfathered into pensions rudely had their pensions frozen. (Know that beginning 8 years ago new hires got no pension benefit and only a 403B match.)

Beginning this year in January, my hospital ceased to order nuclides I use to create and deliver. They now purchase these nuclides from a third party vendor at a huge cost. It is as if in the next big-big management meeting now they will have numbers to suggest that my machine and me are no longer needed. Hmmm... Seems like a very likely creating data that indicates a probable direction.

So if there is another lockdown of course this time there will likely be heightened austerity and highly probable layoffs.

Financially I will survive and not be ruined, but my hope is for a package that includes a health insurance "bridge" that covers me till I'm 65 and eligible for Medicare.

One great benefit is that the "basic" Part "B" premium of $144.00 a month will be paid by my employer for the rest of my life. ($1728.00 annually, and not coming out of my Social Security benefits.)

My hope is that I get offered a package to retire early and that includes the health care bridge to Medicare at age 65.

Happy-happy...

Cal
 
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