Does winnings from the casino count as earned income for ...
Does winnings from the casino count as earned income for ...
What to Know About Gambling Income and Federal Taxes
Do I have to report gambling winnings to Social Security ...
Does gambling income count as earned income for IRAs ...
SSA - POMS: SI 00830.525 - Gambling Winnings, Lottery ...
Does gambling income count as earned income for IRAs ...
Does Gambling Winnings Affect Social Security? - Veloce
Are gambling winnings considered earned income?
Gambling Winnings and Income Taxes for 2020. Taxable.
does gambling winnings count as earned income
does gambling winnings count as earned income - win
The Mystery of the Bakersfield 3: Two friends disappeared, a third died in a drive-by shooting. Their families suspected the crimes were linked. How did Baylee Despot, Micah Holsonbake, and James Kulstad end up in the middle of an arms trafficking and murder plot in their California city?
Over the course of 34 days in the spring of 2018, three unsettling crimes played out in the city of Bakersfield, California. The families of the three victims realized their children all knew each other and ran in the same circles, and they began to suspect that all three crimes were connected. But what began as a crusade for justice among grieving parents took a shocking turn when investigators discovered that the so-called Bakersfield 3 were embroiled in a criminal underworld of black-market weapons smuggling, the Hells Angels, unspecified ties to drug cartels, torture and kidnapping, and a convicted felon nicknamed “The Boogeyman of Bakersfield.” This is a genuinely bizarre case, and while I’ve never written up a case for this sub before, I’ve been following this story closely for the past couple years. The last time it was mentioned on here over a year ago, but there have been some huge recent developments in the last year that I thought deserved as comprehensive a telling as possible. And despite all that, it's nowhere near resolved. So without further ado... Part 1: Missing On March 23,2018, Micah Holsonbake, 34, went missing in East Bakersfield near the intersection of Flower Street and Mount Vernon Avenue. Micah was a clean-cut dad who worked in finance, a former high school debater who loved karaoke despite not being any good at it. He was presumed endangered missing until August 22, 2018, when teenagers swimming near a local park found an arm in the Kern River that was identified as his. The rest of his body has never been found. On April 18, 2018, James Kulstad, 38, was murdered on a quiet block in Southwest Bakersfield. A father of two daughters, James was a serial entrepreneur described as the type of man who “could sell a dollar bill on the side of the road for a million dollars if he could just get 5 minutes with you.” His brother Ryan heard the gunshots from the next street over, but didn’t see the shooter, and he claims he held James as he died in his arms. On April 25, 2018, Baylee Parrent-Despot, 20, disappeared from Rosedale, the upper-middle-class neighborhood in Northwest Bakersfield where she’d grown up. Baylee described herself as a “flower child” who had been born in the wrong generation. After facing a number of serious challenges, she was struggling to get her life back on track, and was said to be pregnant and trying to leave her boyfriend when she went missing. She has never been heard from again. Local media christened Micah, James, and Baylee the “Bakersfield 3” after the victims’ families discovered that all three victims knew one another. In the wake of the links between all three disappearances coming to light, Micah’s father told a local news reporter, “Just to be blunt, something happened to Micah… and a month later something happened to Baylee, and I think it’s because she knew what happened to Micah.” And in between them, there was James Kulstad, who ran in the same drug-fueled circles as Baylee and had helped Micah move just weeks before they both were killed. Bakersfield is a city of half a million people, but on a social level, it can feel as insular as any small town — you’re rarely more than one or two degrees removed from anyone you meet — and even in a city where everyone seems to know everyone, it’s hard to buy three friends all going missing within the space of a month by sheer coincidence. But as time went on with few official developments in the investigation, it seemed like people largely lost interest in the case by late 2019. Then, in 2020, the Kern County District Attorney’s office charged three people with a total of 34 different charges, ranging from first degree murder, torture, kidnapping, assault with a firearm, and illegal manufacturing of assault weapons. Two of the defendants were already in custody — and the third may not even be alive. Part 2: Some Local Context By every metric, Bakersfield is just a flat-out terrible place to live. It’s my hometown, I left for a reason, and the reason is that it sucks. Kern County suffers from a slew of serious socioeconomic and public health problems, the largest of which is probably related to economic and income inequality. A fifth of the population is under the poverty line, and crime rates are sky-high, especially drug-related ones. Opioid abuse is rampant, though it still falls second to methamphetamine, the most widespread drug in the area. There’s a significant issue with white supremacist gang violence. When I was 16, my 70-year-old next-door neighbor got stabbed in a biker gang fight at a tattoo parlor by a Hells Angel called “Delano Mike.” A high school chemistry teacher was literally arrested for trying to make meth in his classroom three months before Breaking Bad even premiered. This is a region with a lot of serious problems that go deeper than any one symptom, but suffice it to say, there’s a reason I moved away as soon as I tuned 18. The other thing you need to know is that despite being one of the most conservative cities in California, there’s a widespread distrust of law enforcement outside of the police and courts themselves — and, frankly, for good reason. Corruption in the justice system is widespread, and basically a local tradition dating back to the tenure of longtime district attorney Ed Jagels, perhaps best known for ramming through 36 false convictions of ritual child abuse at the height of the satanic panic. (34 were eventually overtured, and the other two people convicted died in prison and never saw justice.) Jagels’ history of prosecutorial misconduct is also the subject of Mean Justice, a 600-page doorstopper by Pulitzer-winning author Edward Humes about the wrongful conviction of Pat Dunn, who is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife despite a wealth of evidence that would suggest his innocence. In 2002, Jagels’ protege, an assistant district attorney named Steve Tauzer, was murdered by a former Bakersfield police deputy, Chris Hillis, after Hillis allegedly learned that Tauzer had a sexual relationship with Hillis’ 22-year-old son, an addict in recovery; facing first-degree murder charges, he pled out to manslaughter and received a 12-year prison sentence. In 2015, The Guardian published an in-depth exposé about how widespread corruption within the local law enforcement community led to Kern County having the highest rate of police killings in the country: the deadliest cops per capita. And over the past several years, the Kern County law enforcement community has been mired in a police corruption scandal in which members of the BPD abused asset forfeiture laws to illegally seize guns, drugs, and money from suspects, which they in turn trafficked for personal gain. All this is to say that Bakersfield cops and prosecutors have not engendered much public trust outside of their own communities. In a city with high rates of violent crime, law enforcement has consistently put its own interests above public safety, justice, or victims’ rights. That's just something to keep in mind while reading. Part 3: Down the Rabbit Hole Micah In the weeks and months prior to Micah Holsonbake’s disappearance, his family could tell that something was troubling him. Lance and Cheryl Holsonbake both recalled their son behaving erratically in the days before he vanished. But none of it seemed to make any sense coming from someone like Micah, whose family described him as intelligent and hard-working. He had a comfortable upbringing in Rosedale and worked his way into a lucrative career as a financial advisor despite only one year of college. In the photo his family circulated following his disappearance, he wore the suit and tie and placid smile of someone posing for a corporate headshot. But Micah was going through a dark time following a rocky separation from his wife and family, and had been struggling with a painkiller addiction for the past two years. The year before, he’d been laid off from his job after going on disability leave due to depression. According to court documents, Micah owed drug-related debts to members of the Hells Angels as well as “the cartel.” One friend of Micah’s told police his life seemed to be headed in a downward spiral after he lost the ability to see his son, and often got in fights with others at bars. In one witness statement, an unidentified woman told police of a prior incident when she and Holsonbake were kidnapped at gunpoint and driven to an orchard in west Bakersfield. Holsonbake bolted from the vehicle as it was moving, she told police. That account was corroborated by a friend of Holsonbake's who told police that he said he had been kidnapped at gunpoint. He told his parents that he feared for his life, frequently thought he was being followed in his car, and rambled about various people he believed were out to get him, but they mostly wrote it off. James Micah had been hanging around with James Kulstad for some time before he disappeared. It’s not clear when they first met, but it appears they become friendly through the drug scene. Like Micah, James first became addicted to prescription painkillers after being hit by a car, before progressing to fentanyl patches and eventually heroin. He’d been a single father to his daughters Camryn and August. His obituary characterized him as a free-wheeling surfer who held a patent for an action sports product and earned the nickname “Joe Vegas” for his love of gambling and table games. Camryn, now 19, says she and James had an especially close relationship after her mother died when Camryn was an infant, and James often warned her against getting involved with drugs and partying in a clear-headed way, which made it even harder to watch him spiral downward in the years before his death. “I felt like I lost him before I even lost him, but I worked so hard,” she told a reporter. “I was working so hard on everything I could do to make him get better… I was hanging onto hope and whoever killed him took that away from me. I don’t have that anymore, I don’t have hope.” In the wake of her father’s death, Camryn says that a number of stories and rumors about his life surfaced, further complicating her grief. “Some of the stories I’ve heard is that he was a really bad person these last 3 years,” she said in 2019. On the night of his murder, James reportedly drove to an acquaintance’s home in Southwest Bakersfield where his brother Ryan Kulstad was hanging out. Ryan claims that the homeowner allegedly owed money to James and told Ryan that if James came over to his house, he’d “call his boys and they’d come over there strapped,” which Ryan says he didn’t interpret as a serious threat. Ryan and James reportedly argued about this on the phone, and James showed up at the house a couple hours later. Ryan says he had just returned from driving someone else home and noticed a driver in a silver sedan behaving suspiciously as he returned to the house. Moments later, Ryan and his unidentified male passenger heard gunshots on the next block: an unknown gunman opened fire on James from another car, causing him to crash into a parked trailer. The same silver sedan was seen speeding away from the scene. The owner of the home where this all took place was Dr. Sukhjeet Bajwa, who at the time was a chiropractor with a local practice. Bajwa lived in a quiet subdivision in Southwest Bakersfield. It was an unlikely setting for a drive-by, and according to initial news reports, police were at a loss for the motive behind the killing, or what James was even doing in the neighborhood at all. Then things began to unravel: Bajwa, it turned out, had been arrested twice in 2016 and 2017 after driving while impaired, and in addition to liquid heroin, Xanax, and hydrocodone, police also found two unregistered, loaded guns in his car, an AR-15 and a .22LR semi-automatic rifle with a fake silencer attached. All of this was detailed in a disciplinary complaint filed by the California Board of Chiropractic Examiners, and after Bajwa’s name began repeatedly surfacing in connection with the shooting, a rumor began to circulate about a black-market gun and drug trafficking ring in which Bajwa was supposedly a central figure. It was the type of conspiracy theory most people instinctively write off as too bizarre to be credible. But it must have rung a bell to Lance Holsonbake. Before Micah’s disappearance, he told his father that he was “putting together guns for people,” according to a 2019 interview. Lance said he reacted in disbelief to this confession, because the idea that Micah would risk his career by getting involved in illegal gun manufacturing just didn’t make sense. “If you’re this afraid, just stop,” Lance recalls telling him. “And he’d say, ‘I can’t do that I can’t do that.’ He was afraid he did that they would hurt his family.” He wrote it off as paranoia exaggerated by his son’s drug use, and didn’t know how much of it was real and how much was in Micah’s mind. According to Lance, Bakersfield police initially suggested that Micah had left town of his own volition after getting mixed up in criminal activity and, from what I can tell, didn’t make much of an effort to investigate. Though the family says he was last seen on March 23, 2018, Bakersfield police claimed he wasn’t reported missing until April 4, and it appears they waited until April 13, when he’d been missing for almost a month, before BPD made its first public statement regarding his disappearance. After James was murdered a few days later, the Holsonbake and Kulstad families grew increasingly frustrated with the apparent lack of interest in investigating either case, and told the media later that as they began digging into the circumstances surrounding both cases, one name kept coming up with everyone they talked to: Baylee Despot. And within a week, Baylee Despot had also gone missing in Bakersfield. Baylee Baylee Parrent-Despot was 20 years old when she was reported missing in April 2018, and the families say that it was her disappearance that finally motivated the police and local news to start investigating the links between all three cases, for reasons that seem obvious to anyone who has ever seen the media react to a pretty white 20-year-old going missing. Her sister, Katelyn Parrent, describes her as “a girl that’s grown up in a good neighborhood, raised by good parents, had a good childhood, could’ve had everything she ever wanted,” much like James and Micah. And beneath the surface, she was as troubled as either of the men: after graduating high school, she’d run off to Vegas to marry her boyfriend, but their rocky relationship turned into an abusive marriage that ended just a year later in 2017. In the aftermath, she wrecked her car, lost her job, and in her mother’s words, “Her life just spiraled out of control.” In July 2017, Baylee was arrested for disorderly conduct in front of her friend Micah Holsonbake’s house. This came as a surprise to her sister, who had at one point been friendly with Micah herself — she didn’t realize he and Baylee even knew each other. But even though he was 14 years Baylee’s senior, Katelyn remembered him as a clean-cut guy who worked at a bank, and their mother, Jane Parrent, says Micah helped her get a restraining order against an abusive ex-boyfriend. They didn’t see any cause for concern. Still, Baylee’s life continued to spiral out of control. The following month, she was drugged and gang-raped at an acquaintance’s apartment complex. She disappeared for days at a time and resurfaced with “horrible stories” or pleading phone calls begging to be picked up. On one occasion, Katelyn remembers, “She had none of her belongings, no shoes… A couple nights after that there were two vehicles that came to pick her up and we could tell by the look on her face that she didn’t want to go, but if she didn’t go, we didn’t know what would happen.” Matthew Not long after that incident, Baylee had a new boyfriend. Matthew Queen was 43 years old, a convicted felon, and an all-around bad dude. Not much is known about his background, with one major exception: in the early 2000s, he plead guilty to one count of making a false statement to a federal firearms dealer after he used a false address, but his real name, to purchase $11,000 in guns from dealers in Indiana. Many of those guns were later recovered at crime scenes in Detroit and Chicago. If you want an idea of what type of criminal mastermind we’re dealing with here, I recommend reading just the final ruling on that case from the 7th Circuit court of appeals:
“We reject Queen's argument that gun buyers may lie about a street address so long as they live within the state where the gun is sold . . . Queen in fact had once lived in an apartment at 2072 Egret Court, but he did not live at this address when he completed the forms and bought the guns because he was evicted on December 18, 2000, for nonpayment of rent."
Great. Sounds like a great guy. Lest you assume Matthew Queen might have hypothetically seen the error of his ways and cleaned up his act after this early foray into gunrunning, he absolutely did not. In December 2017, just a couple weeks into Matthew and Baylee’s relationship, they were arrested after police found four unmarked, unregistered, loaded assault rifles in Matthew’s car during a traffic stop. Neither he or Baylee said a word to the police, but while Matthew (who, as a convicted felon, was prohibited from carrying any guns or ammunition at all) was charged with several felonies, while Baylee pled no contest to a lesser misdemeanor and received three years probation. Later that month, she moved in with Matthew, his mother, and his estranged wife. Baylee’s family saw and heard even less from her. And in April, a month after Micah’s disappearance and just one day after she and Matthew attended a court date for the weapons charges, Baylee went missing. Her mother believed she was pregnant with Matthew’s child and was trying to leave him at the time. Matthew told police that she had connections through her father's side of the family with a Mexican drug cartel and believed they had something to do with her disappearance. Local interest in the case reached an even greater frenzy after Micah’s severed arm was found in the Kern River in Hart Park on the east side of town, not far from from where he was last seen. It was positively identified in late December 2018. By this point, the family of the Bakersfield 3's investigation had amassed around 10,000 followers on Facebook and another 5,000 in a private group, and the story was a fixture on local news. Another curveball came around this time too, when a former friend of Baylee’s named Sara Wedemeyer, 21, filed a restraining order against Baylee’s mother, Jane Parrent. As it was reported, Sara had moved in with Matthew mere weeks after Baylee disappeared, and she was four months pregnant with his child when she attempted to take out legal action against Mrs. Parrent, whom she claimed was harassing her and her “fiancé” by hanging up missing person fliers in their neighborhood. The restraining order wasn't granted, but Queen allegedly began making disturbing social media posts about Baylee, Micah, and the Parrent family, with Mrs. Parrent as the primary target. And in mid-2019, the investigation seemed to grind to a halt. Part 4: New Developments On May 27, 2020, roughly two years after the first developments in the Bakersfield 3 case, the Kern County District Attorney held at a press conference to announce they believe Baylee Despot and Matthew Queen “deliberately and with premeditation" murdered Micah Holsonbake. Despot and Queen, along with a third man, Matthew Vandecasteele, were charged with the alleged kidnapping, torture, and first degree murder, as well as unlawful manufacturing of assault weapons, conspiracy relating to the murder and torture plot, and a slew of other assault and gun charges (34 in total). Queen and Vandacasteele were both in custody at the time the charges against them were filed, but even though Baylee still has not been seen or heard from since 2018, the DA’s office issued a warrant for her arrest, leading some to speculate she may still be alive. According to court records, Matthew Queen allegedly believed that Micah Holsonbake had stolen a .44-caliber revolver from him. He and Baylee Despot kidnapped Micah, zip-tied him to a chair in Matthew Vandecasteele’s garage, and attempted to torture him in order to extract information from him. A blood stain in the garage matched Holsonbake’s DNA. Vandecasteele told police that he didn’t see or hear Micah on the night he was killed, but knew that the other two had brought him there to question him. After several hours, Baylee allegedly returned to the apartment seeming “flustered” and changed her clothes in a back bedroom. Before they left, “Queen told Vandecasteele that he had cleaned everything up and it was OK to go inside the garage.” The next day, Queen returned to Vandecasteele’s apartment and said he “needed help disposing of something” in a large black storage container in the trunk of his car. Vandecasteele claims he refused to help with disposing of the body, but according police reports, his Google history during that period of time included searches for “lye chemical formula,” “lye for sale” and “how long does it take to dissolve a human body,” as well as browsing for lye on the Home Depot and Lowe’s websites. Queen, Despot, and Vandacasteele allegedly manufactured and sold AR-15s from gun build kits. Other witness testimony released by the courts described various kidnappings that witnesses allege Queen, known as “the boogeyman of Bakersfield,” committed. In one incident, Queen allegedly handcuffed one victim to a chair and put an electric dog collar around his neck because he believed the man had stolen a gun part from him. Another witness said that Queen and Vandacasteele showed up armed at his hotel room after the witness told Baylee where he was staying, and that he believed they intended to kill him because he’d been arrested “with a large quantity of narcotics that he was fronted or given without paying for them and the people who had gave him the narcotics could have been upset.” (According to the police report, surveillance footage from the hotel corroborates this account.) It’s also believed that he made anonymous calls to the police tip line to misdirect the investigation away from himself: one such caller referred to Baylee as a “sugar momma,” a phrase which Queen reportedly used to describe her when he spoke to investigators in August 2019, and he also used the same pseudonym on the tip line that he did on social media. When police questioned him around this time, he denied being part of a criminal enterprise and claimed he could barely pay his bills. Then, while out on bail for unrelated gun charges in January 2019, Queen allegedly kidnapped another man at gunpoint and forced him to walk into the Kern River while Queen accused him of snitching to the cops. He’s been in custody since July of 2019 due to this kidnapping. Part 5: No Body, No Crime So where is Baylee Despot? According to official statements from law enforcement, no one knows. After the warrant was issued for her arrest, a wave of speculation followed that she had faked her own death or fled to Mexico with the help of unspecified “cartel connections.” That story seems less and less likely as more details have emerged from court documents. Vandecasteele told the police that Despot was “falling apart mentally” after murdering Micah. He and Queen both suspected that she was cooperating with police on an investigation relating to the illegal weapons charges, called her a “snitch” in one interview, and told investigators he believed Queen “made her disappear.” In one interview, a female witness said Queen kidnapped her at gunpoint, took her to an orchard, and held an AR-15 to her head while he questioned her about whether Baylee was faithful to him. When police questioned him about Baylee’s disappearance in July 2019, he said was depressed and off her medications, and she had said she wanted to die. When the investigator told Queen there had been allegations of domestic violence involving him and Baylee, some of which resulted in bruises, Queen said he never laid a hand on anyone. He told the detective she was clumsy. Despite all of this, Jane Parrent says that police have told her that they don’t consider Matthew Queen a person of interest in Baylee’s disappearance, and that there is "no known physical evidence that definitively confirms her possible death." She is now offering her own personally-funded $1000 reward for information about her daughter’s location. The rest of Micah Holsonbake’s body has not been recovered, though according to court documents, investigators believe Queen may have buried him in the hills near Taft, a rural area about 45 minutes west of Bakersfield. There have been no developments in the investigation of James Kulstad’s murder since 2018. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Bakersfield Police Department at (661) 327-7111, or the Kern Secret Witness program at (661) 322-4040. A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information leading to an arrest in this case. Ultimately, what really frustrates me about this case is that even after this avalanche of charges, so many questions remain unresolved, and not just what happened and who did it, but why. If the investigation concluded that James Kulstad’s death was unrelated to the disappearances of Baylee and Micah, who ordered his murder, and what was the reason? To what extent was the chiropractor involved with Queen and Vandecasteele’s trafficking racket? Was Sara Wedemeyer involved with Baylee’s disappearance, and if not, how’d she end up living with Matthew and expecting his child just two months after her “friend” went missing? Why did Sara and Matthew harass Baylee’s mother for months after the disappearance? More than anything, I’m still lost as to Baylee Despot’s motivation for any of this. Did she just find herself in too deep with no way out? Did she actively make the choice to become a gunrunner? Did Matthew, looking to settle a grudge against Micah, seek out a relationship with Baylee with the intention of using her to get to him? Did he kill her because she was cooperating with the cops, because she attempted to leave him, or because he was just a sociopath who felt she was no longer useful? Or is there a chance that law enforcement knows more than they’ve let on? When investigators told Mrs. Parrent that Matthew isn’t a suspect in her disappearance, was that an indication that she may, in fact, be alive? Probably not. But at this point, anything is possible. Sources:
“‘Bakersfield 3’ member Micah Holsonbake was afraid of murder suspect Matthew Queen, became increasingly paranoid before he disappeared, documents say,” 6/17/20
30 years old, dual income of about $80,000 per year, working in nonprofits, and living in New Hampshire
UPDATE: We opened and maxed out a Roth IRA and we're buying a property to rent out/move into when we're ready! My husband and I made $76,436 last year (after taxes) and I got a $5,000 raise (pre taxes) at the end of the year! We keep the bulk of our money in a joint savings account, but we each have a checking account which we keep some money in for bills and other expenses. I am only reporting on my daily expenses, since I have no idea what he spends day-to-day (although, I think it’s less than I do)! Assets and Debt Retirement Balance: $9,468 (my employer and I each put 6% into my 403b) Savings Account Balance: $82,585 (we really need to do something with this money) Checking Account Balance: $7,230 Debt: None! I am very proud of this because I graduated from college with a lot of debt. I put everything I earned toward my loans for a long time and my husband helped, too. Other Investments: We have some cryptocurrency. In my husband’s defense, this was before we were married, but… yeah, this wasn’t my idea. I hope the market bounces back so I don’t have to die mad about it. Lol Savings Contribution: We each contribute $500 per month into our savings account and occasionally dump extra money into that account, too. We tend to put any and all “extra” money (tax return, mileage and expense reimbursement, gambling winnings, etc.) into our savings account. We also contribute to this account every time we accumulate “too much” in our individual checking accounts. Income I make $55,000 per year plus a $5000 bonus pre-tax. I am underpaid for my experience and position, but I’ve been pushing for a raise every year to fix this. My husband isn’t salaried, but he makes roughly $35,000 per year before taxes. He was furloughed for a few months due to COVID, but we’re still projected to make more this year than we did last year. Paycheck: I bring home $1,655 every other week. My husband’s paycheck is less consistent. Expenses Cellphone: We pay for my mama and our bill is $190/month. I pay this one! Subscriptions: We have the usual stuff — Amazon Prime ($99/year), Netflix ($8.99), Hulu ($11.99), and Spotify (9.99/mo.). We also belong to a fish CSA, which costs us a couple hundred dollars a year depending on which plan we’re on at any given moment. It’s the bomb. I pay these bills, too. We sometimes pay way too much ($60.99) for Hulu Live TV. Mostly during football season. Pet Expenses: We spend a lot of money on hay. The rabbit costs us ~$40 per month or so. Charitable Giving: As a nonprofit director, supporting our local nonprofits is hugely important to me. My husband keeps my giving in check and we give about $1,000 per year. We are incredibly lucky to have minimal expenses. Our apartment is free thanks to a part time job managing the building we live in! We are also unlucky in that I have an expensive medical condition, so maybe it all evens out? Speaking of, my employer covers my health insurance and my husband is uninsured. My husband and I split the bills (we each pay out of our separate accounts) and he handles our car insurance. I pay more of the bills, but he picks up the tab more often when we grab food out. Day One: Sunday 9:30 AM I wake up late, but get to spend a little time with my husband before he goes to work. I drink a cup of decaf coffee and pet our rabbit. 10:00 AM My husband rushes off to work. I switch to ice water and log a couple hours of work. I’ve been working on Sundays this summer since time seems like a pre-covid concept anyway. 12:00 PM I pop down to a local smoothie place and grab a beet smoothie for lunch. This is unusual for me. While my husband thinks smoothies are an adequate meal, I do not. But today, I was feeling a beet smoothie and it is nice to walk downtown for a bit. $8.05 12:30 PM I hop into my car and drive over to my office to grab the mail! I am going for a hike today and my office is on the way! I grab the mail and head to the mountains! The drive is long, but absolutely gorgeous. While hiking I snack on some almonds and cashews that are always in my pack. 6:30 PM I am about halfway home after an amazing hike and stopping to grab gas! I’m still working from home, so I am driving less, but with all this hiking it feels like a lot and my car has an itty bitty gas tank so it feels like I am buying gas constantly. $17.16 7:30 PM I am home and I am hungry! I whip up some spaghetti and “meatballs”. We choose to eat pescatarian most of the time, so I use frozen vegetarian “meatballs” and load it up with nutritional yeast in lieu of cheese. (All the beef jerky we’re going to eat while hiking is uncharacteristic, I swear!) I settle in to watch some Married at First Sight while I eat. I am a total sucker for weird love stories. 8:30 PM I give the rabbit her salad, play with her a bit, and do the dishes. More television and phone scrolling before bed. Daily Total: $25.21 Day Two: Monday 8:00 AM I am up and drinking a cup of decaf and petting the rabbit (petting her is the bulk of my morning and night routine). I feel bad when I need to stop and get to work! My work has always been flexible with a decent amount of remote work, but it definitely feels different during the pandemic. I have a couple phone calls and virtual meetings this morning. 12:00 PM I peer into the refrigerator and see my husband left behind his Thai food and I scored a free lunch! While I eat, I put some thought into what I’ll need for dinner tonight. Earlier this year we signed up for a fish CSA, so every Friday we pick up a pound of surprise fish! This is probably the most expensive and most awesome thing I’ve ever done for our diet. It has also been a total blast for me as a cook. I had haddock in the freezer and I want to make fish tacos for dinner. 12:30 PM I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, so I head over. I pay my copay over the phone when I check in. $15.00 1:30 PM Doctor’s appointment went well. I need to get my good cholesterol up a bit, but the fish and hiking should help! I need to get something notarized, so I head over to my bank before hitting the grocery store to grab everything I need for fish tacos. We hit the grocery store at least once per day. Our closest grocery store is a two-minute walk and so, for now, shopping this way works for us. We’re also low on leafy greens for the rabbit, so I grab some things for her. $18.86 3:00 PM When I get home, I whip up the marinade for the fish and let it marinade in the refrigerator until dinner time. Back to work for a while! 6:30 PM I am done with work, my husband is home, and I am ready to throw dinner together. I throw the fish in the oven, whip up the spicy slaw, and heat the tortillas. We’ve been gravitating toward recipes that call for hot peppers because we grew an abundance of jalapenos and habaneros this year! We split a beer with dinner. 7:30 PM We finish our beer outside while we chat and we head out to take a walk downtown. On the way home, we hit the grocery store (again) for fruit. I like something sweet after dinner and lately it’s been fruit. We grab some strawberries, grapes, nectarines, and a ripe pluot. My husband pays. When we get home, we eat some fruit, play with the rabbit, and do some laundry before settling in in front of the television. Daily total: $33.86 Day Three: Tuesday 9:00 AM I am working late tonight, so I am in no rush to get started. I pet the rabbit for a while as I sip on my decaf coffee, scroll my phone, and chat with my husband. 10:00 AM I switch over to iced coffee and settle down in front of my laptop and get some work done. 12:00 PM I pop over to the grocery store to grab lunch and some snacks for the hikes we have planned for the week. We try to keep it simple and pack beef jerky, apples, and goldfish. I grab myself some grocery store sushi for lunch — our grocery store has an awesome sushi chef on site! I also grab a bag of coffee because we’re getting low. $38.70 12:30 PM Time to get back to work! I have a pile of papers on my kitchen table I am finally going to sort… 3:00 PM I take a quick break to make a 100 calorie bag of popcorn (this is my favorite snack and I keep them around all the time) and get distracted long enough to buy a hiking guidebook. $28.94 7:30 PM I’m finally done with work for the day! I have leftover fish tacos for dinner. I clean up the kitchen, pack for hiking, and settle in for some unwind time before bed. Daily total: $67.64 Day Four: Wednesday 9:00 AM I am up and petting the rabbit while sipping on a cup of decaf coffee and scrolling my phone/talking with my husband. We’re going hiking today and I am excited! My office is closed on Fridays during the summer, but I opt to work on Fridays and use my comp time on a day my husband is also off, hence a Wednesday hike! 10:00 AM We’re off and we stop for bagels and cream cheese (my favorite pre-hike breakfast) and an iced decaf coffee. My husband pays. 5:30 PM We’re home just in time to head to our volleyball game. Yes, it is weird that our volleyball league is running despite the pandemic. 7:30 PM I pop into the grocery store to grab tofu and cabbage for a late dinner. I also snag a pack of dish gloves while I am there and pop into the drugstore next door to grab a glass tupperware. We have a plastic tupperware nearing retirement and I’ve been replacing them with glass along the way. I do find $0.51 on the sidewalk, so that counts toward my Money Diary, right? I am big on picking up change for the change jar! We’re big cash users (or we were pre-COVID) and we love cashing out our change jar when it's full. $30.34 8:00 PM We’re home. I make dinner while my husband does the dishes. We take turns taking showers while dinner is cooking. I roast the cabbage and the tofu and make a quick garlicky, spicy sauce to go with it. Finally, we settle in for some television and more petting the rabbit (which is starting to sound like a euphemism at this point). Daily total: $30.34 Day Five: Thursday 9:30 AM I sleep late again and I wonder if this isn't late, but rather my new normal. It’s been a weird pandemic. Coffee, rabbit, phone, chat with husband. 10:30 AM I have to work late tonight again, so I am in no rush to get started but I grab my laptop and start checking things off my to-do list. 1:00 PM I am hungry so I pause to eat a frozen Amy’s burrito. I love these burritos because, while they aren’t the healthiest part of my diet (hello, sodium), they keep me full forever so they’re perfect for those days when I’m not sure when dinner will be. 4:00 PM I’m off to a work event. The event is outside and everyone will be wearing masks, but I’m still a little anxious. This is the first time I’ve gathered with other humans for proper networking since early March. 6:30 PM I am home and done with work! I had some cheese, crackers, and fruit at the event, so I’m not very hungry, but I want some vegetables for dinner. Luckily I found green beans in the freezer! I eat and unwind. Insert normal nighttime routine here. Daily total $0 Day Six: Friday 7:45 AM I have a meeting this morning, so I am awake. Usual morning routine commences: rabbit gets pets and a salad, I get decaf coffee. 8:30 AM My morning meeting starts. I follow up my meeting with more work. 11:00 AM A friend comes over because my husband and I are helping her with a creative project — this is a super fun break from work. 12:30 PM I am starving, so we head downtown to grab sandwiches for lunch. My treat. $17.85 1:30 PM Back to work! I have one more meeting before I can call it the weekend. I am exhausted and my capacity to focus is definitely reduced by all this working from home. 5:30 PM Calling it a day! I had a couple important things I needed to wrap up and I am psyched to be done. I am starving and exhausted and I don’t know whether to eat or nap first… I decided to snack on a mini bag of popcorn while I decide what I want for dinner. My husband is at work and I’m feeling something fancy, so I land on sweet potato gnocchi with mushrooms and kale. Sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and kale may be my favorite vegetables — they are certainly the ones I cook with the most! I head to the grocery store and grab everything I’ll need for dinner. While I’m there, I also grab fruit since I am out, frozen burritos and meatless meatballs for the freezer, and snacks for tomorrow’s hike. $36.53 8:00 PM Dinner is done, the kitchen is a mess, and I am ready to unwind. I have a plum for dessert, which prompts the rabbit to hop onto the couch and see if she can’t steal a bit of fruit. I cave because she’s cute. Daily total $54.38 Day Seven: Saturday 8:45 AM I am up and it’s the usual: pet the rabbit, drink coffee, scroll phone until I am awake enough to get ready for today’s hike! My husband works really late on Friday nights, so I always let him sleep as late as he wants on Saturdays. 10:30 AM He slept really late today. While he is sleeping, I pick out a closer mountain. 11:30 AM We’re off! We stop for gas and food. He grabs bagels and cream cheese (my favorite pre-hike eats) and I fill up the gas tank. $18.09 7:00 PM We hiked for far longer than we had planned, but we had a blast. On the way home, we stop at the grocery store to grab cauliflower and some rice for dinner. Yesterday we picked up our weekly fish order, so we’re having fish for dinner tonight! $5.08 7:30 PM We’re home! We take turns showering, eat dinner, pet the rabbit, and I fall asleep super early. Daily total $23.17 Weekly Total and Breakdown Weekly total: $234.60 Food: $155.41 Fuel: $35.25 Other (hiking guidebook and doctor’s appointment): $43.94 Reflections This was a pretty typical week. Since COVID, anyway. I’ve spent a lot less money since the pandemic began. Before the pandemic, we went out to eat a lot more and I was so busy at work I had lunch on-the-go constantly. I also haven’t bought any clothes since the pandemic. I don’t really see the point since I don’t really get dressed anymore. I struggled with money for a long time and it wasn’t until I was 28 that I started to feel like I was getting my stuff together, but I am ready to level up and do something with our savings. Our (ehem, his) lack of retirement savings is definitely my biggest source of worry. And since I know someone will say it, we get how lucky we are for our living situation. Median rent in my area is over $1,500, so managing the building in exchange for our housing is a well paying part time job.
San Francisco 49ers NFC Champions 13-3 (First in NFC West) SB runner up Intro Hello, this is my first time writing one of these. I wasn't raised as a 49ers fan but my late grandfather was a diehard fan. I still follow the team pretty closely and I felt like I could contribute to the series. I tried to cover everything in a concise manner since I know you guys have shit to do today. I wanted to include a video companion but didn't have enough time to edit it the way I wanted to. So with all that said, on to the review. The 49ers are coming off of an amazing Super Bowl run that saw them fall short against a loaded Chiefs team. I still hurt watching that lead shrink away into nothing. Can't win them all but damn were we close. The 49ers made a few key roster moves to solidify their depth through free agency and the draft which positions them nicely to make another deep postseason run. Shanahan and Lynch look to be on the same page about the roster and scheme they hope to execute, drafting and signing players that fit the mold. Credit to u/Handsack135 for assisting me on this project. Sorry if my formatting is poor, had to do this all on mobile. Coaching Changes departing Joe Woods, former defensive Backs coach for San Francisco, accepts the defensive coordinator role within the Cleveland Browns organization. He will replace Steve Wilks in that role. Woods arrives in Cleveland with roughly 15 years of experience coaching at the NFL level. Chris Kiffin is a defensive line coach that operated as the pass rush specialist for San Francisco last season. He will be assuming the same role within the Cleveland Browns organization. Kiffin arrives in Cleveland with 2 years of experience coaching at the NFL level. arriving Aaron Whitecotton arrives from the Bills where he served as assistant defensive line coach, more specifically a pass rush specialist. He will assume the same role within the San Francisco organization, replacing Chris Kiffin in the process. The Buffalo Bills lead the league in TFL during the 2019-20 season and were 9th in sack percentage. Whitecotton arrives with 6 years of experience coaching at the professional level, including a stint with the Jaguars that saw him work alongside current 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. Tony Oden takes over the defensive backs coach role after serving the same role within the Miami Dolphins organization in 2019. The Dolphins’ secondary was a garbage fire last season (7th most passing touchdowns allowed and 6th most passing yards allowed) in the wake of Minkah Fitzpatrick’s departure so it will be interesting to see what Oden does with the defensive backs in San Francisco. Oden also has previous experience working with Robert Saleh from his stint with the Houston Texans. Free Agency/Trades players lost/cut Emmanuel Sanders WR Saints Matt Breida RB Dolphins DeForest Buckner DL Colts Sheldon Day DL Colts Elijah Lee LB Lions Levine Toilolo TE Giants Anthony Zettel DL Vikings Joe Staley LT Retired Joe Staley would be a huge loss but he's been replaced with perennial pro bowler Trent Williams fresh off a stint with The Washington Football Team (what a shit name, lul). Hopefully he's just a plug and play personnel upgrade that requires little time to settle into his new role. Emmanuel Sanders turned out to be an important receiver for the Super Bowl run, complementing Deebo and Kittle nicely as a reliable third option for Garoppolo. It's a tough business, but sometimes the risk of a midseason free agent acquisition is worth it. San Francisco hopes to replace his production with the newly drafted Brandon Aiyuk out of Arizona State University. Matt Breida, the former undrafted running back out of Georgia Southern was acquired on draft day by the Miami Dolphins for a 5th round pick. Quite a steal in my opinion for a starting running back of his caliber. His departure leaves a hole in the 49ers backfield that must be filled by some combination of Raheem Mostert, Tevin Coleman, and Jerrick Mckinnon. The Shanahan running back by committee plan resumes. DeForest Buckner was traded to the Colts for a first round pick. This pick was used to select DT Javon Kinlaw as Buckner's hopeful replacement. With a decision to be made between extending him or DE Arik Armistead, the 49ers chose to extend the player whose position would be harder to replace. Seeing Kinlaw available at 14, the 49ers decided to take a chance on him and gamble that Armstead should get an extension since there was no high caliber player available to replace him. Re-signed/Incoming Salary courtesy of Spotrac.com Arik Armstead DL 49ers 5yrs $85,000,000 George Kittle TE 49ers 5yrs $75,000,000 Trent Williams LT Football Team 1yr $12,500,000 Raheem Mostert RB 49ers 2yrs $6,250,000 Jimmie Ward DB 49ers 3yrs $28,500,000 Kendrick Bourne WR 49ers 1 yr $3,259,000 Tom Compton OL Jets 1 yr $2,750,000 Ronald Blair III DL 49ers 1 yr $2,297,500 Kerry Hyder DL Cowboys 1yr $1,500,000 Travis Benjamin WR Chargers 1yr $1,050,000 Jason Verrett DB 49ers 1 yr $1,047,500 Shon Coleman T 49ers 1yr $962,500 Dontae Johnson CB 49ers 1 yr $910,000 Joe Walker LB Cardinals 1yr $900,000 Ben Garland OL/C 49ers 1yr $805,000 Ross Dwelley TE 49ers 1yr $750,000 Nick Mullens QB 49ers 1yr $750,000 Jeff Wilson Jr. RB 49ers 1yr $750,000 Daniel Brunskill OL 49ers 1 yr $675,000 Dion Jordan DE Raiders (salary unavailable) Jordan Reed TE Football Team (salary unavailable) Arik Armstead was granted a huge contract extension at the expense of losing fellow stud defensive lineman DeForest Buckner. Their numbers last season were very similar and I see no real reason to choose one over the other since their ages are only separated by one year at 26 and 25 respectively. The decision was a tough one but the 49ers were probably high on Kinlaw and felt since he and Buckner were the same position it was smarter to pay Armstead and let Buckner go. George Kittle is the best TE in the NFC and I believe we have yet to see the best of him. He is a monster blocker and runs through the open field like a gazelle. Defensive coordinators struggle to contain him on a weekly basis and he has proven he is worth every cent of his contract extension. Trent Williams was acquired from the Washington Football Team in exchange for a 2020 5th round pick and a 2021 third round selection. He will be filling in for the retired Joe Staley during the 2020 season. A daunting task but one for which he is well suited being a perennial Pro-Bowler himself. Jimmie Ward produced a solid season at free safety combining open field coverage skills with masterful tackling ability to place fourth on the team in passes deflected (8) and third in total tackles (65) on the number one passing defense in the NFL Kendrick Bourne showed promise as a possible WR3 behind Aiyuk and Samuel with his consistent contributions to the passing game last season. This earned him a new contract to prove that he can be a reliable threat to the secondary and draw some pressure off of Samuel and Kittle. Draft Grades Round 1, Pick No. 14: Javon Kinlaw, DT, South Carolina. Fletcher Cox similarities, bigger and stronger. Will make a splash as a true DT option on an already loaded DL. Picked up to fill in for DeForest Buckner at a lower price in the wake of Armstead's huge contract. Round 1, Pick No. 25: Brandon Aiyuk, WR, Arizona State. Picked by Shanahan specifically to fit into the scheme. Good speed and run after catch ability. Limited catch radius, excellent route running. Should see playing time early into his career with the loss of Marquise Goodwin and Emmanuel Sanders. Round 6, Pick No. 190: Charlie Woerner, TE, Georgia. Pure blocking tight end out of UGA, most likely brought in to replace Levine toilolo. Won't see much playing time over Dwelley and Kittle but adds depth at the position. Round 7, Pick No. 217: Jauan Jennings, WR, Tennessee. Big body receiver out of Tennessee that can catch contested passes consistently. Knocked for his forty yard dash speed at the combine (4.72) and route running sloppiness on tape. Off-season Storylines Players opting out due to Covid-19 Travis Benjamin Projected Starting Lineup QB: Jimmy Garoppolo RB: Raheem Mostert, Tevin Coleman, and Jerrick McKinnon FB: Kyle Juszczyk TE:George Kittle WRs: Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk, Kendrick Bourne and Dante Pettis/Jalen Hurd LT: Trent Williams LG: Laken Tomlinson C: Weston Richburg RG: Daniel Brunskill RT: Mike Mcglinchey DL: Dee Ford, Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead, Solomon Thomas, Javon Kinlaw LB: Kwon Alexander, Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw CB: Richard Sherman, Ahkello Witherspoon, Emmanuel Moseley S: Jaquiski Tartt, Jimmie Ward K: Robbie Gould P: Mitch Wishnowsky KPR: Brandon Aiyuk Position Group Strengths and Weaknesses Position groups: QB: Jimmy Garoppolo is a solid starting option for the 49ers that led them to a super bowl appearance by knowing his role within the Shanahan offense and never doing too much. Heroic when he needed to be and reserved when he didn’t, I see continued success for Garoppolo if he can continue to play smart and take what defenses give him. Grade: B Backfield: Kyle shanahan uses a running back by committee approach that works masterfully when combined with the blocking talent of Kittle and Juszcyk. McKinnon, Mostert and Coleman are going to be tasked with shouldering the bulk of the carries this season with the majority going to Mostert if I had to guess. Grade: A+ OL: With the addition of Trent Williams and a solid core of starter level blockers, I see this offensive line as middle of the pack at worst and possibly top ten if they can improve from last year. They were excellent in run blocking last season which allowed them to rise to 2nd place in the NFL in rushing yards per game. They were more wishy washy when it came to pass protection, falling into the bottom half of the league (18th) in sack percentage allowed. Grade B- Pass catchers: With Kittle serving as a legitimate threat to any NFL secondary the pass catching capability possessed by the 49ers is immense. Couple that with the emergence of Deebo Samuel and the potential of the remaining 49ers receivers that will get significant snaps (Aiyuk, Hurd, Bourne, Pettis) and you’d begin to consider this receiving core as a solid complement to their dominant rushing attack. My only concern is the health of their young receivers and their ability to recognize their untapped potential. I would like to see at least one receiver (Kittle doesn’t count) reach the 1000 yard threshold before I would grade this receiving core as above average. Grade: C+ DL: With the departure of Deforest Buckner the 49ers defensive line will have their work cut out for them in the 2019-20 season. He was a great player but this unit is so stacked I believe their statistical production will remain largely unchanged this season. They were 5th in the league in total sacks last year and 2nd in pressure percentage which shows just how dominant they were both individually and as a unit. Grade: A+ LB: Last season showed us that the next generation of linebackers has arrived for the 49ers and they are solid. Dre Greenlaw and Fred Warner have proven that they are a strong second line of defense behind the elite defensive line in front of them placing first and second on the team in tackles. This was combined with 11 pass deflections and 2 interceptions (one for a TD) between them which demonstrates their willingness and ability to defend not only the run but the pass as well. If they can continue this high level of play in 2020 I see no reason they won’t continue to do damage to offenses both in the tackle box and the secondary. Grade: A Secondary: The secondary may seem like world beaters based only on their gaudy stats that found them allowing the least amount of passing yards per game last season. This was due in part to solid play from the secondary, but the driving force behind this was the defensive line’s ability to produce so much pressure on the opposing quarterbacks they faced. This is no knock on the 49ers defensive backs either, they were just another cog in a very strong defense but they did their job well and the entire team was in sync which led to continued success throughout the regular season and playoffs. Schedule Predictions The 49ers have a relatively weak schedule to begin the season and should expect to achieve a 4-1 or even a 5-0 record out of the gate. This would be a repeat of the hot start they came in with last season that saw them begin the year 8-0 before falling to the Seahawks in OT. Week 1 vs Arizona W Kyler Murray is a certified stud and coupled with Hopkins and Fitz I see this game giving the secondary an early test. Generating pressure on the young quarterback will be key to getting a victory in this game, but more importantly we must keep him in the pocket and make him beat us with his arm not his legs. Week 2 @Jets W Sam Darnold has one of the poorest offensive lines in the league and Gase has done little to improve it while also stripping his receiving core of weapons. This one might get ugly. Week 3 @Giants W The 49ers will get to face the NFC East this season which was the worst division in football last season. The Giants are coming off of a disappointing season last year and hoping to rebound. With a young group of talented skill players, that includes a top 5 running back in Saquon Barkley, it will definitely be our first potential trap game of the season. Week 4 vs Philadelphia L Philadelphia is coming off of a rollercoaster season that saw them sneak into the wild card against the buzz saw that is the Seattle Seahawks and still manage to come within one score of OT. Wentz has something to prove this season after seeing his front office pick up a QB in the draft. Beating the reigning NFC champions would go a long way in proving that he’s not to be replaced anytime soon. Week 5 vs Miami W I certainly hope Tua isn’t in by this point in the season, I’d hate to see our defensive line ruin him that early on in his career. Miami had the worst secondary in the league last season and I haven’t seen much to signal any improvements in that department. They also gave up the 6th most rushing yards of any team in the NFL which doesn’t bode well for their chances against Shanahan’s patented outside zone running scheme. Week 6 vs Rams W After missing the playoffs only one year removed from a Super Bowl berth the Rams are looking to bounce back in 2020 under the tutelage of coaching mastermind Sean Mcvay. Our last meeting with this team saw us narrowly avoid defeat by pulling out a 34-31 victory over our fellow division rival. I predict two closely contested chess matches this season between two of the best play callers in the league. Week 7 at New England W When you have to enter Foxborough it’s gonna be one hell of a game no matter how good you are. No Tom Brady, no problem it seems with the addition of former MVP Cam Newton. Couple this addition with the mind of Bill Bellichick and the number one defense in the league and you can see that the 49ers clearly have their work cut out for them in this one. I predict this going one of two ways which are as follows, either Jimmy G has a revenge game or BB sees straight through him and he lays an egg. The run game will never be more important than in this game. Week 8 at Seattle L Going into CenturyLink Field is gonna be tough and coming off what should be a dogfight against the Patriots I just don’t see us pulling off two big road wins in a row. Week 9 at Green Bay W I believe Shanahan has his brother’s ,and by extension Lafleur’s, number in this one. We saw this game play out twice last season and both had a similar theme. Dominance by San Francisco that i predict will continue into the 2020 season. Week 10 at New Orleans L Last season’s matchup saw the 49ers narrowly escape a shootout in the dome and I find it hard to believe we can return there and pull it off again. I see this game as another shootout and honestly believe it can go either way Week 11 Bye Week 12 @ Rams L I predict the 49ers come out of the bye week sluggish and still reeling from what should be a captivating game vs the saints. Not how you want to show up against a divisional opponent with a chip on their shoulder. Week 13 vs Buffalo W Buffalo has a strong defense and picked up an elite receiver in Stefon Diggs this offseason. I believe our key to victory in this game is getting Josh Allen out of rhythm early and establishing the run in order to give him limited time of possession. This will hopefully lead to him forcing passes and making mistakes in what I predict will be a low scoring affair. Week 14 vs Washington W We shut the Football Teamout last season in what can only be described as a deluge of rain that didn’t let up all game. Poor conditions led to what can only be described as a war of attrition between two teams that couldn’t find their rhythm all day. I predict a close game in this one due to the addition of Ron Rivera and his newly instilled team culture. This will be a late season contest so I would think the Football Team will have worked out their kinks by then. Week 15 @ Dallas W Cowboys suck, Jerry World is lame (try not to catch Covid-19 in there) . Okay seriously though this will be a tough game versus a strong opponent that has the potential to defeat us if we don’t come correct. Limiting Cooper’s production is essential in this one as well as trying to find a way to keep zeke from a monster game. Week 16 @ Arizona W I can see this one going to the Cardinals depending on our record and how hungry the Cardinals are late in the season. Road games are tougher no matter what and I don’t see us locking down Hopkins twice in one season. Kyler will need to have a big game for them to upset us but I don’t put it out of the realm of possibility Week 17 vs Seattle W After a tough loss earlier in the year to Seattle I see the 49ers coming out very motivated to avenge the loss and more importantly they will be looking to solidify a second straight NFC West Divisional title. This one will be a key game if both teams play up to their expectations. I see implications for not only the NFC West champion outcome but also the NFC home field advantage outcome as well. Training Camp Battles WR4: I don’t know who will step up to be the final complementary receiver for Deebo, Aiyuk, and Bourne but it could be Pettis or Hurd depending on their health and how training camp goes. If I had to wager I’d put my money on Pettis since he is the most proven of the remaining receivers. Schemes Shanahan runs a zone run oriented offense that predicates itself on domination in the run which is used to set up an elaborate variety of play action passes. Shanahan utilizes many motions in his scheme in order to identify the coverage and weaknesses within the defensive formation that he then attacks with unparalleled precision. By constantly forcing the defense to adapt to his offense’s pre-snap movement he is able to diagnose what sort of defense will be used against him and check the team into favorable formations that allow them to exploit the defense. Saleh runs a Wide 9 scheme that is a combination of base 4-3 and nickel coverage which utilizes both safeties interchangeably depending on the strength of the offensive formation and which allows for more flexibility in coverage. This was an adaptation necessary in today’s NFL that is seeing fewer teams use two running back sets and instead often opting to run 3 receiver sets with the tight end possibly flexed out into an upright position. The 49ers had the best passing defense in the league last season so it’s safe to say this system is effective at limiting the other team from spreading the defense out and abusing linebackers in the secondary with slot receivers and tight ends.
Richard Nixon is the 47-year-old Republican candidate and the current Vice President. His running mate is US Ambassador to the UN and former US Senator from Massachusetts Henry Cabot Lodge.
John Kennedy is the 43-year-old Democratic candidate and a US Senator from Massachusetts. His running mate is US Senator from Texas Lyndon Johnson.
Issues
The scope and tensions of the "cold war" between the United States and the post-Stalin Soviet Union continue to fluctuate. Both candidates speak in dramatic terms of ideological conflict the world finds itself in, and both candidates argue that they are in a better position to guide the US through this conflict. Kennedy has argued that the United States has fallen behind during the Eisenhower Administration, while Nixon has defended the administration's foreign policy. Neither candidate can be unambiguously framed as "more" or "less" aggressive towards the Soviet Union, as evidenced by three campaign flashpoints on foreign policy:
In May, the Soviet Union shot down a US spy plane. This incident largely appears to have led to the collapse of the Four Power Paris Summit talks. The disagreement between Kennedy and Nixon on this topic is whether an expression of regret or apology by the US may have been appropriate. Kennedy has said:
The U-2 flights were proper from the point of view of protecting our security, but they were not in accordance with international law, and I said that I felt that rather than tell the lie which we told, rather than indicate that the flights would continue ... that it would have been far better that if we had expressed regrets, if that would have saved the summit and if the summit is useful and I believe it is.
Nixon has said:
We cannot afford an intelligence gap and I just want to make my position absolutely clear with regard to getting intelligence information. I don't intend to see to it that the United States is ever in a position where, while we're negotiating with the Soviet Union, that we discontinue our intelligence effort. And I don't intend ever to express regrets to Mr. Khrushchev or anybody else if I'm doing something that has the support of the Congress and that is right for the purpose of protecting the security of the United States.
At the very end of 1958, an armed revolt led by Fidel Castro succeeded in ousting the current Cuban government and replacing it with a socialist state. Kennedy and Nixon have disagreed on the extent to which it would be appropriate to intervene in Cuba. Just within the last month, Kennedy has made a point of sharply criticizing the Eisenhower Administration's policies and "failures" on Cuba, and even went so far as to issue a statement saying:
We must attempt to strengthen the non-Batista democratic anti-Castro forces in exile and in Cuba itself, who offer eventual hope of overthrowing Castro. Thus far these fighters for freedom have had virtually no support from our government.
Nixon sharply criticized this proposal in the final debate, saying:
I think that Senator Kennedy’s policies and recommendations for the handling of the Castro regime are probably the most dangerously irresponsible recommendations that he’s made during the course of this campaign ... We have five treaties with Latin America, including the one setting up the Organization of American States in Bogota in 1948, in which we have agreed not to intervene in the internal affairs of any other American country – and they as well have agreed to do likewise. The charter of the United Nations – its Preamble, Article I and Article II – also provide that there shall be no intervention by one nation in the internal affairs of another. Now I don’t know what Senator Kennedy suggests when he says that we should help those who oppose the Castro regime, both in Cuba and without. But I do know this: that if we were to follow that recommendation, that we would lose all of our friends in Latin America, we would probably be condemned in the United Nations, and we would not accomplish our objective.
A repeated topic in the debates has been the two small islands of Quemoy and Matsu. The islands are currently controlled by Chiang Kai-shek and the Republic of China. The islands are only 8 miles away from mainland China. The policy question for the United States is whether the United States should be prepared to defend the ROC's territorial claims to the island in the event of Communist China attempting to take them by force. Nixon has said (OOC: Formosa = Taiwan):
Now I think as far as Quemoy and Matsu are concerned, that the question is not these two little pieces of real estate, they are unimportant. It isn't the few people who live on them, they are not too important. It's the principle involved. These two islands are in the area of freedom. The Nationalists have these two islands. We should not force our Nationalist allies to get off of them and give them to the Communists. If we do that, we start a chain reaction, because the Communists aren't after Quemoy and Matsu, they're after Formosa.
Kennedy has said:
Well, the United States has on occasion attempted, mostly in the middle '50s to persuade Chiang Kai-shek to pull his troops back to Formosa. I believe strongly in the defense of Formosa. These islands are a few miles, five or six miles off the coast of Red China within a general harbor area, and more than a hundred miles from Formosa. We have never said flatly that we will defend Quemoy and Matsu if it is attacked. We say we will defend it if it's part of a general attack on Formosa, but it is extremely difficult to make that judgment. I think that we should protect our commitments. I believe strongly we should do so in Berlin. I believe strongly we should do so in Formosa and I believe we should meet our commitments to every country whose security we've guaranteed. But I do not believe that that line, in case of a war, should be drawn on those islands, but instead on the island of Formosa.
Both candidates have made a number of statements in support of civil rights and have at times emphasized the issue's importance. Still, arguments and differences have sometimes emerged.
While there is dispute about whether or not Lodge made a "promise," Nixon's running mate nonetheless made headlines when he said that "I will make this prediction ... if Richard Nixon is elected, there will be a qualified negro in the cabinet." It is unclear whether this statement was made with Nixon's approval, and more recently Nixon has stated that the best men must come to the top "regardless" of race, creed, or party background. Still, both Nixon and Lodge have floated the name of Ralph Bunche. Kennedy has responded by saying he will make no such promise, that to do so would be "racism in reverse and at its worst."
Both candidates generally have a pro-civil-rights record. As Vice President, Nixon met and discussed policy and rhetoric with civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has helped push through civil rights legislation, and he has also headed a committee on government contracts that has attempted to push employers, especially those who do business with the government, to reduce or eliminate discriminatory practices. They have been successful in some cases - a case example would be convincing some refineries to stop having separate promotion lists for white and black employees. Still, critics have pointed out that the committee has not used the full weight of its power - since its creation in 1953, it has never asked a federal agency to cancel a government contract. As Senator, Kennedy has fairly consistently voted in favor of civil rights legislation and pro-civil-rights amendments to legislation.
Just in the last month, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested after leading a sit-in protest in Atlanta. As has now been reported publicly, Senator Kennedy called Dr. King's wife with sympathy and a desire to help. While the details are unclear, the civil rights leader, now released, is of the understanding that Senator Kennedy may have done some work behind the scenes to help secure his release. Nixon appears to have been largely silent on King's arrest. On the question of an endorsement, King said:
I have been asked from many quarters whether it is my intention to endorse one of the presidential candidates. The organization of which I am president, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, from its inception and in its constitution has been non-partisan. Accordingly, as its titular head, I am unable to endorse a political party or its candidate. But for fear of being considered an ingrate, I want to make it palpably clear that I am deeply grateful to Senator Kennedy for the genuine concern he expressed in my arrest. When reactionary forces sought to crush our movement for desegregation by methods so unjust and unwise that millions were inflamed with indignation, Senator Kennedy exhibited moral courage of a high order. He voluntarily expresses his position effectively and took an active and articulate stand for a just resolution.
Nixon has faced debate questions and an attack ad from the Kennedy campaign related to comments by President Eisenhower in an August press conference. Pressed on what "big decisions" Vice President Nixon had participated in, Eisenhower said:
I don’t see why people can’t understand this: no one can make a decision except me if it is in the national executive area. I have all sorts of advisers, and one of the principal ones is Mr. Nixon.
Pressed further on the question of any major ideas Nixon had suggested that Eisenhower had implemented, Eisenhower delivered the line that has caused Nixon problems on the campaign trail:
If you give me a week, I might think of one. I don’t remember.
As with Al Smith decades ago, Kennedy's Catholic faith has at points been a campaign issue. In an attempt to tackle the issue head-on, Kennedy gave a speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association and said:
For contrary to common newspaper usage, I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for President who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters; and the church does not speak for me. Whatever issue may come before me as President, if I should be elected, on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject, I will make my decision in accordance with these views -- in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be in the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressure or dictates. And no power or threat of punishment could cause me to decide otherwise.
"The Republican Party asserts that the sovereign purpose of our foreign policy is to secure the free institutions of our nation against every peril, to hearten and fortify the love of freedom everywhere in the world, and to achieve a just peace for all of anxious humanity"
"The Republican Party reaffirms its determination to use every peaceful means to help the captive nations toward their independence, and thus their freedom to live and worship according to conscience"
Support for "broadly-based tax reform to foster job-making and growth-making investment for modernization and expansion, including realistic incentive depreciation schedules" and "spurring the economy by advancing the successful Eisenhower-Nixon program fostering new and small business, by continued active enforcement of the anti-trust laws, by protecting consumers and investors against the hazard and economic waste of fraudulent and criminal practices in the market place, and by keeping the federal government from unjustly competing with private enterprise upon which Americans mainly depend for their livelihood"
"Except in times of war or economic adversity, expenditures should be covered by revenues"
"We must resist assaults upon the independence of the Federal Reserve System; we must strengthen, not weaken, the ability of the Federal Reserve System and the Treasury Department to exercise effective control over money and credit in order better to combat both deflation and inflation that [slow] economic growth and shrink people's savings and earnings"
"We support the right of the Puerto Rican people to achieve statehood, whenever they freely so determine ... We support the right of the people of the Virgin Islands to an elected Governor, national representation and suffrage, looking toward eventual statehood, when qualified"
"Primary responsibility for education must remain with the local community and state ... The federal government should assist selectively in strengthening education without interfering with full local control of schools ... One objective of such federal assistance should be to help equalize educational opportunities
"The Republican Party is proud of the civil rights record of the Eisenhower Administration ... More progress has been made during the past eight years than in the preceding 80 years ... We acted promptly to end discrimination in our nation's capital ... Vigorous executive action was taken to complete swiftly the desegregation of the armed forces, veterans' hospitals, navy yards, and other federal establishments"
Pledge that "The Department of Justice will continue its vigorous support of court orders for school desegregation ... We will propose legislation to authorize the Attorney General to bring actions for school desegregation in the name of the United States in appropriate cases, as when economic coercion or threat of physical harm is used to deter persons from going to court to establish their rights"
"Immigration has been reduced to the point where it does not provide the stimulus to growth that it should, nor are we fulfilling our obligation as a haven for the oppressed ... Republican conscience and Republican policy require that ... The annual number of immigrants we accept be at least doubled"
"We shall continue to adhere to our treaty obligations, including the commitment of the UN Charter to resist aggression ... But we shall also seek to shift the emphasis of our cooperation from military aid to economic development, wherever this is possible"
"A primary task is to develop responsible proposals that will help break the deadlock on arms control ... Such proposals should include means for ending nuclear tests under workable safeguards, cutting back nuclear weapons, reducing conventional forces, preserving outer space for peaceful purposes, preventing surprise attack, and limiting the risk of accidental war"
"In the tradition of Cordell Hull, we shall expand world trade in every responsible way ... Since all Americans share the benefits of this policy, its costs should not be the burden of a few ... We shall support practical measures to case the necessary adjustments of industries and communities which may be unavoidably hurt by increases in imports"
"The national-origins quota system of limiting immigration contradicts the rounding principles of this nation ... It is inconsistent with our belief in the rights of man ... This system was instituted after World War I as a policy of deliberate discrimination by a Republican Administration and Congress"
"We Democrats believe that our economy can and must grow at an average rate of 5% annually, almost twice as fast as our average annual rate since 1953. We pledge ourselves to policies that will achieve this goal without inflation ... As the first step in speeding economic growth, a Democratic president will put an end to the present high-interest, tight-money policy"
"We pledge to raise the minimum wage to $1.25 an hour and to extend coverage to several million workers not now protected"
"We shall take positive action to raise farm income to full parity levels and to preserve family farming as a way of life ... We shall put behind us once and for all the timidity with which our Government has viewed our abundance of food and fiber"
"We believe that America can meet its educational obligations only with generous Federal financial support, within the traditional framework of local control ...The assistance will take the form of Federal grants to states for educational purposes they deem most pressing, including classroom construction and teachers' salaries"
"We believe, moreover, that except in periods of recession or national emergency, these needs can be met with a balanced budget, with no increase in present tax rates, and with some surplus for the gradual reduction of our national debt"
"The time has come to assure equal access for all Americans to all areas of community life, including voting booths, schoolrooms, jobs, housing, and public facilities ... The Democratic Administration which takes office next January will therefore use the full powers provided in the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 to secure for all Americans the right to vote"
Video Clips Debates: "I may actually watch one of the hour-long debates in full, which one should I watch?"
The first debate is only on domestic policy, and over 1/5th of the debate is taken up by lengthy opening and closing statements. Everyone is clearly adjusting to this "debate" thing. On the other hand, this was naturally the debate with the most viewers.
The second debate has no opening/closing statements, and no restrictions on questions.
The third debate has no opening/closing statements, and no restrictions on questions. Nixon and Kennedy spoke from two different studios, but the debate is presented without any lag in responses.
The fourth debate has opening and closing statements, and is limited to foreign policy.
Hi I made a very free and very large guide on investing using YouTube video and book recommendations with beginner / intermediate / advanced skill level tiers that I believe will set anyone up for investing success in the long term. Check it out and please lmk what you think!
Investing guide Preface: Why I made this Let’s start this guide off with an honest truth: I spend an unhealthy amount of time on Youtube. Whether it’s watching Japanese sumo championships, video games I don’t even play, or Mike Tyson absolutely annihilating anyone unlucky enough to box him: I love it all. Thankfully, some of my time has been put to good use. Over the past several years I have learned nearly everything I know about investing, almost exclusively through the platform, and that has changed my life. I have been investing in ETFs for the past 5 years, picking individual stocks for 2, and as of today (June 10, 2020) my portfolio is up over 60% overall. Investing, to me, is the path to financial freedom. The key to spending my life the way I desire and never needing to worry about money or slaving away at a job I don’t enjoy. I’ve been interested in investing since high school but I only just started recently because I had no clue where to begin, and entering the investing world intimidated the hell out of me. The education system provided me next to nothing in terms of personal finance, and anyone actually talking about it seemed like some sleaze bag that wanted to sell me something. I made this guide for anyone feeling that exact same way: I decided to slog through all the books and the hundreds of investment videos I have watched over the years to make a structured list of videos and personal notes that will give anyone, completely for free, the tools they need to begin investing and to succeed in creating wealth over the long term. Disclaimer: Getting through this guide will not be easy. At times it will suck, it will be boring, and it will be wildly time consuming. I have included many hours of videos and I expect you to watch each one. I want to be clear: If you cannot sit through a 45 minute video on how to learn to invest, then I would seriously reconsider investing at all. Patience is just as key in the markets as it is in learning new skills. I encourage you to use this guide as an education tool, but not as the definitive answer for how to invest. It is undoubtedly prone to my personal bias and my style of investing, which may or may not not fit your own. Nothing in the investment world is gospel and it is imperative to develop your own strategies, to stay humble, and to continue educating yourself. However, I do believe this guide should provide you with everything you need to begin investing and to be successful in the long term. Most, but not all, of the links provided reflect my own personal investment style, but occasionally I will present several different ideas and allow you to decide what is best for your own portfolio. Almost all of the linked videos are by amazing Youtubers that have tons of additional content, each of them with their own strategies, opinions, and expertise. Check them out. If you decide you are ready to begin investing I have included my three brokerage recommendations at the bottom of the guide. Good luck! Why should you invest? Why Investing is the Best Way to Get Rich | Phil Town - Essential video Fresh Prince - If we so rich.... - Uncle Phil explaining the worry free life investing can provide Beginner William Ackman: Everything You Need to Know About Finance and Investing in Under an Hour | Big Think - This is a great overview of investing and finance taught by Bill Ackman, who recently made the most successful trade of all time: turning 27 million into 2.6 billion dollars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRY9gEuoWLA&list=WL - Broad beginner level investing video - what stocks are, where to buy them, how the buying process works, what brokerages to use, and strategies for protecting your money. This video contains a ton of value for the beginner investor. Warren Buffett's Best Advice on Successful Investing - Invest in what you know 4 Most Important Rules for Investing | Phil Town - Buy what you understand 10 Ways Beginners in the Stock Market get SCREWED - 10 ways beginners fail in the market, and how to avoid them Traditional and Roth IRAs | Simple Steps for a Retirement Portfolio Course - Traditional / Roth IRA explained Investing Basics: Bonds - Bonds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixmevXJYLbE&list=WL&index=7&t=0s - Focus on buying great companies with great fundamentals, do not base your buying and selling on short term news - over the long term you will be successful Investing Won't Make You Rich (Probably) - Temper your expectations for what investing is going to bring you - If you enter the market expecting to get rich you will most likely fail - Slow and steady returns can change your life overtime, but losing massive positions on gambling / chasing overhyped stocks can destroy your potential for compounding returns
Investing in hedge fund vs. ETF vs. individual stocks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbc3QLZiRSE&list=WL&index=13 - Dividend growth stock investing and compound interest explained in great detail How To Invest $10,000 Dollars For RIDICULOUS Dividend Income - How to invest 10,000 into a dividend stock portfolio with varying levels of risk / passive income Crash Course Economics - This is an entire 35 video series - not required - but great material to understand Places to do research https://finance.yahoo.com - Yahoo finance - great, free, resource for looking up specific stock information including balance sheet / income statement / cash flow / etc. https://www.fastgraphs.com - Fast Graphs - Paid graphing browser program that I personally use. Gives a great visualization of a companies price history in direct relation to their earnings. Great to use for profitable and growing businesses, because over the long term a stocks price tends to directly reflect the stocks earning potential. Free trial for 2 weeks.
Paper trading:
https://www.investopedia.com - Investopedia stock market simulator - Invest in the real stock market, but with fake money in order to test strategies and simulate investing without actual risk. This is where I began investing, and also where I turned the initial 100k the simulator starts you with into 600k, which gives me a constant reason to cry. Investopedia also has great, free, courses for investors and detailed explanations of market metrics that you may not understand — for example: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price-earningsratio.asp - their explanation of P.E. ratio, which is an imperative concept to understand.
Books to read:
I Will Teach You to be Rich --(An amazing book for everything personal finance related, highly recommended)-- The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America Invest like Warren Buffett: Powerful Strategies for Building Wealth University of Berkshire Hathaway A Random Walk Down Wall Street The Intelligent Investor Rich Dad, Poor Dad The Millionaire Next Door
Books to read - My personal opinion:
Factfulness - Hans Rosleing —— Nearly everywhere the world is seeing dramatic economic improvements. Siddhartha Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
Alternative Education:
https://www.reddit.com/financialindependence/top/ - Reddit fire link - FIRE is a community of people seeking to gain financial independence through spending wisely and building passive income streams in order to retire early and enjoy their youth https://www.reddit.com/wallstreetbets/ - —A good example of the exact type of site / community you need to avoid.— Advanced How Short Selling Works - Short selling explained — I do not recommend this. Shorting stocks carries infinite risk with limited reward. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M2sIpD9t4Q&list=WL&index=12 - Why day trading does not work Why 80% Of Day Traders Lose Money - Great message here against day trading but also regarding the importance of always staying humble, even when you are successful in the market. High Frequency Trading (Explained) - Explains HFT — When you day trade you are competing against multi trillion dollar industries which are using the most advanced technology on Earth, that can trade millions of stocks in a fraction of a second. Plain and simple you will not win in the long term. Stock Options Explained - How to trade options PE RATIO EXPLAINED - HOW TO USE PRICE EARNINGS RATIO FOR STOCK MARKET DECISIONS - A more in depth look at P/E ratio that can be used to scrutinize whether or not a companies management team are reporting accurate numbers Enron - The Biggest Fraud in History - Enron explained - Always be on the lookout for scams / bad management https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4b1D1vWRnc&list=WL&index=4&t=0s - Practical example of the importance of good management with a focus on long term growth - not just short term profits 8 Steps to Research a Company to Invest in - Best Investment Series - Advanced methods of researching stocks such as analyzing the 10k / management / earnings calls / etc Understanding the Covid-19 economy / lessons learned from the crash The COVID-19 Stock Market Rally - Why It Doesn't Mean We're Out of a Recession - Covid 19 market rally does not indicate the recession is over Is The Stock Market in FOMO Mode? Let’s Talk Serious... - The danger of FOMO and entering a market disconnected from fundamentals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llslyXPu6wI&t=619s - Quantitative easing and inflation explained / important to understand as the Fed pours trillions of dollars into the economy How to Tell If a Stock/Company Can Weather a Downturn - This video details how to get an in-depth look at a company's debts and obligations to determine their ability to weather an economic downturn. Covid has taught us that it is IMPERATIVE for a company to have cash on hand that can cover its short term debt obligations for a bare minimum of 1 quarter with no income. Some concepts in this video are pretty advanced, what I recommend is to —at least— know how much cash the company currently has on hand in comparison to their current debt. This can be done on yahoo finance by looking at the company's balance sheet. If the company has significantly more debt than cash on hand then you need to figure out how much of that debt is short term (due within the next 12 months). If their cash on hand cannot cover that debt, then this company is an extremely risky investment. If this company is forced to shut down for any reason and cannot gain profitable revenue then in-order to avoid bankruptcy they will be required to take out more debt (which will be lent at extremely unfavorable rates) or to issue more shares to avoid bankruptcy. This issuance will dilute the share count and hurt current investors, also the issued shares will be sold at current market price which is likely to be a very low price for the company. Bankruptcy totally wipes out the investor and your stock position will go to 0 as the company sells off its assets to pay off bond investors. If the company's assets value are above what they owe to bond holders then the remaining value will be distributed to shareholders. The Cost of Share Dilution - Share dilution explained Should I invest now or wait? A WARNING for ALL Investors - Time in the market beats timing the market The Best Investing Advice of 2020 - Same concept - you cannot time the market https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqqfltv_cSI&list=WL&index=40&t=0s - Examination of the global economy using manufacturing numbers to consider the possibility of market recovery / another crash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g32q6e3KZ5c&t=320s - Presents the idea that holding dividend paying stocks and companies that continue to grow is more powerful than holding a cash position Waiting to Invest is Costing You... A Lot - Waiting to invest is costing you a lot - due to inflation and opportunity cost // The all important power of compounding How / Where to invest I only invest with three platforms, so these are all that I can speak on Robinhood - Platform I personally prefer. The layout is simple and easy to understand. Perfect for beginners and long term trading / options trading and fractional shares also available. —— IF —— you decide to invest, please use my invitation link.We will BOTH receive a random free stock and I would really appreciate it. - redacted for post rules - T. D. Ameritrade - A more professional broker than Robinhood with high level tools, graphs, apps, analysis, etc to use. However the layout is much more complicated and difficult to understand. It is pretty essential to use a professional platform like this if you are short-term trading as their price action is much more accurate than Robinhood. Wealthfront - This is a robo-advisor that builds a custom portfolio depending on your long term financial outlook and overall risk tolerance. The portfolio it builds is extremely diversified and managed by high level algorithms to insure your portfolio is properly balanced and not vulnerable to excess tax loss on realized gains. First 5000 managed for no fees. I love Wealthfront and the instant, diverse portfolio that they provide which requires 0 work or attention from you personally - my portfolio with them is around 4 years old and currently up 40%. Using my link will give us both an additional 5000 dollars managed for no fees, and again, I would really appreciate it. - redacted for post rules - DISCLAIMER All information and data within this guide are solely for informational purposes. I make no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, suitability or validity of any information. I will not be liable for any errors, omissions, losses, injuries or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided AS IS with no warranties, and confers no rights. I will not be responsible for the accuracy of material that is linked on this site. Because the information herein is based on my personal opinion and experience, it should not be considered professional financial investment advice or tax advice. The ideas and strategies that I provide should never be used without first assessing your own personal/financial situation, or without consulting a financial and/or tax professional. My thoughts and opinions may also change from time to time as I acquire more knowledge. I am not an investment professional. These are, as discussed above, solely my thoughts and opinions.
Hi folks, Any feedback is welcome whether it's advice, TLC, or some hard home-truths. I'll be as succinct as I can be:* \having just finished I can see that I've given a lot of history and can be a bit 'ranty' at times. I hope it's still worth reading.) TL/DR:Allow financially ruined MIL to move in; snoop on MIL's phone; discover MIL's revived gambling addiction; discover MIL slandering me to DW and BIL1; I want MIL gone but DW doesn't; I've actually become the bully. The distant past I started dating my wife (DW) 18 years ago (we're both 36 now) and have been married the last 7. DW comes from a different cultural background (W. African) but has grown up here in the UK since the latter part of her childhood. I have always got on well with MIL as she is an amiable person who is very good at making friends. There are some cultural issues that I struggled to accept. For example, there is an expectation to almost venerate anyone even slightly older (I've seen DW look down on people 6 months her junior) even if their character or actions are not worthy of respect. I feel that MIL has used such cultural differences to subtly manipulate her children in an effort to shield herself not just from criticism but from a mere questioning of her position. On a personal level, MIL is just absolutely terrible with money; she is very materialistic and flashy; she has a gambling problem; has spent years out of work; been indebted to loan sharks; applied for store cards in her childrens' names. I initially found it quite shocking when we started dating at 18 years of age that MIL's BF would march DW crying to the nearest ATM to withdraw cash from the little money she earned from her Saturday job. If my DW did not acquiesce she was called 'stingy' or made to feel that she was ungrateful towards her mother. This all came to a head at the start of the recession in 2009 when MIL declared herself bankrupt. I'm not sure of the exact details but she was able to avoid foreclosure of her home and continued to live there until around 2016 when the eventual rise in property prices meant the bank would be able to recover their debts. Although she was unemployed for almost all of this period she did make a successful effort to curb her gambling and limit her extravagance. She also rented out literally every room in her house to source an income, and, of course, continued to 'borrow' thousands from DW and BIL1,2,3 This time roughly coincides with the birth of our daughter (DD) who was/is extremely sick. DD has a very complex heart and lung disease as a result of a genetic disorder and spent most of the first 2 years of life in hospital. I have lost count of the number of surgeries and interventions she has had or the number of times that we've been told that 'this was it'. I have had to perform CPR on her myself on 2 occasions. Around the time of my daughter's second birthday her health had begun to make a turn for the better and it looked as though we might be discharged home for good. However, DD would be coming home on a ventilator and would need constant 1:1 supervision. With my MIL's pending homelessness and our obvious need for practical support someone had the bright idea (I don't even know who's idea it was) that MIL moves in with us. I was apprehensive given her poor financial history and I thought that living with someone who demanded the respect she did might be difficult. Further still, it was obvious (certainly now) that it would be very difficult to extricate ourselves from this arrangement without causing a great deal of upset. BIL1,2,3 all had their own properties but no room for MIL and although we were renting we were the only ones with room for her. I eventually agreed that she could live in our house and said that I would expect no rent from her. Firstly, I thought she could do with a helping hand in finding her feet again, financially speaking; secondly, that by accepting rent from her would grant her tenant rights and would make it difficult to ask her to leave should things not work out. This arrangement was conditional on the understanding that whatever money she would recover from the sale of her property (less debts) she would gift towards a deposit for a more suitable property for the benefit of us all. If we found ourselves in financial difficulty we would expect her to contribute whatever she could to keep a roof over our heads and we would expect her help with the domestic running of the house and the care of our daughter. Lastly, she should never, ever ask us for money again. As it happens, she contributed nothing towards a deposit after she moved in. I expected that there might be little or nothing left over the sale of her property when accounting for her debts so this did not surprise me, however, it was irritating to find her cagey when asked about the matter (remember that she doesn't like being questioned) and was always vague when asked about the precise numbers involved. Oh well! She did find work again but also found herself back in the local casinos. Whilst I thought this was very foolish on her part I was also a little sympathetic that she had no social life. She had, after all, lost many of her friends through arguments over money. At least this was a way to get her out of the house and if she wasn't troubling me or DW for money then what did it matter? Being bankrupt meant that she had no access to 'traditional' credit so it would be difficult for her to cause any financial difficulties for us in any case. However, she soon began asking her children for money to which they always caved in. I just don't understand! She an addict guys, you're not helping her! Aside from the fact this is breaking a second condition for her moving in, I don't understand how someone with a steady income and with no outgoings is having to beg for money. As part of her domestic contribution, DW would ask MIL to pick up essential household items. This too soon descended into farce; MIL would refuse to pay even £2 for a load of bread and pint of milk, not even on a you-now-owe-me-£2-I-collect-later basis. MIL would stand in front at a cashier for up to 30 minutes on the phone to DW harassing her to transfer some money. Often this would be when DW was dealing with an emergent situation with my daughter and couldn't respond. I cannot understand how you cannot spare two fricking pounds!! To resolve the issue DW thought it would be a good idea to give the MIL a debit card to an unused bank account where we would put in money from our joint account to use entirely for these sort of circumstances. Her argument would be that it would give us more visibility on what the money was being spent on. Stupidly, I agreed. Very soon I was seeing payments for fuel, the occasional spend at a department store, or a cash withdrawal. There was never anything super extravagant but it would always be hidden amongst other household expenditure and would occasionally cause the account to go overdrawn. I began to grow more frustrated; not only did she not contribute anything from the sale of her property, and not only is she not contributing anything from her current income, she was becoming a financial drain. I don't mind helping anyone out but we are not talking about someone going through hard times (we still willingly send money to her Dad in W Africa) or someone who is sick, elderly, or disabled. We are talking about a grown woman of working age who is in full-time employment and who should have learned a very hard lesson about financial management by now. At the very least she should be thinking of her own future and retirement and using the last years of her working life to save at least something to live on. At this point the cultural paradigm of having to frequently gift one's elders with money was beginning to cause division between DW and I. When I would ask DW about such transactions she would attempt to cover up MIL's behaviour by trying to claim some of these transactions were made on her behalf. Ultimately, DW thinks that I should just let this low-level theft slide. I think from the sake of my own sanity that she's right but I just cannot understand why DW and BIL1,2,3 do not stand up to MIL. In her favour, MIL was actually very good with the domestic running of the house; always making sure meals were cooked and that the laundry was done. DW thinks I am ungrateful and fail to recognise what she does do, but whilst I am actually very grateful I point out that this was a condition of her moving in. There are there are the other typical issues that go with living with a MIL (and this MIL in particular). Aside from the obvious loss of privacy I feel that she would try to influence my daughter's upbringing in a way I'm not totally comfortable with. She would chastise my daughter's carers over petty things like the way they might greet her in the morning. Whilst she is very good at cooking and she leaves dirt and grease all over the kitchen and finger print marks on the walls throughout the house. She's heavy handed and constantly breaks things. Just the usual living-with-other-people stuff that I might ordinarily let slide but when coupled with the other issues her presence eventually became like a dripping tap and I knew I would snap very soon. The recent past\* \3 months ago.) DW and I have both tried to work despite having a very sick child. We aspire to move out of the ghetto we live in and lead as normal and happy a life as possible given our circumstances. DW earns at least twice as much as I do but there is so much more of a demand on her in her role, particularly in terms of commuting and travelling overseas. On the other hand, I work two miles from our home, in a role I have more a less defined myself, and for an employer who is very easy to impress. Therefore, it makes sense that it falls upon me to do the pick-up and drop-off for DD, and although both DW and I attend the more important appointments, it is solely up to me to attend the many less important ones she has. I am left with DD after she comes back from school until DW comes home in the evening, and it usually falls upon me to do my daughter's daily medical cares with one of our carers. I'm not looking for pity as DW does a tremendous amount to balance a demanding job with looking after DD, but if anything goes wrong it is the unspoken expectation that I be the one to pick things up. Both our employers have been extremely flexible with us particularly when our daughter's been in hospital. DW thinks I can do better for myself. Whilst I agree, I think that given how hard, under present circumstances, to give enough to an already flexible employer, in a role I should be able to do with my eyes closed, that it would be almost impossible to take on a more demanding role. MIL is supposed to help look after our daughter some afternoons and during school breaks whilst I 'work from home', but I often found myself pulled away from my work as MIL has become preoccupied; preparing a meal (I know I shouldn't moan about that) or getting ready for bingo (which I feel okay to moan about). I have found her to be carelessly inattentive; occasionally she has brought a 2 y/o cousin round and I have often caught him about to run out onto the road and once had found him at the bottom of the stairs after having fallen down from the top. Basically, I am picking up more of the slack than DW realises and my position at work is becoming increasingly untenable. One day this spring break, the MIL disappeared on three separate occasions when she was supposed to be looking after DD. The first was to go to the supermarket, the second to visit a friend, and the last to go to the casino. I'm supposed to be getting work done from home and she had already agreed to childmind so I begin to quietly seethe. When DW came home that evening I blew up over all the issues with MIL and what I saw as DW's unwillingness to challenge her. I felt that she was refusing to see how her behaviour was becoming impossibly burdensome to the family but particularly to me. I left home and stayed at a hotel for a few nights primarily to get away from it all but also to put DW in the position I was in. i.e. having to juggle care whilst doing a full-time job. In hindsight I've not been able to decide if going away for a few nights was a good idea or not; certainly, for my sake of mind it felt like I had no other option but since returning home I have begun to suspect that MIL has started to turn DW against me. Things settle down a bit and we spent the following weekend with some family friends. On the way back, DW gets a call from MIL to say she has found some a bug in her bed and that we (DW and I) will have to pay £300 to have her room fumigated. I say nothing but find myself keeping my feelings bottled up once again. I have no idea where these bed bugs cam from but the infestation seems confined to MIL's room, yet we find ourselves having to pay for it despite her never paying a frigging penny in the house! Not a few days later I see two separate £100 cash withdrawals from the card the MIL had been given so now I'm furious. I ask DW about these and she has no idea what they're about. She calls her mum and apparently an Aunty had left her purse on the train, so MIL had decided to give £200 of our money away without even asking. At this point I am about to blow my top! The next day (or the day after) I see MIL's phone alone in the kitchen and knowing she has no security on it I decide to snoop through her messages (remember to give it to me straight, Reddit). My intention was to see any messages between this Aunty and MIL that either verified or otherwise her version of events. What I see are messages that show that on a typical night that they are at the casino (maybe 3/4 times a week) they might spend £200-300 a night. In one message I see that MIL is asking Aunty to transfer ~£1200 to her account. I don't know if this was because it was shared winnings or if it was to cover a significant loss but it's clear to me the sums of money they are dealing in. Bear in mind that she cannot even spend a mere £2 on bread and milk. I am almost apoplectic, but not quite. Suspecting that MIL was turning her against me I decided to snoop further. What I see are messages calling me selfish, a bully, an idiot, a chameleon who pretends to be nice to her face. These are a little irritating to see but do not over concern me because there is probably some truth in them all; having children has certainly made me realise that I am more selfish than I had noticed, and perhaps I truly am an idiot for letting MIL into our home. I do pretend to be nice to her despite my feelings for the sake of peace in my home, so I see the chameleon thing more as a compliment that the insult it was intended to be. What was more troubling were messages along the lines of 'he's not worth it'. I sense the implication behind those words but having since asked DW what she thought MIL meant I have yet to receive a straight answer. The closest I get to an answer from DW is that 'I am my own woman and can make up my own mind!'. What really blind-sided me was the message she had sent to BIL1 accusing me of abandoning DD. She said almost unintelligibly 'whys his pledge to his daughter?' and 'he calls himself a dad, pfft'. She made out that I didn't like spending time with DD. BIL1's response was merely that I am an attention seeker. Again, DW has since tried to downplay these remarks because MIL doesn't explicitly say 'cherrygander is a terrible father', but for me the intent is there. After seeing these messages I immediately approached DW to ask if she thought I was a bad father. She looked shocked at the question and firmly said 'no' but asked who had said that I was. I told DW it was MIL that said this and with MIL being in the next room I immediately confronted her about it. She tried to play dumb and DW asked where this had all come from. I told her she had better ask BIL1. I went upstairs to get a few things before heading out and punched the wall in a fit of rage and ended up breaking my hand. I have long had issues with anger but I have learned over time to become more stoic. This was a total failure! In hindsight I feel disappointed not in the harm I caused myself but that I couldn't use this anger more constructively (or cunningly). In any case these were just the opinions of an imbecile and shouldn't have mattered to me. I think because of all the trauma we have been through with the well-being of DD, seeing her so close to death so many times, it was hard to hear anyone question my fatherhood. No-one could say that either DW or I have been any less than totally and utterly devoted to DD but yet here they were doing just that. This felt like an attack on my perception of reality and my extension my very sanity. The MIL has since moved in with my BIL ostensibly because of the bed bugs. My anger has not even subsided a little bit since then and feel that MIL had stabbed me in the back. More worryingly I feel a little betrayed by DW too for even lending her ear to that sort of nonsense. I feel that we might be able to work things out if she appreciated just how strongly I feel about this or how much it matters but feel like I'm not being listened to at all. Consequently, our marriage has begun to suffer. At a recent gathering with mutual friends I was asked if MIL was still living with us. I say 'no' and quickly move on. When someone later says to DW that they hear MIL has moved out she thinks I've been telling all and sundry about our family life. She looks at me with total contempt and says that MIL and I have just had a 'tiff' and that no-one has moved out. I'm being made to feel like I'm just having a 'hissy fit'. DW tells me that she cannot kick her own mother of our house and feels that I am forcing her to make an unreasonable choice between MIL on one hand and me on the other. I can see why she might think this but it is an inaccurate perception. My request is not that she must never talk to MIL again but that I should not be forced to live with a woman that I neither chose to marry or bring into this world. MIL's claims of me being a bully are suddenly becoming self-fulfilling as it seems (from their point of view) that I am trying to control who DW has contact with. In DW's mind her mind, MIL hasn't left at all but as far as I am concerned she is gone for good. To avoid being seen as trying to stoke the flames I have foolishly not forced the issue of what to do with MIL's belongings. In hindsight, I think this may have given the impression that there is a possibility that may change my position. I would like to sit down, just the two of us, to work out our differences but DW wants a three-way discussion involving MIL which I see as an attempt to coerce me to into letting MIL stay. When I ask for a one to one conversation she says that I am too difficult to talk to. She is probably right too but I refuse to have my intelligence insulted with horse-shit excuses on behalf of MIL. Increasingly, it feels like there is a growing gulf between us and I worry resentment is beginning to set in. The now This Sunday, whilst we were doing our daughter's medical cares, we hear someone coming through the front door. DW pops her head out of my daughter's bedroom and see that it's MIL. We finish up and I make it clear to DW that I want MIL to leave. I tell her that her being in the house is as provocative as if I brought my (hypothetical) girlfriend round and I'm liable to say some unpleasant things if she says. DW was typically dismissive and I was made to feel like I was acting up. I stayed upstairs out of the way for the next 5, 15, 45 minutes. Eventually MIL goes and I ask DW if she let her know that she cannot be here whilst I am in the house. She answered in the negative and said MIL would coming back shortly. I simply repeated my request. MIL did come back and left again soon after and this happened a couple more times. The last time she came back she came with FIL who had arrived in the UK just 2 days prior. I repeat my displeasure to DW several more times but my concerns are dismissed. In the end I go down and confront MIL who is in the kitchen cooking a meal for FIL. I ask her to tell me what this supposed pledge to me daughter is that I broke. She just looks disdainfully at me and starts playing dumb. At this point I lose patience in playing these games and tell her to leave. She tells me she's not going anywhere, kisses her teeth, and turns back to her cooking. I just see red! I grab the saucepan and throw it across the floor (very stupid, yes, I know) before shouting at her to leave. Chaos descend with much shouting and pointing fingers in each other's faces. I point out her hypocrisy as she 'abandoned' her own children to a supposedly abusive man in Africa whilst she sought out employment here. I said much, much nastier and personal stuff. She threatened to call the police which I encouraged her to, but she didn't. She did eventually leave but the argument rumbled on between DW and I with FIL seemingly oblivious to events of the past few months. It was a bizarre afternoon, with my parents showing up out of the blue (everyone has a key and our house seems to have a revolving door). Perhaps 20 minutes later, BIL1,2 barge their way into the house push, slap, and attempt to punch me. It's all a frigging circus at this point; I'm shouting at everyone to leave, DW is screaming at everybody hysterically, BIL1 is threatening to cut my throat. At this point I have no option but to call the police myself. By the time the police show up BIL1,2 have gone. Statements are taken and assurances are given that they will follow up on allegations of assault. I said that I didn't want to press charges unless they show up again. However, the police ask me to spend the night away from home until things cool down. The future? It all feels like a bit of a game, like we're all acting out our perceived roles in the Karpman drama triangle (and there definitely is an element of acting). I've decided that I want to stop playing this game and have cut off contact until I'm asked to do otherwise. Apart from a brief 10 minutes to collect some belongings I haven't been back. I'm just waiting for more accusations that I've again abandoned my family. This week we were supposed to be on what would have been our first vacation in five years. As it happens, I've confined myself to a room in my parent's house to mull things over. I don't even know what to do any more. I'm afraid I've become the bully that MIL said I am. This is challenging my perception of reality and actually driving me insane. Then again, how many bullies thinks of themselves as such? I don't think it's true but if that's how DW sees me then it doesn't really matter what I think. I would really appreciate some sage advice right now. Edit: I'm surprised anyone has been able to read this with all the typos. I've tidied up a few. Edit2: I hear clearly the need for therapy, individually and collectively, and it's something I'll to get sorted if DW agrees. I'm glad to see that I'm not going crazy or being totally unreasonable. I appreciate everyone will probably be seeing things from my perspective but it is helpful to have a more external perspective on things. In the immediacy, I am going to give it a few more days before I try going back home or making contact just so that I can clear my head. Thank you all for your replies and words of support. I'll update the sub with any new developments. Edit3: The text messages
Crypto Faucet I use to store my mined bitcoin on, with 4.08% APR paid daily with accounts over 30k satoshi. Referral link included, I share 50% commissions with my referrals paid every Sunday if you're interested.
My referral link for the aforementioned FREEBITCO.IN: https://freebitco.in/?r=30437643&tag=redditF I have cross referenced this post on my site: passivecryptoguides.com Why should you sign on with me? I'm not a one off, you can reach me personally through DM or post comments. I've done most of the leg work, alleviating the trial and error process. Just follow the steps in this guide specifically in sections 7️⃣, 8️⃣, and 9️⃣. I share 50% commissions, get a kick back on everything you earn weekly. I trust this site, and personally have 270$ worth of bitcoin in one account with almost 500$ total including two other accounts. Coming from Cointiply? Well, as a heads up, you're not actually holding any BTC. I suggest what you earn you HODL in FREEBITCO.IN. Just some abbreviation and terminology explanation before we start for those unfamiliar. BTC=Bitcoin USD=US Dollar Satoshi Click here Bitcoin price history, past and present ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ POST LAYOUT 1️⃣GENERAL INFO 2️⃣POST INTENTIONS 3️⃣MY EARNINGS 4️⃣HOW DO COMMISSION REWARDS WORK? 5️⃣SOME CLAIM STATS 6️⃣MULTIPLY BITCOIN STRATS AND INFO 7️⃣AUTOMATION 8️⃣OPTIMIZATION AND USE 9️⃣STRATS TO INCREASE EARNINGS 1️⃣0️⃣ADVERTISING YOUR LINK 1️⃣1️⃣LINKS ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ 1️⃣GENERAL INFO1️⃣ FREEBITCO.IN can be accessed from any device with internet. Using a VPN or a TOR is now allowed given that your account achieves certain criteria similar to a captcha free account requirements. 🛑WARNING: FREEBITCO.IN wipes inactive accounts after a certain period! If you lose interest, withdraw your BTC! 📝NOTE: iOS devices (iPad, iPhone) are restrictive. The only way to access is via website, as BitBot isn't available.📝 FREEBITCO.IN is what's called a "faucet", a site that gives a small steady stream of crypto which FREEBITCO.IN does through hourly rolls and interest accrual. FREEBITCO.IN also hosts other means to win or earn crypto, you can gamble with Multiplier, or bet on world evens and crypto prices. After your account reaches 30k Satoshi, you begin to collect interest. The site also offers lifetime referral commissions, explained later in this guide. All you need to start is an email. You can add more verification options for security later on. I would highly suggest it. Use a junk email though. 2FA and MFA are strongly suggested. A password should be 15 characters long. I suggest Google Authenticator for your 2FA needs. I know you can definitely access this site from Brave Browser with add blockers enabled. I'm sure it will work with others. Even without an ad blockers, they only advertise their site gambling and games, no 3rd party adds that I've seen. It's not too invasive or spammy either. ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ 2️⃣POST INTENTIONS2️⃣ This post is both an advertising platform I use, and a guide I've made to help those interested to automate and optimize earnings. For those of a cautious mindset, I've uploaded all of FREEBITCO.IN's information on interest accrual, security, and proof of mining on Imgur, in case you're worried about visiting the site. Transparent link here: Interest accrual structure and FREEBITCO.IN security. https://imgur.com/a/wWjQtKT My referral link: https://freebitco.in/?r=30437643&tag=redditC2 ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ 3️⃣MY EARNINGS3️⃣ So at this point, with hourly claims and daily interest, I'm bringing in roughly 8978 Satoshi (or .70$ USD with BTC at 7804$ USD) daily at full optimization on one account, and two other self referred accounts without lifting a finger. This is before the fact that a hourly roll (claim) can reward up to a max of 200$ USD worth of BTC (percentages in section 5️⃣). They also have a weekly lotto (tickets awarded with every roll and referral roll) with the last 1st place winner receiving .32769156 BTC (2587$ USD at current bitcoin price). This is also not including my current commissions on accounts not owned by me. In this post I will describe some of my strategies I've incorporated, and some insight into how this website works. To offload or withdraw bitcoin, you're going to need what is called a "wallet". I personally use Coinbase (available on mobile or desktop) as you can sell it through here as well and easily move money to Paypal or a bank. ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ 4️⃣HOW DO COMMISSION REWARDS WORK?4️⃣ If you are already on FREEBITCO.IN, do you have someone who referred you? Do they share commissions? If not, why not make a new account and join me, where you'll get a return on everything you earn. As you can see, large affiliate groups don't share anything, hoarding hundreds of thousands worth of BTC earned off their referrals I share 50% of my commissions. I get 50% of your roll rewards, 25% of your interest, and 0.4% of your wagers. All of this is paid out by FREEBITCO.IN as a commission, so it's not pulled from your rewards or held BTC. So the more you're active, the more you'll receive from me weekly (being active is doing anything that I get commissions from). IMPORTANT: Your (and all referrals) shares are based on activity, so if you are inactive for the week, you get a lower % for that week. If you're the most active of my referrals you get a higher percentage of what I share. This is to incentivize being active and to stop people from getting a cut without doing anything. If you have FREEBITCO.IN automated, you don't have to worry about this. However, having a larger bankroll to earn interest, or playing Multiply BTC (I do not suggest playing unless doing so to meet auto roll requirements) will increase can your activity further. Commission Structure Here is some proof, I've actually shared about 2/3 of all commissions Commissions update 12 January 2020 Here is a proof of Payment section per individual 📝NOTE: I've noticed when I was creating the images of commission sharing that the "RECENT" blocks are showing zero. If you look at totals from the first image, you can tell I'm actively sharing with all of my referrals.📝 Join my team FREEBITCO.IN ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ 5️⃣SOME CLAIM STATS5️⃣ You can earn AT LEAST .00000552 BTC (.048$) daily when automated (or claiming every hour on the hour) before bonuses (like using reward points to increase rewards 1000%). After some testing, it seems that this amount will always be about .048$ worth of BTC, base claim rewards no bonus active. After .00030000 BTC, you accrue compounding interest at a rate of 4.08% APR, paid daily. As soon as your daily interest is accredited, it too starts earning interest. The daily interest rate comes out to ~0.011% of your total held BTC. FREEBITCO.IN gives you a roll once every hour, free 📝NOTE: Roll rewards fluctuate inversely with BTC price. BTC goes down, roll rewards go up, vice versa. The BTC rewards USD value will be extremely close to the values represented below.📝 Current rewards and probability with every hourly roll. (.002$) -> 98.85% (.02$) -> 1.00% (.20$) -> .08% (2.00$) -> .04% (20$) -> .02% (200$) -> .01% ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ 6️⃣MULTIPLY BTC STRATS AND INFO6️⃣ 🛑!WARNING!, NO STRATEGY IS 100%, THE MULTIPLIER GAME IS GAMBLING, YOU CAN STILL LOSE YOUR WHOLE BALANCE IF YOU PUSH YOUR LUCK.🛑 UPDATE: I decided to do some research after some odd outcomes when extensively testing some of my Multiplier strats. Turns out FREEBITCO.IN does indeed have a house advantage that isn't too transparent. Longer sessions are almost always going to come out negative. If you still plan on playing, do short sessions, once daily max, with lower amounts. There are a couple methods to play the Multiplier with a reduced risk (but still a risk) here as well. I would suggest small play sessions. STRAT #1 My preferred settings for AUTOROLL on MULTIPLY that I've had the best success rate with to date. (preferably with .00005000 in ACCT for best results) BET: Minimum ODDS: 3 ROLLS: (doesn't matter, 100) BET ON: alternate STOP BETTING PROFIT: .00000050, important as the bets will get exponentially higher with every loss. Win in small increments. STOP BETTING LOSS: Set a loss limit if you want, I have mine set to .00001 and haven't reached it ON WIN: select increase bet 0% ON LOSS: select increase bet 65% RANDOMIZE CLIENT SEED: yes DO NOT REFRESH: yes Here is a pic of the settings Anything else doesn't matter. Make sure the boxes are checked for the above options. With this strat, I've won positive on one account, about .000077 BTC, and I've only played 5 or 6 times, at less than 2-3 minutes of play time a session. STRAT #2 Good for accounts with a low balance. I've had a surprising amount of luck with this method, enough so that I thought I'd post it here with an update. This could work well for accounts with less than 1k Satoshi, as a losing streak wouldn't be a huge loss. For this strat, you should have at least 189 Satoshi in your account. BET: Minimum amount ODDS/WIN CHANCE: 189 or %0.5 ROLLS: 189 (remains the same no matter if you bet more) BET ON: High or Low, but not Alternate. STOP BETTING ON PROFIT: Minimum amount, once again, you want continuous small wins UPDATE: Conducting more tests for viability I played these settings 10 times, I came out positive 8/10 times. In the end I was positive 433 Satoshi total with selecting "hi". On selecting "low" I went positive 5/10 losing 525 Satoshi. On selecting "hi" and betting 10 Satoshi, I went positive 3/10 times losing 9708 Satoshi. On selecting "high" and betting 100 Satoshi, I never went positive, 0/10. Losing 189000 Satoshi (~15$ USD). There does seem to be a pattern of losing more when betting more. Like anything gambling, there's probably a house advantage that's not too transparent. Win small lose small. Pic of these settings STRAT #3 Another strategy I've tried is betting most of my balance once occasionally with a 94.06% chance of winning. This is, eh, alright to risk OCCASIONALLY, but a loss would set you back more than you ever made using this strategy, which happened to me, I lost about 40 USD worth of BTC after making maybe 5 USD. THIS METHOD IS GREAT FOR MEETING NON-CAPTCHA ACCOUNT REQUIREMENTS! Playing this in auto roll, out of 20 rolls I'd always lose at least once, putting me into the negative. Even with 10 rolls, I'd more often then not lose at least once. Pic of these settings There are other strats out there, such as the "Martingale", which is essentially doubling the bet amount every loss, then resetting your bet to minimum after a win to in theory "win back what you lost". At 47.5% odds of winning, I've had loss streaks that would drain my account. My summary for Multiply, use sparingly. Don't use it as your primary means of earning. Use once or twice daily, limit play sessions to 5 minutes max. ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ 7️⃣AUTOMATION7️⃣ 📝NOTE: FREEBITCO.IN captcha requirements seem to be tiered, with requirements for Captcha free upscaling when you BTC holding passes a certain threshold. I'm currently testing, as is another team member (Shout out to u/SrExtreme69) , what exactly these thresholds, if holding at these thresholds increases the length of Captcha free rolls, and at what amount does FREEBITCO.IN no longer require these to be met.📝 📝NOTE: To start automating, remember to verify email and setup 2FA or the Captcha will still appear even if your account meets Captcha free requirements. Check the site occasionally as Captcha free roll requirements can change. After certain held BTC amount you don't need to renew your requirements. I haven't had to achieve new requirements in over a month.📝 📝NOTE: You may need to manually roll for a bit until the the ability to achieve a Captcha free account becomes available. It doesn't show at first.📝 📝NOTE: It's very difficult, if not impossible to automate on iOS devices. First of all, getting to this point can be a grind, but once achieved you'll have a steady flow of BTC with options to increase earnings through rewards claims using RP. I would suggest going to your PROFILE tab on FREEBITCO.IN and disabling lottery to increase RP production when starting out. Using other apps or resources to supplement income is a good idea as well. On the FREE BTC page, there is a blue text hyperlink with requirements that need to be met to make your account captcha free, thus allowing you to enable autoroll on extensions or apps. It has multiple ways to achieve this and they can change, so if your autoroll has stopped, check to see if these requirements have changed. Here are the requirements. (Amounts vary) It seems only two of these requirements need to be met. The less risky and easiest method is to buy lottery tickets and bet with jackpots on. Even better is depositing bitcoin if you have that amount. The POSSIBLY least expensive method is to bet both regularly and with Jackpots enabled on MULTIPLY (for higher amounts required, IMO Multiplier strat #3 works best) ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ 8️⃣OPTIMIZATION AND USE OF FREEBITCO.IN8️⃣ For computers I would suggest using Firefox, as you can add functions and tools to your bar up top. One of the being a "auto roll" for FREEBITCO.IN, still requires a "captcha free" account. Turn it on and let go, check it occasionally to make sure its still going. Autoroll firefox add-on link My link again for ease of access Not my preferred method, but good for a second account, as using a computer means devoting more attention to FREEBITCO.IN in an inconvenient manner if you are just starting out. After Captcha has been removed, this becomes more hands free, but not as profitable as using bitbot, as you can't autoclaim RP rewards. I haven't tried many methods besides using Firefox addons, as I'm wary of sources or intent when it comes to 3rd party scripts or programs. If I find any trustworthy scripts or programs, I will update here. For Mobile 🛑BITBOT WARNING, IF YOU USE BITBOT TO ACCESS FREEBITCO.IN BEFORE USING MY REFERRAL, YOU WILL BE REFERRED THROUGH BITBOT, AND THEY DON'T SHARE COMMISSIONS AS FAR AS I CAN TELL🛑 My Link again 📝NOTE: iOS devices (iPhone, iPad) do not have access to BitBot, nor do they allow extensions/add-ons on their browsers. I have not personally found a way around this. You may still access the site and manually roll.📝 I use BitBot. This is the best place to start from IMO. You can set it to notify you of rolls and gives direct access to the site from the app (you can also access the site from any device with internet). Once your account is "captcha free" you can set it to auto roll AND automatically claim rewards every 24 hours (RP increase, BTC increase, Lottery ticket Increase). 📝NOTE: Bitbot allows auto roll from the app for accounts over 500 RP. This isn't permanent, as it uses your RP. You'll need to log onto the website through a browser to achieve captch free account requirements, which Bitbot does recognize, which allow completely free rolls.📝 📝NOTE: Accessing FREEBITCO.IN through BitBot doesn't allow access to the Hi-Lo or betting games.📝 ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ 9️⃣STRATS TO INCREASE EARNINGS9️⃣ Bitbot optimization I started manual claims by setting roll notifications to "ON" for a while until I supplemented my BTC in FREEBITCO.IN with what I was collecting from my miner and CryptoTab. Once I was able to AUTOMATE and I had enough RP to claim the RP BONUS, I set it to do that automatically every 24 hours as this nets more RP than you spend (EG, 100 RP roll bonus costs 1200 RP, but can net 2400 RP if claimed every hour). Eventually you accrue enough RP to claim the %1000 BTC bonus, probably at a rate of once or twice a week. My current BitBot settings now that its auto claiming, I have the 24 hour auto bonus claiming 100 RP roll bonus and 100% claim bonus, spending a total of 1520 RP, but I'm making 2400 RP with the RP bonus, leaving me 780 RP in the positive each day. Every now and then I'll stop the auto bonus claim so I can buy the 1000% claim bonus (3200 RP). So on a normal day I'll make about 1344 Satoshi. Bitbot auto bonus settings Once your accrue more referrals, or save enough RP, it's possible to claim the 1000% BTC roll bonus multiple days in a row. This is just about as optimal as you can get for auto rolling. Self Referrals If you have two devices (phone and computer preferably) you can make two accounts as long as one uses a different wifi or internet connection, as the roll rewards tracks IP addresses for roll counts. So if you have 2 devices on the same network, it sudo links accounts, so if you roll on one, it restarts the timer on the other. This allows you to collect referral rewards from yourself. Effectively adding 25% of interest and 50% roll rewards. I currently have a phone autorolling on BitBot with a computer autorolling on Firefox with a tool to roll automatically as long as the page remains open. My computer account is referred from my mobile account, and is currently bringing in an extra .000015+ BTC weekly (currently, total will be this Sunday and I will update). I've also made another account on my partners phone, linked it with bitbot and got it auto-rolling. Once bitbot is going, its non-invasive and you can silence notifications, it also uses minimal data. Supplementing with CryptoTab I'll use CryptoTab on my computer 24/7 to earn BTC from that while I have FREEBITCO.IN running. I also have it running on my phone at night when I sleep and on an iPad I have that I don't use much, its server mining, so no worries about battery on mobile devices. On computers it does actually use your processing power. You can directly deposit into you FREEBITCO.IN accounts. CryptoTab Link I've used it for two weeks and have earned a total of .000454 BTC (3.60$ USD). Not huge, but enough to start collecting interest on FREEBITCO.IN and to get the capthca free account requirements. Supplementing with Cointiply 🛑WARNING: Cointiply's main currency is the constant, weighted against the dollar (10,000 coin/1USD). This means your actually BTC holdings will fluctuate with BTC's price. For this reason, it's my strong opinion that DON'T HODL in Cointiply as you're not holding actual BTC.🛑 Cointiply is a great site to earn decent amounts of COIN which translate to SAT's. Earn coin, withdraw to FREEBITCO.IN (as you actually hold BTC in cointiply). I also use an ASIC miner (Antminer s9i, DIY liquid cooled and overclocked with BixBit firmware), and whatever I earn I'll put that into FREEBITCO.IN to collect interest. If you want, I may be willing to do a rental. ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ 1️⃣0️⃣ADVERTISING YOUR LINK1️⃣0️⃣ 📝NOTE: Since this faucet has been around a while, many people privy to sites such as this are already signed up. So getting referrals can be a slog. My tips for your ads is be genuine and don't hard sell or post "too good to be true" sensational ads.📝 COINTIPLY This is another faucet. Its structure is a bit different from FREEBITCO.IN, as you complete offers to earn coin. Within this site (also an app) users can earn coins by doing PTC ads (and other offers), this is a good method to get exposure as you can advertise as well. Using this method my traffic for last week as about 800 people. 13000 coins buys about 1000 "clicks" on your ads. They also have options to advertise to people based on location (these options will increase or decrease cost). After your first ad, you usually get a 10% off coupon good for 7 days as well. You can earn this amount within a day doing surveys on Theorem. I've done surveys before, and this has to be one of the best surveys sights I've ever done. Very rarely do I get kicked out mid survey, and if I do, I still get partial pay. I will also use "Hideout" on my computer and leave it running. It has to be the open tab on your browser, with the browser open, not minimized. Let it go and check it occasionally as it has a timeout at roughly 2-3 hrs idle. As of now this is the best passive method of earning on Cointiply. PI NETWORK Pi Network, an ICO (Initial coin offering) based on trust and social media is another good medium for advertising. I will usually see 15-20 people click on my link with 2-4 ads posted per day. Just go to "chat", select "random" and post an ad in the chat channel. No charge. My tip, keep your ads short to medium in length, don't spam. XYO NETWORK/COIN APP This is another crypto earned through "geo-mining". On the "coin" app you can do a "geodrop" where you can leave a note. Just click on the box with a parachute icon, select "any" on the "Tile" selection. Leave your ad in the "note" section. It costs 10 "COIN" at the very least to do a "geodrop". This method may not be worth it if you aren't already involved in the program. To earn a substantial amount of coin, you'll need a subscription or a "sentinel". Sentinels can actually be purchased for under 20$ nowadays (depending on site) and is the best option to earn. Without these you'll only make approx .05-.18 coin every 30 seconds if you're actively moving. My tips if you plan on advertising on this platform, once again keep it short, and only advertise around 7-9am and 4-6pm, as this will be peak mining hours with people driving to and from work. ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹ 1️⃣1️⃣LINKS1️⃣1️⃣ My FREEBITCO.IN Referral Link What is a Satoshi? Bitcoins price through Coingecko CryptoTab Link Autoroll on Firefox Coinbase Link PI NETWORK COINTIPLY XYO NETWORK/COIN APP ⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹⏹
does gambling winnings count as earned income video
If gambling is your actual profession, then your gambling income is generally considered regular earned income and is taxed at your normal effective income tax rate. As a self-employed individual, you will need to report your income and expenses on Schedule C, which the eFile app will automatically generate and add to your 2020 Tax Return based on the information you enter. No. Gambling (gift, dividends, etc) income does not count. However, the entire amount noted on your W2, BEFORE income tax and social security were taken out, can be put into the IRA. So, for example, your W2 showed: Gross $4,000. Taxes & SS: $500. Net: $3,500. You could deposit upto $4,000 into a IRA account. You're right but then again I'd rather not take the risk of being charged with EI fraud if it turns out that gambling winnings are considered earned income and therefore i'd have to report it. 10 ... 1. Gambling Winnings, Lottery Winnings and Prizes As Income. Gambling winnings, lottery winnings and prizes are unearned income subject to the general rules pertaining to income and income exclusions. NOTE: We do not subtract gambling losses from gambling winnings in determining an individual's countable income. 2. No, your gambling winnings are reported as "gambling winnings" on Line 21 of Form 1040. Gambling winnings are not earned income for any purpose. Although you cannot use this amount toward your Roth IRA contribution, you will not have to pay Social Security or Medicare taxes on it. Also, since your earnings are less than $5,450 in 2008, you will ... No, only earned income is counted for Social Security purposes. Gambling winnings are only considered income if you claim the income a self-employment income. Gambling winnings on a whole affect your social security hugely because whether you lose the same amount of money you win while gambling you would be paying a lot in taxes. When you win from gambling, the amount won is subjected to a 25% tax. There are certain higher amounts however which an income tax will be applied. “If one half of your Social Security benefits plus all other gross income – including gambling winnings – exceeds $25,000 if single or $32,000 if married and filing jointly, then a portion ... Withholding on Gambling Winnings . Gambling winnings are subject to withholding for federal income tax at a rate of 24% as of 2020 if you win more than $5,000 from sweepstakes, wagering pools, lotteries, or other wagering transactions, or anytime the winnings are at least 300 times the amount wagered.
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